As a wedding photographer, album sales are one of the best ways you can add additional income! Not only does it create great passive income streams, but it is an important service to offer your couples. Albums have a high sentimental value and are something the couple will cherish for a lifetime. Plus, their parents often want an album of their own. Offering high-end, heirloom-quality albums are something your couples need!

But, selling these albums can be difficult. We live in such a digital world, where fewer couples are seeing the value in these albums. Plus, it is an additional expense that some don’t budget for. So today, I am sharing 5 tips to feel confident in album sales! These will help you not just sell more albums, but feel confident, and show your client the value!

Sell Albums You Love

It’s easier to sell something that you love yourself! Make sure to get samples from multiple album companies, so you can get a feel for the quality, and find the ones you like best. When I was searching for album companies, I made sure I chose the ones I felt the most confident in. I loved their product, their customer service, and the quality.

Also, focus on the products you love! If you do not love wall art, don’t try and sell framed wall art! Focus your sales on the products you are passionate about.

See Yourself as The Designer

As you sell your albums, see yourself as the designer and personal shopper. You are making your couple’s purchasing journey easier by taking over the design! For every album, create the first draft. I go through and select the top images, that tell their unique wedding story. This way, when they come into their in-person or video appointment, we have a gorgeous album for them to look at! Make it incredibly easy for them to make the edits and place the order. This makes it easy for you to close the sale, and easier for them to say yes!

Looking for more information on the design process? Read about how to create a full-service album design process, here!

Create Wiggle Room for Incentives

I suggest having one album be part of the photography package, but include incentives to order more or add on more pages. For example, you could include a 10×10 album with 10 pages, but when you create the draft, include 15 pages. But offer an incentive to add those pages! Maybe they get a discount when they add 5 or more pages. Or they get 10% off parent albums when they upgrade their own album. Another option is to have “album credits”. Maybe the couple gets $100 in album credits with their package. With an album credit, clients are more likely to go for upgrades, leading to higher-priced album sales.

Find Solutions to Problems 

When presenting the design, don’t just show the ways to increase the price! When I am presenting the album to my clients, I show them ways to add and subtract pages and images. 

This lets me gain the trust of the clients! I am not showing ways to add pages and make more money, but also showcase how to cut items. This will also help sales feel less “slimy”. You are not just there to make money, but to listen to them, and work within their budget.

Believe In The Product

You have to believe that having printed products are important. And you need to believe in the value of preserving these memories! With modern photojournalist photography, an album is the best method to show off the photos. These items tell a story and stand the test to time. Plus, they are easy to store and show off. Holding an heirloom album in your hands will always provide a better experience than looking at images on a phone or laptop. If you believe that albums are important, your clients will too!

Mastering Your Album Sales

If you are looking to master your album sales process, I offer coaching sessions that will help you take your sales to the next level! Learn in-person and virtual sales to better serve your clients and create a high-end experience. Reach out today to learn more!

As a wedding photographer, your goal is to create an incredible experience, while also assisting them in the best product choices. That is why having a full-service album design process is so important! Your couples are looking to create the perfect heirloom products, but also need a helping hand to guide them through the process. Plus, this gives you an incredible opportunity to make more product sales, since it is so high-touch! Today I am going to share what it means to have a full-service album design process, as well as what we do in my business, Jenny DeMarco Photography.

Create The First Draft

Our couples are busy, so they often times don’t have time to create the initial album design. Plus, they don’t have the time to learn new software! And they are so close to the images, so it’s hard for them to select the top images. That is why I create the first draft for all of my couples. I go through and select the top images, that tell their unique wedding story. This way, when they come into their in-person or video appointment, we have a gorgeous album for them to look at! Most of the time, clients have edits. But when you have the album drafted for them, it cuts the editing process in half!

Do The Edits in Person

Make sure to do all of the edits in person, so there is no back and forth and countless emails. This can be done in person in your office or studio, or in a video call. Doing the edits live allows for you to have everything updated and confirmed in just an hour, instead of waiting for weeks to go by to hear back from the client. Our sessions last 1.5 – 3 hours, so there is plenty of time for us to do multiple albums. However, if the client wants gift albums, we do those as separate appointments.

We also encourage our couples to have the mother of the groom and the mother of the bride have separate appointments, so they can customize their parent albums to include more of their family shots. This also allows you to sell more albums! You can work with the mothers or fathers of the couple, and create multiple parents and family albums.

Sell The Quality

While we know why ordering albums through their photographer is the best option, you will also want to convey this to your clients. What is setting your albums apart? Is it the print quality? The incredible fabrics? That you edit all the images before they get printed? We personally quality check each and every album before our clients receive it, to double-check it is perfect. We also only use album companies and printers that calibrate their printers every day. It’s important to let the client know that their album will have no miss-prints or weird filters!

Offer A Suite of Products

Wedding albums are an incredible up-sell, but there are so many other products available! Look into wall art printing companies that also offer custom framing. This allows your client to have incredible wall pieces that are framed and ready to hand. Portfolio boxes are also great products since clients can order beautiful prints from you, and have a beautiful box to display them in. As you work with your clients, remember to give them the best, and most customized experience! They will be so thankful! If you are looking to master your album sales process, I offer coaching sessions that will help you take your sales to the next level! Learn in-person and virtual sales to better serve your clients and create a high-end experience. Reach out today to learn more!

As a wedding photographer, I shoot a lot of luxury weddings and work with incredibly talented planners and designers. They tend to have a ton going on detail wise. While this can be amazing, it can also take a lot of time to get all of the shots needed to cover all of the details. A few weeks ago, I decided to try a new system, and it worked! 

Shooting a detail-heavy wedding.

I have always prepped my shot list with a little “Details of Note” section. Here I listed anything special that me and my team need to know about, whether it is decor or little details throughout. This means the list is not just the basics like “the wedding cake table”. But more like, “whiskey station”. Things that are unique to that particular wedding.

However, this last year I have had a few occasions when my team members have missed something important. And these are incredibly talented, experienced, and capable people. So I know I needed to make a change!

Frankly, some weddings have A LOT of DETAILS and sometimes it’s hard to see the woods from the trees (or this case the trees from the woods). When I recently shot a wedding with a lot of special touches, and many details from the creative bride, I knew I needed a way to fix it. I didn’t want us to miss anything she was poured her heart and soul into! These details are important to me, too my clients and to my wonderful vendor friends and colleagues. 

A complete detail checklist.

How did I solve it? By creating a complete detail checklist. In fact, this wedding had 2 full pages of detail shots!

First, I review the planning documents that were sent over from the planner. I pulled together areas from the layouts, the rental lists, and the questionnaire.

Next, I put that all in a GoogleDoc, and reached out to the planner to review. She was able to take a look, and make sure all items were covered.

By taking the time prior to the wedding to see the layout and rentals, and confirming with the wedding planner, I am ensuring I get each and every shot. To provide the best service for my clients, I need to make sure I don’t miss a single detail. And while this isn’t something you have to do at each and every wedding, it is important to do for the detail-heavy weddings you shoot.

Everyone’s business should always be a work in progress. It’s important to always evaluate and look at ways you can tweak your systems. For more information on the coaching services I offer, visit here!

How 

Although I have over 10 years of experience photographing weddings and have managed to see and work through every possible scenario, I still get pre-wedding anxiety. My heart races and I become a bear on the morning of a wedding! A wedding is a huge event, and no matter how many you do, there will be some stress involved. These are my top three tips to manage pre-wedding anxiety!

ONE: Pack the night before.

Pack the night before so that you’re not scrambling the day of, and forgetting something. It’s important to not wait until that morning – do it the night before! This will prevent you from forgetting something very important.

TWO: Create checklists.

Create checklists lots of checklists! I have one for my everything I need to bring to a wedding, which includes my gear, client products such as a bridal portrait or guest book I need to bring, snacks, an extra change of clothes, styling kits, my lighting gear, EVERYTHING!

I have a checklist that I prepare seven weeks prior to the wedding day. This is my photographic timeline and shortlists that I have at every event. This includes groupings, as well as the little things that I need to remember on the wedding day – such as take a break and snack!

THREE: Arrive an hour early.

Arrive early. And I mean really early, like an hour early. Running late causes me so much stress! So being there early to take my time to unpack and get my head straight and look around and start slow helps reduce stress. That extra hour gives me time to really focus, get my gear ready, and go over the timeline again. It allows me to decompress before the chaos of the wedding day.

Manage your pre-wedding anxiety.

I am grateful for this stress – it’s what pushes me to do better! And it means I care and want to do the best job I can. And what I have learned over the years, the people who are at the top of their game also have this stress that pushes them to do the best they can.

I don’t want to get to the point where it’s debilitating stress. But some stress is good. It helps us to react to the pressure and perform do our best. By having some strategies in place prior to the wedding day, you will ensure that you are not overwhelmed on the day of, and can do your best work.

 

Sometimes life happens, and you get behind on editing. That might mean late image deliveries! I have helped photographers in this same situation, so here are some strategies! I recently was helping a client who was SIX months late delivering images. This person had gotten themself in a situation and needed to get out of it. So I was there to help him manage this crisis and wanted to share some of the tips that I shared to help him. 

Add Wiggle Room

Set yourself up for success and add a few weeks to your promised delivery time. If you are promising photos in six weeks make that date close to 8-10 weeks. My delivery is for 12-15 weeks. This has allowed me wiggle room over the years for life’s unexpected moments and when the season gets super busy.

This year I managed to have a baby and still deliver photos within the promised timeframe because of that wiggle room. Your personal deadline should be BEFORE this buffer deadline your clients are expecting. 

What To Do With Late Images

First, contact your client NOW with an update. Like RIGHT THIS SECOND. If you have been burying your head in the sand and avoiding contact because you are embarrassed of your tardiness – this is the time to head the problem right here right now. A personal phone call is best when it comes to late image deliveries. But, if you just can’t bring yourself to this, an email with do.

In the email to the client:

1. Say hello and put their fears at ease – when you are late delivering, clients fear that you may be lost the photos or they didn’t turn out good. Their brains can go wild with fears. Put these to rest by reassuring them the photos are safe and look beautiful. 

2. Acknowledge the problem.

3. Apologize. 

4. Set expectations – set a date when they will be done (and then you better deliver 2 days before that!)

5. Offer a thank you remedy for their patience. This could be prints, more album spreads, etc. This doesn’t have to be defined right now. You can even just say you are going to make sure they are taken care of. 

6. Listen if they are upset, and let them know you hear them and apologize again. Listen, apologize, state how you plan to fix it …. repeat. 

7. Repeat that you will be in touch on x date 

Time to handle late image deliveries

Then my friend – GET TO WORK. You have got to get this done. And you have to have it done BEFORE the deadline you set. 

Once they are done and delivered – you need to surprise them a special something. Send some unexpected prints to their doorstep or offer to send prints to the parents. One or two portraits and the family photo usually does the job. Something that can be in their hands super quick. 

From here on out… you respond to every email within the same day – immediately if possible. And you go above and beyond in your customer service experience. If they ordered an album – get the design done ASAP. Or offer print credit or discount code. You are on damage control but it’s possible to bring this situation back around and having your clients love you and their experience.