Expanding and showcasing product offerings: Tips for photographers to increase sales.
July 25th, 2024
Showcasing the expanded product offerings can help you open up new sales channels and effectively ensure potential customers know the full range of available products and services.
High-quality images combined with detailed descriptions and engaging marketing campaigns can help you attract the right type of customers and quickly convert them into sales.
We’ve provided a step-by-step guide on how to generate high-quality leads for your photography products, which can ultimately increase sales.
Assessing your current photography product offerings.
There are a few ways you can effectively assess your current product offerings. The most straightforward methods are to collect customer feedback, review your past sales, and analyze your competitors’ pricing.
Depending on the type of client relationships you’ve built, customer feedback could be gathered from reviews, creating brief online surveys, or simply engaging in direct conversations with clients. The goal is to better understand how satisfied they were with the products you delivered and their preferences (the products they use/purchase the most). This client-centric approach will ensure any changes made in your product offerings will be nicely aligned with customers’ expectations and can help you decide what goes best together in your product or service packages.
Reviewing your past sales reports is a tried and true tactic. If your existing client base is aligned with your business in most ways already, looking at top selling products from your last 6-12 months (or longer) can help you make effective decisions on where price increases can make the most difference and what products you may want to remove from your online store. In the case of less popular products, this is a chance to consider why you want to offer them, whether they are a match for your client base, and how you can sell more of them if you decide they are still a good fit for your business.
Consider evaluating and studying your competitors’ pricing strategies, marketing approaches (such as their social media and email newsletters), and checking their reviews to observe whether customers respond to their product offerings. This information can help you decide where to differentiate your product offerings from your competitors, and how they will be similar.
Identifying new product opportunities.
We get it–changing what feels like it is working can be scary. Think of it this way–without doing any research into the availability and success of new photo products, you could be missing out on an opportunity to earn a larger profit on client purchases.
Market research
If you’re looking for fresh ideas, we recommend looking into the market trends. A few popular ways to do this is by following industry publications, attending photography-related events, or participating in professional forums. Understanding the current and upcoming market trends can help you better anticipate clients’ needs and adjust product offerings to expand your photography services.
Market research is a great way to identify emerging trends, customer preferences by photography specialty, and even notice unmet needs. If data analysis isn’t your thing, look to photography-related industry articles and reports for information.
Market research can reveal helpful insights into best sellers for different types of photography, too. For example, you may find that Fine Art photographers mainly focus their sales on 8×10 and larger prints on various materials like canvas, acrylic, or metal, whereas portrait photographers might offer wallets, 4×6, 5×7, and larger prints, along with photo magnets, mugs, or albums.
Armed with your research, consider the popular sizes, materials, and products for your areas of specialization, then create unique price lists and packages of products customized for your clients within each type of photography you offer.
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Client surveys and feedback.
Client surveys and feedback are another great way professional photographers identify new product opportunities. You can gather feedback from existing customers through online surveys, interviews, or even focus groups and ask questions to identify pain points, missed opportunities, and product preferences. Then this information can be used to customize your offerings to their wants and needs.
Often, you’ll discover new product opportunities, or even services you might want to offer, when you examine the gaps in what you offer now and what clients may be seeking. Addressing these unmet needs can help you expand your range of ideal clients and boost the competitive edge of your photography business.
Diversifying your range of products.
Product line extensions.
Diverse product line extensions are the key to attract and retain customers. You can significantly diversify the product range by swiftly introducing variations and extensions of existing products to appeal to different customer segments or address specific needs.
For instance, consider offering prints in various sizes and finishes that appeal to diverse aesthetic preferences and budgets. Standard sizes could include anything from small (5×7) and medium (8×10), to large (16×20) prints with options for custom sizes upon request.
Providing a range of finishes such as matte, glossy, metallic, or canvas can attract potential customers who seek specific textures and visual effects that would complement their home décor or personal style.
You could also introduce options for personalized photo albums where clients can choose the cover material and color, or even include personalized text or embossing to be added on to the products. This level of personalization would allow customers to create a unique purchasing experience that would reflect their tastes and preferences.
Offering digital customization options, where you provide the digital overlay (background) for customers who prefer a particular style, is another innovative product line extension you can use to diversify the product range. For example, family portraits can be enhanced with seasonal backgrounds or children’s photos can feature whimsical settings.
Pro tip: You can also step it up by offering subscription-based photography services to businesses that need regular updates of professional images for their marketing materials, social media, and websites.
New product categories.
To boost sales, you can add a variety of complementary product categories to your businesses. Some of these include photo books/albums, framed prints/canvases, greeting cards and stationery, calendars, digital products, photo gifts, and metal or acrylic wall art. These additional products can provide value to clients and nicely complement your photography services.
Consider adding photo restoration services to your current product categories if it makes economic sense. You can offer services in professional editing, retouching, and restoration of old or damaged photographs for clients. In addition, enhancement services to brush up on existing photos, including color correction and special effects, are also becoming popular.
When creating new product categories, try to bundle products by creating value-added offerings for customers. For example, you can offer a wedding photography package that includes engagement photos, wedding day coverage, a personalized photo album, and framed prints.
Pro tip: Bundled products will not only help you cross-sell other products and services but also take the guesswork out of choosing complimentary products. Keep in mind that you’re the expert, and your clients are looking to you to create a great product experience as well!
Showcasing products effectively.
High-quality imagery and descriptions.
High-quality imagery with close-up shots can effectively showcase any photography product for its viewers. High-resolution photos that vividly capture the colors, textures, and details of the products will provide potential customers with an enticing view of what they’re purchasing–this is especially important with products like albums, canvas wraps, and metal or acrylic wall art prints. Don’t be afraid to showcase the details like a stitched binding, layflat pages, perfect wrapped corners, or the thickness of the metal or acrylic.
When high-quality imagery is complemented with detailed and compelling descriptions, it can tell captivating stories that photographs alone cannot convey. Descriptions should highlight key features, benefits, and unique selling points that keep the viewers engaged and eventually lead them to purchase.
Showcasing unique selling points through dedicated sections on the business website, social media posts or client testimonials can effectively communicate the advantages of choosing your photography services over competitors.
Product presentation
You can display your photography products on website storefronts, social media profiles, and marketing materials to allow for maximum exposure. When presenting album products on the website storefronts, each product page should include multiple angle shots to highlight key features such as paper texture, binding quality, and customization options.
The clear, concise, and descriptive text accompanying each image should explain the benefits with its unique selling points. Interactive elements like 360-degree views and zoom functionality can also create engaging and immersive product experiences for the customers.
Pro tip: Consider leveraging features like Instagram Stories or Facebook Live to give behind-the-scenes tours of the studio to create a personal connection with customers. You can also show customers the product creation processes, which lend an immersive look into the craftsmanship behind each photography product.
Customer testimonials and reviews.
Customer reviews and testimonials are powerful tools for effectively showcasing photography products because they provide authentic and unbiased opinions from real users. Products that have been pre-approved and recommended by former customers can help your photography business build trust and credibility in the long run.
Therefore, you should always solicit testimonials, reviews, or user-generated content from satisfied customers. Testimonials will help other prospective customers visualize how your products can meet their own needs whenever a customer shares a positive personal story about purchasing the photography products from you.
The focus on customer satisfaction would not only enhance the perceived value of your photography products but also encourage new clients to choose a photographer who has a proven track record of delivering high-quality photographs and excellent customer service in the past.
Pro tip: Ask clients to write a review after every session and product sale! Those can be used in future marketing campaigns.
Promoting new offerings.
Marketing campaigns
Marketing campaigns can promote new photography product offerings by generating excitement and awareness through targeted messages. Consider utilizing various channels such as email marketing, social media advertising, and influencer partnerships to reach target audiences effectively.
Personalized emails that detail new product offerings and offer exclusive discounts can incentivize immediate purchases from existing customers. Likewise, social media advertising offers a more targeted approach to reaching specific demographics on platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest.
Influencer partnerships are another effective marketing strategy for promoting new offerings. They leverage the influencers’ reach and credibility to connect with potential customers. Influencers can showcase the new product offerings for you to an audience that values their opinions and recommendations.
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Special promotions and discounts.
Special campaigns offering promotions, discounts, or limited-time offers are effective tactics for promoting new photography product offerings and incentivizing purchases. This can be particularly effective for attracting price-sensitive clients, who are more inclined to try out a new product if they see that it has exceptional value.
For instance, you can offer an introductory discount or limited-time promotion on the new photography products to encourage customers to take advantage of the opportunity before the offer expires.
Special promotions, such as early-bird discounts, combined with a sense of urgency, can generate buzz and excitement around the launch of new products. The prospect of getting an exclusive deal can motivate followers to engage with the content, share it with others, and ultimately make a purchase.
On top of that, the increased visibility can also lead to an increase in brand awareness and lure in new customers who may not have otherwise discovered your offerings. This is one of the main reasons we highly recommend using special discounts and promotions to promote new product offerings.
Monitoring and adjusting strategies.
You will get the most out of your efforts by continuously monitoring the performance of new product offerings and marketing efforts after running a series of marketing campaigns to check the effectiveness of these promotions. Before you get overwhelmed, that doesn’t have to mean checking numbers on an hourly basis–once a day or every other day can be enough!
Specifically, we recommend collecting data on sales metrics and customer feedback–then you can regularly (on a monthly or quarterly basis) review key performance metrics to evaluate their effectiveness. Analyzing data such as web traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement provides insights into how well the marketing strategies perform.
For instance, tracking the number of clicks and purchases from a digital marketing campaign can help determine its effectiveness.
If certain metrics fall short of expectations, you can alternately test the visuals and the written messaging to identify which aspects of the campaign to see what makes the most impactful changes. From there, you can optimize product offering successes and continuously drive business growth.
