Hi..
Robins Album-Party in Dec. 2006 inspired us to do a slideshow like she did to promote the album.

Here is the result:

http://www.emotions-photography.de


What do you think?
I know.. the text is in german.. just some very emotional words.

CC welcome:-)
Juergen

Great job! Who's your album company?

Thank you:-)

I work with a very small spanish bookmaker.
None of the big companies.
He charges me an arm and a leg but i love his work.

Most of my albums are 14x14 and the price per single page is about 19,50 USD + about 100 USD for the Cover.

So a 30 page album would be around 685 USD.
I have seen Graphie at the photokina in autum 2006 but i was not that impressed by the worked they showed.

In my album there are real photos and no inket or digioffset prints.

Yea, Robin is incredible ... she has got to be the queen of album sales!!!

I think Robin needs to start teaching her style and methods. She has so much valuable insight and information to share, and many can benefit from her expertise.

ditto!

thanks you guys!

Juergen - it looks great! except that i have no ides what you wrote! (such an american )


here's the page that Juergen saw - you remided me to change the last page, since our event has passed.

http://www.bellissimaphoto.com/slideshows/ALBUMS/index.html

we had a great time and an unblieveable turn out. so many people put a credit toward their books as a result of the event. they will get a huge bonus of 25%. (we will never offer that again, so they really did get a special!)
let me know if you want any album party details!

Nice work Juergen. And you are right, your Spanish binder does awesome work! That binding is fantastic, I couldn't even see the seem between pages.
I "borrow" from Robin's amazing albums as well, and I gave credit
http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...?showtopic=2773

Hi, very nice album!

Quick question... how do you change the background for your slideshow like that?

b

Bethany,

There's some info in this post that might help you (or at least I hope it helps)

Robin,
i appreciate any party detail you can share with us.
To be honest.. i try to do a party like yours for a friend of mine.
She is a wedding photographer for about 2 1/2 years and is not really into the albums.
So i offered her to help on the after-wedding-sale.
She has about 10 - 15 past clients with enough photos to do a nice album for them.

How long did your party go?
I guess i am going to introduce the album to the whole group and and talk to each individually afterwards.
What did your other guest do during this time?
How did you entertain them?

I would love to hear what you can tell me:-)

yours
Juergen

this is the WHOLE STORY....

this whole thing started out as a party to introduce all the sample albums that we were ordering. and offer ONE DAY ONLY specials. i set a date to force myself to get things done! december 10th worked because we were done shooting for the year, and it was before christmas - so people could use this as their chirstmas present!

the party was from 3-5 (but went longer than that)

here are all the details.

a little background...
my first wedding last year was in february. the bride was actually contracted with another photographer (as we found out later) and actually broke her contract and lost her deposit to have us shoot her wedding. i was so flattered when i found out, that i wanted to do an extra good job.
she pre-paid for her albums to take advantage of our pre-payment policy. and when the wedding was over, i just went ahead and made her album to surprise her - i didn't realize that i had just done a pre-design!!! fast forward a few months later, i watched gary fong's dvd's and we decided to predesign for all 2006 weddings. so i did.

the next step in my mind was to show people finished books. so i searched and compared and chose the companies that i liked best (for now). and since i had all these pre-designs to choose from, my samples were done! ordering samples also helped us develop our album flow - since this was all pretty new to me.

we had a BUNCH of clients who never ordered an album - pretty much just got busy and this whole 'wedding album thing' gets dropped by them. i thought that if i did the book for them, they might want it, BUT we're talking dozens of weddings! i cannot just do a pre-design HOPING someone would want it. especially when these older clients were on much smaller budgets. we have had a HUGE price restructuring over the last 2 years. our albums are WAY more than they paid for their coverage - so that can be a though sell.

what i came up with was the FEE FOR PRE-DESIGN. $500. how it works is in our contract, but basically, if someone wants an album, it starts with a pre-design. period. this fee is $500 for wedding albums, $250 for other albums. then, if once they see the pre-design they decide that the want to continue to printing - they have to commit to the album by singing the agreement. IF THEY DON'T like it, they do not have to continue, but the pre-design fee is non-refundable. i had to figure out a way to find out IF someone was even interested before i stared the work! fee for pre-design allows us to go backward without wasting time and effort. also, the fee can be applied to the cost of the book - at our discretion. this is not in our contract, but we surprise people with this when they commit to their book. (this fee is included in our coverage - thus adding value to our coverage)

so that's the background. we then set a budget of $300 for the party, and sent out an invitation that was an intro to the party and an note that an email would follow with details. then we sent the email, with a 'taste' of some of the specials... including 1/2 off the pre-design fee.
then we sent emails explaining how the process works. people STILL don't understand it - you have to explain it over and OVER again. this is new to them!

we expected about 5 couples to come. and the first round of responses was about 5 people. we sent our emails each week, hyping it up a bit more. i put the little slide show of our albums samples up, just to make people curious - that's why you don't see any full album pictures.

we asked people to join us for food an cocktails and to bring their appetites! brenda made the most amazing food, and we had some catered, and we had wine from napa valley and pennsylvania! we sent out one last reminder, and the replies went nuts! what started out as a good reply, ended up being about 34 people. (and that didn't include people who live out of town!) we freaked - tripled our budget and went shopping for food and favors. our favors were godiva chocolate baskets that included a ceramic bowl. plush!

my house is only 900 square feet - a tiny one-bedroom cottage. so i had to move everything that you couldn't sit on down the basement and out to the garage. people started arriving at 2:30- the party was 3-5.

my house was PACKED - we couldn't even talk to everyone! everyone was chatting and laughing and NOT eating enough! we invited a couple who wanted to book us, since it was the only time we could meet, and they booked us right away. and we had another couple picking up albums, so they got to show theirs off!

at one point we all gathered in the main room of my house and i did a quick explanation of the pre-design process, and showed each album sample.

it was about 6:30 and we were sitting with a few couples and i just HAD to know.... WHY SIS YOU COME? it was because they had so much fun with us, and knew our style, and couldn’t wait to see what kind of party we would throw. talk about flattered!! i love our clients - that's why we have so much fun! i told them i was afraid that no one would know each other and they all LAUGHED! they said they all knew each other from my BLOG! they said they knew becky had her pictures at the fountain at the point, and jim & lisa jumped in a swimming pool at the end of the night, and everyone's eSessions involved a fountain somehow... people really read that stuff! they said they felt like celebrities because everyone knew them, and they knew everyone there.

i did have a $$ goal, which was surpassed by deposits alone. but it didn't end there. about 50% of our clients live out of town, and since it was sooooooooooo crazy, we extended the specials until december 30, and included all the out of town clients. to be fair, we had to extend it past the 1 day.

this really was a unique party. now everyone sees our samples when they meet with us, but we will probably have a party each year with some specials.

we have been very busy and working up to this for 2 years now. we could have easily done this with a MUCH smaller budget. small favors, like candy and candles or a little pack of flower seeds in a little flower pot, for example - gosh, anything - you go to weddings, what do you see as favors? i think this is important to do. you thank your client for just making the effort to come! even if your album sales rep brings their samples, you have something to show- and it will cost you NOTHING. we started with renaissance albums, and our rep was outstanding - he let us borrow albums all the time. this is the sales reps JOB - they will want to come and show them! you could also have a few snacks and drinks. make them easy to eat - finger sandwiches and little cans of soda pop and water - pretty cups with straws. none of this stuff is expensive, but it makes people feel special and welcome.

then HYPE it UP! emails and blog! put it on your website! invite everyone you can!

a note about specials. LIMIT the discounts - instead give bonuses. we gave a 25% album bonus (not a discount). we gave 1/2 off the album pre-design, but we kind of give that away anyhow. buy one, get one on parents' albums. you could run a special for eSessions if they book a wedding.

think a LOT before you do one. PLAN a LOT, and have FUN!

Printing Robin and hanging on the wall, as usual. You are brilliant and so is Brenda! My house is 1100 sq ft, so I could do it too!

Hi Robin,
do you know the difference between a manager and a lead?

Managers motivate....
Leaders inspire....

Guess who you are:-))))

Thank you for taking the time to write such an extensive post on your party.
I have to think about a lot of details now.

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH...

Juergen

P.S.: If you ever come to germany.. feel free to stay with us:-)

you are quite welcome!

i'd love to see germany! i'll keep that in mind! osp germany!