Photo Books : Never Too Late for Profits
“People love that,” he remarks. “It’s the same way we treated farmers and the ag people back in the day, when customer service was much more focused, and the interaction among customers was much slower and quieter.
“Nobody takes advantage of it. (Reprints are) probably less than one half of one percent of our business. In one case, someone lost everything they had in a fire. It touches your heart, so you’re actually happy to do it.”
Why is this degree of customer service so integral for Lifecaptured.com? And why does Arleth rely on word of mouth? To get an edge.
“We’re facing people like Shutterfly, which is giving 50 percent off on a book every day,” he says.
With heavy hitters like Shutterfly and Snapfish unveiling hundreds and hundreds of templates, Lifecaptured.com has had to dig a little deeper. The firm recently contracted a designer to help develop more templates.
Other print-related industries have found photo books to be viable revenue streams. Consider Copy Control Management (CCM) Graphic Solutions, of Tampa, FL, which debuted 25 years ago as a facilities management company providing onsite printing capabilities for the legal industry. Following an ownership change that prompted a noncompete clause, the firm added digital printing to widen its scope. It began to “dabble” in photo books roughly two years ago, according to Don Cayo, CEO of CCM.
A Great Leave Behind
CCM’s photo book capabilities were, for all intents, initially used as a catalyst to showcase the quality of short-run color printing. The company used photo books as leave-behind gifts from an event it co-sponsored, and it enabled CCM to land an account with the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning to provide all digital printing services. That segued CCM’s photo book status from dabbling to viable.
