Three Steps to a Successful Email Campaign
by Jessica
Irvin
Whether marketing your events using PayFirst or ViewFirst
an email campaign is a powerful tool in your arsenal
of marketing tools provided by CCS. The success of
an email campaign depends on several factors, including,
collecting quality email addresses, creating a campaign,
and monitoring the success of the campaign through
reports. Candid has developed materials and software
that help you boost sales after the event.
Collect Quality Email Addresses
Collecting fresh email addresses should be a high
priority at every event that you shoot, whether it
is Sports, Graduations, or Party Pics. In these situations
it is important to communicate to your customers that
their email addresses will only be used to send them
a proof or link to view their images. They should also
be made aware that their images will be posted online.
CCS can provide you with a variety of materials to
collect email addresses at any shoot. Contact your
Customer Development Representative for templates that
can be used on PayFirst Envelopes, Speculation Forms,
and Perforated Cards. When creating your own template
be sure to include at least 20 boxes for each email
address, this will ensure that each address is legible.
You should also attempt to collect two email addresses
from each participant. Lastly, be sure to identify
your company by name and logo on your form. This helps
your customer associate your business with the email
that will be arriving in their inbox.
Creating an Email Campaign
CORE now features a new email campaign with eight
different templates that can be sent out periodically
throughout the year. This new program is available
in both the Grad and Sports Markets. CCS has developed
a successful email campaign that is ready for you to
begin using now. In addition, you can create your own
personalized campaign. To view, edit, and create an
email campaign go to the setup tab and click on Proofs & Emails.
Modify your campaign by clicking on Email Campaign.
The Official Grad Email Campaign consists of the following:
This Email Campaign is not white listed, however it
has been designed to not pose a threat and be labeled
as spam. Emails can be sent as HTML or Plain Text,
which does not include large images to maximize deliverability
rates. Email Marketing is cost effective (FREE!!!)
and an efficient way of reaching out to all of your
customers. If you have not implemented an email campaign
yet, you are missing out on sales following your event
and FREE marketing provided for you by Candid.
Following the Success of Your Email Campaign through
Reports
CORE features Email Reporting which allows you to
follow the success of your email campaign. To find
the reports click on Events, then Email Campaign. Initially,
you are able to view each of your email campaigns that
you have created including, the amount of emails sent,
bounced, and opened by the customer. You can then sort
the reports in various ways. You can view the entire
campaign and study which emails were most successful.
Usually, the first and the third emails (which is the
expiration notice) result in the highest sales. Another
great feature is you can view all the email addresses
that bounced back and correct any obvious mistakes.
Once you have corrected the email mistakes, just re-queue
them and they will be sent back out.
Post email marketing is a valuable tool that CCS has
provided and it is important to take advantage of this
easy and free resource. A successful email campaign
begins with collecting fresh email addresses and ends
with tracking the success of your campaign. For more
information about Email Marketing contact your Customer
Development Representative at 800-336-4550.
Want to give your customers the chance to track
their own orders online? If you currently use QEMS
(Quicpics Event Management System) to manage event
links on your website, you can also utilize the built
in order tracking features.
Using your QEMS web address with the Q/Track.aspx
extension creates a link that can be placed directly
on a preferred location of your website.
After clicking this link, customers enter their
email address and password. If they have never tracked
an order before, they can request a password for
this search and future searches.
Orders placed are displayed with the Order ID, Date
and Time of Order and Order Total.
Clicking an Order ID link displays all available
information about the order including images selected.
A ship date will be displayed for completed orders
that have been mailed.
For assistance setting up your tracking link, please
contact Darren Hanson in Customer Support at 800-750-0494
ext 456.
Make your products one of a kind by adding
logos
by Evie
Sibert
With Candid Color’s software, photographers
have the ability to add logos to several products
in the Sports, Quicpics, PPS and Grad Markets. Logos
can be added to both your Core and QP2 accounts.
In the sports market, team logos can be added to
memory mates, calendars, Level Two™ products,
mugs and plaques. Business logo’s and Greek
crests are a nice touch in the Quicpics market and
can be added to the left and right sides of a title.
In the Grad market, school logo’s, symbols
and seals make the print a more valuable keepsake.
In addition, you can brand your prints by adding
your company logo or name to the lower right corner
of the print in the PPS and Sports markets.
To add logos, email your logo to the Titles department.
Level Two™ logos need to be sent in an
Illustrator file and all other logos need to be in
a .tif file format. The size should be 2X2 at 250
dpi.
For more information about logos and crests, please
email Cynda
or call her at ext 135.
Pre-Marketing for Fall and Winter Dances
by Brian Speers
With high school Homecoming and Holiday dances on
the horizon over the next several months, this is
the perfect time to plan your marketing strategies.
Your goals should be to raise the participation rate,
increase sales, and also try to raise your average
ticket price.
During the past prom season there were a few CCS
customers, in particular, Tom Davis in Massachusetts
and Lana Ervin in Oklahoma who were very successful
in regaining participation but more importantly,
increasing their sales on events from the previous
year.
In both cases, each were proactive in reaching out
to the parents of the students to stimulate more
couples being photographed, and more money being
spent at the events. The home addresses of the students
were supplied by the school after they had approved
the content of the letter.
Here is an example of the letter that Tom sent out
to all of the students that were eligible to attend
the prom i.e., Juniors and Seniors.
This is a very simple letter that has all the components
of a well advertised product. His goal was simply
to appeal to the parents who, he assumed, had probably
been photographed at their prom. He figured if they
had been photographed at their prom, than they understand
the significance of the photo and will want their
children photographed.
It worked beautifully, 94% of the attendees purchased
photos as compared to 65% the previous year and two-thirds
of the orders were checks or credit cards proving
that the parents had received the message. Also,
coming to the prom with completed order forms kept
lines to a minimum.
To raise the average ticket price a good idea would
be to offer both standard and deluxe packages; traditional
Kodak Endura paper on the standard packages and the
Kodak Metallic paper on the deluxe packages. Having
samples of both papers side-by-side on your sample
table is critical in persuading the couples to upsell
to the higher grade paper.
Take charge of your events. Don’t expect that
just because your customers were photographed and
ordered last year that they’ll do the same
this year. Be proactive and assertive in your planning
for upcoming events. Both homecoming and holiday
dances can contribute significantly to your bottom
line so long as you take the first step to get them
to the camera.
Attitude Panos: A New Weapon in your Sports Arsenal
Though our latest products in the sports market,
Attitude Panos, have only really been around for
a few months, the message we are getting from our
customers is that they are an instant success!
At the summer workshops in July, we reported on
the success that CCS customer Bud Stagg experienced
at a baseball tournament in Kansas where he and his
staff sold $20,000 worth of prints in two and one-half
days. At the winter seminar John Gautsche of National
Sports Photos in Minnesota told of his success in
booking teams even after they’d been photographed
by another photographer for their team and individual
shots, and walking away with $1,000 of orders for
a 45 minute shoot. Though we have no financial results
yet, Scott Christenson of Illinois recently photographed
the entire 120 member Eastern Illinois University
band!
The latest success story comes from Brad Medley
in Maryland who happens to shoot team and individuals
and action shots, along with his newest offering,
Attitude Panos. Since he had already photographed
the team and individuals, Brad decided to produce
an Attitude Pano of one of his youth football teams
from the individual images he had produced from this
shoot. Not knowing how they would sell, he had ten
panos printed of a team and took them to a game where
he was taking action shots.
The reaction was overwhelming as he sold out of
the ten photos in a matter of minutes charging $35
each for these 10 “x 30” very unique
photographs. On top of that he took additional orders
from parents after the 10 photos had been sold.
As a result of his unexpected success, he is now
offering pano prints to all of his teams and in some
cases returning to re-photograph them in poses appropriate
for these especially cool products. What excites
him most about this: “I have a product that
none of my competitors have.”
If you haven’t tried your hand at offering
or shooting the latest and greatest you need to give
it a try so you have a new weapon to add to your
sports arsenal.
Shooting Attitude Panos
If you are planning to shoot an attitude pano there
are a few things to keep in mind to make for a successful
shoot.
Shoot from a low angle if possible. All athletes
look more heroic when photographed from a low angle
and appear larger than life.
All athletes on the same shoot must be photographed
from the same distance, and at the same focal length
on the lens. The best way to do this is to find the
tallest athlete on a team, photograph him first,
and that distance becomes your mark for all subsequent
players. The reason this is done is to give our digital
artists a clue as to how tall/short each person is
in the photograph.
Vary your poses. It’s a good idea to have some
players kneeling or squatting in addition to standing.
It gives the photo some variety and allows some license
for the digital artists to make a creative photo.
Also, have the players facing to the left and to
the right to make a more interesting pano.
Pricing
The cost of producing Attitude Panos is as follows:
A charge of $35 will cover all artwork, cutting out
of the athletes, and the layout up to and including
15 players. For additional athletes on the same
photograph over 15 players, there will be a charge
of $2 per athlete. It’s important to note
that the $35 does not include the cost of a print.
The cost of a 10 x 30 Attitude pano print on Metallic
paper is $7.30.
If there is any additional artwork alterations needed
after the initial design is completed, the cost is
$1.40 per minute for alterations.
Submitting a Pano
Since there is no automatic way to submit Attitude panos in our software here
is the procedure you must follow.
1. Create an event and get a order number.
2. Upload images by team, i.e. Roll 1 all contains all images from team 1; Roll
2 contains all images from Team 2, etc.
3. Create a spreadsheet to identify images to a team. Include all info for the
final image including Text, Logo, etc.
4. Email the spreadsheet to your customer service representative
5. The completed artwork will then be uploaded to the original event for ordering
by you.
The new 2008 styles of the 4x8 Holiday Cards will
be in QP2, CORE and Quicpost by October 1st. Click
here to view the flyer
illustrating the 4x8 styles that will be available
October 1. Keep in mind that some older
holiday card designs will be discontinued! As you
remember, 4x8 holiday cards are available in sets
of 12 ($5.40) and 20 ($9.00) and come with envelopes
.
Click here to
view the flyer illustrating the folded 5x7 Holiday
Cards. The Folded 5x7 Holiday Cards are sold in sets
of 12 for a lab cost from CCS of $16.20. The cards
are printed on high gloss coated 10 pt paper. Each
set is packaged with box-flap envelopes, in a beautiful
black box secured with a silver tie. If more
than 7 sets are ordered of the same image at the
same time, then the price per set is $12.15 (25%
discount).
Sample images of each holiday card are on candidnet
under Marketing>Business Development>sample
images. These images are suitable to use on
order forms and on your website! High Resolution
PDFs of all Holiday Card designs are also available
on candidnet.
We highly suggest not linking to images posted on
candidnet because this site is frequently updated.
Sample images of old (discontinued) holiday card
designs will be removed on October 1st when the new
designs replace some of last year’s designs.
Please contact customer support for alternative ways
to host images.
Holiday Card Marketing Emails
Holiday Cards are a great remarketing opportunity!
Offering these products will give you another reason
to send an email communication to your past customers!
To assist in this effort, CCS has posted some HTML
for a Holiday Card email on candidnet under Marketing/Business
development> Marketing Materials> Holiday Card
Emails.
We have created 3 holiday card emails: one for marketng
4x8 photo cards, one for marketing 5x7 folded holiday
cards and one for marketing both styles. These emails
can be used in CORE, Quicpost or QEMS with a few
modifications.
Keep in mind that you will want to:
•
replace the logo
placeholder with your own logo
• use samples in the
email representing the styles you will offer
online
• link the product names or an image to your event
URL
•
enter a price for your holiday cards
•
enter a
date or statement of time to create urgency
We hope that you find this HTML as a useful starting
place. Please contact customer support for assistance
in altering the HTML to meet your needs and for help
in hosting images to reference in the html. And remember
to test, test, test before sending to customers!
Lab Service Times for 9/7/2008 - 9/13/2008 by Bo Lewis
Problems
with, or suggestions about The Developments Newsletter? Email us
to see if we can help.
