The Benefits Of Offering Parent Albums
Hey photographers, it's Align founder and pro-photographer Melissa Jill here! Let's talk about something I believe every photographer should include as a part of their service and offerings -- parent albums!
Parent albums are duplicate or slightly-altered copies of the main album you've already created for the bride & groom. While they usually have the same design on the inside pages, the size of the album is typically smaller and more light-weight than the bride and groom's album. If you are NOT currently offering parent albums as a core part of your photography packages, I would encourage you to do so!
I feel strongly about offering parent albums for a few good reasons that can be separated into how they benefit not only your client, but also YOU!
BENEFITS FOR THE CLIENT:
Offering parent albums as part of your ever-evolving photography service is a no brainer and an instant win-win. Your clients will be thrilled to have the option to purchase something so beautiful and significant for their loved ones, the value of your service will increase with the additional product, and there's very little effort needed to bring in some extra income!
If you found this post helpful and would like to receive tips like this straight to your inbox, click here to sign up!
Parent albums are duplicate or slightly-altered copies of the main album you've already created for the bride & groom. While they usually have the same design on the inside pages, the size of the album is typically smaller and more light-weight than the bride and groom's album. If you are NOT currently offering parent albums as a core part of your photography packages, I would encourage you to do so!
I feel strongly about offering parent albums for a few good reasons that can be separated into how they benefit not only your client, but also YOU!
BENEFITS FOR THE CLIENT:
- Regardless of who is paying for the wedding photography, parent albums are in high demand. It just makes sense to offer them since so many clients want them. Parent albums are such an easy YES for clients because they serve as the ideal memento to look back on and relive the celebration they just poured so much time and valuable resources into.
- They are the perfect "thank you" gift from the bride and groom to honor how their parents have supported them throughout the process of getting married!
- And if the parents are the ones paying for the photography, they often want a keepsake for themselves to be able to cherish all of their memories from the event!
- Offering parent albums boosts your bottom line and adds value to your services. Within my own photography business, I find that out of the couples who purchase albums, about 1/2 of them will also include parent albums for a fairly painless price point of $300 - $500. To set the price for your own clients, I suggest you mark up the amount you're paying your album printing & binding company by 200-300%. Note that this is lower than the pricing I suggest for the original copy of the album.
- The design work is already done! My parent albums have the exact same design as the bride & groom's original album which keeps things uncomplicated and simple. And for those of you who have clients who desire a little more customization in terms of altering the original design for parent albums... check out our blog post on the parent album design/revision strategies we've used here at Align to help photographers painlessly create multiple album designs for the same wedding!
- You get additional exposure and marketing of your amazing work. The parents will be showing off their high quality parent album to their circle of friends -- people who may not be exposed to the bride & groom's copy!
Offering parent albums as part of your ever-evolving photography service is a no brainer and an instant win-win. Your clients will be thrilled to have the option to purchase something so beautiful and significant for their loved ones, the value of your service will increase with the additional product, and there's very little effort needed to bring in some extra income!
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!
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Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Fall Color Engagement Album Design for Nidya Lloyd Photography
We have had the pleasure of being the album design company of choice for talented New York wedding and portrait photographer Nidya Lloyd for the last seven years. In that time we've designed over 50 albums for Nidya and it has been a BLAST! We adore her and her work and never tire of seeing her beautiful images grace our screens!
This particular design that we are excited to share with you today is an engagement album featuring beautiful fall colors and cute pups! It was designed using our Simple Design Style that features 1-4 images per spread and clean white backgrounds -- a style perfect for portrait albums! And fun fact: this design was approved with NO REVISIONS! Happy dance! We love that Nidya's client adored the initial design and we were able to wrap up this project so quickly for her!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this fun engagement album design:
This particular design that we are excited to share with you today is an engagement album featuring beautiful fall colors and cute pups! It was designed using our Simple Design Style that features 1-4 images per spread and clean white backgrounds -- a style perfect for portrait albums! And fun fact: this design was approved with NO REVISIONS! Happy dance! We love that Nidya's client adored the initial design and we were able to wrap up this project so quickly for her!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this fun engagement album design:
To see the design in full, click through the slideshow:
Thank you, Nidya, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
Thank you, Nidya, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
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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
Florida Art Museum Wedding Album Design for Ailyn La Torre Photography
Florida wedding photographer Ailyn La Torre Photography does such stunning work! Her style is clean, bright, modern and classic. We've had the pleasure of designing over 40 albums for her in the past few years and we are consistently impressed with the way she documents a wedding day.
This elegant and colorful wedding took place on the grounds of Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Wait until you see how pretty it was!
Ailyn opted to use our Hands-off Service so we communicated directly with her clients throughout the revision process. This really kept things moving and the design was finalized within four months after a total of 3 revision rounds. This all took place during busy season with minimal input from Ailyn. We love being able to serve photographers in this way so they can focus on shooting and the tasks that really grow their businesses!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this beautiful design:
This elegant and colorful wedding took place on the grounds of Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Wait until you see how pretty it was!
Ailyn opted to use our Hands-off Service so we communicated directly with her clients throughout the revision process. This really kept things moving and the design was finalized within four months after a total of 3 revision rounds. This all took place during busy season with minimal input from Ailyn. We love being able to serve photographers in this way so they can focus on shooting and the tasks that really grow their businesses!
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this beautiful design:
To see the design in full, click through the slideshow:
Thank you, Ailyn, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
Thank you, Ailyn, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
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Design by: Shannon (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Design by: Shannon (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
5 Minute Trick to Ensure Faster Album Finalization
Ok photographer friends -- let's get real. This is a safe place. Our clients don't read this blog. So let's hash it out. What is the longest you've gone between a wedding and placing the album order? Months? Years?
If you've been reading this blog for very long, you know that I am not only the Founder of Align, I'm a wedding photographer as well. And friend -- I'VE BEEN THERE! Boy, have I ever!
I've been shooting weddings for 2 decades, and I've got some stories :). In 2007 I shot a wedding for a sweet couple. He was in the military, she looked like Barbie. The wedding was great and everything went smoothly. But I had a hard time getting ahold of them after the wedding. They had included an album in their package, and by then I was pre-designing. So I sent them a link to the design like I normally do with instructions for revising and approving it. Nothing. No email response. I followed up. Still nothing. Six months went by, I called to leave a voicemail since email was unproductive. The bride's voicemail box was full. A year later I FINALLY received an email from the bride letting me know they'd had some medical issues in the family but that she was committed to finalizing the album in the next week. That's the last time I've heard from her.
It's been 16 years.
This sweet couple never received their wedding album and I'm sad about that. Sometimes life gets crazy and getting back to your photographer after the wedding gets pushed lower and lower on the priority list. If that couple were to come back to me today I would be obligated to produce a wedding album for them. At the time I had nothing in my contract pertaining to this type of situation. But I've learned my lesson. Let's say that couple did come back to me in 2023 and asked me to produce their album. My costs have gone up since then. My album company has raised their prices many times over since 2007. But that wouldn't matter. I would need to fulfill my end of our agreement without any additional charges to cover my costs.
So I'm guessing I have you all beat with this story. But I know it's all too common for photographers to wait on clients for months and even years to be given the thumbs up to order their album. I have one stellar tip for you that will take you 5 minutes to implement and you won't run into this issue ever again. It is a two-step process:
1 -- Add a clause to your contract with these words (feel free to copy and paste -- this is exactly what is in my contract):
"The client is responsible for finalizing their album design no later than 6 months after their wedding. After 6 months, if the album design is not finalized by the client, the base price of the album will increase by $500. If after one year the album design is not finalized, the base price of the album will increase by another $500."
2 -- Add a task to your calendar to email the client 5 months after the wedding, letting them know they have one month left to finalize their design and referencing this clause.
Done.
The purpose of this clause is not to get more money out of your client. The purpose is to motivate them to finalize their album so you can get it ordered for them in a timely manner. Since I added this clause to my contract years ago I've never once had to charge my client the additional money. But I have had many people go right up to that 6 month deadline. The magical thing is that no one goes over and I have no albums hanging over my head from years past.
It's human nature -- we all operate better with fixed deadlines. Do yourself and your clients a favor -- give them one. Rather than following up endlessly, follow up one time with a deadline that motivates action. Then sit back and experience the freedom and peace of not having album orders hanging endlessly over your head.
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 been reading this blog for very long, you know that I am not only the Founder of Align, I'm a wedding photographer as well. And friend -- I'VE BEEN THERE! Boy, have I ever!
I've been shooting weddings for 2 decades, and I've got some stories :). In 2007 I shot a wedding for a sweet couple. He was in the military, she looked like Barbie. The wedding was great and everything went smoothly. But I had a hard time getting ahold of them after the wedding. They had included an album in their package, and by then I was pre-designing. So I sent them a link to the design like I normally do with instructions for revising and approving it. Nothing. No email response. I followed up. Still nothing. Six months went by, I called to leave a voicemail since email was unproductive. The bride's voicemail box was full. A year later I FINALLY received an email from the bride letting me know they'd had some medical issues in the family but that she was committed to finalizing the album in the next week. That's the last time I've heard from her.
It's been 16 years.
This sweet couple never received their wedding album and I'm sad about that. Sometimes life gets crazy and getting back to your photographer after the wedding gets pushed lower and lower on the priority list. If that couple were to come back to me today I would be obligated to produce a wedding album for them. At the time I had nothing in my contract pertaining to this type of situation. But I've learned my lesson. Let's say that couple did come back to me in 2023 and asked me to produce their album. My costs have gone up since then. My album company has raised their prices many times over since 2007. But that wouldn't matter. I would need to fulfill my end of our agreement without any additional charges to cover my costs.
So I'm guessing I have you all beat with this story. But I know it's all too common for photographers to wait on clients for months and even years to be given the thumbs up to order their album. I have one stellar tip for you that will take you 5 minutes to implement and you won't run into this issue ever again. It is a two-step process:
1 -- Add a clause to your contract with these words (feel free to copy and paste -- this is exactly what is in my contract):
"The client is responsible for finalizing their album design no later than 6 months after their wedding. After 6 months, if the album design is not finalized by the client, the base price of the album will increase by $500. If after one year the album design is not finalized, the base price of the album will increase by another $500."
2 -- Add a task to your calendar to email the client 5 months after the wedding, letting them know they have one month left to finalize their design and referencing this clause.
Done.
The purpose of this clause is not to get more money out of your client. The purpose is to motivate them to finalize their album so you can get it ordered for them in a timely manner. Since I added this clause to my contract years ago I've never once had to charge my client the additional money. But I have had many people go right up to that 6 month deadline. The magical thing is that no one goes over and I have no albums hanging over my head from years past.
It's human nature -- we all operate better with fixed deadlines. Do yourself and your clients a favor -- give them one. Rather than following up endlessly, follow up one time with a deadline that motivates action. Then sit back and experience the freedom and peace of not having album orders hanging endlessly over your head.
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
Dreamy Detroit Wedding Album Design for Jean Smith Photography
We've been working with talented Michigan based wedding and portrait photographer Jean Smith since 2013 -- twelve years and counting!! We are approaching 200 album designs for Jean and each one seems to get BETTER and BETTER. Jean's eye for composition, lighting, and documenting the moment is superb in every way. We cannot get enough of her stunning work!
Jean is also one of our beloved Client Advocates. You can click here to see a short video of her sharing some of her album journey and experience as well as some great tips!
Today's featured album is a great example of what our partnership with Jean over the years has been able to produce! We are SO smitten with this design! And apparently the client was too, because they approved the initial design as-is with ZERO revisions! We were able to deliver the design files for this album to Jean in less than a week as a result! We love it when that happens!
Here are a few spreads from this stunning design:
Jean is also one of our beloved Client Advocates. You can click here to see a short video of her sharing some of her album journey and experience as well as some great tips!
Today's featured album is a great example of what our partnership with Jean over the years has been able to produce! We are SO smitten with this design! And apparently the client was too, because they approved the initial design as-is with ZERO revisions! We were able to deliver the design files for this album to Jean in less than a week as a result! We love it when that happens!
Here are a few spreads from this stunning design:
To see the design in full, click through the slideshow:
Thank you, Jean, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
Thank you, Jean, for trusting us to be a part of your team!
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Design by: Shannon (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
Design by: Shannon (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill
