Quick Overview
What can you do when your subscription content is perfect for two very different target markets? If you focus your service on one demographic, the other won’t respond. That’s why Fotolia, a subscription stock-photo service serving the corporate and design-professional markets, launched an entirely new subscription brand, PhotoXpress.com, which sells subscriptions to small businesses and nonprofits. Business Development Manager Leo Tran gives Insider a behind-the-scenes look into this new launch, including how to simplify pricing and licensing terms for small business, homepage design that appeals to small business, as well as how to upsell bigger prospects into the parent-site’s branded service.
Company Snapshot
Parent Company: Fotolia
PhotoXpress Founded: 2009
Fotolia Worldwide Employees: ~100
PhotoXpress Team: ~20
Business Model: Subscriptions
No. of Members, Fotolia: 2.4 million
No. of Members, PhotoXpress: DND
Fotolia U.S. Headquarters: New York, NY
http://us.fotolia.com/
http://www.photoxpress.com
Target Market
Fotolia is a professional stock-image site that caters to a primary audience of professional designers who use images heavily — i.e., agencies, design firms, media companies and design departments at large corporations.
PhotoXpress was launched to tap into a different audience — professionals with lower stock-image usage such as small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), non-profits, education/religion institutions, and bloggers. The company’s strategy is to introduce these members to the stock-image purchasing world through lower-end subscription packages on PhotoXpress, and when appropriate step them up to a full Fotolia membership as their usage increases.
Content Model
Fotolia operates an online marketplace where individual designers and photographers can contribute their photographs, vector graphics and other images for licensing and re-use. Fotolia facilitates the sales to its members, and gives the image creator a cut of each download (typically $0.30-$0.40 cents).
Fotolia’s database now includes more than 12 million images and videos, and includes access to some third-party image databases such as Corbis.
PhotoXpress was launched as a subset of the primary Fotolia database, comprising 10 million images contributed by individual designers and photographers. It does not contain videos, or offer access to the third-party stock photo databases. To cater to the education, nonprofit and religious markets, the team also culled some of the more explicit images from the Fotolia database, making PhotoXpress’s collection more G-rated.
To differentiate itself from a host of other free stock-photo and graphics sites, PhotoXpress emphasizes ease-of-use, flexibility, and low-cost.
For example, to simplify the download process, all PhotoXpress images are offered at a single-size and resolution (300 dpi), which is suitable for Web or print use. (By contrast, Fotolia offers its images in multiple sizes and resolutions.)
The team also simplified the image licensing model to make PhotoXpress more of an entry-level service. All PhotoXpress images are provided with a standard, royalty-free license, which allows paying members to use those images for presentations, websites, blogs, and marketing materials like brochures or advertisements. Fotolia offers standard and extended licenses, which allow for more commercial applications, such as putting images on products for sale or manipulating or changing those images.
Searching the PhotoXpress image database is free, and each image is hosted on a paywall page to allow for indexing by search engines. But a visitor who lands on one of those pages must sign up for a subscription to download an image.
Revenue Streams
Initially, PhotoXpress was created as a lead-generation vehicle for Fotolia subscription sales, and not as a subscription brand in and of itself. So, at first it generated registered users by offering them up to 10 free image downloads a day from a 500,000-image database.
But based on market response, the team saw an opportunity to turn PhotoXpress into a subscription product. In comparison to a basic Fotolia subscription, which starts at $199/month for up to 25 image downloads per day, the new service would be significantly cheaper. “We looked at our competitors’ prices and wanted to be competitive with them, and then we also looked at the lower tier of Fotolia subscription plans,” says Tran.
The PhotoXpress team added millions of premium images from the Fotolia database, and tested several plans and packages in 2010 before settling on nine options launched in December, which are designed to meet different usage needs:
– Daily plans offer 1 download per day or 25 downloads a day for $9.99/month or $249/month.
– Monthly plans start at $37.50 for up to 25 downloads per month. Paying members also can choose 100 downloads per month for $120/month; 250 downloads for $290/month; 500 downloads for $550/month; and 1,000 downloads for $999/month.
– Anytime plans offer 5 downloads for $45, or 25 downloads for $199.
Daily and monthly subscriptions autorenew. “Anytime” plans do not autorenew, and must be used within 365 days.
Marketing Tactics
Raising awareness at launch
The team did very little outbound marketing to launch PhotoXpress, says Tran. The site did a little bit of SEO around terms related to stock-photos and free images, but primarily worked with social media. “[Social] word of mouth has definitely worked for us,” says Tran.
– Facebook page
Initially, the free image service offered extra free downloads for any member who “liked” PhotoXpress on Facebook. PhotoXpress’s Facebook page currently has a healthy 17,597 fans.
The team keeps Fans engaged by frequently posting interesting images, as well as links to third-party blogs and articles related to photography, design, and small business ownership. Plus, they used the page as a customer service tool, answering questions publicly there about searching for images, membership tiers, technical issues, etc.
– Twitter feed
The team used its Twitter feed to monitor conversations about stock-photo usage by searching for relevant keywords and phrases. In some cases, they answered Twitter users’ questions directly. But for specific member questions about the site and service they directed users to the PhotoXpress contact page so they could log any customer-service issues.
They also used Twitter to share relevant links, images and site news updates. Posting schedule varies based on the activity in the feed or as needed related to site developments and other news.
– PhotoXpress blog
The team posted short articles to its blog announcing the site launch and other developments, such as the addition of new subscription plans. They also reposted third-party blog articles about the service.
Communicating the change to paid subscriptions
When the final paid plans launched in December, the marketing department used email messages, on-site notifications, and social media to alert the existing free users and paying members of the upcoming changes to the subscription plans.
Existing paying members who had chosen a subscription plan that was being discontinued were given the option to continue as a grandfathered member under their old plan (including access to some free images), or to switch to one of the new ones. “A lot of people transitioned over because they saw value there,” says Tran. “We had added a new collection of premium-quality images to the site.”
On-site conversion tactics
SEO, driven by the millions of indexed image paywall pages, is now a major source of traffic to PhotoXpress. And the site underwent a redesign to coincide with the launch of the new subscription tiers, including:
– Homepage ad: A promo in the upper right corner highlights the most popular subscription option — 25 downloads a month for $37.50. Its blue button reads “Get it now”.
– Homepage subscription-plan table: To clarify the different options, the team posted a table of all nine plans featuring another large blue button reading “Get Subscription Freedom.” A text box to the left of the table describes subscription plan benefits, such as flexibility and low cost.
– Homepage navigation: The homepage encourages prospects to browse the image collection via Search or a clickable list of categories.
– Image search-results pages: Clicking on an image takes visitors to a page that offers details about the photo or vector graphic and has a large blue “download” button that links directly to a sign-up page.
Upgrades and cross-selling Fotolia subscriptions
The site’s “Upgrade” page helps current paying members who wish to change their plan. This page features a horizontal table of the three plan categories (Daily, Monthly, or Anytime), with a comparison grid illustrating features available with each one — e.g., access to premium content, number of downloads, access to vector files, etc. The Monthly 25 plan is highlighted with a blue tag labeled “The most flexible subscription”.
Automated systems monitor paying members’ image usage. When a member reaches the limits of their existing tier — or approaches a usage level better suited for a Fotolia professional subscription — the customer service team receives a notification that lets them reach out by phone or email to suggest a different PhotoXpress plan or recommend a Fotolia subscription.
Customer service staff are trained to answer questions with subscription-plan suggestions. For example, if a PhotoXpress user asks about getting an extended license for an image, the team directs them to Fotolia subscription options, which allow for those kinds of licenses.
“Our operations are very high touch,” says Tran. “If they’re using the site a lot, they’re most likely an agency or a larger corporation and we’re going to contact them directly. We’ll either personalize an email and talk about their specific usage, or call them up, thank them for being with us, congratulate them on their use of the service, and engage in a conversation directly.”
Technology and Vendors Used
The site runs on a custom-developed platform to manage its images and subscription plans. However, they use a few third-party tools to facilitate communications and operations.
Emailvision: The site’s email service provider
http://www.emailvision.com
Skype: Online phone, video and chat platform the team uses to communicate internally (Fotolia and PhotoXpress operate as a virtual organization with team members in 15 countries globe). “Skype is a phenomenal tool that we can’t do without.”
http://www.skype.com
WordPress: Platform that hosts the PhotoXpress blog
http://www.wordpress.com
About Leo Tran
Tran joined Fotolia about two years ago, just as the company was launching PhotoXpress. He became the site’s product developer and team leader. “It’s my baby, and I’m pretty passionate about it.”
Before joining the company, Tran was a project manager for Voodoo and HP, managing the production of high-end PC gaming systems for hard-core gamers. Despite making the switch from a manufacturing company to a digital content service, he found that in both cases the primary focus was on delivering the best experience for the customer. “It’s a different product and a different service, but it’s all about the experience.”
Subscription Site Insider’s Analysis
PhotoXpress demonstrates why it’s sometimes better to create a whole new brand to capture a different target audience from your primary site’s. Everything about PhotoXpress was aimed at the needs of lower-end users, from lower price-point subscription plans to simplified downloads and licensing. That approach allowed the team to keep their primary site focused on the needs of professional users of stock images. They’re also making it easy for visitors jump right into a subscription through a good homepage design that emphasizes the most popular plan.
We think the team can further improve its conversions by continuing to test subscription plans and pricing. For a site that’s selling “simplicity,” offering nine different plans runs the risk of confusing newbies to the stock-photo world. They may find better uptake from visitors by settling on, say, three tiers (entry level, mid-level, high-level). Or, they may achieve better subscriber lifetime value by eliminating the non-autorenewal “Anytime” plans and working to get those users into an entry-level subscription.
