Wedding Albums, what do you use?

amumonamission

amumonamission

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Sarah
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I would like to offer wedding albums to my customers.

I have looked at a few websites but I wondered what you fellow togs usually offer to your clients? Do you supply the traditional ones, where you add the prints yourself or digital, the ones where the photos are actually printed on the pages? Also what company do you use? I've looked at some albums that look lovely in the photo's but it's hard to tell what the quality would be like with out actually physically seeing it. Would rather get some sort of idea of what is more popular and hear for some of you who have used a particular company and product before I order any samples.

Thanks in advance for your help :)
 
Sarah

My sincere recommendation is to make two choices.

1) What type of albums do you want to use either from a convenience (slip in), or artistic control (custom mounts, or digital page). It is possible to offer both going from bottom package to top package.

2) Work out how much you can afford to spend on an album if you are including it in your packages, or as an add-on - based on your ability to charge for the image taking and design parts of the service.

There is no point in supplying Albums Australia, Queensberry or Jorgensen albums if your down in the sub-£1500 price range and likewise if you are over £1000 you would be unlikely to be offering Blurb books.

You can improve your quality of album as you increase your prices, or only have a high quality album for your top package to encourage upgrades.

Don't underestimate the impact on your profit that a £500 album + prints & delivery can have.

FWIW I used - Mario Acerboni, SIM2000 and Albums Australia. My album packages ranged from £1500 to £3400.

There are plenty of roadshows throughout the year where the album companies turn up with samples or there is always SWPP and Focus annual convention/trade-shows in January and March.
 
meonshore said:
Sarah

My sincere recommendation is to make two choices.

1) What type of albums do you want to use either from a convenience (slip in), or artistic control (custom mounts, or digital page). It is possible to offer both going from bottom package to top package.

2) Work out how much you can afford to spend on an album if you are including it in your packages, or as an add-on - based on your ability to charge for the image taking and design parts of the service.

There is no point in supplying Albums Australia, Queensberry or Jorgensen albums if your down in the sub-£1500 price range and likewise if you are over £1000 you would be unlikely to be offering Blurb books.

You can improve your quality of album as you increase your prices, or only have a high quality album for your top package to encourage upgrades.

Don't underestimate the impact on your profit that a £500 album + prints & delivery can have.

FWIW I used - Mario Acerboni, SIM2000 and Albums Australia. My album packages ranged from £1500 to £3400.

There are plenty of roadshows throughout the year where the album companies turn up with samples or there is always SWPP and Focus annual convention/trade-shows in January and March.
Click to expand...

Hiya Mike,

Thanks for the advice.

As I am just starting as a business my packages range from £240-£450 and include a CD of images. I have had many customers ask about albums so I am thinking that I would have a range of albums as an add on.

I see your point though about the cost of the albums compared to the cost of the packages I offer as it seems silly to me to offer albums that would be more expensive than my original package price. So I suppose I would be looking at selling them for between £50-£100 as an add on. Is that possible without them being cheap and nasty?

How do I find out about the road shows?
 
mark1616 said:
As Mike says, it really depends which route you are going down and take it from there.

I personally use Bob's Books for my cheap album package and then Sim2000 and Graphi for the rest. Can't fault the quality with the latter two that's for sure.
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Thanks Mark. I have a catalogue for SIM2000. I will have a look at those others, I take it that you must also be happy with bob's books or you wouldn't still be using them?
 
amumonamission said:
Hiya Mike,

Thanks for the advice.

As I am just starting as a business my packages range from £240-£450 and include a CD of images. I have had many customers ask about albums so I am thinking that I would have a range of albums as an add on.
Click to expand...

Then you need to find something that your demographic of customer would

(a) pay for
(b) makes you additional money above your (very) low coverage + disk fee

The issue with (stereotyped but based on experience) customers at that price range is that they expect a lot from an album but won't pay for it.

I see your point though about the cost of the albums compared to the cost of the packages I offer as it seems silly to me to offer albums that would be more expensive than my original package price. So I suppose I would be looking at selling them for between £50-£100 as an add on. Is that possible without them being cheap and nasty?
Click to expand...

Yes - but if you did a single image per page Blurb book for about £30 of cost and charged £100 for it then that would be about the right ratio. The £70 of profit covers your time and talent to make the book. But you have to appreciate that they could do that themselves....

It isn't worth spending 2 days designing a complex album, having them approve it etc and make less than £30 per day.

How do I find out about the road shows?
Click to expand...

Look at the album suppliers news pages, FB page, twitter feeds, or the SWPP, Photoworks, or google wedding roadshows or photography roadshows.
 
mark1616 said:
You're welcome and yes, happy with Bob's for a £900 coffee table book package, the difference in quality compared to Sim and Graphi is vast so it is generally an easy up sell to the better options.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I take it you have examples that you take to show your customers so that they are able to see the quality difference?

Also how do you go about sending proofs to customers. With these albums?
 
meonshore said:
Then you need to find something that your demographic of customer would

(a) pay for
(b) makes you additional money above your (very) low coverage + disk fee

The issue with (stereotyped but based on experience) customers at that price range is that they expect a lot from an album but won't pay for it.



Yes - but if you did a single image per page Blurb book for about £30 of cost and charged £100 for it then that would be about the right ratio. The £70 of profit covers your time and talent to make the book. But you have to appreciate that they could do that themselves....

It isn't worth spending 2 days designing a complex album, having them approve it etc and make less than £30 per day.



Look at the album suppliers news pages, FB page, twitter feeds, or the SWPP, Photoworks, or google wedding roadshows or photography roadshows.
Click to expand...

Thanks mike I really appreciate your advice here.

I will Google blurb to see what they have to offer, that seems appropriate at the moment based on my package costs. I am still within my first year of trading so wanted to offer an appropriately priced service based on my wedding photography experience hence my low priced packages.

I have asked m as to also but I'm just wondering how you send proofs to the customer once you have designed the album?

Thanks again :)
 
Mornig Sarah, yes, I have at least one sample of each album type so an informed decision can be made, I wouldn't expect someone to pay £1500-£2000+ without seeing what they were getting.

As for proofs, I send them as a pdf so everything from layout to spelling of text can be checked by the client just in case they are not happy with something.
 
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