As independent entrepreneurs, photographers are often left to just guess what business moves are the most effective strategies for their business.

When should you run a sale? What kind of sale? What time, and what day, should you send a marketing email?

Just giving it our best guess often feels like throwing darts blindfolded—and the results (and non-results) line up with that experience: all over the place, inconsistent, and a waste of time. It’s maddening!

Data-driven decisions get better results,
faster, with less frustration.

Let’s dive into the data.

In this article, we’re going to focus on sales and timing, looking at the real cumulative results from all Instaproofs users in 2022. (In forthcoming articles, we’ll look at labs, shipping, and other strategies you may want to run)

We hope that you can use this data to see where you may be able to make simple adjustments to level-up your sales, and in turn, level-up your business.

Note: These are not predictions or guarantees of future results.

SALES STRATEGY

Gallery Visitors

Gallery visitors who make a purchase visit a gallery an average of 8.05 times, make 1.14 purchases, and stop visiting the gallery 24.2 days after their first visit. You have an average of 24 days to make a sale—what strategic moves can you take with this information in mind?

On average, photographers earn $10.78 per unique gallery visitor. (For example, 10 unique visitors = $107.80 in storefront purchases) What profit would you like per gallery? How many visitors might it take to create this much profit? What can you do to bring that number of visitors to your gallery?

Gallery image counts

By breaking all of the orders from 2022 down to their specific (self-reported) gallery types, we were able to determine the average number of images per gallery that tend to result in the highest number of sales. You do not need to play anyone else’s game, however—if you’re dissatisfied with your sales, and your gallery size is vastly different than what you see below, this could be an interesting factor to play with.

Animal Events (Dog Shows, Horse Shows, etc.): 3000+ Images
Boudoir: 300 - 400
Bridal: 300 - 400
Commercial: 1000 - 1100
Dance: 1200 - 1300
Engagement: 300 - 400
Family: 400 - 500
Children: 10 - 100
Lifestyle: 300 - 400
Maternity: 100 - 200
Models: 10 - 100
Nature: 400 - 500
Pets: 200 - 300
Photo Booth: 400 - 500
Portrait: 100 - 200
Reunion: 200 - 300
School: 3000+
Senior: 100 - 200
Sports: 3000+
Wedding: 2000 - 2100

Bounce-back Discounts

One of Instaproofs’ special sales tools is our Bounce-Back Discounts (when a client makes a purchase, they immediately receive a discount code for their next purchase). Check out the most popular bounce-back discounts, which are set to trigger as follows:

Single Dollar Amount
Triggers at $25, worth an average of $5.12
Multi-Tier Dollar Amount
Triggers at $20, worth an average of $5.05
Triggers at $50, worth an average of $13.39
Triggers at $75, worth an average of $17.38
Multi-Tier Percentage Value
Triggers at $0, worth an average of 21%
Triggers at $100, worth an average of 16%
Triggers at $200, worth an average of 23%
Triggers at $300, worth an average of 25%
Single Percentage Value
Triggers at $0, worth an average of 13%
Triggers at $20, worth an average of 22%
Triggers at $25, worth an average of 20%

Bounce-Back Discounts are simple to set up, taking only a few minutes.

The most effective sales options are:

We love an EFFECTIVE sale! Based on all data from all Instaproofs users in 2022, the most effective sales options are…

Marketing Automation: Early Bird Sales
Marketing Automation: Gallery Expiration Sales
Discount Day Sales (Note: This is going away in favor of Marketing Automations)

Set up Marketing Automation today!

Timing

SALES IN A YEAR

Looking at the lifespan of a gallery, are you maximizing the highest-yielding time periods? Have you tried doubling-up on strategies (IE, running a sale or two in a gallery’s first month)?
66% of all purchases are made within the first 2 weeks.
79% of all purchases are made within the first month.
46% of purchased items are purchased while a sale is running.
The average discount amount is 30%.

sales by month

This may be correlation rather than causation, as many photographers have busier and slower seasons, but we invite you to look at your own data and take notice of your highest and lowest months. Are you interested in raising your profit in your slower months? How might you do that? Are you interested in intentionally slowing down your schedule for a season each year? How might you strategically select that timeline?

What else do you notice about the chart below? What could be affecting high and low sales months?

The six months with the highest number of orders are: November, May, October, June, December, April
The six months with the highest order revenues are: November, October, May, December, April, July
The month with the lowest number of orders is: January
The month with the lowest order revenue is: March

sales by weekday

Looking at high and low sales days can help you schedule your marketing emails and sales schedules, as well as your gallery notifications.

The highest numbers of orders are received on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Sundays.
The lowest numbers of orders are received on Saturdays, Fridays, and Thursdays.
The highest order revenue is received on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
The lowest order revenue is received on Saturdays, Fridays, and Thursdays.

SALES BY THE HOUR

At a glance, we can see that 10PM-7AM are low-sales times, measured in both orders and revenue. How might this information affect your timing for sending marketing emails and gallery notifications?

Highest Order Count, by Hour: 10AM, 9AM, 8PM, 11AM, 1PM, 9PM
Highest Order Revenue, by Hour: 8PM, 11AM, 10AM, 9PM, 2PM, 4PM
Highest Order Count: 10AM
Highest Revenue: 8PM
Lowest Order Count: 3AM
Lowest Revenue: 3AM

Love this data? We have more to come soon!

Want to learn something specific? Drop us a line and let us know, and we’ll do our best to support you and your business growth!

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