Welcome! In this article we will examine album image selection as a value added service. I’ll preface our conversation by noting that there are many ways to approach image selection, such as letting clients select their album images, and there is no right or wrong way. It is about what works best for you, your business and your clients. The views expressed here are generated from my many conversations with photographers over the years.
Furthering the thinking from my last article, which can be found by clicking here, leads me to an organic conclusion that image selection is a value added service you provide for your clients. It will add more value and prestige to your business that ends with a high level of customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to an increased bottom line. To achieve that end result, keep the album as a treasured item for your client and a mobile marketing piece for you, the selected images must be a limited amount of THE BEST OF THE BEST.
Your clients picked you for their photography needs! They truly paid for your art, products and services. Consider these questions; does the typical bride know how to pick out a limited number of your best pictures to produce the most amazing album possible? Is the groom going to be able to help her? Are they going to consider how the images will look on the page? Will they be overwhelmed trying to decide between the pictures you show them? Will they want so many images that you will have to make a collage page? Will a collage page highlight your photographic art? Will a page like that actually be dramatic enough to capture their moment? Is she going to want to slide in pictures from a friend’s point and shoot? How much time will you spend retouching all these images for them?
With a limited amount of your best pictures you are making your album designing experience better. This is because you will not have to retouch “x” number of images, and you will also be able to deliver a higher quality album for them in a quick turnaround time. For instance, when a couple returns from their honeymoon are they ready to take care of their post-wedding photographic needs immediately? Or do they need to write a whole lot of thank you cards? How long will it take them to pick their images? How much time will you allow them to decide on their images? By letting them pick their images you are actually allowing the perceived value of your work to diminish day-by-day. The importance of the album goes down along with opportunities for print sales. Therefore, by providing image selection as a service, you will have the album designed by the time they return from their honeymoon and delivered before they finish their thank you cards.
As a professional photographer you provide the best possible customer experience backed with great services and products in order to ensure repeat business. If they pick their images, how stressful will all this be for you as the photographer and for your client? Is your client going to abide by your rules and regulations to must have and additional images? Forget about all this nonsense affecting your business’s growth. Make the overall album experience easier on you and your client by selecting the images as a value added service. The key to true profitability is efficiency, higher quality products and services, decreased waste, well managed operations, increased perceived value and increased client satisfaction levels.
By providing album image selection as a service, you heighten your service value and prestige, lead to true profitability, take the stress out of image selection, gain back your marketing piece, wow clients and their friends and you will have a great time while doing so, especially since you did not have to retouch 200 images for the album! Next time we will be talking about the relationship between image selection and album design.
Jay Michael Stevens Forbeyon's Customer Care Manager Forbeyon is the photographer's sole album destination Find us at: website: www.forbeyon.com twitter: http://twitter.com/Forbeyon facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Forbeyon-Inc/92723162750
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Good article, Jay. I used to provide only a hand-picked Best Of proof book as you suggest. I had a bride remember me taking a photo that was not in my hand-picked selection. She was not concerned about the less than perfect composition – she wanted the memory. That was many years ago, in the film days. I now do online proofing, and I now do both, creating a “proofs” gallery with everything (except out of focus, blinking, etc. images) in it, and an “Artist’s Picks” gallery which I urge them to choose from, for the reasons you outlined above. I’ve found that few orders come from the Proofs gallery, but it’s provided if needed. I use SmugMug for my gallery; they do not charge based on storage size, so this does not cost me anything extra for disk space. I use all that in “value added” marketing.
That is a great approach Kevyn! Making sure you give the best of both approachs. Kudos to you! And I hope it helps you get killer sales.