A win-win promotion.. your input wanted

I am a member of our local LIONS service club. I am considering a promotion to raise money for the club and myself. I would like your thoughts on this idea.

Our town has a very busy, nice, farmers market that draws between 2 to 4k people a weekend. The Lions have a booth there every week. What I am thinking of doing on one or more weekends is to setup a nice display of my portraits and to raffle off a studio portrait session and a 16x20 print to the winner. The club will get the proceeds from the raffle and cover any out of pocket expense on my part.

Each person who buys a raffle ticket will also get a coupon for a free or discounted studio setting. This must be claimed by a certain date.

I like this idea because..

1 - I give back to the community and help a worthy cause.

2 - Great exposure of my work to people in our county

3 - Potental to make money for me

4 - Only really investing my time, no money

I should also add that my wife is a restoration artist and makes very nice montages from families old photos and my consider a promation of her work.

As I said your input is wanted.

It's not a terrible idea but my suspicion is that you'll have difficulty getting continued participation. Farmer's markets and similar tend to draw the same people as repeat customers, so it might work well at first but become completely passed over in a relatively short amount of time.

I will try again for your input... Good idea, waste of time or can you offer a better idea.

thanks inadvance - Bob

I am always first in line for charity promotions. Whether for ASPCA, local food banks or whatever. I have found they are attended by the 'upper eschelon' of society and I get the word out about my Gallery and my website The cost is only in materials and some of my time. Go for it! Brent

To the two people who took the time to comment - THANK YOU.

I must say I am disappointed that I have not had more interst in this post. I expected PRO's to have more of an interest in ideas on how to promote business.

What would a raffle ticket cost? $1? That's a cheap price to give a free portait session for. The thing is people at a farmer's market and there to buy food, not pictures. What you have to ask is would there be enough interest for half the raffle take to cover your costs of a free portrait session with those free prints? Might be doubtful.

Bob M Wood said:

Bob M Wood wrote:
I expected PRO's to have more of an interest in ideas on how to promote business.

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Ah, but pros have work to do



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Always give the client a vertical-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Good luck to you. I am Lions also and thought about a calendar fund raiser for our club at some point, using my photos. I was planning to donate the images for the calendar though.

Lion Dan Bernskoetter, PCC

Bob M Wood said:

Bob M Wood wrote:

I am a member of our local LIONS service club. I am considering a promotion to raise money for the club and myself. I would like your thoughts on this idea.

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Charity is a good thing. The trick is figuring out how to leverage your skills to provide the most help.

Bob M Wood said:

Our town has a very busy, nice, farmers market that draws between 2 to 4k people a weekend. The Lions have a booth there every week. What I am thinking of doing on one or more weekends is to setup a nice display of my portraits and to raffle off a studio portrait session and a 16x20 print to the winner. The club will get the proceeds from the raffle and cover any out of pocket expense on my part.

Each person who buys a raffle ticket will also get a coupon for a free or discounted studio setting. This must be claimed by a certain date.

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Another option would be to simply donate the proceeds from one portrait session per week to the Lions. This should be your baseline. The farmer's market approach should be avoided unless it offers advantages over a simple donation.

Bob M Wood said:

I like this idea because..

1 - I give back to the community and help a worthy cause.

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Simply donating the proceeds from a portrait session would also help the worth cause.

Bob M Wood said:

2 - Great exposure of my work to people in our county

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This is where it gets interesting. You are getting exposure, but is it helpful exposure. The message you may be sending is that your work is at the level of a local crafts show. A low price for raffle tickets suggests that your work is low price, and hence low quality. Discounted coupons with the ticket also suggest low price.

I suspect that the exposure you get will not help your business.

Bob M Wood said:

3 - Potental to make money for me

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I suspect this scheme will have a negative impact on your business by positioning you lower in the market.

Bob M Wood said:

4 - Only really investing my time, no money

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Yes, but the same could be said about donating the proceeds from a session.

Bob M Wood said:

I should also add that my wife is a restoration artist and makes very nice montages from families old photos and my consider a promation of her work.

As I said your input is wanted.

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By the way, none of the above is a commentary on the actual quality of your work. I have not seen your work. I am only suggesting that your marketing idea will not help the public's perception of your work. Public perception is based more on marketing than the actual quality of the work.







Here's my suggestion:




Forget the raffle.

Put up samples of your best work at the

Sell "Lions club supporter bucks". For $10 someone can buy a $20 coupon for your service. For $20, they get a $40 coupon, and for $50 they get a $100 coupon. Split the proceeds from the coupons 50/50 with the Lion's club. Make sure the coupons expire 90 days after the sale. Limit one coupon per customer.

This positions you as a supporter of the the Lions, not as a discount merchant.

You are still selling things at "full price", you are merely accepting "lions bucks" for some of the payment.

Your bookkeeping with the Lions club is easier. For every dollar of lions buck sold, they get 50¢. No need to give them an accounting of your out-of-pocket expenses.

You make money. Worst case, you make half your normal rate. In reality, the lions bucks will likely only cover a portion of the sale, and many will expire before use.

You make money, the Lions make money, and you get exposure as a quality, full price photographer that supports charity.

Bob M Wood said:

Bob M Wood wrote:

To the two people who took the time to comment - THANK YOU.

I must say I am disappointed that I have not had more interst in this post. I expected PRO's to have more of an interest in ideas on how to promote business.

Click to expand...

It is not disinterest. I will not speak for others but I have no frame of reference from which to contribute or offer an opinion on this kind of work/ business model so I do not.