Marketing Monday - Getting the Most From an Image Box

Coming up this Saturday is a new Weekend Wisdom podcast with Michele Celentano. The topic is near and dear to all of our hearts, "The Art of Selling Prints". It's such an important topic because so many of you have convinced yourself that printed images are not what your clients want. While it's true we live in an instant fulfillment digital world; the reality is, prints are far from obsolete. However, there's a learning curve for your clients and as an artist you've got to be the one to raise the bar on their educational process.

During the podcast, Michele talked about a great idea she learned from Sue Bryce regarding a way to use an image storage box, but I want to take it a step further with other ideas. I'll let you listen to Michele's podcast this Saturday, September 5, as she talks about the outstanding way Sue is using image box presentations.

For me, the image box concept has always been an ideal addition to the album, but as a marketing tool.

• Statistics are very high that most brides and grooms within a certain age group are going to start a family within 2-3 years of their wedding. Why not include some blank mattes in the image box together with the images you're presenting? Each blank matte holds a certificate for an upcoming milestone event in the couple's life. For example, an anniversary sitting, followed by the arrival of the first baby, new home, etc. Be creative and think about those special moments in a couple's new life together and create exciting offers to bring them back into your world.

• Children's photography is perfect for an image box marketing program. Parents of a new baby need their images in an image box together with a few additional blank mattes, again for all of the very special firsts in a baby's life. Younger children could be included in "fist day of school" portraits, Halloween portraits, holiday sittings, etc. 

• Third Party Gifts - Last year I did a podcast on Weekend Wisdom with Doug Box. He talked about third party promotions and here's the genius of the concept. As the photographer, you identify a business person in your community to work with. Doug talked about a photographer he worked with who had a relationship with an insurance agent. By third-party promoting, the photographer gave the insurance agent certificates he could give out to special clients for a portrait sitting. It was his gift to his clients. The brilliance of a program like this is the photographer was insulated from looking like she was discounting her work. Now, think about an image box that could be a gift from a real estate office each time they sold a house to a family. The box would be filled with blank mattes and promotions to fill them with a variety of images of milestone events in the buyer's new home and life.

From WHCC

From GraphiStudio

From Bay Photo

Image boxes come in all shapes and sizes, and you've got the creativity to develop promotional programs that are just as diverse. The key is to be different and make your promotional offers unique from what your competitors are doing.

As my buddy Terry Clark said several years ago,
 
                                         "Look at what everybody else is going and then do something different!"