PhotoDay 2.0 launched in September 2019 giving its users an expanded online sales platform that can be used for nearly any type of photography job!
WHAT’S NEW WITH PHOTODAY 2.0?
Expanded Gallery Access
We are introducing three gallery access types making it possible for you to use PhotoDay with all of your customers on a wide range of jobs, simply by varying the gallery privacy level. (Click on each gallery type to learn more)
Private Gallery
Create a Private Gallery when you have a school job or an event where you’ll be capturing multiple people but want each person to have their own private access code. You’ll use Private Galleries with the new PhotoDay Capture mobile app, which automatically matches people data with professional photos using PhotoDay’s face recognition technology. Learn more about PhotoDay Capture.
Group Gallery
The Group Gallery is great for any job where photos of multiple people can be viewed together in a closed group. This gallery type is perfect for any group activity, event, or team where an access code is required but where all participants can see all of the photos. With Group Galleries, customers can quickly narrow down the gallery to find their photos using tags and FaceFind.
Public Gallery
The Public Gallery is our most open access option – for any jobs where you don’t want to require an access code to enter the gallery. This gallery type is great for group activities and special events like weddings and corporate gatherings. Guests can text in an opt-in code and they’ll get a link right into the gallery. As with Group Galleries, your customers can quickly find their photos using tags and FaceFind. All galleries that existed before PhotoDay 2.0 have been mapped over to the public gallery settings.
FREE Photo & Data Exports
PhotoDay now allows studios to export photos and data in 3 formats:
- .CSV – alpha-numeric data
- Service Items – photos plus alpha-numeric data
- PSPA Yearbook – photos plus alpha-numeric data
For the Service Items and PSPA Yearbook export, you’ll export a zipped file containing multiple files that can be imported into software designed for service items (ID cards, CDs, etc.) and yearbooks. You can select how the file is sorted and have the file emailed to you. This high-value, school-focused feature is in its infancy. We’re offering it for FREE right now so you can give it a try and tell us what you think.
Job Setup Tool
We know how important it is to get all of the details just right when you create a job. That’s why over the past year, we’ve watched and learned the quickest, most efficient way to set up a job for success. Now, we bring that to you with our new job creation tool.
HOW DO I USE PHOTODAY 2.0?
We’ve outlined for you the most common things you currently do in PhotoDay and show you how to do them in PhotoDay 2.0.
Create a Job
Creating a job is simpler than ever with our new step-by-step job setup tool. Here’s an overview of the steps:
- Go to the Jobs tab
- Click the Add New button
- Fill out the basic job information in the pop-up window
- Choose your gallery access type. (see below for more info).
- Set up your storefront with AdvancePay and Price Sheets (see below for more info)
- If you’re planning to use AdvancePay, you can change the job status to AdvancePay and begin to promote using flyers and other marketing resources.
- If you’re not planning to use AdvancePay, you can set up your gallery flyers and marketing materials. (see below)
- After picture day, you can upload photos and change the job status to Published.
What’s New?
- Give the new Job Setup Tool a spin – it walks you through the steps for creating each job so you don’t miss a thing!
- Check out the new Sales column and Category column on the Jobs page. These columns will give you a quick glance at $$ sales and job category (Dance School, Youth Sports, etc.) for each job.
Select Gallery Access
With PhotoDay 2.0, we are introducing three gallery access types making it possible for you to use PhotoDay with all of your customers on a wide range of job types, simply by varying the gallery privacy level.
- Private Galleries are great for schools, events, and other jobs where gallery access is restricted to the individual. Each person photographed gets their own unique access code.
- Group Galleries are ideal for teams and group activities like youth sports, dance schools, preschools, etc. – any time photos of multiple people can be viewed as part of closed group. Everyone in the group uses the same access code to view all of the photos, and each customer can quickly find their photos using customized tags and FaceFind.
- Public Galleries are perfect for group activities and special events like weddings and corporate gatherings. Everyone in the group can text in an opt-in code to get a quick link to the gallery. No access code is required. Customers can find their photos using customized tags and FaceFind.
What’s New?
- Every job now has its very own dashboard! This is your home base for job setup, photo uploads, people data, and insights tracking.
- Any sports and events galleries in our system before PhotoDay 2.0 are already mapped over to the public gallery access type in PhotoDay 2.0. Your customers will still have the same amazing shopping experience!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once the access type has been saved, it cannot be changed. When you re-enter this section, you will see the 2 other access types disabled. If for some reason you choose the wrong gallery type, you’ll need to delete the job and start over by creating a new job with the correct gallery type. This is a precaution that ensures a consistent customer experience.
Options for the access type selected, however, can still be updated. If the gallery has been published and you decide to change the gallery link and access/opt-in code options, any previous customer who opted in or tries using the old code will NO LONGER have access to the gallery UNLESS the customer had added the gallery while they were logged in to their PhotoDay account.
Set Up a Storefront
Setting up your storefront is now a more visual, step-by-step experience.
What’s New?
- With the new Preview Storefront, you can toggle on/off the ability for customers to preview products, packages, and prices for AdvancePay galleries.
- Activities are now called Product Themes. During setup, you’ll see icons for the available themes based on the lab you’ve selected for the job.
Upload Photos & People Data
Uploading photos to the job’s gallery is still a quick and easy drag & drop, but now you can upload more than just photos!
- For private galleries, you have to add people data (info about each person) to the gallery. You can upload a CSV file containing a whole list of people data, or you can add individual people one at a time. You’ll match the people data to your professional photos by taking a reference photo using the PhotoDay Capture App. Learn more about PhotoDay Capture
- For group and public galleries, uploading works the same as always. File folder names will still automatically become the gallery tags.
Marketing the Gallery
The key to online sales is great MARKETING – connecting with your customers early and often! Once you make that initial connection, the PhotoDay SMS text outreach kicks in, driving customers into the gallery to view your awesome photos and purchase great-looking products. With PhotoDay 2.0, we’ve made some pretty slick updates to the flyers that reflect the new gallery access types while providing templates for AdvancePay galleries, galleries with and without offers, and post picture day galleries. We think you’re gonna love it!
In each job dashboard, you’ll see a tab at the top labeled Marketing. This is where you’ll go to create job flyers. Follow the step-by-step flyer creation tool and you’ll have great-looking flyers to help you connect people with photos and products!
Flyers for Private Galleries
With Private Galleries, you’ll be creating individual flyers for each person photographed – each with its own unique access code that our system automatically generates.
- In the Flyers section, click the Add New button
- You’ll be prompted to choose if you want to print flyers for Everyone (every person on your people list), a Group (based on people data), or a single Individual.
- Then, you’ll design your flyer as you’d like. Each flyer will include one photo of each person and that person’s unique access code.
- You can email these flyers to the organization’s contact as a PDF or print them out for distribution.
What’s New?
- With the new Preview Storefront, you can toggle on/off the ability for customers to preview products, packages, and prices for AdvancePay galleries.
- Each Private Gallery flyer will contain a professional photo of the individual person along with that person’s unique access code.
For Group & Public Galleries
Creating flyers for group and public galleries follows a similar same process. It’s important to note that Public Gallery flyers will contain an opt-in code and the Group Gallery flyers will contain an access code. You’ll simply design your flyer and then email it out to your client, copy the flyer link, or download the PDF – for distribution to all picture day participants.
Are You Ready?
PhotoDay 2.0 is waiting for you in your Studio Panel right NOW! Login and have a look around. If you’ve got something you want to share about PhotoDay 2.0, here’s a little guide to where you should turn:
- TELL US IT’S AWESOME – Go to our Facebook Users Group to share your excitement.
- QUESTIONS? SUGGESTIONS? – Chat with us in the little blue bubble in the lower righthand corner of your studio panel or here.
