Gearing up for the holidays

Photography News that's Fit to Blog (This Week)
by Kerry Raminiak

Happy third week of October, friends. The air is crisp and the news getting better… depending on how you look at it… so lets get to it.

PDN announces their annual photography contest.
Entry fees vary depending on your specialty and number of photos while the prizes are very nice including $15K and an exhibition at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. If this is not exactly “up your alley,” so to speak, PhotoReflect is seeking your best photography for our website home pages. There is no entry fee and the prize is to have your photography published on the site for 2 million unique visitors to see and photo credit with link to your site. Click here for the PDN entry information. Click here for the PhotoReflect entry info. Good luck.

PDN also features a nice article on how one photographer estimated a project to a sticker-price-wary client and positioned their work appropriately to win the project. It’s nice reading.

If you’re selling (online) people are buying.
There are a couple of caveats to this headline when you read two articles on the matter. The first is from The Boston Globe where they explain that online retailers are seeing a better year than last year. The tricks they are seeing are: introducing promotions and “value messaging” (i.e. creating a direct connection to customers with sincerity). The second article is from NPD Group’s survey of upcoming holiday spending budgets. While they explain that surveyees are intending to spend less this holiday season, they still will make holiday purchases – this year focusing on “value” of the gift and any “special deals” they may be aware of.

What does all this mean to you? Well, if you are a PhotoReflect user, you should (1) become familiar with how to create promo codes and gift certificates for extra sales this holiday season (click here to learn more / when you get to the page, click the tutorial on “creating gift certificates and promo codes”). Perhaps more importantly, (2) this is your time to shine as a personal photographer. Not only is this your first year to offer interactive photo gifting and greeting cards to your photography customers, but this is the opportunity to provide sincere and thoughtful gifting opportunities.

Gearing up for the holidays.
On a related note, if you are planning on getting the word out, via marketing, to increase your holiday sales this year, we will feature a spotlight on quick ideas in our monthly newsletter due out this week. One subject of discussion will be PMA’s new advertising campaign service that may be worth the investment if you are a member. Be sure to sign up to get the newsletter and get in the know as we review this and other avenues for the PhotoReflect and DARKROOM software user.

Upcoming webinars.
Getting started with PhotoReflect (for new users or anyone seeking a primer) is slotted for Tuesday, October 20 at 7:00pm Eastern (4:00pm Western).

Get with gifting (for any current PhotoReflect users that have questions on gifting as well as offering template/border products and other goodies online) – Wednesday, October 21 at 8:00pm Eastern (5:00pm Western). (This is the last webinar of this series.)