Archive for May, 2010

P1Wired developers added a Quick Entry feature to the order form. This new feature makes it simple and easy to add items to an order.

Simply put in your item code, description, quantity and pose and the item gets added to the order. This new feature allows you to key in a 10 image order in less than 60 seconds.

If you have products or services set up with barcodes, P1Wired also supports a barcode scanner. This is an effective measure to increase workflow efficiencies and reduce key punch error. One site worth looking at is Barcodes Inc. to review the products and opportunties currently available in this space.

We just released some new features in P1Wired.  Most of the enhancements come from recommendations made by the current P1Wired user-base.  We will provide a brief write-up on each of the new features for photographers over the next several weeks.

As you know, if you are doing business face to face, accepting credit card processing has become a necessity.  We have enhanced the credit card processing in P1Wired so a photographer or studio can process credit cards in both a keyed and swiped format.

The swipe capability adds efficiencies in the form of lower merchant fees, reduced human error and time.  Given the importance of credit card processing to any retail business, we will make additional related enhancements in our next release this summer.

Please keep in mind when selecting merchant services:  4 Easy Ways to Save on a Merchant Account.

1. Ensure you have the right type of Merchant Account for your clients

2. Never focus exclusively on the discount rate — look at the entire processing expense

3. Look to save on the processing equipment given the efficiencies that have been created over the last couple of years

4. Limit the time associated with any agreement — if possible, move to a no contract relationship

P1Wired has teamed with Merchant Warehouse and believes the services and products offered by them are very competitive.  We are working very closely with Merchant Warehouse to address the ever changing credit card compliance and the requirement for better and tighter security with respect to sensitive credit card information.  We will continue to make sure this a priority for P1Wired – Simple and Easy.

I am a big fan of Facebook and the myriad of marketing opportunities offered by this social media portal.  That said, Facebook’s executive Elliot Schrage didn’t provide me many “warm fuzzies”  in the recent The New York Times article.

Schrage answered privacy-related questions that stem from Facebook’s April 21st release with new privacy-related features.  The most important question asked is “Why Facebook didn’t make its features opt-in instead of opt-out?”  With the new feature Facebook automatically shares users’ names, pictures and other information with Yelp, Microsoft Docs and Pandora.

I guess it isn’t a big leap of faith that the “sands” might shift as Facebook evolves and looks at various means to generate revenue — given, it is still FREE (kinda).  I just thought the revenue paradigm that they would emulate would be the advertising revenue path as opposed to selling customer data and defending their position — to their 400 million-plus members — using semantics.

This might be a good time to review your security settings in Facebook to ensure the level of sharing you find appropriate.

If you are like me, I will quickly click on the video button (on a website) because: 1) I enjoy taking in content through video, 2) I want to check out the technology, 3) I want to see the creativity around the content, and 4) I like to see how different types of businesses are using video to promote their business.

Online video doesn’t make sense for all businesses but I do believe it makes sense for a majority of the photography business.  Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself to determine if online video should be part of your marketing plan.

1. Do you sell a product online?

2. Do your customers see you as significantly different than your competition?

3. Does your business need to be explained for people to really get what you do (as an artist)?

4. Do you have customers who would be willing to say you’re the greatest?

The bottom line is simple — studies have shown that a video used to sell online out performs a still picture by over 100%.  Video can show aspects of your business that may be difficult to put into words and it may reduce the time it takes someone to understand your business/value.

We like MailChimp a lot at P1wired, Photography Studio Management Software, because they have a great product and are very creative.

A recent blog post titled “Using Facebook To Keep The Conversation Going” had some interesting ideas about using Facebook for marketing.

MailChimp sent out an email to a certain set of their customer base to let them know they were going to receive the same service for a better price.

They were going to attach SWYN icons but didn’t think it would get much traction.  They thought about using Twitter but didn’t think asking their customer base to tweet about the cost savings matched their culture.  They thought the twitter email template was overkill for the task at hand.

They ultimately decided to use Facebook.  They added a simple line of text linked to their Facebook fan (like) page and asked their customer base to leave a note about what they would do with the cost savings.  “It’s basically just an old-fashioned invitation to reply (but on Facebook instead of via email), and continue the conversation with us.”  There were many tangible benefits which Ben outlines in his post.  Take a quick look at his approach and the results.

Simple and Easy.  What an effective way to keep the dialogue going.