Mike Weber - Quality Plus Photo - Worth, IL, USA

Hello Chris,

I had the Film Amnesty day as a one day event. As an experiment, I did not pay for any advertising. We sent out emails to various customers, used the marque, tried Craigslist. Over all, I had hoped it would be more successful, but we did have several customers with more than twenty rolls of film each. Others had only a few.

I will try this event another time and go for week or longer. Also the next time, I will advertise in the paper. Craigslist can be a hit or miss effort, but you can't beat the price. We used it for a Santa promotion at Christmas and it did help bring in traffic. We are in the south suburbs of Chicago, so I think the right event would draw from Craigslist.

I am going to try a Digital Film Amnesty day in a couple of weeks, it will be a Saturday event, I will try the same type of advertising (free), but I will broaden the approach. I will let you know how that one work's out.

Business has been tough. For years we had a large base of wedding photographers and they have dwindled. Most have burned out. We are trying to build that base back up, but it is difficult. The wedding business has changed dramatically also. Most the large wedding houses in this area are not as busy as they used to be either. Many of the advanced amateur shooters have disappeared also.

We remodeled the store and it is nearly completed. I think the interior is looking great, I just need to drag in more warm bodies.

I plan on going to the Fuji event in Hanover Park, since it is so close to my store (about 30 miles). I'm always trying to learn new things.

You have been a great inspiration with many great ideas. I have talked to you at some of our IPI events. Thanks for your help.

Here are some photos of my store interior.

Mark von Keszycki - Penn Camera - Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia - www.penncamera.com

Hi Chris:

Enough guilt. If I'm embarrassed to send something in it's because it seems so mundane that I'm sure no one would be interested.

That said, here are a couple of not-exactly-innovative ideas that have worked well for us. The first answers the question "how can I drive business during this slow time of year?" The second, "how can I promote it without spending too much money?"

To drive business, we decided to run a clearance sale. Like I said, not exactly a novel idea, but it worked like a champ. The result was one-day sales volume in March that wouldn't have looked out of place in late December.

The timing was perfect (end of life for many models), and it gave us a reason to dredge up tons of old inventory, dump it into bins marked $1, $5, $10 etc., and turn at least some of it into money. The best part . . .a lot of current full-price stuff got snatched up in the frenzy.

Bottom line: we had a huge day, margins were below normal but still way positive, and we made some deadwood disappear.

How did we promote it? We're big enough that we can do some mail and newsprint, but we also used our email newsletter which anyone can do. It goes out weekly to everyone who's been kind enough to give us an email address, and when we have something exciting to promote we have our designer do up a nice graphic to head the article that really makes it jump off the page.

We use Constant Contact which makes it easy to produce an attractive professional-looking piece, and the cost is nominal. We've been doing this ever since we heard it touted at PMA, opt-outs are surprisingly small, and it gives us a way to tell previous customers (those folks who give us most of our business) about anything and everything we've got going on at any point in time.

Hope this helps . . .

Mark

Stephanie A. Fisher - PMA Education - Jackson, MI, USA - www.pmai.org

Hi Chris -

If retailers are looking for a trainer for photo-related educational classes for customers, we now have a Find-a-Trainer located at Find-a-Trainer http://services.pmai.org/pma/xLabfinder/PIEA.aspx . It's made up of PIEA members. Another one of Mike Woodland's great ideas!

Looking for a professionally-trained instructor for photo classes? Our Find-a-Trainer search tool provides a listing of Photo Imaging Educators Association (PIEA) members in your area.

We're big believers in attending the Divisional Meetings. You share concepts and concerns with the people in our industry who are the most like you, because they're playing in the same league. And the meetings aren't as crowded as national and international shows. Heck, with some of them you can get home in time to sleep in your own bed that night.

May 6, 2008 PMA New England Division Spring Meeting Business Improvement Expo Holiday Inn Select, Woburn, MA - click here for more info

May 30 - June 1, 2008 PMA Dixie Division Annual Meeting Quality Inn, Meridian, MS more info

May 31, 2008 PMA Northern California Division Wine Tasting Social and Dinner - Murphys, CA - more info

September 13-14, 2008 PMA Northern California Division Annual Meeting and Tabletop Show "Veni, Vidi, Visa" (I Came, I Saw, I Shopped!) Cache Creek Casino Resort, Brooks, CA

October 3-4, 2008 PMA North Central Division Annual Meeting Riverwood Inn, Otsego, MN

October 10-11, 2008 PMA Pacific Northwest Division Annual Meeting Seattle, WA