Senior Portrait Marketing System

Intro

Timeline

Emails

Poses

Packages

Bonus

Yearbook

Grad-cards

In today's internet driven world, seniors and their parents expect a modern approach to managing your relationship with them.  They willingly provide email addresses and mobile phone numbers and they reward you when you use them to make life easier!

Mobile phones create new opportunities to engage with seniors. Using SMS to notify and link them to their online gallery has tremendous power. Delivering proofs and selected poses directly to those devices can help generate  new revenue and drive viral activity.

Portrait personalized email messaging delivers high response rates without the expense of printing and mailing proofs.

Connecting with and delivering portraits to social media sites is a great reward for ordering and a useful tool to connect friends and family to your storefront.

Analytics drive automated production and delivery of QR code printed post cards only to customers who have not responded to email and text messaging.

Analytic technologies enable us to monitor and track customer activity so that personalized messages can be delivered through multiple channels

to the right customers at the right time.

This specialized marketing system was developed over the last two years in conjuction with the largest senior photography business in the new york city metropolitan area. More than 60,000 students and parents have used the system.

Graduating seniors have a unique relationship with portraits. Years of education and the promise of a bright future create a strong desire to share accomplishments and memories. The "senior portrait photographer" is in a unique position to  commemorate this "once in a lifetime" achievement.  A professionally created "Senior Portrait" presents the senior at their best.  Senior portraits taken early provide opportunities throughout the graduating year timeline. A well executed portrait marketing program should leverage your relationship along this timeline to make new connections with seniors that ultimately lead to higher student engagement and more portrait photography sales.

There was a time when a high percentage of students were purchasing portraits. With the advent of inexpensive digital cameras and their evolution into todays smart phones, pictures and social sharing have become the norm. The reality for photography businesses is fewer customers buy portraits!  These facts have forever altered the business model for senior photographers.

The majority of seniors get their portraits taken so they can be in the school's yearbook. These subjects want to view and choose their yearbook portrait online. We've proven that they will pay significantly higher sitting fees for the opportunity. The new business model for senior photographers includes a 2 tier sitting fee that makes it possible for those paying the higher fee to do just that while ensuring that it's still profitable to provide these services.

These facts and the realities of the business mean that it doesn't make sense to endure the labor and material costs associated with producing proofs and mailing them to customers.

This fully automated marketing system drives a higher percentage of customers to your integrated online storefront and ultimately  more customers  purchase portraits!

Engagement Timeline

Photography session scheduled

First HTML email message

with offer

2nd HTML email message

with offer deadline

3rd HTML email message

with offer expires

4th HTML email message

with offer end

Portrait access granted confirmation email sent

Confirmation sent - queued

for modified regularly

scheduled emails

Confirmation sent - queued

for special promotion emails

Retake poses restart email offers

Fee paid

new selection made

Special

X-Mas order delivery deadline notice email sent

Special promotion

Graduation cards email campaign

Summer blitz

accelerated regular emails

coordinated with direct mail

Initial portrait sitting

No portrait viewing

upgrade offer

First TEXT email

message with offer

2nd TEXT email message

with offer expires

3rd TEXT email message

with offer end

Targeted upgrade email with no portrait personalization

Regularly scheduled Portrait personalized  emails

Regularly scheduled and special promotion  emails

Retake poses added to original poses in online store.

Confirmation email sent

Special promotion

holiday gift giving

portrait novelty items email

Special promotion - Graduation portrait novelty items email

Photo personalized

direct mail post cards sent

to most likely customers

 

REACH

INBOX?

Y - N

 

OPT

IN?

Y - N

 

PLACE ORDER?

Y - N

 

RETAKE

SITTING?

 

CHANGEYB POSE?

 

X-MAS

ORDER

DATE?

 

Gradua-tion day is coming?

 

Summer

time?

 

SELECT YB-POSE?

Y - N

 

BUY

UP-GRADE?

Y - N

The whole yearbook pose selection process is fraught with opportunities for mistakes. This system instructs seniors on required poses for each individual school. It also prevents selections when the deadline date has passed. To reduce the level of complication the system keeps track of selections and can generate reports by school and date range. It can also require payment when seniors change their minds about which pose they want to appear in the yearbook.