Featuring: Photographer and Educator, Erika Delgado
The holiday season is the perfect opportunity to follow-up with couples who didn’t purchase an album after their wedding (or to offer parent albums), and a pop-up album sale can be a great way to generate extra income during a slow season. This entire system, outlined below, can take an hour or so to set up if you’ve never done it before. Then, it’s an easy workflow of about 20-30 minutes to reimplement for future sales.
Pro Tip: I use my 3-Step-System and an order form I share in my Sell Albums Like a Pro course to easily take client orders without the hassle of numerous emails regarding design and revisions. I know a lot of photographers avoid album sales because it can be tedious if you don’t have a system. But, it can be easy-breezy once you’ve set up a solid workflow!
STEP ONE
Prepare two lists. The first list: Clients who did not purchase an album after their wedding. Imagine a client who very recently purchased an album from you gets an email on a discount they were not offered. Awkward and unnecessary. Make sure to curate an email list of clients who never purchased an album upfront.
The second list: Clients who did purchase an album for themselves, but did not buy parent or grandparent albums. This can be an easier sell because the client’s parents have likely already seen the couples’ album, and the opportunity to buy one on sale is a push to go for it! Also, you can incentivize these even more since you already have a design on file and it’s an easy “print the duplicate” situation! This is how I pitch it – “the sale is for the existing design” and sometimes parents will ask for a revision and that’s also doable – you can charge hourly or per spread.
STEP TWO
Prepare your email templates. Keep them simple and straight to the point and save them as templates for future sales. I send an email to each client individually instead of a mass email. You’ll have to decide what works best for your business but this method works well for me and feels way more personable. Below are some examples of what I say. Feel free to tweak to your liking.
Remember, you need to make sure you’ve priced your albums for-profit – determine a sale price that still allows you to profit after hard cost and soft costs. The number below is based on my numbers and it may not work for you. Also, be sure to create urgency, or else nothing will happen. I suggest giving people 1 week to decide. Lastly, give them a call to action. In my course Sell Albums Like a Pro, I teach you how to set up your order forms and consultation process. For now, you can use Calendy, a contact form on your website, or simply ask them to reply to the email.
Email for couples who did not purchase an album :
Hi ______________,
I hope you and X are doing well! (Include anything relevant: if you follow your client on social media and see they just got a puppy, congratulate them!)
I wanted to personally let you know about our Album Sale that starts today! With Christmas around the corner, I wanted to extend the invitation to purchase your wedding album at a discounted price. It’s very rare that we run this type of sale, so I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out in case you’re still pondering how to get all of your photos nicely designed in an heirloom book.
Here are the steps to get started:
- The discount is $250 off each album purchased, and you’ll need to let me know if you want to take advantage of it by, __________. Schedule your consult call here to get started!
- We’ll have our 1:1 consult call to determine your final design, cover treatments, and a payment plan so we can have your album in your hands asap!
Wholeheartedly,
Erika
Email for clients who purchased an album, but not parent albums:
Hi X,
I hope you and X are doing well! (Include anything relevant: if you follow your client on social media and see they just got a puppy, congratulate them!)
I wanted to personally let you know about our Parent Album Sale that starts today! With Christmas around the corner, I wanted to extend the invitation to purchase your wedding album at a discounted price. It’s very rare that we run this type of sale, so I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out.
Here are the steps to get started:
- The discount is $250 off each album purchased, and you’ll need to let me know if you want to take advantage of it by, __________. Schedule your consult call here to get started!
- We’ll have our 1:1 consult call to determine your final design, cover treatments, and a payment plan so we can have your album in your hands asap!
Wholeheartedly,
Erika
Follow up email, the day before the sale ends:
Hi X,
I hope you’re having a great day! I just wanted to send a friendly reminder that our album sale ends tomorrow at midnight. Would you like to take advantage of the savings?
Here are the steps to get started:
- The discount is $250 off each album purchased and you’ll need to let me know if you want to take advantage of it by tomorrow, no later than midnight. We have a strict deadline, so please schedule your consult call here to get started! I don’t want you to miss out :)
- We’ll have our 1:1 consult call to determine your final design, cover treatments, and a payment plan so we can have your album in your hands asap!
Wholeheartedly,
Erika
STEP THREE
Include photos and a video of the product in your email. Even better is an actual link to a real design. Remember if the client doesn’t see the album, they won’t buy it. You’ll need to entice the client within the first few seconds of opening their email with beautiful imagery, the details of the album, and what the inside of the album looks like. If you have a section on your website for albums, definitely include that link in the original offer email.
STEP FOUR
Prepare a social media post. Announce that you’re running an album sale if you want to take it a step further. I’ve done this on my Instagram stories before and clients will DM me back with interest. Use an album image and keep it simple. I use apps like Canva and Unfold to put text on an image.
STEP FIVE
Prepare a plan for fulfilling your orders.
Design. I personally design an album for every client (I share my entire process in Sell Albums Like a Pro) so an album sale is super easy and extremely valuable for me. If you have the time and want to design the client’s album to send in the original email, you could have a better chance of making the sale. But, whatever you do, do not have the client choose their own images. If the client has an existing gallery and has favorites marked – use those favorites in the design. Take the lead, you’re the pro!
Set deadlines with the client: Once the client books their consult call, explain to them that your system ensures that they will get their album designed and delivered just in time for the holidays, which means that you both need to adhere to a timeline. Communicate deadlines from the beginning. It is your responsibility to set them and stick to them. If a client does not meet a deadline, be prepared to send a reminder and give them one more chance before late fees kick in. (I share how I communicate these tricky conversations in a set of Email Templates in Sell Albums Like a Pro).
Always be their biggest cheerleader. Remind clients of how exciting it is to receive their final album. Encourage them to look forward to this treasure! Our clients are always looking to us for guidance as their storytellers. Work with enthusiasm and joy :)
