1
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March 13th, 2007
With
over 140 CCS customers, the 2007 Candid Color Systems
Winter Seminar in Miami was one of our best attended
in the last five years. We are anxiously awaiting
feedback from those of you who attended as we strive
for continued improvement. If you have not completed
the online survey evaluating the seminar and topics presented,
please use the link below to provide us your input.
Gene
Mangiante Named Candid Color Systems’ 2006
Customer of the Year byBrian Speers
Gene
Mangiante is photographed with Greg Eisen, last
year's Customer of the Year in the traditional
Green Bathrobe, symbolic of the COY.
The
Eden Roc Resort was the setting for the Candid Color Systems
annual awards presentation
at the CCS Winter Seminar in Miami Beach, and Gene Mangiante,
a CCS customer from Memphis, TN, was awarded the highest
honor as he walked away with the Customer of the Year Award
for 2006.
Accustomed to winning awards at the annual prize presentation, Gene has had a
lock on the Fastest Growing Customer award for the past three years, and, in
fact, walked away with that award again this year. A CCS customer since
2002 Gene has shown steady—and double-digit—growth each year since
he began sending his work to us in a variety of photo markets.
Gene’s business is diverse in many ways: Sports, weddings, school
portraits, corporate and campus markets make up the greater part of his business. But
what makes his enterprise distinctive in many ways is that he operates companies
in three states; Tennessee, Florida, and Mississippi. Each of these operations
functions independently with their own employees, and with a recipe for success
that is challenged on a daily basis. Gene is exceptional in staying ahead
of the curve with regard to business practices, and is a risk taker when it comes
to innovation and business acquistions.
In addition, Gene’s contributions to CCS and other customers have been
notable for the amount of hours he has spent beta testing new software. His
assistance has helped tremendously in improving the direction and the content
of many CCS software programs over the years.
We are proud to announce Gene Mangiante as CCS 2006 Customer of the Year.
Other award winners were:
Jack
E. Counts, Jr., President of Candid Color Systems,
presents the Customer of the Year Award for 2006 to
Gene Mangiante.
Most
Valuable Employee – Isabel Rego-Almedia, Island
Photo, Glen Cove, NY
Newcomer of the Year – Artistry Photography- Patty and
Brad Holter, Minneapolis, MN
Most Prom Units Sold – the Strong Family, Flash, Dallas
and Ft. Worth, TX
Kyp Hardaway Award of Excellence (Hot Shot) – Jaime Parker,
Panoramic Photomarketing, Tuscaloosa, AL
Kyp Hardaway Award of Excellence (Big Shot) – Bob Olmstead,
Campus Composites, Norman, OK
Sam Milling Customer Service Award – Tom Lieblong, Candid
Color of Arkansas, Cabot, AR
Dan Hays Contributor of the Year – Radley Muller, Yary
Photography, Bellingham, WA
New
Study Indicates 50%-70% of Our Customers E-mails
Are Not Reaching Their Destination
by Dan Hays
CCS
recently engaged On Target,
an E-mail Consulting firm, to study the e-mails being sent
out by Candid Color Systems and by our customers, in an effort
to determine if we were following best practices for e-mailing
and to determine what percent of e-mails were reaching their
destination.
To our surprise and disappointment, On Target discovered
that 50%-70% of the e-mails being sent by us and our customers
were not reaching the inbox of the end customer to whom
they were addressed.
Instead, they were being trapped in spam filters of Internet
Service providers, in spam filters of companies and universities,
and in junk folders on individual computers. Also,
a number of e-mails were not getting through because of
blacklisting,
a practice whereby a company is engaged by an internet
service provider or other company to determine the reputation
of a sending company, the number of e-mails being sent
in a given amount of time, and certain red flags in the
structure, programming and content of e-mails which would
lead the blacklisting company to filter out the e-mails
being sent from a certain Internet Provider address.
Candid Color serves as an excellent illustration of the
magnitude of this phenomenon. During the month of
January, CCS received 8, 408, 793 incoming e-mails. 8,153,793
were blocked. 254, 687 were delivered.
The current situation is much worse than one year ago with
regard to the number of e-mails getting through. This
is because there has been a proliferation of e-mails which
threaten to use up the bandwidth of internet service providers. As
a result, those providers are clamping down on spam or
suspected spam in order to reduce the number of e-mails
they are handling. Experts in the field predict that
this trend toward tighter filtering will continue, causing
fewer and fewer e-mails to get through.
Since 40%-70% of graduation orders and almost 100% of race
orders are now coming in via e-commerce on the internet
in response to e-mail marketing, there is a huge opportunity
to improve sales by increasing the percentage of e-mails
arriving at their intended destination.
We recognize that this is a specialized field that changes
dynamically and that we do not have the expertise to solve
the problem. After realizing the challenges that currently
exist, we engaged On Target to assist us with developing,
implementing, and maintaining our e-mail marketing program. Candid
Color is making a large financial commitment up front in
order to assist customers in correcting our collective
problems, so that more e-mails will go through and so that,
hopefully, sales will improve. We believe that this
is the single most important action we can take to improve
system sales for graduations and races, as well as other
markets. We are initially focused on grads and races
because they are so close at hand and represent such big
opportunities.
At the recent CCS seminar in Miami, Terry Oehrke, the President
of On Target addressed the CCS customer group. After
the talk, 13 customers signed up to take advantage of the
program Terry outlined. This program will involve
developing several templates which incorporate the best
verbiage, the best structure, custom branding for each
customer, variable products and prices for each customer,
and extensive reporting. The best part is that this
program will be integrated into CORE so that you can set
up the program, if you choose, at the time you set up the
graduation and it will automatically launch your e-mail
campaign with the appropriate templates at the appropriate
time on automatic pilot. There will be some flexibility
in terms of selecting the numbers of emails within the
campaign and adding email addresses after the event has
taken place. All of these e-mail templates will be
constructed with the input of our 13 customers who signed
up at the seminar and will be designed by On Target to
get the maximum response, i.e. sales. Additionally,
all e-mails will be sent out through Exact Target, a well
known and respected whitelisting company, which has relationships
with all major internet service providers, many companies
and most colleges and universities. All of these
steps are designed to improve the deliverability of your
e-mails and the ease of conducting e-mail marketing.
The cost of this program is 2 cents per e-mail sent, which
is less than many companies charge for whitelisting alone. On
Target, because of the high volume of e-mails sent through
Exact Target, receives a discounted rate. CCS is
marking up that rate by .007 per e-mail, which will be
used to cover the upfront cost of engaging On Target and
the monthly support fee charged by On Target. CCS
is subsidizing this project because we believe strongly
in its value for our customers, and ultimately, for ourselves.
Some customers have raised concerns about the lack of flexibility
of using templates. That concern goes to the very
issue of why it is imperative to use templates. The
rules which are imposed by the software of the blacklisting
companies and the internet service providers are difficult
for the average business person to know and even harder
to avoid. The most beautiful, unique e-mail message designed
by an expert marketer is of no value if it violates one
rule and as a result is not delivered. We believe
that giving up a little flexibility in order to get the
e-mails delivered to our customers is infinitely preferable
to preserving complete flexibility and individuality but
not having a large percentage of e-mails delivered.
Time is very short for graduations and the spring race
season. If you have questions or are interested in
participating in this program, please contact Dan Hays
at 800-336-4550, Ext. 227 or by e-mail.
Alternative
Events: Another Source of Income By Jessica
Braun
Winter
Bid Days have passed and the Spring party season is not fully
blooming yet, so what other types of events can you book
during this time? Here
is my suggestion: Shoot non-Greek events on your college campus.
There are lots of opportunity on college campuses throughout the school year
and shooting these types of events not only helps spread word of mouth about
your business, it also keeps your company’s name on everyone’s mind. In
addition, it keeps your photographers busy and provides another source of revenue.
Chances are there is even a social butterfly involved in these events that is
Greek and shooting great pictures at these event may help to get you a supporter
in the sorority or fraternity houses with whom you are attempting to do business.
The very first step is finding the advisor of the campus organization that is
responsible for ALL of the non-Greek campus events. It should have a name
pertaining to “Student Life.” The advisor is an endless source
of information because this person should have access to EVERY all-campus events
going on throughout the entire year and even into the next. Think social
club balls, philanthropies, camps, game day activities, and other events such
as traditional campus-specific events like the Elephant Walk at Texas A&M. The
office should be accessible to the public so make an appointment and see what
is on their calendar. Advisors are usually very outgoing and open to suggestions.
Also, find clubs that are unofficially affiliated with your university. Some
good examples are your campus ROTC, Christian groups, such as the Baptist Student
Union, theater groups, and any other similar groups. The university band
is a big opportunity.There is an opportunity for
group pictures-think entire band, saxophone section, color guard, etc… This
group is their own social organization. There is more than a chance they
will have, at the very least, a formal and charity event.
Philanthropies are another opportunity. Check out Relay
for Life which
is an event that benefits a cure for cancer. And don’t forget Dance
Marathon. Dance Marathon is the largest philanthropic event for colleges
all over the United States that raises over $1 million dollars per year for the
Children’s
Miracle Network.
(click)
Game
days are a huge opportunity! Candid Color Photography,
CCS’s
retail arm, grossed $5,000 at a single game just by walking around campus
shooting football fans and tailgating parties. The
photo in this article was taken by Candid Color Photography at the University
of Oklahoma Homecoming. It includes the Seed Sower which is a well known
symbol of the university and of course tailgating fans.
The University of Oklahoma has mini musical events named U-Sing and Scandals
where everyone is allowed to participate, but consists mostly of Greeks. These
musicals take place on Family Weekend and Parents Weekend in the fall and spring
respectively.
Scandals in 2005 had $800 worth of sales.
Summer is still a great time to photograph on a campus. Talk to the faculty
advisor for campus housing and see what summer camps are going on. Summer
camps that are usually sponsored by the university include debate, sports, cheer,
band, and probably a freshman welcome camp. There are so many of these
they have to be spread throughout the entire summer.
When you start to shoot these new events make sure to stress that there is no
obligation to buy, this one sentence should ease a lot of hesitations of people
unfamiliar with having their picture taken. Also, hand out website cards
and have a few samples available from other non-Greek parties. Through
this you will learn which events are worth photographing in the future and how
you can market these pictures to the specific organization. Also, many
events improve when they are photographed repeatedly, so it is worth risking
the initial start up cost and photographer pay to determine if this event has
potential.
A
new sports collage background is now available in QP+.
A
basketball style has been added to the football, soccer and
baseball versions and you will also notice several new tie-dye
and cloud backgrounds, as well.
Remember, the 8x10
collage lab price was lowered to $2.50 (previously $4.00).
CCS is now offering a box mount
in the PPS and Grad markets.
The
sizes offered in PPS are 7.5X20, 16X20, 20X24, 30X40 and
11X30. A 16X20 is available in the Grad Market. This
new mounting style is an elegant and creative way
to frame your portraits.
The box mounts are constructed
of 1.5 inches of foam board with a black plastic coating
for the trim. The prints are flush mounted on the board
and fit tightly against the wall. Box mounting
is not only economical but it is lightweight and easy to
hang. It also provides you with the opportunity to
upsell in these markets to increase your profit. The
pricing for the box mount is as follows.
CCS
is pleased to announce a new format for both the weekly on-line
sales report and the weekly lab account statement. The
new report will combine e-commerce sales data and lab billing
data to provide more comprehensive event management information. A
sample new report is available (.pdf)
for reference.
The report is divided into sections with the top section being a recap of activity
from the lab account. Below it appears sales and associated order fulfillment
charges and credits by event. Here you can see at a glance your gross profit
and margin percentage on each event for the period. Next, payments to the
lab account are shown, followed by other types of charges and credits not associated
with a specific event – for instance, marketing materials and freight. Finally,
the e-commerce sales and ending lab account balance for the period are shown
with the net difference and whether the amount is due to CCS or due to you.
There will be an on-line version of the report available as well. The on-line
report will be accessible from the QuicPics Admin page. It will enable
you to ‘drill down’ into any of these items for more information. For
instance, you can click on an order number to see a detail of the end customer
sales that comprise that total. Sales tax information will be available
on the on-line version as well.
The last old format QuicPics/Party Pics Billing Invoice will be produced Wednesday,
March 7. Direct deposits for net sales will be processed as usual. The
last old format Weekly Lab Account Statement will be produced Friday, March 9. To
ease the transition, no ACH drafts or credit cards will be processed in payment
of this weekly statement. The first new format report will be produced Wednesday,
March 14. Settlement direct deposits or ACH drafts/credit card charges
will be processed at that time, depending on the net difference. The on-line
report will be available March 14 as well.
We believe you will find the new combined report to be a great advantage in monitoring
the financial performance of your events. If you have questions about the
new format please contact Karen Valentine, Joseph Nicholson, or Jeff
Hudson at
the phone numbers or e-mail addresses below.
Please call
on us any time we can be of service. We
appreciate your business!
