I wanted to talk about why I recently switched my gallery delivery software Pixieset to PicTime.

The Main Reason for the Switch:

I’ve been using Pixieset for years. I love Pixieset, it was great, very easy to use. Clients love it, easy to download things, easy to set up a store.

Everything was going great its just that I had heard from other photographers that when they switched to Pic-Time they were getting a lot more sales, and making a lot more money from the print store because of the automations feature. So basically automations are the string of emails and like campaigns that the gallery delivery system Pic-time automatically will send to your clients when you activate them. So it’s basically free email marketing.

With Pixieset, I was not getting that many print sales at all, and since moving to Pic-Time, I definitely have seen a lot more print sales already!

How I Switched:

PicTime has a service called their migration service. When you sign up, you tell them through their system that you need to migrate your galleries over.

I does take them about five weeks to migrate. I had 309 galleries and the migration cost was $154.

Everything moved pretty seamlessly. Every single gallery that was on Pixie Set is now on Pic-Time. And then also when they migrate your galleries, they are also pulling the contact information from Pixieset so that when I had the new galleries, I could send out a mass email to all the clients that had downloaded photos on Pixieset.

So I didn’t have to type anyone’s email and tell them about their new gallery, Pic-Time pulled both the photos and the client’s information from Pixieset.

Pros of Switching to Pic-Time:

1. More BOOKINGS

The pro number one, which is going to, was something I was not expecting was I actually got more bookings since moving to Pic-Time.

So when I moved to pick time, I set up that automation, right, new gallery and they, with that new gallery in pick time, um, I was letting my old clients know that they could access a new gallery like this and that there was a sale, you know, on their print products for migrating to a new home. Well, that chain of emails is actually email marketing.

So it was sending these emails to my past clients. Basically, email marketing was, is reminding people that you exist, right? So I had two past clients reach out to book a new photo shoot or in a new, in a new event. I had a shoot in an event book just from the migration emails because what happened was the chain of emails that was sent to them put me front of.

In my past clients, because I wasn’t doing any email marketing from my clientele before, I don’t do really, I don’t write any email marketing emails. So just the migration service brought me a new event and they said, “oh, hey, I haven’t heard from you in a while. We’re having an event on this date. Thanks for these, thanks for moving, you know, moving our photos. Can you also come to this event?” So it definitely got me new bookings for the year. Not even just from print sales, but new actual new. For number two, which was what was hoped and expected.

2. More Print Sales

I did get more print sales from moving over.

So, I found that the last day of the sale in the migration emails is the day that people, most people actually buy stuff because it’s like their last chance. So I ended up selling a lot of prints and albums right, right away, right when I migrated.

3. Capability for clients to design their own albums inside Pic-Time

This was huge for me because I have been using Align album design with the supplier for years where I would have to send the favorite photos to Align, they would draft it. Align is not cheap. Then I would get the drafted and send it off to the print supplier. But with pick time, clients can literally design their own album and also pick time, kind of designs it for them a little bit.

Like when they go to create a design, it auto-populates. The, the flat lays the layouts, I mean, of the albums. So that was the capability that is just all together, not in pixie sets. So that was huge for me. I’m still working out the kinks on that design process with clients. Um, one thing that I found is if I design their album for them in pick time, they will actually buy it a lot.

It’s much more likely that they’ll buy it and it’s so easy and quick to do that, to design their albums. So that was huge for me.

Cons: It is more expensive.

It is kind of a con, not really, but a con is that pick time was actually more expensive. So let me show you here. So for Pixieset I was paying $30 a month and then for Pic-Time to move over and, you know, to do the same thing I was, I’m paying $50 a month.

 

 

 

So now my monthly payment is higher. Now I did make more money through Pic-Time through sales so it ends up not being more expensive, but I am paying more to be able to have those sales.

Use code ‘samia’ to try 1 free month of Pic-Time! 

You can watch the Youtube video of Why I Switched from Pixieset to Pictime here:

If you enjoyed this blog post or Youtube video, you might also enjoy my email templates for wedding photographers, you can get here:

 

as well as other freebies here on the site.

And if no one had told you lately, I believe in you and your business.