Increase your income by selling to previous clients
Most of us photographers cringe at the idea of trying to sell to our couples. We don’t want to seem pushy. We are not in sales. We are creatives surely? But the crux of the matter is that this is our business. We need to make money – more now than ever in the midst of a worldwide pandemic! We then start to feel it’s just not the right time to try and sell. But whilst there may be people hit badly by the lack of work, like ourselves, there are also others who have not been.
So how does it usually work for most of us? Our couples marry, we provide an amazing online gallery and pray to the ‘god of wedding photography’ that our excited couple falls in love with each and every image and share the link far and wide. We then and cross our fingers that the orders will rush in for prints and albums. Sometimes the prayers pay off. Other times less so. So here is your chance to implement some quick and easy wedding album and print sales techniques that really work. Less hope and more action!
Wedding album and print sales techniques that really work
Optimise potential album and print sales
2020 may not have brought many weddings your way, but there is the opportunity to try and sell to previous clients. Are you fully utilising all opportunities?
Think of it this way. Our couples shop in the same way you do. You think about something you may want, but then you get distracted for a while. Until as-if-by-magic social media seems to drop a targetted advert (or 2) in front of you and reminds you about the thing you were thinking about last week. Often times, you’ll end up buying. It works the same way for our couples – they need reminding. A prompt. So prompt them! If you never ask, the answer is always no!
Image by NineDot Community member Eirik Halvorsen – Norway wedding photographer
Time-sensitive, automated emails for print sales
Sometimes a reminder email is all that is needed. Have you got your galleries set up to send automated reminders? Perhaps an initial offer once the gallery first goes lives – some money off if they order within a specific time-limited period. Then another reminder email when this period is coming to an end.
Learn the simple steps that we used to make over £10,000 in automated print sales in one year doing exactly that! HERE
Then there are also time-sensitive targeted promotional emails. This is what many of you could set in motion right now. It’s coming up to Christmas – have you set up automated emails to offer specific discounts for purchasing before a specific date? Don’t just throw that out there and fail to follow up – add a reminder mid-period and when the offer is coming to an end. Remember, it’s how we shop – we see something and are potentially interested in. We then get distracted, but a prompt to remind us encourages to buy. Your wording can help too, a possible Christmas gift for a loved one puts the idea into their head. Then follow it up light-heartedly. Not too ‘salesy’ and pushy, just a gentle reminder!
Check out our NineDots tutorial on quick and easy Christmas print sales via Shootproof here
Offers on prints work really well, but so do album offers. Firstly see if your album suppliers are offering any discounts and see if there is a way you can utilise this or even pass on the discount to your couples to encourage them to buy one. Contact previous couples and offer them a time-sensitive album discount. This could be a blanket percentage amount or certain amounts of money off of each type/size of album.
This NineDotters Testimonial is a perfect example of this:
“I did a blanket 25% off albums for November only. My supplier was offering 20% off anyway and I just added the extra 5% to help juice it up. Then it was just a case of telling people about it really and presenting it as best I could.
An initial email, a couple of social media posts and then a follow-up email to everyone who’d expressed interest… that kind of thing. Pretty simple. I made just over 3.5k profit in two weeks, which I’m pretty pleased about!”
Alex Miller – Midlands Wedding Photographer
Don’t forget, one of the many NineDot member’s benefits are the discounts you get as a member. That includes 10% off albums at Loxley Colour all year round. Loxley offer prints, albums, wall art and much more.
Images from NineDot Community member Adam Lowndes – Staffordshire Wedding Photographer
Follow up on social media
Send out the email to your couples who haven’t already bought albums. But don’t just leave it there wondering why your inbox isn’t fully with immediate takers – follow it up. Posts on your social media advertising the offer, showcasing your albums, showing ones you have designed or are designing – remind couples of your offer constantly. Don’t forget the follow-up email as the time-sensitive period is coming to an end. Remember people shop as we do. Sometimes we just need that prompt, that push to make the purchase.
Keep things simple
Keep in mind through all this is that no one wants to be sold to. Think carefully about what you are offering and how you are offering it. What you write needs to connect with them. They need to see what you are suggesting is something they want, and need.
It is also important that you make the purchase simple. Don’t offer too many things or make anything complicated. Don’t give too much choice. A blanket percentage off or £100 off a certain album is clear. Take them to an easy to fill in form and get them to hit send. Once you have that form, you know they want the album. Therefore even if it takes a while to chase up – they have committed.
Images from NineDot Community member Nadine Van Biljon – Richmond London Wedding Photographer
Sell from the start
Selling to your couples is made much easier if this is a process that you’ve implemented from the start of your contact with them.
Right from that initial email and brochure, be mentioning the benefit of a wedding album. Talk to every couple about ‘their wedding album’ in your consults. If they book a package without an album, offer upgrades to the ‘wedding album package’ in the run-up to their wedding. All of this groundwork, coupled with time-sensitive discounts: “This is the last chance before your wedding to upgrade to the album package and save £xxx” will make it more likely to pay off. But that’s not to say they won’t be effective without this – what have you got to lose?
See how you can use all your client touchpoints to lay the groundwork for selling albums (as well as some more great tips of workflow and client communication) here
Have you heard the DotCast yet? For more advice on selling albums in general and some fantastic sales tips from a NineDotter at the top of her game, tune into our podcast episode with Nadine Van Biljon here
Don’t forget, one of the many NineDot member’s benefits is the discounts we offer. That includes 10% off albums at Loxley Colour all year round. Loxley offer prints, albums, wall art and much more.
So what are you waiting for?
Implement some wedding album and print sales techniques that really work!
Image from NineDot Community member Chris Denner – Documentary Wedding Photographer