How To Sell Personalized Photo Products to Photographers

Is your brand not yet present with its offer of personalized photo products on the market of professional and semi-professional photographers, as well as photo shooting enthusiasts? You are missing a lot!  

Forecasts for the photographic services market are promising and despite the temporary turmoil caused by the pandemic, the global photographic services sector is projected to grow from $32.92 billion in 2020 to $36.42 billion in 2021 with a compound annual growth rate of 10.6% and the prospect for the development of this market until 2025 is USD 44.07 billion with a CAGR of 5%.  

This is mainly due to the quite efficient adaptation of the photographers to the new reality and postponing the implementation of some contracts by several months, instead of resigning from them.

Therefore, let's take a closer look at the characteristics of this target group, analyze their main needs and see what options can bring your business the most profit in this area. 

Choose your PRO niche for photo products: events, commercial or enthusiasts 

Photo products dedicated to professionals do not mean a classic portfolio only. This is a great opportunity for photographers who want to expand and diversify the offer for their end customers. Besides, it is an option for photography enthusiasts who would like to create unique artwork from their photos.  

The three most profitable professional and semi-professional niches to which the services of creating personalized photo products are worth targeting are:   

• - event and occasional photographers   

- commercial photographers 

- photo-taking enthusiasts. 

Event and occasional photography include photographic support for many types of events, both private and commercial. This is a great opportunity for a photographer to offer their clients beautiful and professionally made photo products.   

One of the most important branches of this niche is wedding photography. Although many celebrations have been postponed due to the need for social distancing, research shows that 96% of couples have not terminated contracts with service providers and only postponed their plans for several months.   

Photo products for the wedding industry have been a hit for many years. Wedding photo books are a classic choice already, but the range of options is much wider and more interesting than ever before. 

Due to the desire to preserve the most beautiful memories, couples decide to create a wall decoration using their photos, whether in a frame or printed on canvas. Sometimes they choose folio boxes or photo prints on paper with a custom finish.  

Thanks to the possibility of creating photo products, event photographers can perfectly encourage their clients to upsell and purchase additional services, such as making a pre-wedding photo session or creating a personalized guest book.  

The second area is commercial photography, which is an important element of marketing strategies, especially in times when e-commerce sales are triumphant.  

This is a very lucrative field, but the competition in this industry is fierce, so every little detail counts. Thus, photographers take care of professionally designed and printed portfolios or dedicated photo products that can become their important business advantage. 

The last group, which is growing in size significantly, are photography enthusiasts who want to create physical projects from their photos and present all the details of their work in a tangible form. 

People passionate about this field usually invest in high-end equipment and spend a lot of money developing their skills on specialized courses. Therefore, it is understandable that they have higher expectations for printing their works. 

How to meet the expectations of the PRO and semi-PRO market 

At the outset, you need to be aware that professional and semi-professional photographers have different needs than individual users who only use photo product creation services occasionally, usually to create a gift for a loved one.   

For this reason, you should adapt your services, editing tools, and final products to the requirements of this particular target group.   

Professional clients usually do not use ready-made templates, and also have different expectations for products, the purchasing path, and the editor in which they create their projects. Simple editing of project settings is not enough for them, and nuances like the dark theme of the tool they work in, influence their overall user experience.  

As a PRO service provider, you must give your customer a product with the same quality and consistency standards that they adhere to when taking photos.  

What is more, you will gain double if you prove that your brand understands this particular audience and offers something extraordinary, prepared especially for professionals. 

At Printbox, we decided to meet these needs and created a PRO Editor, dedicated specifically to work for this target market. Its unique functionality such as intelligent Autocreation, which significantly reduces product development time, whether the global settings of the project, were selected to the requirements of more advanced users.  

Ready to enter the PRO market? 

The professional photo market is smaller and more specific than the consumer market but it’s a game worth the candle. Investing in dedicated solutions can bring significant profits, both for your company and the photographer, as offering a variety and high-quality personalized photo products and dedicated buying process will definitely have a positive impact on the final customer's decision.