Coupons Work-arounds?

[jmphotocraft]

I have a Soccer tournament in mid October, shooting 12 finals games in one day (with 2nd shooter). I'm not holding my breath for smugmug coupons/vouchers/packages before then (see http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=98087 for more info).

I thought I would do this - have the tournament committee charge each player a mandatory $15 photo fee, which they would turn around and give to me less their cut. I would then sell prints at a minuscule markup - near cost - for 30 days after the event. After that my prices would go back up to normal pro levels.

Thoughts? Other work-arounds?

[Cygnus Studios]

I thought I would do this - have the tournament committee charge each player a mandatory $15 photo fee, which they would turn around and give to me less their cut. I would then sell prints at a minuscule markup - near cost - for 30 days after the event. After that my prices would go back up to normal pro levels.

Thoughts? Other work-arounds?

Where is the part that you need a coupon? Create a gallery for these images with whatever price you want, then unlist the gallery or change the prices at the end of 30 days.

[jmphotocraft]

Where is the part that you need a coupon? Create a gallery for these images with whatever price you want, then unlist the gallery or change the prices at the end of 30 days.

There are dozens of reasons to use coupons or some way to give people incentive to buy your photos early, especially for a sporting event. The basic smugmug business model (throw images online, hope people buy them) is pretty weak by itself. Smugmug is currently developing coupons/vouchers and packages as a way to more aggressively market and pre-sell your images. But it won't be done in time for my tournament, so I'm trying to think of other ways.

Simply offering a discount for X days after the event is a decent idea, but that by itself doesn't require people to commit to anything. Too many people are satisfied once they simply look at limited size watermarked proofs online and then they never buy anything. Rewarding people who commit to buy by giving them a coupon or pre-sold voucher will inspire some of those people to do so.

But since we can't do this on smugmug yet, I need a work-around.

[Cygnus Studios]

There are dozens of reasons to use coupons or some way to give people incentive to buy your photos early, especially for a sporting event. The basic smugmug business model (throw images online, hope people buy them) is pretty weak by itself. Smugmug is currently developing coupons/vouchers and packages as a way to more aggressively market and pre-sell your images. But it won't be done in time for my tournament, so I'm trying to think of other ways.
But since we can't do this on smugmug yet, I need a work-around.

I understand the need for a coupon system, but for the purpose you brought up, a coupon isn't needed. You are getting paid to take the images. You are then offering the consumer a print at a discounted rate. That in and of itself is a coupon.


For other general purposes, what I have offered my non commercial clients is a package of images that they want.

I place a proof gallery and allow them to pick the # images that they like. Then I will create a new gallery with just those images in the sizes that they want.

Example:

2 images set at 8x10 for $$$
4 images set at 5x7 for $$$

This will allow them to buy the amount of images they want at the prices they want.

[jmphotocraft]

I understand the need for a coupon system, but for the purpose you brought up, a coupon isn't needed. You are getting paid to take the images. You are then offering the consumer a print at a discounted rate. That in and of itself is a coupon.

Right, it's the work-around I've come up with, due to the fact that smugmug doesn't have a way to do this directly in our galleries. I was just wondering if it sounds good or if there are better ways.

[Cindy]

Pre-sale package (or $ amount). Those who buy in advance make sure you get some great shots (if action really focus on those who are pre-purchase customers... etc.).

After shoot and process - upload &/or proof in person &/or have your committee collect customer choices such as images for package &/or addons + any additional fees if they buy more (via a proof book you send along with order forms. (I currently proof most of these in person until the real coupons start working).

Then you order and ship (or deliver or have committee deliver).
You can even place the orders individually via smugmug and have them delivered to each customer via mail... but make sure you include S/H in part of the pre-sold fee you've calculated.

[Cindy]

I tried the discount gallery etc... did not work for me + I found it entirely to cumbersome to go back and re-set prices etc. If I were still doing sports (no time :cry ) I would likely limit the amount of time the gallery is available. Images purchased would remain on-line indefinate. All images not purchased by such and such a date would be archived.

Here's the front / back of an VERY OLD promo card I used that worked really well. Note my phone, etc have since change. I initially collected the orders myself, etc., etc... but later had select team members do the foot work for me (they recieved extra options & camera love attention)


http://www.inspiringdesigns.net/photos/645906356_cC9GW-L.jpg

http://www.inspiringdesigns.net/photos/645906274_7pi8H-L.jpg

Just saying this is what used to work for me when I had time and did it... I sure do miss running the football field :D Hope it inspires some ideas for ya.

[MJRPHOTO]

"have the tournament committee charge each player a mandatory $15 photo fee"

How does this work? What if you do not get good shots of a player? Than what?

This week will be the beginning of my 4th year shooting action sport shots. I have found that very few people have the time to go and look thru hundreds of shots from a game and order from my site. I find the more I do for them the more I sell. If I were to do a tournament I would only shoot for the people that paid me to shoot the game up front. If I don't make any money I also did no work. I just wasted one day at the field. I did not waste the next 2 or 3 days editing photos for nothing.

[sweet caroline]

If you have a gallery with your normal prices, at the end of 30 days you can reset the gallery from this event by clicking on an option to use prices from a different gallery. So, all prices are reset in a click without having to manually enter all of them. It's really not cumbersome at all. That's how I set prices for new galleries as well. You can print your own fliers that let them know that discounted pricing is set for the first 30 days, and reverts to regular pricing after that. I don't see the need for a Smugmug coupon in this situation, since you are offering this pricing to everyone at this event and can control the gallery.


Caroline