Photo Booth Marketing Ideas: Family Reunions

June 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Opportunity

Renting a photo both is a great idea for any occasion, now to convince your customers of the same. Every year, tens of millions of people make the trek to the popular but sometimes dreaded family reunion. Potluck BBQs at the lake or ocean are a great choice.

Some people however like to go all out. Families often travel to popular all-inclusive spots like Vegas or even tropical getaways like Hawaii or the Keys while others take advantage of the many rental houses in the Carolinas, California, Maine and Vermont. With 5 bedrooms or more these rental homes are amazing places for special family gatherings. Lush accommodations with beautiful vistas for group activities are the hallmark of a successful family reunion.

Wherever the destination, advertising your rental photo booth with partnered businesses is just what you need to boost your bottom line!

Partners                        

A little bit of legwork on your part goes a long way. Get online and start looking at the resorts near you. There are summer homes, lodges or camps on every major lake and pond in every state. Do not forget about the ocean-side spots too. Keywords to search are “family reunion resorts in (your state)” or “family reunion on (lake, pond, ocean, etc.)”. Make note of the phone number and owner. Call them and start working your magic!

Remember to focus on how your business complements theirs. Feel out the person on the other end of the line. Ask them about their vision and really engage them in a deep conversation about the history of their business or property, the area, and their connection to it. Once you have made a great impression through a heartfelt conversation get ready to bring that box of pamphlets or flyers on over. Be sure to dress appropriately. Remember that a strong first impression from the conversation must be followed up by attire that matches your business-savvy voice on the phone.

Flyers

You must have quality advertising for your business. Some of the best places to go are:

 Here you can experiment with virtually any design or upload your own. Remember that a well-designed marketing/advertising flyer should make reference to the location. Use blue skies, green lawns or sparkling waters as part of a background as necessary. Use scenes of families with children playing with your photo booth props, ladies in sun dresses, ruggedly handsome men in polo tees, grandparents beaming over the generations of family gathered together. This is a family reunion where your photo booth will be a centerpiece. It is an opportunity for you to exercise your inner creativity.

 If you would rather someone else generate your flyers, you can do that too. You can try companies at:

Remember that the family reunion business is a seasonal market so have your material ready by the end of March to generate interest from the resort owners. Invite them to an open house where you showcase your booth or leave them with some photos from one of your last gigs. Above all, have fun and make lifelong connections and friends.

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A New Twist on Wedding Guest Books – The Interactive Photo Wedding Guest Book

June 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Interactive Photo Wedding Guest Book

Photo booth owners, it is time to help your clients update the tradition of their wedding guest books. Weddings should be special in every way. After all, everyone they love will be present to see them officially paired with the man/woman of their dreams. This is a new chapter in their life and they have worked hard to make it all happen.

They spent months of time consulting with the event coordinator, baker, caterer, artist, dress/tux maker, location, family, friends and many more on a hundred big and small details. However, when their guests arrive, the first thing they will see is the wedding guest book.

It may look okay with soft cream colors and a cute little bow. But this is where tradition becomes outdated and a revamp is needed. People sign their names on neat little lines as if they are about to take a test. Is that really the best we can do after all the effort put into this day?

People want to be involved because they carry these memories for the rest of their lives. Help your clients to spice things up so they can look back on their wedding day with a book full of personalized memories. Offer to help them kick it up a notch and start with an interactive wedding photo guest book!

What Makes It So Special

This is no ordinary guest book sign in. This is a custom made book, limited only by their imagination. Choose a cover motif, page designs, line spacing, number of pages, etc. This will be your book forever.

The book is a printed book of personal pictures from the engaged couple and their lives that they will supply to a printer. Once they have the book the day of the wedding is where you can really make it special.  This book is meant to capture your guest’s pictures straight out of the photo booth, not just simply capture their signatures. 

Below we detail how to go about creating the book.  You need to let your clients know they will need to leave about a month to plan ahead and create the book.

 

How To

 The first step is to take at least 10 cute photos of the bride and groom to be.  A mix and match of new photos and past photos make for an endearing book. 

Once the photos are in digital format, the book can be ordered (about 2 weeks) and then all you need is a pair of scissors and a glues stick. On the big day, simply instruct those that sign in to step into the photo booth and snap some shots. Once they have the shots, they can clip and glue their favorite shot to the page and then sign their name and write a special message. 

Your clients can fit as many signatures and comments on each page as the books are large.  Making an example page to show guests what to do is always a good start. You can make a book up yourself to show your clients how it looks when it’s done. 

Make sure to bring many colors of sharpies to have as a backup for your wedding client for their guests to sign with so people can differentiate their comments and make it colorful incase a pen gets lost.

The personal messages with their pictures, perhaps after they have had a few adult beverages, will be honest, emotional tributes to the relationships you have built over the years.

Setup for Day of the Wedding – Instructions for Bride and Groom

When guests arrive at your wedding, a groomsman and maid of honor will greet them. They will direct couples and groups to your AAA PhotoBooth set up near the entry. Guests take a couple of shots and choose their favorite picture to add to your wedding photo guest book. (Make sure to provide the scissors and glue sticks so they can trim the edges off and add their picture with a personalized message!)

 This is so much more fun and a great way to get guests involved from the beginning. Your clients will always be able to see exactly what everyone wore and how they did their hair which could be really funny in a few decades! Remember the 70s? No trying to dig up memories of what people wore or how they had their hair done. You get the real feeling as if it were yesterday!    

Best Bets on Services to Create Your Book

Go to www.mixbook.com to make your own guest book! Create your free account and simply follow the easy step-by-step instructions to create the most beautiful guest book you can dream up! You should do this no later than two weeks before the wedding. There are also other websites where you can make a wedding photo guest book such as:

•           www.flickr.com

•           www.snapfish.com

•           www.winkflash.com

•           www.photobox.com

•           www.shutterfly.com

 

 

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5 Creative Key-Phrases For Your Photo Booth Rental Business And How To Market Them

June 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Our 5 picks for niche keywords are:

• Best wedding photographers – 12,100 local monthly searches
• Wedding photography prices 12,100 local monthly searches
• Cheap Wedding Rentals – 1600 local monthly searches
• Bat Mitzvah Photos – 1,300 local monthly searches
• Quinceanera Rentals – 480 local monthly searches

Keyword “Best Wedding Photographers”

For “best wedding photographers” this key-phrase is great for a couple of reasons. 12,000 monthly searches is nothing to sneeze at and secondly, people would not normally think of a photo booth instead of a wedding photographer, so you will have less article content in direct competition with yours. Your article will pose the argument of why a photo booth can sometimes make a superior wedding photographer or at least be a wonderful addition.

You are reaching across niches with this technique and offering a fresh perspective on the subject which will make it more likely to be shared on social networks and picked up by article directories which send more traffic your way.

Keyword “Wedding photography prices”

“Wedding Photography prices” is a bit similar but not as much of a stretch. This is still a good key-phrase because you are again introducing your photo booth as a photographer replacement option and can write about how your prices compare with photographers and the benefits of a booth over a photographer. The novelty of the idea is sure to get a few people on the phone with you quickly.

Keyword “Cheap Wedding Rentals”

Normally going after a keyword that includes “cheap” would be inadvisable for a higher priced industry but because we are talking weddings, which are by their nature more expensive, “cheap” is a relative term. There are only 1,600 local monthly searches so it’s a bit of a shot in the dark but the word rentals gives the clue that they are looking to purchase and have some ambiguity about what might be an inexpensive rental for a wedding they haven’t thought of yet.

Keyword “Bat Mitzvah Photos”

1,300 local searches is light but not if you grab the majority of the interest and rank high in the results. This is a pretty niche subject on its own and it’s doubtful that many organic articles have been written for it. A quick search on Google reveals the top results being photographer websites so you are in the right place. Try an article using the keyword “best”, “how to” or “top 5 ways” when thinking of the title and then watch your Google analytics to see how well the articles is doing.

Keyword “Quinceanera Rentals”

Most would not bother targeting something with under 500 local monthly searches but for small businesses that understand this market it can drive some traffic fairly quickly. If you don’t know what Quinceanera means than it is likely you are not Latin. The other word for this is Sweet 16 and celebrates a girl becoming a woman in many Latin traditions.

It is celebrated much in the way a wedding is and is just as elaborate. If you are unaware of this market but find you have a large Hispanic or Latin community nearby, this may be a great new client to market to.

Filed Under: How to, marketing your booth, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , , ,

Facebook, Photo Booths and Proms

May 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SOCIAL EVENTS

Facebook is a great way to both promote an event and share with friends after an event is over. By choosing to use a photo booth at a school prom, students can help collect memories for a lifetime and then upload pictures, and video clips (from video capable booths like ours) to Facebook to share with their friends and family.

This makes the event more interesting and tons of fun. Everyone attending the prom will have an opportunity to sit in the photo booth and get their photos for free. This is especially good at proms where students are often strapped for cash.

Even better for the students, they can capture serious moments with thier best friends or act silly and pose in groups. Masquerade props would be a great idea to use in a prom setting.

FUN CHOICES

Imagine all the fun and excitement you could generate by having a time capsule at the prom. By having a photo booth at the prom you’re getting precious memories on a film strip. If students run through the booth twice they can keep their favorite strip to take home and place one in a time capsule!

You can also use all the pictures from the night to help fill the class yearbooks with interesting and entertaining pictures. Just imagine all the endless possibilities these strips would make in a yearbook “remember when?”

CONNECTING WITH DECISION MAKERS

Just like any form of government the student council and class president will make all the important decisions (with the schools approval). The first thing students need to do is run the idea by the student council and explain the facts. Help the parents understand the process and create instructional literature they can give to students to help get you hired for their prom. If you help them understand the benefit of having a booth and how to go about getting it approved, why would they not hire you?

The reason to go for prom instead of a school dance is that they normally have a larger budget and more importance is spent on entertainment. A prom will be much more likely to have the budget to afford a photo booth rental than a school dance.

USE FACEBOOK TO SPREAD THE WORD

So how do you use a Facebook ad to promote this idea? Consider placing a regional ad in Facebook that targets female, teens 16 – 18 for your given area. It’s easy to see how many audience members your ad will reach and from there you can determine if it is worth it for you to run the ad.

Next, hire a graphic designer to make a cute ad (spend no more than $50 on this) and give your ad a test run!

 

TALK TO YOUR PEERS

You can also mention your idea for props or get ideas from other students. Props could be made in art class for the event to make it even more special.

Just imagine how cool it would be to have something so fun and exciting at the prom! All the ridiculous moments caught on film strips to cherish forever.

There will be a line of people waiting for their turn and quite possibly the highlight of the evening. Facebook will help spread the word about the photo booth being at the prom.

 

OUR EXPERIENCE FITS YOUR BUSINESS

AAAPhotoBooth.com is glad to assist you with tips, tricks and ideas. Help make proms special by using these tips to get hired in prom season and above all, remember to have fun!

 

 

 

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Learn How To Increase Your Photo Booth Business By Attracting Bar Mitzvah Clients

May 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

UNDERSTANDING THE TRADITION

The Jewish community celebrates what is known as the Bar Mitzvah. In Hebrew “Bar” means boy and “Mitzvah” means commandment. This rite-of-passage into adulthood traces back thousands of years.

This new phase in life begins at age 13 for boys and 12 for girls. This milestone signifies adulthood and bestows all the rights and responsibilities expected by tradition. This custom is based upon sacred religious beliefs and the age selected for both sexes signifies the typical age that puberty begins.

Until children reach their Bar Mitzvah age, their parents are held responsible for their actions. Once the child goes through their Bar or Bat Mitzvah, the parent is no longer held responsible for the child. This rite is important because the Jewish community requires strict adherence to all traditions and religious beliefs for adults.

UNDERSTANDING THE CELEBRATION

This enormously important event is celebrated with a feast and gifts. It includes all family members, friends and the entire community! In addition to the celebration, the boy or girl is required to make a speech and read from the Torah.

The boy or girl helps lead the event and has their Rabbi close by for support. The Rabbi honors the new adult with a certificate for this coming of age. According to scared belief, adults that strictly follow tradition will be rewarded for their efforts in the next life.

The Jewish people believe the average life span is 70 years. When a person reaches 83 they are considered to have fulfilled their adult responsibilities and obligations. They are then allowed to turn back the clock to the tender age of 13.

WINNING NEW CLIENTS

How do you win clients in the Jewish community for your photo booth business? Understand their traditions and values.

If you are not plugged-in to this you are losing out on the Bar Mitzvah market. These events often surpass the most lavish weddings!

Remember, theirs is a sacred tradition. Give them a way to capture their memories for a lifetime of remembrances with your photo booth. By offering a truly special experience, you will gain lifelong customers… and friends!

AAA Photo booth is here to help you understand all the possibilities of how to generate an income with one of our photo booth packages. The rest is up to you.

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How An Event Planner Can Help You Grow Your Photo Booth Business

May 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

Business to Business Networking

Finding an event planner to partner with can cut down on hours of phone calls in cold calling and hundreds of dollars in advertising. Your booth likely sells itself, making the resources to generate a positive income stream all you need. Having a dedicated event planner at your service is literally money in the bank.

What is event planning you ask? There are various types of event planners right in your own back yard. They coordinate large social gatherings such as weddings, concerts, ceremonies, sports competitions and business conventions. Usually they are responsible for overseeing the whole process of the event including parking, transportation, reservations, and catering services. Event planners also obtain all the local permits needed for the event.

Understand Business Connections

Catering, baking, and floral services are valuable sources of information. Why? They often work for or with event planners and can give you the right contact information rather quickly. Forging a referral partnership with them is not a bad idea either.

Making Positive Contact

When first contacting a potential partner, it’s best to try and identify the person who can approve the partnership and learn the way they prefer to be contacted. It is far more likely that you will find success if you understand their preferred mode of communication.

Try and forge a relationship with a busy event planner and stay loyal to them. Don’t go around town asking every even planner to sign up with you. Remain loyal to them and provide their customers with outstanding service. Creating one powerful alliance in the event planning industry can take you far.

Set Up A Light Business Meeting

First impressions are everything in today’s world and having a face to face meeting with your potential partner is key to securing a good partnership. Once you get the owner or decision maker on the phone, have your pitch ready and begin with talking about the benefits they will receive by partnering with you.

Keep it simple and ask for a meeting. Offering to buy them lunch often works wonders.
Example: “Hi, my name is John Smith, I live here in (your town) and I’m the owner of a photo booth business. Have you ever hired a photo booth for one of your events?…”

“Great. Well, I know I can offer your clients valuable keepsakes for their event and people always crowd around these booths, so I was wondering if you had time to meet with me over lunch to discuss becoming referral partners. We can take a look at what your clients need and see if we are a good match. Lunch is on me, so what time works for you?”

Let them decide where the meeting is and when. Be ready and have a place in mind, in case they prefer you choose. A casual restaurant or a coffee shop is a great meeting place. It is a good idea to make sure you know most spots in the area too. If you are in a big city or go at a busy time, you may have to wait in line for others to finish eating and you don’t want this to happen if you can avoid it.

Offer them a cut rate if they hire you exclusively. This will strengthen the value of your proposal and build brand loyalty. Remember to stay loyal to them too. If you are asking them to only use you, they should be able to expect you to do the same.

 

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How Same Sex Marriage Laws Effect Your Photo Booth Business

April 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

THE OPPORTUNITY

Same sex marriage laws are becoming more common these days as activists for equal rights are making greater progress. Politicians are saying the number of universal marriage laws are going to surpass the more numerous women’s pro-choice health laws.

It wasn’t until 2004 that same sex couples could get married anywhere in the United States. Today same sex marriage laws exist in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and our nation’s capital is likely next with the state of Maryland.

 

MOVEMENT ORIGIN

The state of California started the movement, but opponents have fought the marriage equality laws through the ballot. However, over the last few years more than 18,000 marriages took place before Proposition 8 temporarily halted same sex marriages again.

In the United States, 29 states have passed laws approved by voters to prematurely block these laws from ever becoming part of their state’s constitution. Many people still believe in the concepts of marriage as one woman and one man.

 

NEW CUSTOMERS

So what can this do for you? If you live in one of these states and own a photo booth rental business or are thinking of getting into the photo booth industry, this group of untapped customers can jumpstart your business with a new niche to cater to.

Remember, there are some people in the photo booth business that will overlook the opportunity or feel uncomfortable renting a booth out to a same sex couple getting married. This is where unbiased business owners have a have a huge advantage!

 

NETWORKING

Get the word out about your photo booth business amongst the gay and lesbian community. News travels fast in a close knit community and your photo booth business will be appreciated.

One way to do this is to research local gay rights activists and introduce yourself. Be the first to offer them your services because some people in this world still judge.

Get in contact with the leaders of these organizations. This is the first step in getting your services known. Once you establish your business in the same sex community, chances are your services will be more needed than you think.

A wedding is still a wedding, no matter the sexual orientation of the people getting married.
Event planners are also an excellent resource of information on how to get your photo booth introduced into the gay community.

 

SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY!

Marriage equality is on the rise because people want the American dream. The numbers of same sex marriages are a staggering business opportunity with great rewards when you get your business out in front of others that are not taking advantage of this lucrative niche.

YOU will be the one they remember and recommended to others to capture the memories of their most cherished day. The important thing to remember is to not discriminate. All married couples need your photo booths!

AAA Photobooth is always looking for information that is relevant to your success. We search for new ideas to give to our customers. That’s what separates us from the rest in our line of work. We do this free of charge!

 

 

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Photo Booth Tips & Tricks – Up-Sell with Photo Sleeves

March 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

It’s easy to earn a good living providing people with memorable keepsakes, but why stop there? People need to protect their photos from scratches and keep them clean and safe, but few people think of that before the photo is in their hand. If you plan for this, though, you’ll be able to give them what they need while creating a new revenue source from marketing great photo sleeves.

 Many companies offer photo sleeves for photo booth strips in bulk for extremely low prices, generally less than .30 cents apiece with prices breaks the more you order.

 

Here are a few good sources to get you started:

 

 

Even with shipping costs included, there’s a great potential revenue stream here. Charging a dollar or two on-site is not overly expensive and many people would love to have one right then and there.  Make sure to have a few photo strips inside these protective sleeves on display next to the photo booth so that people know what they are and that they’re available.

 

Sell in bulk to the host of the event

 If you don’t want to stand there selling each one to every customer one at a time, then consider selling the sleeves in bulk to the person running the event. Offer a 200-pack for $150 or larger discount and everyone wins. 

 Everyone can make a profit along the way this way and it’s a great way to unload extra inventory when you are looking at years end.

 Upselling photo strip sleeves is a great way to get even more profit out of your AAA Photo Booths. It’s easy, cheap, and practically guaranteed to work. What’s not to like about that?

 

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How To Turn A Regular Wedding Guest Book Into An Exciting Photo Keepsake

March 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

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Wedding guest bookTips for Brides – Make it special

 

Wedding guest books are an age-old tradition, but in reality, they capture little of the feeling of that special day. Sure, you might break yours open ten years later to settle a debate over whether or not Uncle Bob actually attended… but who’s going to look at a bunch of signatures for the pleasure of it?

 

Wouldn’t it be more exciting to open your guest book and see everyone dressed in their best and grinning for the camera? It sounds difficult at first—who has the time to photograph everyone as they come in to sign their names on a wedding day?  The answer is fun and simple.  A wedding photo booth and a glue stick will practically do it for you!

 

How to

 Just have your wedding photo booth set up at the entrance, right next to the guest book.  When guests begin to arrive, they will be able to snap a strip of photos of themselves and have it in their hands in a matter of seconds, quickly adding it to the book with a bit of glue. All they need to do after that is add a personal note and there you have it!

 

Getting this to happen naturally is another story.  First, before the guest arrive, have your maid of honor take the first photos and place the strip in the book.  This can be done easily and cheaply with a few glue sticks (just make sure to provide more than one in case any go dry or roll away on the floor). Once the first strip is secured, have them write in a personal note.  This will set the precedent and anyone who goes to sign the book will feel like doing the same.  

 

You’ll save others time and confusion by providing an example first. If you’re having the guests glue the photos in place, make sure that there are outlines on each page that show where the photos go. Finally, make sure there’s still room for those signatures and special wishes!  You can do this by choosing the right guest book. You may also be able to find special books with laminate photograph casings like photo albums, which will offer longer-lasting protection for the photos.

 

Just imagine

With signatures, personal remarks, and a strip of photos, each person’s entry will be a sincere and loving addition to the book and it will surely capture the true life and excitement of the day. Why settle for an old-fashioned wedding guest book when a photo booth can make it so much more?  By renting a wedding photo booth you can easily create a special keepsake that generates good feelings for years to come.

 

 

Tips for Photo Booth Professionals

If you’re a photo booth entrepreneur, you can add value to your service by creating a template book to demonstrate the idea to the couple. It’s always a hit and not everyone thinks of it.  Not only could you offer the idea, but you could go one step further and carry extra glue sticks, pens and guest books in case disaster strikes.  What if someone forgets the book or loses the glue sticks?  Having a backup ready for them could mean saving the day.

 

Want to see more AAA Photo Booth tips and tricks for entrepreneurs? See our other blog entries or sign up for our newsletter. 

 

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