spotlight on unique event emails with promotion codes

Imagine this “hypothetical” scenario. You want to collect as many email addresses as possible to be able to promote not only your business but also that the photo event you just shot is now online for sale … but most folks are hesitant to hand over their info simply because you ask for it.

So, you come up with a way to encourage the event organizers and guests to supply email addresses:

• You hand out a flyer and/or put up a poster mentioning that if they give you their email address before or at the event, you will email them a special promotion code good for 10% off their purchase.

• If this event is a wedding, for example, you tell the bride and groom that you can offer wedding guests a free snapshot of themselves or the big day but only if you get their email addresses in advance.

• If you are a school or sport photographer explain to the contractor that if they collect the email addresses of interested parties you will send them all a special coupon code.

• Or, really, any combination or variation above that suits your business.

It’s a pretty reasonable plan since, after all said and done, if you can pull this plan off without a hitch you will now, all of a sudden, have a great set of email addresses of potential future customers and anyone that would be looking for a nice holiday present at the end of the year.

The trick is ‘pulling this plan off without a hitch’ part, right? Wrong.
Because you are using PhotoReflect this could not be any easier to do.

the four clicks to emailing a collection of email addresses a special promotion when you publish an event online...
As a quick note, please know you can send an email and create promotion codes separately by familiarizing yourself with these special tools. This tutorial is to demonstrate how combining two PhotoReflect storefront features can be done at the same time to simplify a special way for you to encourage people to give you more email addresses by rewarding them with a discount.
So let’s get started…

step one: Create the event, but do not add photos
This may seem counter-intuitive that you would create the photo event with no photos in it but this will help you in step two. To publish an event without any photos in it, simply create a photo event as you would normally do. After you have completed the catalog/event wizard, click “finish” and then, when you are back in your photo library, publish the event without any photos in it! If this is the first time you have done this, a prompt will appear asking you if you are sure you would like to publish this event. Click to "yes" proceed.

Go to your storefront manager. If you are using PhotoReflect software you would click the “Manager” tab, if you are using DARKROOM software you would click the “ProServices” tab, sign in (if applicable) and then click “Manage your PhotoReflect account online” (note, you may have to sign in again). Here you are in your Manager. From here click “Products” and then “New Event Promo”. It is here you will see a list of all of your live photo events. Notice the event you have just created is listed. Click “create promo code” for that event. In this screen create the promotion code to your specifications. There are a variety of options including discounting an individual product you have online, the type of promotion, an expiration date for the promo code as well as other details to ensure you are setting up exactly what you would like the promotion to be. When you are ready, you will name the code whatever you want. Before you click “Create Code” make sure that what you name the code is the same code you want your online customers to input into their shopping cart for this discount. step three: Apply the promo code to the email addresses Now that you have a special promotion in hand, you are ready to tie this promotion code to a special email you can create for those that volunteered their email address to you. You will now go back to the photo event you created by going back to the Photo Library, highlighting the event you created in step one and then editing the event. In the PhotoReflect software you can simply click “Edit Event”. In the DARKROOM software you would right-click and select to “Catalog Info”. The Event/Catalog information will appear. All of this information is what you inputted in step one. Click “web options” or “next” until the Import E-mail Addresses prompt appears. From here you can manually copy and paste the emails you have for this event (with an address per line) or import from a text or CSV file. When you have all of the email addresses imported you are ready to create a personal message that includes the promo code! See in our example to the right how we devised our sample message: Thank you for signing up with your interest in these pictures. Because you we're so kind to sign-up in advance, you are entitled to a special promotion code for any purchase of these photos... USE PROMO CODE: Signup4Sales during the check out process FOR: $5 off any purchase over $50 BEFORE: April 30, 2010 step four: Publish the event and send the promotional email at the same time! When you click "finish" you are back in the photo library and you are now ready to collect the photos for the event and publish them online. When you publish or add photos to this event all of the email addresses you put into the catalog will get the email you just devised (so try not to change this event too much now).
		step one: this is the prompt that will appear the first time you publish and event without any photos in it
		step two: this is the page you will see to create a promo code
		step three: create a personal message
		step four: when you publish, those customers get an email that resembles this one in a hotmail account

that’s it!
PhotoReflect will send the email automatically when the photos are published online and because you created a special promotional message only those people you told the software to email will get this unique promo code. In addition, PhotoReflect will automatically discount the order when this promotion code is applied correctly during the check-out process. Your bi-monthly PhotoReflect payment will reflect the discount you have authorized and everyone is happy: Your customers are rewarded with a special discount; and you are rewarded because the only way they will use this promotion code is if they buy something from you!

If you ever want to alter the promo code it is easy by following the directions in step two to “Edit Promos” but remember that doing so will not change the email sent to these customers, so consider expiration dates and special requirements that may be important before creating the email information or before deleting the promotion.

This type of promotion is just one more step to your uploading process but very simple to do and a great reward to anyone that volunteers their valuable email address. Give it a try and good luck!