3 Mistakes Photographers Make When Selling Wedding Albums

If you photograph weddings, you probably have a package or two in which you offer an album. And in many cases, your package probably looks something like this:

  • Up to 5 hours of photography
  • Over 200 images on copyright-free CD
  • 20 page bridal album
  • 11×14 Portrait Print
  • Online gallery of your wedding photos to share with friends and family worldwide

The bride knows she will receive a CD full of images, and be able to view the images online, and share them with her family and friends from around the world.

She also knows she can take weeks or even months to select a few of her favorites, and have them put into a bridal album.

But it doesn’t matter what photos she selects, how they fit together, or how the will look side by side. She simply selects her favorites, and you as the photographer will force them into some type of order, and create an album from the final selection.

I’ve seen books like this.

An image of the bride walking down the aisle is set next to a formal of the bride outside at the reception. The first dance is placed along side of the couple kissing by the limo.

In other words, there is no rhyme or reason to the way the album is put together; it’s simply a hodgepodge of images thrown together to form a book of pictures.

Wedding albums aren’t meant to be a book of pictures. They are meant to be the story of the wedding day.

First Mistake: The Photographer Lets The Bride Make The Selection

If you allow a bride to choose her favorite images, she thinks from an individual level, not from a cumulative factor. She can’t see an album because it hasn’t happened yet. She doesn’t imagine how they will look together side by side; she simply chooses based on her best expressions, and her favorite moments.

When she receives the album, it will simply go on the shelf because it’s a book of pictures. It has no meaning – its just 20+ large images from her event.

As a photographer, you should be photographing a wedding to tell the story of the day. With wedding photography, photos work together in order to bring you back to the memories of the event itself. A formal out in the gardens is great, but it’s “just” a photo of the bride and groom. But when you have a series of images of the bride and groom walking through the gardens, talking with their flower girl, sneaking kisses along the way, it becomes a story – and a memory.

As a photographer, you need to think in story format. You need to take one photograph, and then another, and another – all to work together and provide an intimate look into the event itself. Its up to you to tell the story, and present the images in such a way that the bride and groom relive the wedding again and again. [Read more…]

The Sales Process

A Guest Article By Andrew Funderburg

Selling is one of the more difficult aspects of running a photography business. It helps if you know the sales cycle and the sales process. These tips are taken from Advanced Selling for Dummies, a great book. Reading sales books or taking sales seminars is one of the best things you can do for your business. All the beautiful photos in the world won’t help the bottom line, if the client never books you or buys your services.

This is a simple seven step sales presentation. It works the same whether you are meeting the client for a possible wedding booking or selling albums or prints to a client you’ve already shot (portrait or wedding).

1. Greet the Client – I know this sounds obvious. Take extra time to chat with the client and find out how their day went. Make them relaxed. Imagine that a friend stopped by for a cup of coffee at your house. How would you treat them? Treat clients the same.

2. Ask Questions – You can’t sell anything if you don’t know what the client wants. If I spend a half an hour talking about portrait albums, but what the client really wants is a canvas cluster, how will that sales process go? Not very well. Ask what he or she is looking for. Ask her what brought her in? What did she see on your Web site that made her call and make an appointment? Or was it a referral? Ask all of these questions. The answer will help you provide the best solution for your client.

© Sal Cincotta

3. Identify your client’s needs – Based on the answers to the above questions, you can guide the client through your products and services and identify the best solution for them. This might be one of your pre-made packages or it might be a custom package for your client. But if you know their needs, you know what to suggest.

4. Highlight possible solutions – At this point, you might offer a few different solutions for your client. Don’t be afraid at this point to highlight the solution of a competitor. In this day and age, price is often a concern. Don’t be afraid to point out that the client could save money by going to a less expensive competitor. Just be sure to point out the benefits of your service over the cheaper service. Anyone can offer any two of the following: great product, great service or a cheap price. It is physically impossible to do all three. So, don’t be afraid to charge for your products and services.

5. Weigh the costs and benefits – This is the point where you really need to point out the benefits based on the cost of your services. A Honda Accord is less expensive than a BMW for a reason. It is your job to explain why your service is more expensive or cheaper than your competition and what that price difference means for the client. More professional experience on the wedding day? Better designed albums? Better album binding?

6. Address Client questions and concerns – When a client starts asking questions about price or seems concerned about prices, photographers often think that they are losing the sale and start discounting. Once a client starts asking specific questions or pointing out specific concerns, that means they are ready to buy. They simply are justifying the expense. Help them justify it. Address the concern, ask them if that answers their question. Then move to the close.

7. Close – Once people are ready to buy, if you keep selling, they change their mind. Get used to telling when a client is ready to buy. Once they are, close the sale. “So, have you decided on which package?”. “So, we’re doing the 12×18? album?” “So, you’re going with package B?” These are all closing phrases. Use them.

How Do I Become An Event Photographer

This post is Day 20 of 30 Ways In 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography. This series seeks to provide you with practical steps to get you from wherever you are today, to exactly where you want to be – this year! If your goal has always been to take your photography to a whole new level, hang on and start enjoying a new lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.

What makes event photography different than other types of photography? What does it mean to be an event photographer?

It simply means you specialize in capturing images at special occasions. It can mean:

  • Weddings
  • Corporate functions
  • Bar/bat mitzvahs
  • Quinceaneras
  • Birthday parties
  • Sporting events
  • Anniversaries
  • Horse shows
  • And everything in between

Even within the few items I’ve mentioned above, you can start seeing a ton of possibilities. Hopefully you’re also seeing a wide variety of different types of clientele; which means even in event photography, you can specialize.

Over the past few days, we’ve been covering the idea of specializing, and why it’s so important to really focus on what you want to do. This post is in my 30 Ways series because when people mentioned event photography, it was usually associated with one thing.

One reader mentioned she’s done a few Quinceaneras and would love to do more of them within her family portrait business. One reader mentioned her love of horses and her desire to spend more time within that community. Still another talked about his love for weddings, and his desire to take it to an entirely different level.

While you may love working events, there is a huge difference between working with horse shows, and photographing weddings. Different clientele. Different vendor sources. So specializing is just as important here as it is overall.

Find The Resources

Like every niche, it’s important to pinpoint the right resources for you.

If you want to focus on horse shows, what shows are in your area? What stores cater to horse ranchers? What schools are training tomorrow’s stars?

In today’s world, you have one invaluable research tool at your disposal – the Internet. Spend a half day researching all you can within your community and within your specialty. Then start visiting your resources.

If there is a local magazine that is delivered to ranchers, get a copy. If there is a horse show coming up, visit. And if there is a school nearby, request a meeting with one of the directors. Learn all you can and store your information for future use.

Also realize that even with one type of event photography area, there can be many options.

For example, if you have a desire to photograph weddings, do you prefer the David’s Bridal mentality, or the Vera Wang? I talk about this in detail in a recent post Ways To Control The Wedding – A Photographers Guide To Becoming A Wedding Planner. Different ends of the spectrum, and you need to approach each in an entirely different way.

Target Your Marketing


After you learn all you can, then its time to create your marketing, and focus in on your exact clientele.

Keep in mind that some communities are very tight knit, and they rely strictly on referrals. It may take time to get in “the circle”, but once you do you have a wealth of opportunity. Don’t give up easily. It took us years to break into certain groups. But if you’ll be doing this for the next 10 to 15 years, what is a couple of years to get in with the right group?

We found that to be true with the high end wedding market, and with the bar/bat mitzvah market. Because of their personal needs and desires, both groups rarely went looking for the right vendor. Instead, they relied on one main source – the planner – to make the right choices for them. So the goal became to get in with the right planners, and leave the rest to fall in line.

While it’s important to have a dynamic web presence, it’s also important to have other collateral as well. However I can’t tell you how many boxes of business cards and brochures we’ve thrown away as our ideas change with time.

After several years of throwing away boxes, I found a simple solution.

I began building folders for my portfolio and marketing kit, and personalizing them for each client.

I started by selecting my favorite images showcasing a variety of ideas, and created a series of professional postcards. By creating postcards, you can use them for many things, including marketing kit material, and as greeting and thank you cards.

Then I would print off price lists, client referrals, service and package materials right before I met with a client, and weave them into the folder. With a variety of postcards to choose from, I could select the most relevant to the incoming client, and include that in their package.

This worked great as we built up our portfolio. A bride would love it if she saw a beautiful image located in the same reception site she was considering. It gave her ideas, and motivated her to want to use us as her wedding photographers.

People love experience, and they love suggestions. If they know you are the expert, and you’ve handled situations just like they are considering, you slide quickly to the top of their list.

Ask For Referrals

Even though people love experience, they also realize you have to start somewhere. If you are new to event photography, passion will help you create your business.

Start with your first resource, and ask them to give you a chance. Instead of doing a large, expensive event, is there something you can do that’s lower key to prove your expertise?

While a once a year rodeo that makes a million dollars for charity may not be a viable first choice, chances are there is a smaller horse event for young children at your local ranch. If you’ve met with the owners/managers, will they give you a try?

Create flyers for the parents, and advertise as much as possible. Then go above and beyond, building for your portfolio.

Don’t forget to thank the owners – provide them with a selection of images either mounted and framed or in an album.

Instead of focusing in on the end purchaser – a mom that buys a few images at her child’s event – focus on your referral source. A child may move on from a horse show to soccer to dance over a few year period. But the horse trainer or riding school will be in business long term, gaining new client after new client.

They are the one’s that will help keep your calendar filled.

And they are the one’s that can help you bring in thousands of dollars, especially over months or even years.

So that’s where you put your time and energy.

Keep your clients happy, and your referral sources ecstatic. And your business will thrive.