Did you know Richard Rankin, world-renowned actor, is also an esteemed Fine Art photographer? You probably did! But do you know Instaproofs is his secret sauce?

Richard and his sales manager, Maureen, work closely (and regularly) with the Instaproofs staff. With all their powers combined, they (we!) make an incredible team which produces incredible results consistently. We recently got in touch with Maureen to get a peek into the inner workings of Richard Rankin Photography.

First, let's meet you, Maureen! Do you mind giving us a quick look into your work history, your company, and what it is like to work with Richard Rankin?

Hello! I am currently Richard's sales manager, and have worked with a number of companies and artists in both marketing and business manager capacities. Initially, he was just looking for help building a website to sell a few photos. Neither of us had envisioned the extent of what this has become!

Richard is very driven and inspiring, and he is also a lot of fun to work with. Both of us have extremely high standards for the products that we produce, and the customer service that we provide, which makes us ideal workmates. We sometimes tease each other on social media, and hopefully most of our customers understand our jokes.

Since Richard's life is very busy to an often ridiculous extent, a message sent to our company reaches me. I really like providing a personal touch for our customers.

Both of us really appreciated how the business provided a purpose and a distraction during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Especially him, since all filming halted.

And Richard―he's well known for his work as an actor, and his acclaim as a photographer is sky-high as well. How did he come into photography, and how/when did he make the transition into shooting professionally?

Travelling the world in an award-winning play (Black Watch) in the early 2010s, Richard took thousands of photos. But they did not quite turn out the way that he envisioned, either how the scene looked in person or the image as imagined in his mind's eye. That led to some really intense study for many years in order to learn how to produce the kinds of photos that he wanted to see.

His work has often been described as cinematic. Richard tells a story in each of his photos, which is likely influenced and informed by his acting background.

The transition to shooting professionally occurred quite gradually by simply sharing his work on social media, and meeting the demand of people asking to purchase it! He has also been recently shooting some gorgeous portraits of fellow actors and behind-the-scenes photos as he's filming.

Special commissions and requests inspired by what he chooses to show on social media have also been taking more of his time lately, some of which made their way into our most recent #NotACollection collection.

We have been extremely lucky to build a business around responding to enquiries and positive feedback from Richard's fans. They are endlessly curious, complementary and supportive. It has been a lot of fun for me to interact with them too.

Your team has been using Instaproofs for a long time. What was it about Instaproofs that stood above the competition (back when you were choosing a service to use)? How has Instaproofs continued to serve you all well (over the span of time since)?

We have been with Instaproofs since 2019. Having contacted almost all of the fulfilment partners that our lab in Glasgow, Loxley Colour, works with, and building several test websites along the way, Instaproofs stood out for two reasons.

One was the immediate personal responses that I received. I felt that my questions were treated with importance.

And secondly was Instaproofs's willingness to listen to our needs and work with us on some unique asks. A fine art photography business is quite different than portrait and wedding photography. Most photo lab integration websites are geared towards the latter, which had led to us feeling left out of the market.

Specifically, we could not find any other partner with the combination of worldwide shipping and ability to offer numbered Limited Editions as purchase options, until learning about Instaproofs.

Over the years, I think that the unique way that we use Instaproofs has led to some functionality that is likely also helpful to others, such as the private comments field that was added per our request. We find that our business is most successful by offering our customers a very personalised service. This easy way of keeping track of a myriad of details and order requirements has been so valuable to us.

You interact regularly with members of the Instaproofs staff. How has your experience been working with the team?

Working with Instaproofs is a dream! I trust that you have our best interests in mind at all times, and I appreciate the continuing efforts to customise your business to suit our needs. The patience and responsiveness that you show each and every day is extraordinary, and I don't say that lightly. Truly well done.

We see you running unique promotions―buy one/get one sales, free reprint with the purchase of a frame, sign into the gallery for a chance to win a prize, etc. Is there a particular promotion that has been especially productive? How did that go? When your team is dreaming up ideas, what are some of the parameters that go into setting up a successful promotion?

The most recent BOGO at the end of last year was the most successful! It surpassed every estimation by an enormous amount and it was quite a surprise (and a bit exhausting to run it with a holiday deadline). But it was also incredibly rewarding. Our customers are so appreciative and really loved their extra photos as our gift.

The best source for sales ideas is listening to your customers’ wants and needs, because they will tell you! Before offering framing on our site, many said that they just have not had the time to frame their photos yet. So that led to our free reprint with frame purchase as an introductory offer.

And our customers constantly say that it is difficult to make a decision with so many photos that they love, which meant that they held off on making any purchase at all. I had suspected that offering a BOGO print sale would help this, and it certainly did!

These sales kept our business going with renewed interest when Richard was off filming Outlander and prancing about on stage in London for most of 2021, and not as available to produce new photos as he had been in the past.

Running a fine art business is a unique venture. Can you run us through a little bit of the logistics, and how Instaproofs has been able to help? How has Instaproofs been helpful in running a successful fine art business?

Automation has meant that our small team can easily handle a high volume of orders. Instaproofs has proven itself by adding both structure and flexibility to our business. As I mentioned before, having the ability to offer Limited Editions and Fine Art Paper prints as purchase options makes your website solution work for us when others did not.

And because Richard has a global fan base, the ability of Instaproofs to switch between photo labs and ship worldwide has become key for us. Contracting with a USA lab starting last year reduced shipping prices for our American customers greatly and definitely led to more orders.

The way we use Instaproofs is maybe a bit intensive on the customer service side at times, but hopefully we save your team some work as we like to push through each order to the labs ourselves. I find that process really helps us get to know our customers and exactly what they are ordering.

The Instaproofs integration of the email database is also genius. It means that we do not have to spend extra time and money on external bulk mail solutions.

Thank you for your questions, because this exercise has already inspired some different ways that I would like to use Instaproofs in the future. You can be certain that I will be in touch soon, and we look forward to many more years in collaboration!

We love partnering with Richard and Maureen, and the time spent combing through the details of their requests has not only been downright fun, but it has also bettered all Instaproofs customers, as the improvements have been universally helpful.

At the same time, our affections also extend even further. We’re here for YOU—for every photographer, to provide all the tools necessary for every photographer to have a successful, profitable, efficient business.

Contact us today to find out more, and if you haven’t yet, try our free trial!

Richard Rankin: Actor, Photographer, and Instaproofs User