Tools to Organize, Inspire & Increase Sales

I recently installed a new program to organize my photos, after years of them lurking on old memory cards in forgotten drawers (as CEO of Delkin, I have an unlimited supply of memory cards!) and on multiple HDD’s on old and new computers.

The act of finding and viewing some of my old and forgotten images inspired me to do more photography. It even made me buy new cartridges for my old image printer, take some images into a local camera store for restoration, buy some frames and matte boards and buy a new prime lens.

When you review, organize and find lost images, and put them in a well-organized and retrievable place, you are reminiscing about past people, good times, holidays and vacations. What better primer is there to energize your photography needs and wants than that? Enjoying your past efforts makes you want to go out and do it some more.

A recent research report by Suite 48 Analytics asked 1,009 smartphone and digital photographers what impact organizing their photos, so that they were “at their fingertips”, would have on their actions. The answer was that they would do a lot more; 41% expected to edit more and 12% “way more”. The next biggest categories were “taking photos” and “turning photos into prints”. Clearly there is a connection between organizing your chaos of images into actions, like to edit, print and take more images.

If you sell image organization software, perhaps it is time to push it. If you do not, perhaps it is time to stock it. How about a class by experts to help customers overcome the inertia in starting the process? Show some best practices and procedures. An email to all of your past customers, active or not, sparking their interest in “getting organized” and reviewing their images might lead to more business.

SHAMELESS PLUG — Delkin Devices now sells a 1TB USB 3.0 External Solid State Drive expressly for the purpose of organizing images and it comes with a FREE 1 year subscription to Mylio Advanced, a great image organizing tool. I chose Mylio because it allowed me to organize my images (over 100,000) and keep them on all my devices. I can now pull up any of my images on my smartphone and it uses very little space by showing a thumbnail of my original high-resolution image residing on my home PC. The next revision promises built-in face recognition, which is a free upgrade. To me, that is the Holy Grail for image organization. For more information on the 1TB RhinoDrive USB 3.0 External SSD, please click here.

Very best regards,

Martin Wood
mwood@delkin.com

Generate New Business at a Low Cost

A question I always like to ask camera store owners and managers is “How do you get new business?” I am always hoping for some creative ideas beyond ads in the newspaper or billboards. Sadly, few camera stores capture or dedicate the time to email their existing customers.

In my current and past business ventures, an outbound sales force was always required; someone to go out and bring back some new business, rather than waiting for it to happen. Consider having your retail salespeople call a few customers and remind them about an upcoming show, class or event when things are slow. Maybe even generate a list of possible prospects, such as high school photo departments, newspapers, magazines or college and art school photo users.

But one of the biggest challenges to all of this is creating the email and phone list, and managing it with as little resources and time as possible. One excellent resource we currently use is Constant Contact, which is free to sign-up for and starts for as low as $15 per month. Constant Contact is only one of many cloud based email management companies, but they make things quick and simple for collecting and storing information. Choose one that best suits your needs.

Try placing an iPad out on the store counter, in one of Delkin’s iPad brackets mounted to one of our Fat Gecko suction mounts, to collect emails. Third-party apps, such as the ones by iCapture, allow you to capture customers’ information in a matter of seconds. You can ask for as little or as much information as you wish and all of the data can be automatically uploaded to your email management account (e.g. Constant Contact). The best source for future business is always those who have purchased from you in the past.

The moment they are added to your list, have a preset email automatically sent to them, thanking them for signing-up. As an incentive for doing so, maybe offer a discount coupon that is good on their next purchase. Have some excess inventory that you want to move? Who better to reward with a discount than your past customers? In addition, you can also send out announcements detailing any upcoming events, speakers or classes. You don’t need to be a programmer in order to use services like Constant Contact; you can choose from a variety of easy-to-use templates to help you look like a PRO!

The best part about utilizing an email management service is the cost. Although it is not free, it is among the least expensive tools you can use to generate new business. The next time you worry about where your new business will come from, put that energy into writing a creative, infectious email about yourself, your store or something photography related and send it out to your email list!

Very best regards,

Martin Wood
mwood@delkin.com

*Mention that you read this article when you place your next order and Scott, Jenn, Jason or Dawn will throw in a FREE Fat Gecko iPad Air bracket.*

What I Notice at Camera Stores That Works

One of the best parts of my job as CEO of Delkin Devices is traveling around the country and visiting camera stores. Even on a day off, if I am traveling and pass a camera store I must stop, and I probably get to more than 50 per year.

First there are the more obvious items that probably every camera store owner knows. Is it easy to park, does the store look bright, clean and inviting, am I greeted when I enter and do people make eye contact? Then I move on to the depth, and breadth of the inventory. Is this store focused on Advanced Amateurs and Professionals, is there a mix of DSLR’s? Or is this store more focused on the point and shoot crowd. One hint is items like lighting products, software tools and long lenses? Those items tell me these folks are serious.

My next gauge is a harder one to describe and is different for every user I am sure. I want to know if this store inspires me and promotes the passion I have for photography. Do the graphics, books, magazines and displays intrigue me and make me stop and look? Are there classes, images on the walls and staff that get me excited about my hobby? Does the store demonstrate some areas that might interest me? Is there action cameras? Nanny or Security cameras, interesting mounts or the ability to make bound books or print panorama images I could never do on my own? I walked in on a Time lapse photography demo in a store one day, it was fascinating, and I learned a lot. If I lived in that town I would go to that store all the time. I got excited!

Successful stores excite and inspire their customers. They are a friendly place to learn and share our favorite hobby together. Make your store a place people want to come back to again and again, and you will be among the folks who succeed in this business.

One other point. I always ask when I am in a store, if they have an email or mailing list. About half on average have one that they can quickly and easily show me. This always seems to me to be such an inexpensive and effective way to keep in touch with your very best customers. What better way to grow your business than to just sell more to the people who know and love you? These days it is so easy. An iPad mounted to the counter with an app that allows people to sign up is easy to set up, and you can probably use it to demo the mount! If you want directions on what app to get and how to make this easy, just drop me an email.

Very best regards,

Martin Wood
mwood@delkin.com