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 p.3 #6 · Event Sales Quick Setup Help needed | |
Hopefully, somewhere along the way, when one starts doing more, larger and multiple shows, you may have to consider doing it alternate ways. I just encourage anybody getting into is to look at the angles - consider the possibilities, and keep open the options to change and adapt if needed.
THIS I believe is a Key.
I have a lot of experience in marketing other forms of Photography and have learned this first hand. I did a trade show once and ran out of Brochures. I went home, ran off a heap of flyers on my laser printer with a different offer ( that actually cost me a lot less that the one I had originally gone with) and had so many people taking me up on it I literally could not take their deposits and write their details on the booking forms fast enough.
I am always ready to change what I do to suit the market I'm in at the time.
Hammy's dad told me all about the headaches they had to deal with trying to manage multiple inkjets onsite. To be fair, if I had to deal with inkjets onsite I would be on Hammy's side on this issue.
So Far, my modern new inkjets have been 110% reliable and trouble free. With the bulk ink system, I don't have to replace cartridges, I have enough ink for I guess around 4-500+ A4's.
My costs for inkjet printing are a fraction of what any Dye Sub would cost. I researched this very thoroughly before I got into this.
The other thing that would kill us stone dead with dye subs in the amount of dirt we get in the trailer at the events we do. I had to strip the trailer after the last one because the dust was through everything and was thick. I have a small dye sub and I know how little those things will tolerate it.
An added benefit is that good inkjets are worth about 1/10th of Dye subs so replacement is not expensive nor is carrying spares. I have 4 printers to allow printer pooling and replacements when needed.
But the cost… Hammy wrote: A large 2 day venue would cost me up to $800 to print onsite! So? I large 2 day venue should make that back 10 fold in increased paper sales.
This is another key to the Print/ don't print debate.
Which one makes you more money at the end of the day?
I can see scenarios for both being the best way to go. Of course a lot depends on how you set your business up to make one work better than the other.
For the events I am presently doing with the clients I am servicing with my limited experience, it is my opinion that I am able to better capitalize on the benefits of on site printing. With different, Larger ( Mine can't get smaller!) and indoor events, that may turn around and the moment I detect it has, I will go to something different that gives us the best return.
The other PC is used for printing only. I currently have 2 printers set up ( one with 4x6 prints and one with 5x7 and 8x10 paper).
We tried to print onsite once and a printer failure caused us to ship all orders.
I dodged this bullet straight off. I do A4 prints only UNLESS specifically asked to do 5x7's and then they are 2 on an A4sheet at the same price as a single A4 print. Because 2 6x8s will fit, (almost) we offer the upgrade if the clients choose.
We would only get asked to do this every second event at best.
Not doing smaller cheaper prints encourages clients to buy an extra A4 ( which we will give them a small discount on if pushed) or a CD.
There is no way in this wide world I'd personally entertain the idea of doing 6x4's unless it was sell the same image in lots of 10 reprints.
Does a kid put on a t-shirt just bought - and therefore spur additional sales for the t-shirt vendor? Or do people who have place an order (after their awards session and/or at the end of the day when sales are biggest) go out to the parking lot and spur more sales, because most people end up leaving after ordering from the vendor that has product after competing.
Ummm, in my case yes.... Because I set up a couple of kids at the early events I did before I was known with the association I have been working with.
The kids were my friends Children and I did a deal with them that I would give them a print and CD of all the pics I did of them IF they promised to get the print I did for them and show it to at least 10 Other kids, and walk around with it for half an hour near other people.
It worked very well and soon I had people coming to the trailer to see what I was all about.
Granted, in a saturated market where you are not trying to promote a new concept, I doubt it would be as effective although it might if you had a product they had never seen before. As I mentioned earlier, we have had extra sales with people buying more prints after being impressed with the first one we handed them.
We usually are the last ones out of the place because people park near my trailer on the way out to have a look at the pics because they saw someone elses print and are interested in what we have of them.
Does not having a cart system where people can effortlessly click, order, checkout and easily pay have an effect on sales? I know if I had to fill out forms on Newegg, I would find some other place to order from.
Carts were a failure for me.
The kids were fine with them, the parents would ask ( literally) what they put in the section of the form where it said " Name" !! I am not Kidding!
Somehow, the same questions on paper poses no problem and speeds up our turn around time on the V stations.
Of course I'm playing Tiddly winks with the size of what I'm covering and if I was dealing with 1000 competitors, I can't see it being efficient to go with bits of paper everywhere. I would go to a shopping cart which would mean I would have to put people on as Vstation helpers and that would be a better use of labour than printing.
And while Luke admits it costs more onsite ($5000+supplies+labor+time per trailer) one has to wonder whether an additional $10-$15,000 in viewstations (one time cost) would allow for better sales?
And as I eluded to earlier, there is the rub.
If the additional sales you make justify the expense in equipment and wages, then it's obviously the smart way to go. If it only nets you a cpuple of hundred $ worth of sales, then clearly you are better off with the order only business model.
In the end its an individual Decision as to what is best.
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