Holiday Season Deadlines and Tips (2024)

Here you will find an overview of the order deadlines for photo products that are due to arrive before December 24th (as specified by the labs).

Using special Communication- and Price Profiles for the pre-Christmas period is a great way to get customers back in your shop!

1. Price Profile: Adapt your Price Profile offerings for the season to include more gift-related items and seasonal items listed in the print lab product inventory.
2. In addition to our Christmas email templates, there are also Communication Profiles that you can use for your photo orders. Use these as-is, or tailor them to your needs. 

Have you taken a lot of photos this year? Then you can make use of them again at the end of the year! With the newsletter function, you can boost repeat orders and new orders around the holidays by re-activating previous photo jobs. Take a look at the older price profile and create a deal too good to pass up a second time!
Please note: For additional sales at Christmas, your orders should have been archived some time ago, preferably in spring or summer. If too little time has passed since you offered the photos at your usual prices, your customers may not appreciate the drop in price so soon.

1. Holiday Products
   If you want to re-promote past orders at Christmas, adjust your product offer or price profile beforehand. We recommend a small range of high-quality products (And don't forget an ornament or two!) — after all, there may be some first-time buyers among your addressees. Above all, create new packages so that your customers get added value compared to your first offer.
   Why? If your customers find exactly the same offer in your online shop as they did with their first purchase, they could quickly get the impression that you are not serious about archiving your jobs. This can have a negative impact on your future sales — especially with follow-up orders. Therefore, make it clear that this is a one-off promotion for a special occasion by addressing the customer accordingly in the email and offering an exclusive product.
2. Use Vouchers
   Get the most out of the season and use vouchers to create additional sales incentives. We recommend giving a 15% discount on the entire shopping basket and setting the expiry date to three days after the voucher has been sent. You can choose something cute and seasonal for the voucher code.
   For more information about creating vouchers, click here.
   

To make an archived Photo Job available for sale again:

1. On the Photo Job Main Settings page, remove the tick from Archiving, or set a new date in the future. If the date is not changed, the system will automatically revert the job back to "Archived" status.
2. Deactivate your Communication Profiles for the Photo Job, or set new ones, such as the Christmas profiles. Otherwise, your customers will receive the old notifications again.
3. To start the secondary sale, set the status of your job back to "Selling".
   

You'll want to send out a newsletter to your customers to notify them of your sale and incentives:

Some things to keep in mind:

• Subject Lines: We have already provided optimized subject lines, however you can always change these. Make sure your subject line is clear, specific, stands out, and is between 50-60 characters (Longer subject lines will get cut off by different email clients).
• Design: Your customers are likely to receive many promotional emails throughout the holiday season, so try to keep your design appealing and not too sales-y. We've created some holiday-themed graphics you can download and use here. To personalize your emails, you can use placeholders that are directly replaced by the corresponding data of your customers when sending the emails. One of the most important placeholders is [[Customer.photos]], which will insert thumbnails directly into the email.
• Timing: In order to reach the early and late shoppers equally, we recommend sending three emails to your customers.
  1. Email 1: Dispatch on Sunday, November 24
     This first newsletter addresses the so-called "Advent shoppers", who mainly buy high-quality gifts. You should clearly communicate the order deadlines here, but not try to build up too much sales pressure.
  2. Email 2: Dispatch on Sunday, December 1
     With the second email, you will mainly reach late buyers who place particular value on punctual delivery by Christmas Eve. Therefore, be particularly precise when specifying the order deadlines and tailor the main message accordingly.
  3. Email 3: Dispatch on Sunday, December 15 (Downloads Only)
     With the third and last email, you can no longer offer print products, but you can still promote the last-minute purchase of photo downloads. To do this, adjust your price profile again and offer only downloads. This way, your customers still have the opportunity to buy your beautiful photos as a Christmas present, but they have to print them themselves at a local provider.

Most recipients read their emails in the morning or in the evening. Keep this in mind when sending your newsletter. You can set the exact sending time in your account.

Disclaimer
The following information is provided for non-binding information purposes only, and does not constitute legal advice. This information cannot and is not intended to replace individual and binding legal advice that addresses your specific situation. In this respect, all information provided is without guarantee of correctness and completeness.

GDPR requires consent for receiving emails. An opt-out option is no longer sufficient. Your customers must have given their consent knowingly and with free will.

What needs to be considered?

• You need separate consent about the desired receipt of a newsletter.
• It is your responsibility to document this and make it comprehensible.
• The consent itself must be easy to understand, reflect the purpose, and have been given as a voluntary act.
  OR
• You have stipulated in your general terms and conditions that you may send emails with advertising content.
  Note: Only buyers who have accepted your terms and conditions may be contacted.

Have you possibly already obtained the consent with GotPhoto?

• For all orders created after 25 May 2018, GotPhoto has obtained the consent of your customers for you. Only then can you use your Communication Profiles.
• If this is the case, your customers have agreed to receive important information for their order. This also applies to a Holiday campaign in which the images are available again.