Ways to earn revenue without taking bookings

I think we can all admit that 2020 has been a rather different and interesting year hasn’t it? 

For those of us in the entertainment industry there has been a lot of changes we’ve had to adapt to with little to no insight or help. The hope is that we should see a return to some form of normality and events before you know. However the question remains, what do you do to make money in the mean time? While some people have other businesses or jobs to fall back on, what if you don’t or you count on the income you had coming in to make ends meet and pay for your equipment? Well here are some of the best ideas we’ve seen so far whenit comes to offering your past and future clients some new products and services.

Virtual Events

If you haven’t been living under a rock (thought I’m sure many of us wish we were instead), then you’ve heard of all these virtual events going on and most likely even Virtual Photo Booths. While it’s up to the host to ensure that the virtual event gets the pull that they hoped, like with face-to-face events, there are several things you can sell to them to gather more interest and to help them engage the audience:

Virtual Photo Booths

Now this is the big one that most people in the industry have talked about. It’s what a lot of the software companies did to pivot in these times and create something to still sell. Some of these solutions are simple and work great to text a picture in and get an image back with a branded boarder, just like if they text a photo booth session to their own phone. Others take it even further and allow Gifs and boomerangs with virtual background removal and digital props, just as if you were in a photo booth!

So how does this help you? Well you sell it to the event host as a way to fully engage their audience as if they were still live at the event! The best part for the host is that it’s a branded photo that can instantly be shared and helps with their brand recognition and gets their names out there. They can increase engagement by offering a prize for the funniest photo, for example. But that’s just the start of what you can offer them. What about using the survey questions to get feedback, get living polling, etc.  Make it fun and engaging and sell them on that. Show them what you can offer and that it’s more than just a photo they could take on their phone.

Live Mosaics

This is another great option to go with those virtual events. No one ever said that you had to print out the mosaics that are created by the software, right? What if you could show them virtually and their guests watch them update live as they try and guess what the Mosaic will show when complete? In fact why not make that a contest as well! They can take a photo and guess where it’ll go, or what it’ll show.

Virtual Streaming and Testimonial Assistance

This one is a little more advanced, and requires knowledge of video, lighting, and streaming software. A lot of people already have the camera and lighting equipment, however you can offer some very high quality digital streaming compared to most peoples webcams on their computers. This could be great for micro-weddings, funerals, and interviews. But remember, as this is a much more advanced, and technologically tricky field, don’t undercut your costs on this. It might even be easier to ask a videographer you’ve worked with if they would like to partner up and borrow your equipment to do this, increasing revenue for both of you!

Virtual Santa

So this is something that is just so cool to me! I know the gang at the Mirror Booth Club have been working on this for a while, along with their marketing for it, but it looks like the days of taking photos with Santa are unlikely to take place this year….or are they?! They have an awesome program to still get your photo with Santa using some clever AR like options! Best part is it's included in their amazing membership plans!

It doesn't stop there...

So these are some great ideas for your events in the future right? But they're not the only options that you have. We should all have a good list of past clients we’ve done events for. They’re all missing the fun that took place at your event and probably haven’t even thought about all the great photos you captured for them, so let's look at some awesome ways you could market to them:

• Post-Event Printed Mosaic 
  So you have some amazing photos from your booth that you know your past clients or wedding couples will just love to look at and reminice over. Why not create a mosaic for them that you can print, mount, and have sent to them? It’s a great way to offer them an “anniversary” gift idea (remember the 1st anniversary is the paper anniversary - you're welcome) You can offer any size for this too. I’ve seen people starting with an 8x10 all the way up to a 20x30.  A nice idea is to use a couple's favourite wedding photo as they're likely to want to display this around their house and show off to family and friends. If they'd rather not use the photo booth photos, then what about partnering with local photographers to get wedding or event photos done that way? Oh, remember that live mosaic you did for the virtual even above? Well don’t forget to offer to print it for them as well!
   
• Customized Holiday Cards 
  This one will take a little more work, but how unique would it be to offer your past clients the option to get the photo booth images printed on postcard template and send their guest a holiday card with their image on it? If you’ve got the Primera Ip60 printer you can do this with their postcard media right from your office without the need send it out.
  
   
• Printed Guest Books/Scrapbooks 
  I love the idea of a printed book. We’re so used to looking at digital pictures, and images on our phone, however there is just something about holding a physical book of images and flicking through them page by page. Find a nice high end company to print a book of all the images with either their software, or professional album software to create an amazing layout. This is another one of those great anniversary or holiday gift ideas that they can cherish for years! If you'd like a digital scrapbook, I'd recommend looking at Capture Book.

Explore Other Ventures

This might be the hardest one for some people. Virtual events are going to be a thing for a little while, and while we start to see some normality with face-to-face events coming back slowly, there are tons of other great ventures out there.

Lawn cards are a big hit right now and are a great way to social distance whilst celebrating! As you can see there is no shortage of ways to continue to pivot and grow even during these tough and different times. The best part is that a lot of these can still be incorporated when face-to-face events are large and in charge again, as I think we’ll see a lot of people really enjoying the virtual aspect of watching, learning and interacting while still wearing their PJ’s!