North Carolina Fall Wedding Album design for July Photo
Today's featured album design that we created for Julianne Key of July Photo -- a North Carolina wedding photographer -- is a beauty! This wedding looks like it was so intimate and FUN! Julianne did an amazing job capturing this couples' story and we were honored to lay it out for them and create a one-of-a-kind heirloom for her clients!
Julianne used our Hands-off Service so we communicated directly with her clients throughout the revision process -- which was very speedy in this case! The design was approved with ZERO changes and was wrapped up in just over a week from start to finish! Julianne also had the album printed through us and delivered an Align Legacy Book to her clients that I'm sure they will cherish for generations to come!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this sweet design:
Julianne used our Hands-off Service so we communicated directly with her clients throughout the revision process -- which was very speedy in this case! The design was approved with ZERO changes and was wrapped up in just over a week from start to finish! Julianne also had the album printed through us and delivered an Align Legacy Book to her clients that I'm sure they will cherish for generations to come!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this sweet design:
To see the design in full, click through the slideshow:
Thank you, Julianne, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
Thank you, Julianne, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
-----------
Design by: Rachel (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Design by: Rachel (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
3 Tips for Up-selling your albums the RIGHT way
Hey guys! Melissa Jill -- Align's owner and retired wedding photographer -- here again to continue our series on successfully selling albums and pricing for maximum profit. In a recent post, I shared why you should be up-selling your albums and that there is a right and wrong way to do so. Today I'm going to share three tips for doing this the right way.
1 -- Educate clients up front
In order to make sure your clients have a great experience with you and your album workflow, you need to be very clear on your process up front. Let them know in your initial client meeting -- before they even hire you -- that you will likely design their album with more spreads than what comes included in their package. Let them know that you do this as a service to them. That right now, it's hard to know how many images they will want in their album since they haven't seen them, and that by designing an album that tells the story of their day in an ideal way, they will have options. Whenever I explain our process in this way to potential clients, they nod in agreement. It makes sense to them and they are on board.
Another way that I communicate this is in the verbiage of my package and pricing information. Rather than including a specific album in a package, I include an album credit. My album credits are $1,700 or $3,000, and each amount is enough to purchase each of the albums I offer with the minimum number of spreads. So I can point to my Queensberry Duo album (a version of which is pictured above -- this set of albums purchased by my clients was a result of an upsell -- both the couple's album and the parent album ended up with 30 spreads and the client spent a total of $7,500 on their albums alone!) and let them know that the $3,000 credit will cover that album with 16 spreads. But the fact that it is worded in the package as a "credit" indicates that they may choose to spend more on their final album after the wedding. The credit is a way for them to set aside money toward their album pre-wedding with the option to upgrade later.
2 -- Allow clients to narrow down the design
Once your client sees the initial design, give them the option to narrow it down by deleting spreads. So in the example above, if I have a Queensberry Duo designed with 25 spreads and the client paid for 16 spreads in their package, they have the option to delete 9 spreads and have no further financial obligation. But at least they are seeing something ideal and given the option to upgrade. Like I mentioned in my last post, many clients do decide to upgrade because they love their images so much. But obviously there should be no obligation to do so.
3 -- Charge per additional spread
When you are presenting an option to upgrade, price based on the number of spreads that the client chooses to upgrade by. As photographers, that is what we are charged for by our album company, so we should also charge this way to cover our costs. "How do you figure out how much to charge per spread" you ask? Easy! Divide the price of the album in your package by the number of spreads included for that price, and round. That's your per-spread price for the upgrade. Mine is $100 or $190 depending on the type of album they order.
These are my three tips for up-selling the right way! If you educate clients clearly up front, give them the option to narrow down the design to just what they ordered, and charge per spread for any upgrades, you will maximize your profit AND your clients will be on board and thrilled with the process!
Check out my next blog post in this series in which I share how up-selling helps many Align Album Design clients cover their outsourcing costs for album design PLUS make bonus profit!
If you found this post helpful and would like to receive tips like this straight to your inbox, click here to sign up!
1 -- Educate clients up front
In order to make sure your clients have a great experience with you and your album workflow, you need to be very clear on your process up front. Let them know in your initial client meeting -- before they even hire you -- that you will likely design their album with more spreads than what comes included in their package. Let them know that you do this as a service to them. That right now, it's hard to know how many images they will want in their album since they haven't seen them, and that by designing an album that tells the story of their day in an ideal way, they will have options. Whenever I explain our process in this way to potential clients, they nod in agreement. It makes sense to them and they are on board.
Another way that I communicate this is in the verbiage of my package and pricing information. Rather than including a specific album in a package, I include an album credit. My album credits are $1,700 or $3,000, and each amount is enough to purchase each of the albums I offer with the minimum number of spreads. So I can point to my Queensberry Duo album (a version of which is pictured above -- this set of albums purchased by my clients was a result of an upsell -- both the couple's album and the parent album ended up with 30 spreads and the client spent a total of $7,500 on their albums alone!) and let them know that the $3,000 credit will cover that album with 16 spreads. But the fact that it is worded in the package as a "credit" indicates that they may choose to spend more on their final album after the wedding. The credit is a way for them to set aside money toward their album pre-wedding with the option to upgrade later.
2 -- Allow clients to narrow down the design
Once your client sees the initial design, give them the option to narrow it down by deleting spreads. So in the example above, if I have a Queensberry Duo designed with 25 spreads and the client paid for 16 spreads in their package, they have the option to delete 9 spreads and have no further financial obligation. But at least they are seeing something ideal and given the option to upgrade. Like I mentioned in my last post, many clients do decide to upgrade because they love their images so much. But obviously there should be no obligation to do so.
3 -- Charge per additional spread
When you are presenting an option to upgrade, price based on the number of spreads that the client chooses to upgrade by. As photographers, that is what we are charged for by our album company, so we should also charge this way to cover our costs. "How do you figure out how much to charge per spread" you ask? Easy! Divide the price of the album in your package by the number of spreads included for that price, and round. That's your per-spread price for the upgrade. Mine is $100 or $190 depending on the type of album they order.
These are my three tips for up-selling the right way! If you educate clients clearly up front, give them the option to narrow down the design to just what they ordered, and charge per spread for any upgrades, you will maximize your profit AND your clients will be on board and thrilled with the process!
Check out my next blog post in this series in which I share how up-selling helps many Align Album Design clients cover their outsourcing costs for album design PLUS make bonus profit!
If you found this post helpful and would like to receive tips like this straight to your inbox, click here to sign up!
And exciting news! If you're a photographer who wants to start offering albums without investing hours of guesswork and trial and error -- we have a solution for you! Check out the Album Start-Up Kit and start maximizing your profit today!
-----------
Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Grand Newport Rhode Island Wedding Album Design for Katie Slater Photography
Today's featured album design is one we did for New England Wedding Photographer Katie Slater. This wedding took place at Rosecliff Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and we are so impressed with how Katie documented this grand event!
Of note -- this design was completed start to finish in 2 weeks AND those two weeks spanned the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Katie ordered our Hands-off Service and we communicated directly with her clients throughout the process. Katie's clients were VERY responsive and we were able to get an initial design and two full revision rounds completed in that time. Since then, we have also been honored to work on two parent album designs for this same wedding, both of which were completed very efficiently as well.
We cannot get enough of Katie's stunning work! This clean and simple design really showcases her incredible photography and tells the story of this wedding day in such a compelling way. Enjoy a few of our favorite spreads from this design:
Of note -- this design was completed start to finish in 2 weeks AND those two weeks spanned the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Katie ordered our Hands-off Service and we communicated directly with her clients throughout the process. Katie's clients were VERY responsive and we were able to get an initial design and two full revision rounds completed in that time. Since then, we have also been honored to work on two parent album designs for this same wedding, both of which were completed very efficiently as well.
We cannot get enough of Katie's stunning work! This clean and simple design really showcases her incredible photography and tells the story of this wedding day in such a compelling way. Enjoy a few of our favorite spreads from this design:
To see the design in full, click through the slideshow:
Thank you, Katie, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
Thank you, Katie, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
-----------
Design by: Kari (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Design by: Kari (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Dreamy Blue Ridge Mountain Wedding Album Design for Kelsey Marie Photography
It was so fun to work with Virginia-based senior portrait and brand photographer Kelsey Marie Photography on this dreamy wedding album design! Kelsey passed this off to our team during her busy season and we were able to provide an initial design as well as navigate three very detailed revision rounds to make this design PERFECT for her client! That's what we are here for! We love to help lighten the load and take a huge task off of your plate!
Kelsey's images are just gorgeous and we are so pleased with how this design came together! Definitely check out the portrait spreads below! Kelsey's images really show off how the Blue Ridge Mountains got their name!!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this fun design:
Kelsey's images are just gorgeous and we are so pleased with how this design came together! Definitely check out the portrait spreads below! Kelsey's images really show off how the Blue Ridge Mountains got their name!!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this fun design:
To see the design in full, click through the slideshow:
Thank you, Kelsey, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
Thank you, Kelsey, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
-----------
Design by: Sarah (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Design by: Sarah (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Why up-selling albums serves our clients
Hey guys! Melissa Jill -- wedding photographer and Founder of Align -- here! I've been sharing over the past months some of my experiences and tips on album sales and workflow that have allowed me to really build an efficient and profitable workflow and serve my clients well. Today I wanted to step into some really exciting territory -- the topic of up-selling.
If you've never considering up-selling your albums, you should. Up-selling can be done well or it can be done poorly. When done professionally and for the right reasons, up-selling can be a great service to our clients and increase our profit.
The reason we should up-sell albums to our clients is that we want them to have an ideal, gorgeous family heirloom. We know that in order for them to have the album of their dreams, it will need to be larger than what we can reasonably expect to sell them before we show them any photos of their wedding. We can show them a beautiful sample album in their initial client meeting and maybe persuade them to include $1,500-$3,000 toward their album in their wedding package. But once they SEE their wedding photos, they will likely want many more of their images in their album than we can include for that price. Our job as photographers is to design an album that is ideal -- that tells the whole story of the day in a beautiful way that isn't too cluttered or busy -- and then give the client the opportunity to purchase the ideal upgraded album, or stick with what they committed to in their original package. This isn't a bait-and-switch tactic, this is a service provided to our client that gives them options. They are not forced into spending more money, but they are given the opportunity to purchase something better.
I design all of my albums with more pages than the client orders. And I don't keep this a secret. My client is informed of this service before they even hire me. If a client orders an album with 17 spreads in it, I typically provide them an initial design with 25-35 spreads, just depending on what is ideal for that particular wedding. They then have the option to narrow down the spreads to just the 17 included in the package, or they can choose to upgrade at that time. Most of my clients choose to upgrade by at least a few spreads; many upgrade to the full design presented to them.
Jessica, the bride in the above-pictured album, was on yearbook staff in high school. She highly valued photography and made sure to communicate that to me. I remember at her reception, her mother pulled me aside and told me that I needed to design Jessica a very large album because she was going to want all of her photos in it! I'd never heard that request from a mother-of-the-bride, but I took her words to heart. I designed what I thought was a HUGE album for Jessica. She ordered 17 spreads in her package, and I had her initial design created with 36. Over double. I sent it off to her and waited to hear back. Jessica replied to me within days and raved about the album design. She told me she loved everything about it, but there was only one problem:
It wasn't big enough.
She had me add 3 more spreads to the design and ended up purchasing a wedding album with 39 spreads (78 pages) in it. She spent $2,000 towards her album in her initial package and an additional $2,100+ afterwards in upgrades and parent albums. This experience solidified for me the power and importance of up-selling. We need to show clients what they will ideally want, but might not be willing to commit to before they see their photos.
If you're interested in learning more about up-selling, check out the next posts in this up-selling series:
3 Tips for Up-selling your albums the RIGHT way
How to cover your album design costs and make a bonus profit!
If you found this post helpful and would like to receive tips like this straight to your inbox, click here to sign up!
If you've never considering up-selling your albums, you should. Up-selling can be done well or it can be done poorly. When done professionally and for the right reasons, up-selling can be a great service to our clients and increase our profit.
The reason we should up-sell albums to our clients is that we want them to have an ideal, gorgeous family heirloom. We know that in order for them to have the album of their dreams, it will need to be larger than what we can reasonably expect to sell them before we show them any photos of their wedding. We can show them a beautiful sample album in their initial client meeting and maybe persuade them to include $1,500-$3,000 toward their album in their wedding package. But once they SEE their wedding photos, they will likely want many more of their images in their album than we can include for that price. Our job as photographers is to design an album that is ideal -- that tells the whole story of the day in a beautiful way that isn't too cluttered or busy -- and then give the client the opportunity to purchase the ideal upgraded album, or stick with what they committed to in their original package. This isn't a bait-and-switch tactic, this is a service provided to our client that gives them options. They are not forced into spending more money, but they are given the opportunity to purchase something better.
I design all of my albums with more pages than the client orders. And I don't keep this a secret. My client is informed of this service before they even hire me. If a client orders an album with 17 spreads in it, I typically provide them an initial design with 25-35 spreads, just depending on what is ideal for that particular wedding. They then have the option to narrow down the spreads to just the 17 included in the package, or they can choose to upgrade at that time. Most of my clients choose to upgrade by at least a few spreads; many upgrade to the full design presented to them.
Jessica, the bride in the above-pictured album, was on yearbook staff in high school. She highly valued photography and made sure to communicate that to me. I remember at her reception, her mother pulled me aside and told me that I needed to design Jessica a very large album because she was going to want all of her photos in it! I'd never heard that request from a mother-of-the-bride, but I took her words to heart. I designed what I thought was a HUGE album for Jessica. She ordered 17 spreads in her package, and I had her initial design created with 36. Over double. I sent it off to her and waited to hear back. Jessica replied to me within days and raved about the album design. She told me she loved everything about it, but there was only one problem:
It wasn't big enough.
She had me add 3 more spreads to the design and ended up purchasing a wedding album with 39 spreads (78 pages) in it. She spent $2,000 towards her album in her initial package and an additional $2,100+ afterwards in upgrades and parent albums. This experience solidified for me the power and importance of up-selling. We need to show clients what they will ideally want, but might not be willing to commit to before they see their photos.
If you're interested in learning more about up-selling, check out the next posts in this up-selling series:
3 Tips for Up-selling your albums the RIGHT way
How to cover your album design costs and make a bonus profit!
If you found this post helpful and would like to receive tips like this straight to your inbox, click here to sign up!
And exciting news! If you're a photographer who wants to start offering albums without investing hours of guesswork and trial and error -- we have a solution for you! Check out the Album Start-Up Kit and start maximizing your profit today!
-----------
Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
