One of the best tools a professional wedding photographer can have is a great sample album. When booking clients, it’s important to be able to answer questions, establish value, and show customers the physical products they’ll be getting with their services. Photographers need to have a showcase for the quality and style of their photography and a way to show off the tangible professional wedding album that couples will receive. We’ve got 6 tips for creating a great sample album!
Seeing Is Believing
Do consumers purchase products having never seen an image or physical example before buying? Doubtful. When people are shopping, they’re looking at descriptions, reviews, pricing, and physical appearance in order to make a buying decision. “I’ll just see what it looks like when I get it,” said no one ever.
Sharing images, or better yet, allowing customers to experience the products that you sell like professional wedding albums and prints, increases their confidence in the value of what you are offering. Feeling the weight of a premium photo album, touching the sturdiness of a thick page, or even smelling the leather hide of a handcrafted wedding album can connect people through all of their senses.
Don’t make customers imagine what you mean by a professional flush mount wedding album, use these 6 tips for creating a great sample album.
6 Tips for Creating a Great Sample Album
1. Show What You Sell
If you include albums in your wedding collections, then you’ll have to show clients what you mean by professional wedding albums. Select the size, cover detail, and album design style that you will include in your collections. Keep the sample rather straightforward, and be sure to add a few customization options that are offered, like cover upgrades and glove leather colors.
While creating a sample of what clients will receive may seem obvious, it can be tempting to be too economical about a sample album purchase. Saving money by creating a studio sample that is smaller than the one included in your collection, or with a cost effective cover (for you) will leave clients having to imagine something better.
On the flip side, showing clients a great studio sample that has every single upgrade imaginable, with a maxed out spread count, and a slipcase, may seem a bit shady if all that bling is not included in their wedding collection.
2. Only the Best
When creating a studio sample keep in mind that while turning through the pages, clients are reviewing your work so make sure what you include in the album looks excellent printed. A panoramic image that could be breathtaking if it was sharper does not belong in your sample album.
It’s also nice to keep the focus on the couple when creating a great studio sample. Of course, bridal party pictures and pictures with some immediate family are nice to help narrate the day, but you don’t need to go heavy on all the family groupings and table shots. Potential clients will be way more wowed to see images that would focus on them.
3. Create a Professional Album Design
If you will be designing wedding albums for your clients, then stick with a clean design with 4 to 5 images per spread. Overcrowding images in an album degrades the overall aesthetic and can look crowded and cheap.
If you’re not interested in doing design, Zookbinders offers a design service with three unique album designs to choose from. Design preferences can be customized and taking this work off your plate can be a huge game changer when offering clients albums.
4. Showcase One Event
When creating a great sample album for your wedding clients, use one event. It’s important that couples see the entire day cohesively. Looking at a variety of couples from different events or photo session types doesn’t have as much impact as showcasing one wedding job. If a client is getting married, they don’t want to see pictures of babies, or puppies, or architecture in a professional photo album.
5. Don’t Overwhelm
Of the 6 tips for creating a great studio sample this might be the real sleeper. The paradox of choice is real. Avoid overwhelming customers when creating a great sample album and show limited variety. Showing multiple sizes, fifty cover options, six gilding colors and a spreadsheet to figure the cost is going to be distressing for a couple. Not only is it exhausting to consider that many options, it can lead to frustration and ultimately an unsigned contract.
Start with one sample wedding album and show customers something that ticks a lot of boxes.
“The 10 x 10 Timeless Album is included in the Rose Wedding Collection. This sample of the Timeless Album has a cameo on the cover. The cameo is one of 3 cover choices.”
To uncomplicate things, show an album with an average number of images and spread count to manage expectations. The average wedding album has between 75-100 images and 15 to 20 spreads. The most popular size at Zookbinders is a 10×10.
6.Parent’s Want Albums Too!
When creating your studio sample, ordering a replica album is as easy as clicking a button. Replica albums are duplicates of the main album, just a smaller version with a photo wrap cover. Having that parent album on hand plants the seed for an upgrade/add-on now or later.
Following the 6 tips for creating a great sample album means using your best images to design a professional wedding album that meets the needs of most clients, with options for upgrades. Samples are fun. People enjoy a test drive. They like to sample music before they buy. Who doesn’t like to try a tasty pizza puff or fresh baked cookie when they’re shopping at the grocery store? Yes, please!
Zookbinders, a McKenna company, offers a generous 50% off studio samples. Studio samples look just like regular albums, aside from having the words “Studio Sample”, printed on the inside front cover. To start creating your great sample album get registered here.
