New (For Us) Method of Delivery for 2013

In the past few years we've been providing clients with their pictures on CDs and later on DVDs. It's a very time consuming process and we've decided to go another route.

Starting in 2013, all clients will be getting a 16 gig Thumb Drive, with our Business Logo imprinted on the drive. Yes, they are a more costly way of providing the images but the time savings is important. We've already bumped up our photo prices to more than accommodate the extra cost of doing business.

We're going to order 100 to start with and will go from there after we track how many we'll be using.

DJ J Mac said:

Just a thought. When you mail these, be sure to put them in padded envelopes. The normal envelopes are too flimsy to safely send thumb drives.

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We currently use padded envelopes if we have to ship discs and will continue to utilize them (albeit, smaller) in the future. Remember, you're typing at an old man who spent decades working in warehouses, especially in the shipping receiving areas.

Actually, very little is mailed out as we either hand deliver to the client or they come to us for pick-up.

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ahoustondj said:

Seems to me that a DVD/CD with your Logo on it is more permanent than a Thumb Drive. If I was given a Thumb Drive from someone, I will transfer the Data to my computer and use the Thumb Drive for other purposes.

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Very true, but we're looking at the lost time in burning the discs not to mention the extra wear on the drives doing the burning.

Once the disc or Thumb drive is in the possession of the client, it's their's to do what they desire.

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sightsandsounds said:

I think that's the point.

The drive will have the company logo on it, and will just be another form of advertsing, keep the company fresh in the client's mind.

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Yup, that's one of the points.

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drzinc said:

I usually shoot video and pictures of most of my gigs. If a client ask for footage from the dj's point of view I ask them to supply a thumb drive and I send them the thumb drive with files within a week. I charge $100 for this service.

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Noted. Cost of this has already been factored in the pricing and we bumped our photography packages by $100 to more than cover the cost of the drives.

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ahoustondj said:

OK, the OP has made up his mind what he wants to do and I wish him luck. An idea shared can bring out many responses, some good, some bad. Things that one does not see from their viewpoint, can suddenly make sense once divulged by another. I just have one simple question to ask. How many people are going to see that Thumb Drive other than the one user? That is my point!

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Yes, we've been mulling this over for the past few months and didn't enter into this lightly.

My question is "how many people are going to see that CD/DVD?"

Sometimes we need to alter the way we do things and offer our clients a new/different option rather than stay with the same old same old.

We started thinking about this after a few clients this year asked us if we could provide the images on a thumb drive (which they provided or paid for). For us, Thumb drives will be easier and faster to work with. More expensive, yes but we've already covered the cost (by at least 5x's the amount) with our increase in prices.

steve149 said:

I think it's a great idea ... lord knows how many cd/dvds I throw away because I messed up the burn or forgot something. And the long term advertising would be bonus. I looked into them for general purpose advertising. I found 4gb ones for around $7 and 8Gb around $9.50 (quantities of 50-100). Good Luck !!

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Good point, Steve. I didn't mention the throwaways due to faulty burning or forgetting something. Excellent point.

In fact we're looking at "possibly" getting some small ones (1-4 gb) to utilize as a "swag" offering and/or for smaller photo shoots that are not weddings.

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sightsandsounds said:

Just as many people who will see the logo on top of a dvd

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Exactly. The client is not getting the thumb drive for free just as they weren't getting the discs for free. They paid for them in their fee that they paid us to shoot their event.

I forgot to mention that the client will still have the option to get their images on a DVD, but it will be an extra charge of $50.

DJ J Mac said:

Here's a thought. Ducky and I got married three years ago now, we got the dvds of pictures from our photographer and do you know how many times those dvds have ever left our office; zero. We put all the images onto our computer, if we had a digital picture frame, we'd load up a thumb drive and put it in the picture frame.

I'm not so sure this is about advertising one's business as it is being more receptive to changes in what the client's needs are.

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Very astute observation and comments, young man.

ahoustondj said:

Each time they have Guests over and pull out the CD?DVD your Business Name and Logo will be sitting right there on the Coffee Table for those guests to see and ask about you. How many Guests are going to say "Hey lemme see that Thumb Drive". Recouping the cost is not the issue, what good is it if you don't get the mileage that you are seeking? You can charge $500.00 more to put it on a Hard Drive but again, who will see it?
You are better off Framing one of their Photos and getting one of these put on the frame It will be permanent advertising for all to see. They are called Engraved Nameplates. You can order them through a vendor so you pay a Trade Price instead of Retail price for them Here are a few pics of some that I have on my Framed Artwork.
You can have the Engraving read something like this>

To Joe & Mary
Compliments Of Ball Photography

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First off, our clients get a wedding book with printed photos that the "majority" would be more than likely to show guests if asked to see their wedding photos. Normally our clients just want to dump the archived images from the DVD to the hard drive of their computer and that is what they'd show if they went that route. I'm sure there are a few that would drag out a disc and play it for said guests, but I would hazard a guess that it would be a very small minority. The discs are their hard copy/archive media and we allow actually encourage them to make copies. So there is no guarantee that they would show a guest the original disc. Since the majority of our business has been from referrals, I would say that our clients have no problem telling their friends and family who took the pictures.

The mileage that we're getting is that it is going to be easier for us to utilize the Thumb Drives than mess with the "multiple discs" that they clients now receive. Some of the larger weddings can receive up to 12 discs of images and if we can drop them on a Thumb Drive or even 2 then we've streamlined our process and we hope, more user friendly. Having the logo on the Thumb Drive is just icing on the cake and is not meant to be some big promotional gimmick. We just thought it would be a nice touch to have the Thumb Drives personalized with our business logo as many businesses now do the same, heck I've even got a nifty one from NLFX that I use all the time.

Providing a print (canvas or otherwise) is something that we've discussed over the years and have not opted to do so and I am also very aware of engraved nameplates as you've shown. Providing a print for a client is definitely not akin to the "delivery" of their digital media that was what this thread is all about.

Thanks.

Thanks Dennis..