Hey Folks!

Do you offer wedding albums as part of your business or are you considering starting to offer them? If you currently offer albums I'm sure you've had at least a few times in your career when you've wanted to tear your hair out! Perhaps you've been waiting on a client for 2 years to get back to you about completing their album, or you've had someone rip your perfect design to shreds. Maybe you've even had a client who has wanted everything for nothing. If so, here are some suggestions that will help you turn this around.

1. Set expectations.

Some of the expectations you might want to set are:
What is included in the cost and most importantly... what isn't included. Do you include extra retouching to the images? If so, where do you draw the line? 

2. Set clear timelines.

As I mentioned before, having clients take 2 years to get back to you isn't all that uncommon. Life gets in the way. Perhaps consider setting time lines for your clients and either have penalties if they don't adhere to them- such as forfeiting the album. A better alternative is to have rewards when they do keep your time frames. For example, if you need your client to choose images for an album, you want the client to understand this needs to be done in the next 2 weeks. Purposely giving people short time frames works well as it means they're forced to prioritize the task and get it done! Once all the tasks are completed in the suggested time frame, you may give them a complimentary spread in their album as a reward.

3. Go all out on sample albums.

Sample albums will help you sell more albums. For someone to really invest in the idea of having an album they'll likely need to see a few examples of what you've made for previous clients. In my studio I have approximately 15 sample albums to show my clients through. The reason for this is because I want my clients to get used to the idea of looking through my images in books, rather than on a device. The sample albums I have in my office are all maxed out at 90 pages or 45 spreads, so clients are more likely to purchase a physical album, considering that's what they've just seen. I suggest doing the same for wedding venues! Give them decked out albums that are exactly what you want your client to purchase. 

4. Price your albums for profit.

Keep in mind all that goes into producing a wedding album. You need to pay for the sample albums, the online subscriptions that help you design the book, the time that it takes you to produce the book and of course the actual cost of the book that you're giving to the client. Remember as well if you're living overseas from where your album company is, you may want to have a buffer when the exchange rate moves a little.

5. Help your clients actually want an album.

One of the best ways to help your clients actually want an album is to make the idea of owning one normal to them. Many of my clients first hear about me via their friends or from the venue that they're looking at booking. I make sure that when a couple visits a venue that they're likely to see one of my books. Then when a couple comes to visit the studio I sit a few albums in front of them while I go grab them a drink. After this I take them through a few albums while telling them some stories of what was going on when the images were taken.