Professional photographers know that the most valuable tools for preserving memories are physical printed products. When photographing weddings, mitzvahs, newborns, family portraits, and boudoir, collections can include albums, wall art, and gift prints—but not all clients opt-in. Some prefer to DIY their prints or stick to digital-only packages when booking services. With these customers in mind, let’s look at some great tips for offering professional photo albums after events take place.
Just because clients didn’t purchase an album upfront doesn’t mean the opportunity is lost. Everyone has their own taste, budget, and understanding of what professional photo albums are. Checking in after the wedding, portrait session, or corporate event opens the door to an additional sale—one that can feel even more valuable once the excitement settles.
Understand Why Clients Go Digital-Only
There are several reasons clients might skip printed products initially:
- Consumers/customers aren’t aware of the quality and value of professional albums (hint: samples help).
- People are budget-conscious and plan to DIY to save money.
- Clients believe that digital files are enough because that is what their friends and family received from their photographer.
While pre-event education helps, it won’t sway everyone. That’s why following up after the event can be really helpful. Once the event is in the past and memories start to fade, many clients realize they want a tangible keepsake. Using these great tips for offering professional photo albums after events lets clients know what’s possible as you continue to elevate their experience.
A simple, friendly message letting them know an album is still an option can be all it takes to spark interest.
Be Prepared
If you’re not regularly creating albums for clients, a last-minute request—“Hey, we’d love to order a professional album!”— can quickly turn into a scramble. That’s why it’s so important to be prepared before those inquiries come in. Start by researching the album companies you want to work with and decide which products you feel confident offering. Know the available sizes, cover materials, paper types, and any customization options. Take the time to understand turnaround times and shipping fees as well.
Once you’ve selected your go-to products, gather visuals and resources to help clients make informed decisions. This could be a printed sample album, a physical brochure, a PDF catalog, and pricing that outlines your offerings. Having these tools ready makes it easier to secure a sale—and it helps the client visualize what they’re investing in.
Being prepared means less stress for you and a smoother, more confident sales process for your clients.
It’s All About the Benjamins
Pricing is a huge part of offering professional photo albums after events, or anytime. You need to know exactly what each photo album costs you, including per-spread pricing, cover upgrades, imprinting, and shipping. Once you’ve calculated your cost, apply your markup to ensure you’re making a profit.
Avoid estimating on the fly. Nothing undermines confidence in your product like backpedaling on price, and nothing undermines your business like losing money on a transaction. Take the time to calculate and present clear, tiered pricing options so clients can choose what works best for their budget. Highlight the base prices, and allow for upgrades.
Does the Math, Math?
One obstacle when offering professional photo albums after events may be that the cost of the album exceeds the cost of the services you provided so significantly the album price causes sticker shock. For example, if you photographed an 8-hour wedding for $800 and the retail cost of a professional photo album is $900 this might be a tough sell.
This situation can be avoided in the future by:
- Introducing clients to an album that may have fewer upgrades, be smaller in size, and more appropriate for the budget they came in with.
- Avoid confusion and price overwhelm by putting albums into collections. This allows clients to focus on one fixed price for a variety of services and products.
- Reevaluating the value of the services you provide an increase in your fees
Pro Tip: When including albums in collections, you are adding the cost and markup to the collection that includes your services, like a second photographer, and any wall art. Collections are great, but let’s get back to how we can offer professional photo albums after events.
Offering Professional Photo Albums After Events
When offering professional photo albums after events keep things simple. You may want to start off with a one album style, two size options, and one cover option. We’d suggest an 8×8 or 10×10 Lustre Book with a photo Wrap Cover and 50 images. Next present cover upgrades, like a full leather, cameo or acrylic cover. Then maybe add some more images, or a set of parent albums.
When talking about upgrades explain the additional cost rather than the total of a new product. For example, rather than saying a 10×10 Lustre Book with a leather cover and 75 images is $900, start at the base cost and work your way up.
Think about people putting things in a shopping cart online. They’re picking out items that they want on an individual basis and cost. They don’t look at their shopping cart until they go to check out. Remember, you can always remove things from the shopping cart, but once the desire is there it may be challenging.
- The Lustre Book with a photo wrap cover and 50 images is $650
- Full Leather Cover with Cameo $200
- Add 50 images +$250
- 2-6×6 Replica (Parent) Albums +$450
With this method you aren’t coming out of the gate with a $1500+ price tag—you’re filling up the basket with what the client likes. This all adds up to $1550, and if the price has surpassed the budget they can always take a step back, or maybe just increase the budget to get what truly makes them happy.
Note that the prices listed are for example only. Research, analysis and accounting should play a part in determining your retail pricing.
Show and Tell
Sometimes seeing is believing. Customers who have never purchased a professional photo album may not know what a professional album looks like. They might imagine a basic book with one photo per page—not an artistic, modern design. So showing clients what they may be getting by pre-designing an album or even a handful of spreads might create interest in moving forward towards an album when one wasn’t included in their collection.
When pre-designing you may want to use tools like Fundy, Smart Albums, or even creating a few spreads in Photoshop. However, be sure to account for your time which is money and you don’t want to invest too heavily in something that no one has committed to purchase.
Pre-designing works great for weddings, events, and portrait sessions. When revealing your images to a client, doing in-person sales, or sending a gallery, you can also share a link to the beginnings of an album design.
Sample email script:
Hi –
I’m so excited to share your senior portrait gallery with you. I love the images, and I was thinking of doing a sample photo album. I started to do a layout, and I wanted to share it with you. I know your collection didn’t include an album, but you still have the option to add one! Check out this design.
For portrait clients, showing design style options allows them to imagine what their design might look like. Better yet, pre-design something from their images for emotional impact. Designing on speculation feels like too much work with no guarantee, try this lower-effort tactic. Using the premade editable brochures that Zookbinders has on our S.M.A.R.T. page to reconnect with clients you worked with in the past. Even if a client didn’t originally purchase an album, the story isn’t over. Try offering professional photo albums after events with a three-part email campaign aimed at rekindling interest in a professional photo album.
Consider this sequence of messaging with the brochures:
- Highlight the emotional value of professional photo albums.
- Share testimonials and photos of finished products.
- Mention anniversaries, milestones, or gift opportunities—ideal times to revisit the idea of a printed keepsake.
Keep the Conversation Going
These great tips for offering professional photo albums after events shouldn’t feel pushy – it’s merely helping clients get what they may have missed out on. Also, it’s not about discounting — this isn’t a fire sale. Stick to profitable pricing. You are creating something that has lasting value. Your clients trusted you to capture their most important moments. Helping them preserve those memories in a tangible way is part of that trust. Don’t leave memories — or money—on the table.
Need help generating album sales? Visit Zookbinders to explore all the options or schedule a chat with an expert.
