February
19th,
2008
In this
issue: New
CCS Transfer Software by Steve Foisy
The latest
version of the CCS Transfer software is available
for downloading. This
version fixes a bug discovered in V1.2.10 related to
incomplete auto image rotation on some rolls. Please
upgrade your Transfer software before using for your
next event. Contact Customer Support at 800-750-0494
for assistance.
A new File Manger feature has been added to CORE just
for printed templates. This
File Manager is used to load printed templates directly into your CORE Templates
folder without having to navigate to that folder on your server or contact Support
to load it for you if using the hosted version. It can be accessed from
the Setup Tab and Proofs & E-mails menu. Browse to the template file
and click Go to add it to your folder. Once loaded, go you’re
your Printed Templates menu, create a new template
option and associate it with the new file.
Contact Customer Support 800-750-0494 if you need any assistance using this new
feature.
Would
you like a $50 credit added to your account? Well
you can, and it’s easy! Just submit
your images to be used for samples! All images
must be high resolution, must be deemed usable,
by CCS, for samples, and be accompanied with
a model release. For each image that we
can use for our samples you will be awarded $50
to your account! This is your opportunity
to share your work, and show off your beautiful
photographs!
With
the upcoming Spring Sports Season it is important that we gather quality sports
samples for all of our customers. We are looking for Team & Individual,
and especially action for every sport, but the following sports
need updating the most…
To
submit your images please e-mail them to your Customer Development representative
or you can e-mail them to Darissa Bishop at Darissa.bishop@candid.com Please
fax the model release (PDF)
to (405)
951-7343.
Candid
Color Systems depends on your cooperation to keep our sample selection up to
date. Thank you in advance for your help! The Facebook Language of Greeks
by Morgan Fenn
In today’s
technology based world, you would think it would be
easy to get in touch with the Greeks on college campuses.
It is hard to find a college student without a cell
phone but it is even harder to get them to answer it
or better yet call you back.
After countless phone calls, unreturned voicemails
and unanswered emails, I decided to look beyond the
typical communication tools and find the easiest way
to get in touch with college students. I quickly realized
that Facebook is the way to go.
Facebook is “a social utility that connects
you with the people around you” and
more importantly is the best way to stay connected
with the Greeks on your campus. They check their Facebook
accounts on a daily basis usually multiple times a
day. It’s so popular among the students that
they have transformed the word into a verb. Walk on
any college campus and you will hear Facebook mentioned
all day long and most likely will hear someone say “I’ll
Facebook you later!”
It is easy to create an account, all you need is a
name and an email address and you are quickly connected
to millions of collegiates. Once you have created the
account for your company, you can start updating your
page. Upload your logo as your picture and put all
your contact information in the required fields of
the page. As soon as the page is created, you can begin
adding “friends” to your account. The best
thing to do is go through your contact list for your
universities and add them all as your friends.
Below is a sample of the Missouri Party Pics Page set
up to communicate with the campus organizations.
Once
you’ve created your page and added friends
you are well on your way to better communicating
with today’s average college student!
March and April is the time to
be looking for Fall Sportsbusiness. This time of
year is when athletic directors and coaches start
choosing their photographers for the next year. To
be ready for the selling season, you should be preparing
now! To get ready to hit the streets and sell, you
should be making a list of what sports to shoot.
While football, soccer and volleyball are the most
obvious, don't forget the sports such as hockey,
cross country, girls soccer, lacrosse, swimming,
martial arts and cheerleading.
You will need to decide what leagues or schools you
will be going after andidentify the main contact
or the "decision maker." Next
you will need to decide which system you will be
using to market your services. Deciding whether to
use Payfirst or Viewfirst will determine your presentation
materials. Try to find out what your competition
is doing and then do something different. If they
are usingthe Payfirst method, try offering the Viewfirst
system and emphasize that the coaches won't have
to pass out envelopes or distribute prints. Make
a point that this system is very coach friendly.
Start ordering samples now!! Visual aids are
the best way to get someone's attention. To stand
out from the competition and get your foot in the
door, show Level 2 products. This will not only get
the attention of the decision makers but it will
prove that you can offer something that your competition
can't. Also, have a variety of regular samples to
appeal to other demographics.
Once you have
your presentation materials and samples ready the
next step is to book appointments. Do not mail materials
or leave them with anyone other than the decision
maker, they will only end up in the trash and then
your efforts will have been wasted. Try to get an "in
person" meeting
with the athletic director or coach. Be persistent!
Get to the decision maker to make your case. Candid
Color Systems is here to help you with your presentations
and samples. We have provided you with 2 presentations
available on Candidnet. These power points are under
the marketing materials tab and can be changed to
reflect your company information. Also, you can go
to www.partypics.com and type in samplesample as
the password. Here you will find many events with
model released images to choose from. If you would
like samples with your own images, or have any questions
regarding presentations, please contact the customer
development department.
Are you serious about growing your business? What
are you currently doing to bring in new business? How
many sales calls are you making in a day?
Recently I went out making sales calls with one of
our customers who desired to gain more sports business. With
focused efforts their sales calls grew from one a
day to ten!
Here’s what we did:
Plan your day BEFORE you leave I always plan a week in advance and make adjustments as necessary. By
staying in one town all day it will cut down on idle time.
Cold calls with Purpose By breaking down whom to visit at the best time to reach them, you
can plan your day with purpose!
I have found that the best time to catch high school
and middle school coaches is before and after practice. This
limits time between 1:30 – 4:00pm. But
the day is not wasted; college sports, recreation
centers, church leagues, gymnastic centers, and sports
centers are open all day. Catching them early
in the day allows you to free up your afternoon time.
Approaching the Coach Keep It Simple! Coaches are busy. Capture their attention,
state what you want, and then listen!
I walk right up to the coach, shake his hand, give
him a sample of our amazing Level 2 prints and tell
him that I would like to photograph his team. As
he looks at the samples, I mention how easy our process
is with our View First system. The coach will
tell you everything you need to know. (Who
is currently shooting them, what they like/dislike
about the company, and your chances for getting in.) If
they are interested, I try to set a date right then.
Following up Now that they know who you are, keep in contact with them. Follow
up within 48 hours on all coaches who are interested. Make it easy to
book, give the coaches dates you are available. This will start the process
of moving forward.
Following these suggestions, we were able to talk
to ten coaches and we booked three schools and one
league. Making an effort to be Pro-Active with
your business by making sales calls each day, will
steadily grow your business to SUCCESS! Grad Marketing Materials Order Forms Coming Soon
To An Email Box Near You! by Holly McCoy
Yes, it's that time once again! Grad season is
FAST approaching, and it's time to order your marketing
materials for the upcoming season! Be on the lookout
for a 2008 Grad Marketing Materials Packet coming
to you via email and in your lab box in the next
few days! Look for exciting marketing ideas for
senior portraits, overview portraits, group shots,
diploma photography and more! Don't miss out on
these great ways to market to your customers! You
will be surprised at what one flyer stuffed in
with your proofs can do to increase your sales!
Deadline for ordering materials is Friday, March
7, 2008....so take a look and order yours soon!
You can also download the order form by clicking
here.
Gear Up for Proms & Dances This Spring!
Now
is the time to start planning for spring Proms & Dances!!!
To help you market to students, we have a set of
beautiful 17" X 23" full color POSTERS
and 8-1/2"X11" FLYERS for use
in increasing your formal portrait sales. Both
are the same design in beautiful full-color. The
poster and flyer touts purchasing the PROFESSIONAL
formal shot...showing some simple, average shots
taken at home in the background screened back.
The formal shot stands out and says "This
is a must have!" We have left a screened
back area at the bottom right where you can add
a sheet of 8-1/2 X 11 to post the package pricing.
You can also have the flyers overprinted with those
same prices in the same spot or on the backs of
the flyers. The copy on both is: "May I Have
This Dance?" and it also says, "A Professional
Photographer Will Be At Your Event To Capture The
Moment With High Quality Portraits. Remember to
bring payment. All orders must be paid for at the
event." This
poster can be used to bookproms and dances, along
with giving to the high schools to hang up in their
hallways and hand out to their students. This piece
is important to remind the students you will be
at the event and to the BRING THEIR MONEY!!! Order
yours today!! We print these one time each year...
ro order all you will need for the year. We will
NOT be inventorying these items, so be sure to
place your order by the deadline. Please allow
2 weeks after deadline for production & shipping.
Deadline for ordering is February 22, 2008.
LEVEL TWO SPORTS FLYERS MAKE A RETURN!
Ask and ye shall receive! We've had a lot of sports
customers asking for a flyer that shows off the
NEW Level 2 Design Options, and we now have a flyer
just for that purpose!! We are about to reprint
these flyers which are 8.5"X11" and printed
on a UNIQUE PAPER! The front side is GLOSSY and
pre-printed in full-color with the design options,
and the back is actually uncoated/matte to allow
it to be overprinted through laser printers or
locally on press.
Due to demand, we will run these flyers every
3 months, along with the Digital Sports Envelopes
and Flyers. Please make sure you order for the
next 3 months, as we will not carry inventory of
these! We will reprint again in May. Please allow
2-3 weeks for printing and ground shipment after
the order deadline date.
ORDER DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, FEB. 22nd, 2008! Order
yours today!!! Download the order form here.
DIGITAL SPORTS ENVELOPES/FLYERS REPRINT TIME!
Our very popular sports flyers and envelopes are
an exciting way to present products to your end
customers. Both the flyer and envelope have full
color fronts with blank backs for laser printing
or for on press. We have been told some laser printers
have trouble with the gluestrip on the envelopes,
so you can choose WITH GLUESTRIPS or NO GLUESTRIPS.
A lot of the customers that are having these problems
have said they would rather us just print these
without the glue. SO, we are making BOTH OPTIONS
available to you! You can take your file to a local "QuikPrint" type
press and they can overprint them for you for a
reasonable cost or you can also run these through
your laser printer much more easily without the
gluestrip. The envelopes are converted and the
perforated flyer/back side of envelope is left
open flat for overprinting. You can actually overprint
either a mailing address or the customer information
directly on the envelope bottom, and then put your
company info and packages up top above the perforated
envelope/glue strip. The whole back panel (including
glue strip and envelope back) is 14-3/4" X
8-1/2" but you must allow about 3/4" in
the middle of the overprinting side for the glue
strip, where no type can be printed. The
envelope itself will be 8-1/2" wide X 5-3/4" tall
once the top is torn off where the customer can
keep the top information. They can then enclose
and seal their check in the envelope. You can overprint
whatever you want on the backs---it's up to you!
Products featured on the pieces include statuettes,
super tickets, sports borders, plaques, magnets,
luggage tags, calendars, all-access passes, magazine
covers, memory mates, trader cards, and buttons.
Please note: we will be printing these every three
months, so you will need to estimate your needs
for the next three months. We will reprint again
in May for June-August. We will NOT be inventorying
these, so you must order what you need for this
time period!! Envelopes will ship via ground as
soon as possible. Please allow 2 weeks time for
the printing plus time for ground shipment after
the deadline date for ordering.
DEADLINE for ordering is Friday, February 22,
2008. Order yours today. Download an order form
here.
Blank Perforated Pre-Pay Envelope/Flyers...A
Great Way to Sell In ANY Market! Take
a look at these BLANK FLYER ENVELOPES that can
be used FOR ANY MARKET! We've had customers saying
they love using these for DAYCARES, PARTY PICS,
ETC. The possibilities are really endless! They
are blank and allow you to customize them in any
way off your own printer or locally. The perforated/glue
strip design has been very popular, as the flyer
can be detached from the envelopes. We run these
in bulk and the convert them for you, which is
a large cost savings to you up front!
In the past, we have had some customers have problems
with the glue strips going through their laser
printers...so we are giving you an additional option!
Most of the customers that have had with this problem
say the glue strip is NOT important to them, and
they would rather us print them without it. We
also have customers who need this glue strip, therefore
WE ARE OFFFERING BOTH: WITH and WITHOUT the GLUE
STRIPS!!! This will make it easier for those who
are laserprinting these for sure!
As far as the envelope/flyer itself, we have some
CCS Customers using the flyer part to show packages,
which their customer keeps as a record of their
order, then they use the envelope part to obtain
the customer's information and actual order. --OR--
you can make the flyer part the order form, use
the envelope as a mailing device, and the customer
encloses their order form and check and mails it
direct to you in this envelope. Remember too, with
these BLANK Flyer Envelopes, you will also have
the FULL BACK SIDE to feature your products you
wish to offer to that market. It's flexible to
any market!
The BLANK Flyer Envelopes will already be glued
(if you choose with glue) and folded as an envelope
and left open flat for overprinting on both sides.
The whole piece (including flyer, glue strip and
envelope) is 12-3/4" X 8-1/2" but
you must allow about 3/4" in the middle of
the glued side where no type can be printed.We
are keeping this at the original smaller size as
in the past. The envelope itself will be 8-1/2" wide
X 3-3/4" tall once the top flyer part is torn
off. You can overprint whatever you want on either
side---it's up to you! You can customize these
for any market, either by printing them off your
laser printing or by taking them locally to be
overprinted. These envelopes are a special type
of envelope that not that many presses can produce.
By converting them and leaving them blank for you
to overprint-we give you a great cost on them due
to the volume we produce for everyone, and then
you take it from there for overprinting!
Please Note: we produce these twice a year (every
6 months), so you will need to estimate your needs
for the next months of March '08-August '08. We
will NOT be inventorying these, so you must order
what you need for this time period!! Please allow
2 weeks for production time after the deadline
for shipping.
DEADLINE FOR ORDERS IS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2008.
Order yours today. Download the order form here.
