How to Sell More Albums During the Holidays

A simple, 30-minute process for selling more albums this holiday season.

The holidays are fast approaching. ‘Tis the season for rushing around frantically trying to find the perfect gift for parents and loved ones.

But do you know what makes the perfect gift? Handcrafted, heirloom wedding albums.

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. Albums make a great gifts for parents, who can be especially hard to shop for around the holiday season.

This makes it much more likely for couples to order an album. And it’s a win-win: Your clients get something real they can cherish forever, and you get some additional holiday season spending money.

And we totally getcha if the thought of selling albums gives you a headache. But we’re going to give your our step-by-step process for selling more albums during the holidays.

How to Sell Wedding Albums Around the Holidays

This entire process can take less than 30 minutes and result in a few extra thousand dollars in your pocket. Here’s how it works…

Step 1: Find out your album company’s holiday deadlines.

Most album companies are going to need orders placed by early-to-mid December at the latest to have it ready by Christmas. Your album company probably has dates listed on their websites. You’ll want to make sure albums orders are submitted at least two weeks in advance of this date to avoid rush fees.

Step 2: Put together two lists. One list of couples who didn’t purchase an album and one list of couples who did not purchase parent albums.

Be sure to include those couples who ordered an album but did not order a parent album. They can be easy orders because their parents have most likely seen the quality of the album and may have even mentioned wanting one.

Parent albums are great holiday gifts! And parents are often hard to shop for.

The design process for parent albums is also usually much easier because you already have a design on file for the couple. If that’s the case, you should offer a deeper discount for parent albums. Not only does this incentivize the couple/parents to purchase, but it also saves you time because you won’t have to go through the design revision process.

Step 3: Create a quick email that you can send out to your clients asking if they would be interested in a wedding album before Christmas.

Create an email template that you can reuse for your couples. Don’t worry about being “salesy.” Wedding albums really are great gifts. And if you’re like us, you believe in the importance of printing photos! 

The email can be short and sweet, and you can even modify the ones we have below…

Hi Chris,

I hope all is well! We’re running a holiday sale on wedding albums and thought you might be interested with Christmas right around the corner. If you decide to order one before Monday, November 13th, you’ll save $150. The albums are top-notch—they’re handcrafted and come with leather or linen covers.

Let me know if you’re interested and we can start the process!

Sincerely,

Davey & Krista

 

Or for those who you are offering parent albums…

 

Hi Amy,

I hope all is well! With the holidays around the corner, I wanted to let you know that we’re running a holiday sale on parent albums. If you order a parent album before Monday, November 13th, you’ll save $150. They make great holiday gifts for parents.

Let me know if you’re interested and we can get those ordered!

Sincerely,

Davey & Krista

Just make sure your emails have a personal touch!

Step 4. Have a plan for fulfilling the order.

If a couple is interested in ordering an album, we’ll pull together a design with the highlights from the day and begin the revision process. Once the design is complete, we send them over a link to our album selection page to streamline the ordering process.

We used to list out all the options in an email and send them a photo of the swatches, but we found that process to be a little disorganized and we never actually ended up showing them all of the options (and thus we missed out on income!) We never imagined how many couples would be interested in engraving, larger albums and cameos – but they are!

<<Get the Album Sales Add-on Page: It’s a webpage that makes you money!>>

What ever you do, finish one step before starting the next. We finalize the design before sending them our album page with the options. It makes the process run smoothly and prevents decision overwhelm!

Tips for Selling Wedding Albums around the Holidays

Selling wedding books around the holidays doesn’t have to be headache. Use these tips to streamline the process for you and your customers.

Offer a discount. It adds an incentive to purchase and we think it also makes the entire process seem less “salesy.”  Some photographers will offer additional discounts for parent albums that use the same design you used for your couples (we do!). Figure out what works for you!

Include a deadline. This not only encourages couples to make a decision, but it also ensures you have time to go through the design and revision process.Ideally you would place an order for the album no later than the Monday after Thanksgiving to avoid rush fees.

Send an album design in your sales email. Showing clients what their album could looks like is a great way to encourage them to purchase! But it also helps provide a starting point for the design process. Instead of the couple having to choose all the photos from scratch, they can simply make revisions to an existing design.

Some photographers will actually send over an album design with the initial sales email. We don’t do this because it takes too much time, but we could totally see it being an effective tactic.

Get started early. Ideally you would send your emails by the end of October so that couples have enough time to respond and you have enough time for the design process. Communicate clearly what your offer’s deadline is, and if someone is interested make sure they know when the design process needs to be completed.

Albums really do make the perfect holiday gifts. And it’s also an opportunity to make some extra money around the holidays. Good luck!

Do you have a favorite method for selling albums around the holidays? We’d love to hear about it. Let us know in the comments below.