Encouraging online Sales???

[Ralph III]

Hello All,
I'm getting paid to provide photography at an upcoming sporting event and would like some advice on how to encourage online sales for participants?

I'm already being paid by the event organizers so any online sales would be extra. I was wondering if I could offer some sort of simple giveaway, minus any legal jump ropes?

Thanks, Ralph

[MT Stringer]

Business cards or flyers that you hand out would be a fairly simple solution. I made a flyer with just the basic website and name info on it and a picture of a girl pitching. I designed it to fit on one half of a page, then printed and pasted it to make two per page. Took it to Office Depot and they made 250 copies on gold paper (black and white drawing and lettering), cut them in half and pasted them into pads of 25 each for a little over $30 dollars total (including the paper). Pads are good if the wind is blowing.

Since I was shooting a softball tournament, I asked the host team if their girls could walk through the bleachers (4 fields) and pass out the flyers...and they did.

What about offering a discount for sales say to next 15 days or 30 or whatever. I Use Smugmug and can create a coupon with an expiration date.

Hope this helps.

[Concretin Nik]

Also be sure to check your contract with the event organizer to make sure you're allowed to sell the photos on your own.

[scorpio_e]

You need to provide a direct link to the folder where the images reside. People are lazy and are not going to poke around to find the folder with the images.

[Ralph III]

Thanks for the input guys! I've actually done all the above.

It's a large tennis tournament and I was asked to setup the photography aspect two years ago, by the local coordinators, whom are all friends of mine.

I always post flyers at the various sites and run a slideshow at the Players Party in addition to offering time sensitive coupons. Then last year, I resorted to printing individual flyers and business cards for each participants goody bag in addition to having direct links to their action photos. It was a huge effort but the return however was nill compared to not having done those things the previous year. I think most folks were watching the pennies last year due to economy...

I will probably do most the above again this year but thought maybe I could give something away online as incentive?

Ralph

[JacobPhoto]

maybe your pricing or the checkout process is the barrier, not getting traffic to your site. Maybe people are just downloading the images instead of buying prints.

How many hits did the photos get? How long were they online for? Do you have access to email addresses of participants? Are the images watermarked? What sort of sizes of prints and what novelty items do you offer?

all of these things can affect your online sales.

[Ralph III]

Originally Posted by JacobPhoto

maybe your pricing or the checkout process is the barrier, not getting traffic to your site. Maybe people are just downloading the images instead of buying prints.

How many hits did the photos get? How long were they online for? Do you have access to email addresses of participants? Are the images watermarked? What sort of sizes of prints and what novelty items do you offer?

all of these things can affect your online sales.

Thanks Jacob.

I use a fulfillment company (Backprint.com) which is a highly professional service that utilizes watermarks and prohibits downloading of images, etc.

My pricing is quite low considering I've already made money upfront, so I pass that along to the participants. From $3.99 for a 4x6 print to $13.99 for a 10x13 print, mugs, key chains and mouse pads. I also offer poster size prints (customized or otherwise) upon special request.

I get a lot of hits but is seems they are just going there to look at their photos versus purchasing. The feedback has always been excellent btw. However, sales are 40% of what I would have expected given the sheer number of participants...

God Bless

[JacobPhoto]

So it sounds like pricing isn't the issue, and getting people to the proofs page isn't the issue. Do you have any sort of watermarking to prevent people from just downloading the image or screencapping it and submitting it to facebook? What resolution do you display the images at? Are the images right-click disabled? how well are the images sorted? how many images are you uploading per game? How many images are on each thumbnail page?

All of these could lead to a lower conversion.