084: Lovise Gard – How To Sell Albums & Prints To Make A Sustainable Photography Business

I feel like selling products is a great way to make sure that it’s sustainable and that the photography business works in the long run, and so that people don’t have to, like I said, chase clients all the time. I shoot 10 to 15 weddings a year and that’s plenty for a good salary for me. So I sell products. I sell products actually both after the engagement shoots and after the wedding. So after the engagement shoot, I do these image boxes as well as an album that I’ve redesigned to be kind of a guestbook and an album all in one.

And then after the wedding, they have an album included in the package, just like a standard small one, which they always end up upgrading. And then also, I sell pictures for the wall and image boxes. And in addition to that, I also sell other services. So I sell a sneak peek that they can buy and get… I can’t remember the exact amount of photos actually, but it’s 30 or 40 images that they get instantly within 48 hours so that they have something right after the day to share on social and share with their family and friends and just see. And then also, I sell express delivery, which is I can guarantee getting all the photos to them in two weeks instead of eight. So basically it’s just jumping the line, we’re cutting the line, which if you look to other businesses, that’s a normal thing. You can pay extras to go first in line on the plane or anywhere else. So why not?

We have this, we have this, we have that. And they were just overwhelmed and ended up just leaving, not buying anything because they didn’t know what to do. And that’s also part of why niching down, I’m sure most people have heard about this lately because it’s been really big. But it’s so important to niche down not only on your style and your services but also on products. My clients don’t need 10 different things for the wall. For me, they can choose if they want a frame or no frame, so much easier. And then I could compliment that with an image box or an album or other things.

And I messed up so much with that client. And it’s really awkward too, because I’m from a small place. I meet them all the time. But like I said, I put all these spreadsheet out on the table because one, it was overwhelming not just for the client but also for me with all these products I couldn’t keep track, and so I couldn’t remember any of these prices. So when he was like, “What are the prices?” I was like, “Here you go, you can look at all these.” And also like we talked about earlier, I projected my budget over on them by… I was scared to say the price out loud because I was like, “That’s a lot of money.” So I was like, “You can just read it for yourself.” And then he ended up asking me, “Can I just take this home and just think about it?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure.” And then after he left I realized that, “Oh, that’s my purchasing price plus all the math with multiplying it with four or five and whatever.” And so he got all the details. So it was super awkward.