The average album leaving our factory has a date on the cover that is 9 months ago!  This means that the customer is selecting their photos 6 months after the event, when their interest and motivation has dropped considerably.

When brides are making the selections within a few weeks, photographers share the following benefits: ecstatic customers, larger orders, more upgrades, and of course higher profits!  They also noticed a HUGE increase in referrals.  So before you think of all the reasons why this can’t work, here’s the secret:  pre-select the photos you recommend should be in the album.  Simply create a grouping of 100 photos and call them: “photographers favorites” or “photographer’s choice”.   Rather than presenting 1000+ images with no guidance, this gives your clients a ‘head start’ in choosing the photos they want for their album.

You are better equipped than your bride both technically and artistically to choose the images best suited for an attractive album. Why not get the ball rolling and make the selections for her? You can breeze through hundreds of images in pro software, make quick side-by-side comparisons, and flag the images you know will best tell the story. If you were behind the lens on the wedding day, then you know who the key players are, and the most memorable parts of the day. Even if your selections are not 100% right, it will be much easier for the bride to simply tweak your selections than start from scratch.

Consider this process an up-sell opportunity as well. Let’s say you’ve pre-sold your couple on an album with 85 images. Present them with 85 plus 20 or 30 more you think really add to the narrative, and be ready to tell them that it will only cost $__ to keep the added images in their album. If they bite, you’ve just increased your sale!

We talk to many photographers who are frustrated by waiting for their clients to choose the photos.  Many still take a “wait and see” approach and even warn brides that they have a limited time to order their album before prices go up. Often these approaches only exacerbate an already stressful and overwhelming task for brides. She might struggle for hours to open each of her 1,300 images in some picture viewer program trying to figure out if jpg 672 is better than jpg 673 on her (uncalibrated) computer monitor. It’s time consuming, frustrating and just might lead to her procrastinating.  …Which is why you want to make it easy for your customers to order.

If you’re not already using our album design service, then here’s a way to further improve your workflow and your bottom line: Once you and your bride have agreed on the final images for her album, you’ll do any necessary retouching and then just upload them to us for design. We’ll turn around a stunning, modern album design in a matter of days that your customer is sure to love.

Once she has approved her design, you’ll have even more up-sell opportunities.  Our customized shopping cart feature that was designed to tempt your customers with album upgrades, clone copies for parents, even ready-to-hang framed pieces featuring their favorite page spread. Click the “Need help with album design?”  link from www.Zookbinders.com or visit www.zookiepro.com for more details.

So don’t let extra income from album sales slip right through your fingers. I challenge you to make it your company’s stated goal to not only deliver beautiful wedding images, but to put a finished wedding album in the hands of your customer within two months of their wedding. A happy customer with one of your albums is the best sales rep a photographer can have! She’ll show off her album to all her friends who’ll be paying MUCH closer attention if she just got married a few weeks ago rather than several months ago.

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And mom in her ‘kerchief , and I in my cap
won’t have any time for a long winter’s nap.
Designing an album can be such a pain.
Hours in Photoshop can drive you insane!

When all of a sudden I arose from this fright,
and remembered that Zookbinders can do this stuff right!
They’ve got a design service just for us pros
they’ll make this so simple, no need to use ROES!

To start a new order set up your account
no need to make phone calls or lay anything out.
Two design styles to choose from, just tell those clever elves
they come in three sizes: get 8’s, 10’s or 12’s.

First answer some questions about how you roll
so our designers can exceed your creativity goal!
And what to my wondering eyes should appear
but an e-mail from Zookbinders – just three days and it’s here!

I followed the link to a virtual album
that to my delight was perfectly awesome!
So classy, so chic, so remarkably quick;
I could ask for revisions, or approve with a click!

‘Twas the photographer’s New Year, and January’s snows
had only just arrived when the Fed-Ex man showed.
From the jumble of parcels wedged into his van
Out came a Zookbinders package so grand!

I cut off the tape and threw open the box,
and what I saw next just made my jaw drop!
“So finely crafted”, I said with elation.
The album surpassed my high expectation.

I just could not help look it over and over.
What I quite liked the most was the ReflectionZ cover.
In this new sample, my work looks so great!
I even got 25% off with thier sample discount rate!

The brides who see this, will all be inclined
to hire me at once and sign on the line!
My 2012 bookings will now reach new heights!
So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

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Maria and Danny got married at the West Chester Historical Society on July 16th, 2011. Asya describes the bride as “one of the most creative brides I have ever met!” Given this insight, perhaps it’s no surprise that she found a minister with a 12 inch tall hot pink mohawk and a tattoo on is left hand that reads “his and hers” (he is relatively new at being a minister and hopes his look will land him interesting work).

Besides her creativity, Asya has one other thing in common with her bride, and that is that she too is a newlywed. “Being married myself has definitely changed my approach to shooting weddings. I am so much more observant and understanding of all of the moments, and the moments between those moments.  I take the time to get to know my clients, their own unique story, their style, what is important to them, how they want to remember this day. And the imagery I create reflects their story. It comes so naturally, because I feel I have been there, in their shoes, wrapped up in all of the energy, the beautiful chaos, the emotions, the excitement. You want someone there with you who understands that, and more importantly someone who knows how to capture that in the most beautiful, intimate way.”

Asya uses Zookbinders to provide her customers quality and affordable albums from our LustreBook, PhotoBook and PhotoBook Plus catalogs.

To see more of Asya’s outstanding work, visit her blog at http://asyaphotography.com/blog/ or website at http://www.asyaphotography.com/

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Our industry has undergone some major changes over the past few years. 70-80% of today’s brides now contract for a ‘disk only’. Many of the photographers that offer this “shoot and burn” service, have no interest in making albums, or doing anything other than shooting the event.  Because of this, we’ve been getting a lot of calls from brides over the past few years asking if we could make their album.

Before launching a direct to consumer business, we did a lot of research. Over the past few years here’s what we learned: there are 2 types of brides:

1 – Brides that want to be serviced, and want their photographer to design and deliver an album.  These brides are willing to pay a higher price for the higher level of service, and are the photographers that Zookbinders has serviced for many years.

2 – Brides that want to ‘do it themselves” and pursue contracting for a ‘disk only’ as the most affordable route.  Many of these brides plan to get an album at a later date, but haven’t necessarily figured out where to go.

You service the first group, and deliver quality photography and album design that are presented in high quality albums.  I know these clients appreciate the fact that YOU do all the work for them, and are pleased with the end product.

Unfortunately for all of us, the 2nd group is much larger.  Because of the huge increase in the number of event photographers (post digital), this trend has wreaked havoc on our industry.  There is less work for the ‘full service’ photographers who intend to ‘finish the job’ with an album.  We have watched many photographers who’ve been in this industry for a long time close down their storefront studios, move their businesses back into their homes or close down entirely due to lack of work.  This has been painful as many of these photographers are incredibly talented, AND are great people too.  Many of them have been clients since we started up in 1995.  For those that have survived, we have watched their volume drop and have tried to help them by offering products at more modest price points while trying to help them with marketing ideas and other ways to attract new clients.

The reality is that photographers are less busy.  The vendors that support them are also less busy.  Over the past few years, there are local labs in every major city that no longer operate. In the past 18 months, 3 of the largest album companies that serviced our industry for 20+ years have shut down.  Unfortunately there will be more labs and album companies shutting down over the next 12 months.  I have devoted 16 years of building this business, and Zookbinders will not be amongst them.
The trend towards hiring for “disk only” has left a large amount of “album-less brides” in its wake.  These are brides that have a disk, and no place to go to have a quality album made. Over the years, we’ve referred many of these brides to established full service photography studios, but they’re mostly interested in spending less $ – so they either find a cheap album online… or do nothing.

Launching a direct-to-consumer business was a difficult decision for us, but we feel confident that our new business will not impact the photographers that Zookbinders has worked hard to service for many years.  We believe that the clients that you serve (who want a higher level of service) are not interested in the DIY approach.  The fact that we’re now selling to brides is a reaction to the way our industry has changed.  There are now 2 clear choices for brides: they can hire a photographer who will provide full service (including an album), or contract for “disk only”.  This is the new paradigm, and we are positioning ourselves to serve both markets.

Zookbinders will continue to innovate and do everything possible to not only offer great products and services to pro photographers as evidenced by a stream of new products and software solutions to help photographers meet the demands of their customers and remain viable. This past January, we offered an album design service that quite frankly surprised us with how many photographers are using it – the reason for this is that we create a customized shopping cart for each album we design, and this is makes it real easy for the brides and their parents to buy additional albums and even frames.  We’ve heard great feedback from photographers who have not only been able to increase sales, but have been able to offload album design, which is very time consuming and allows them to focus more on getting hired.  This is an example of the strong commitment we still have, and always will have to the professional photographer.  I thank you for your support and for listening – Mark Zucker

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Very often shoot and burn providers lack the means, the ability, and often even the desire to offer their customers a full-service experience that would include a wedding album. In fact, their business model often relies on a simple exchange of un-retouched, unedited files on DVD and a modest profit. Married couples are left to go directly to drug store photo finishers for their reprints and online photo book retailers to get a wedding album. Many will either be overwhelmed with the project of sorting and selecting their favorites, then using tedious online design tools, or they may be underwhelmed by the availability of quality products out there.

Frustrated by the production process, many newlyweds never do anything about getting a wedding album. Instead, the elusive album becomes a well-intended goal that is never within reach, like taking a yoga class or organizing their Tupperware cabinet. zookie.com is ideally suited for this audience: married couples who want a good quality, nicely-designed wedding album, without the do-it-yourself hassle, AND whose photographers are unable to provide it.

Targeting Married Couples – For our consumer brand, our marketing efforts will target those couples who are already married and who own their high-res files. Our value proposition includes not only design, print and bind, but a unique feature whereby we’ll also select the photos for them. In focus groups, brides shared with us how difficult it is to select photos, so we’ll ask them to send us a copy of the disk and let our design experts select the photos for them.
Naturally, some photographers will feel that Zookbinders is unfairly cutting out what has been a traditional profit center for professional photographers. This is certainly not the case or our intention. For the past 7-8 years, we have been saying “no” to newlyweds who call us requesting that we make their album. zookie.com is the solution for this underserved market. And rather than offer the service through Zookbinders (which is set up to work with pro photographers), we created a separate website to avoid confusion with Zookbinders.

There will always be a market segment that wants the photographer to design and deliver a finished album. These clients will continue to have their needs met by “full-service” photographers with our full support – we will always recommend that couples only hire a professional photographer for their wedding or special event, and Zookbinders will always help photographers finish the job.
The New Normal - When Joseph Kennedy said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” he must have perceived something about business in the 21st century. At Zookbinders, we have no intention of going the way of the one-hour film lab or corner travel agency. We believe that the new business rules call for innovators to innovate rather than grumble about where the industry has gone and hope it somehow “returns to normal.” We’ve been on the front lines bringing new and more attractive products to market and our direct-to-consumer initiative is another step in that direction.
Only a few years ago, I-T was a PRONOUN, 4G was a parking space, and the World Wide Web was a science fiction movie about mutant spiders bent on world domination. Back then, Zookbinders’ business was assembling albums with prints shipped to us from photographers. Now, we’re printing albums in our in-house lab, as well as offering an expanded selection of digital press printed books that help photographers “design it once, and sell it twice.”  As of this year, we offer a one-stop shop of design, print and bind, making life easier and more profitable for the professional photographer while vastly improving the customer experience for clients. We’ve made a very significant investment to bring our album design service to pro photographers, and will continue to invest in new products and better workflows that make your job easier.
Our commitment to the professional photographer is unchanged by zookie.com. You can continue to count on Zookbinders for a wide array of top quality, made in America products that showcase your creative talents and keep your clients’ memories alive.

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Many of our customers have made that call into our customer service department. “Zookbinders, you left page 22 and 23 out of my album” or “Zookbinders, you stamped the wrong date on my album!” Granted, sometimes we mess up. When we do, we make it right, but more often than not, that page was never uploaded to us, or that’s the date that was typed into the order. The fact is quality control begins at home. Just 15 or 20 minutes spent carefully examining your files before you flatten them to jpegs, and reviewing your order in ROES before you hit the “complete order” button can mean the difference between a happy customer and a costly repair or replacement of a two or three hundred dollar book (do math now, see title of article).
Below are the top six reasons albums are repaired or remade, and some suggestions on how to avoid them:

 6. Page omitted or added twice. If you name your files Pg1, Pg2, Pg3, etc. you’ll wind up scrolling up and down in ROES to add your pages in correct sequence because page 11 will show up in front of page 2, and page 20 will show up in front of page 3–that’s a mistake waiting to happen. Instead, use front fill zeros when you name your files (for example: Pg01, Pg02, Pg03) so they will appear already in sequence in your ROES program. Then, take the time to double check your sequence in the review order screen.

5. Color correction. Zookbinders does not do color correction. How you send ‘em is how we print ‘em. Insure you get what you expect by working on a quality, calibrated computer monitor, work in consistent room lighting conditions (preferably a dimly lit room), and submit some of your images for free test prints through ROES. Keep a copy of an image or two that you know to print very nicely in our lab, and compare them to your current project as you work on it.

4.Design errors. These include such things as partially visible layers you thought you’d discarded, images that are off center, low resolution or pixelated files and the page fold going right through the bride’s left eye. Adopting some good work habits will help here. For instance, always mark your center line in a spread so you can avoid the fold or split winding up somewhere awkward. View your pages at 100% and take one last look before you flatten them to jpeg. Scan your pixel dimension and file sizes in the folder you intend to upload to avoid sending low-res or wrong aspect ratio files, and NEVER keep files you’ve revised in the same folder as your finals.   Better still, you can eliminate 100% of your design errors by letting  Zookbinders design, print & bind your albums through zookie pro.  Problem solved!

3. Margin too tight. This is really a design error, but it happens so often it deserves its own category. We trim all prints once we assemble the pages to assure clean, even book blocks. If you design a page with someone’s head 1/4” from the edge of the canvas, you’re likely going to wind up in trouble. See related article about bleed and safety margin.

2. Photo wrap around covers off center. These covers are tricky due in large part because they change in size based on the number of pages in the album. If you miscalculate the canvas size or ignore the 3/4” wrap, your book may not look as you intended. See this article in our blog to learn how to make these properly.

1. (insert drum roll here) Cover stamping incorrect. Believe it or not this is THE most common error made on albums. Once you’ve typed your cover stamping in ROES, or created your text layer for your wrap around photo cover, read it again. Spell it out loud. Read it to anyone within earshot. Compare it to your contract, or better yet the couples’ wedding invitation, if you have one. We’ve been known to misprint cover stamping ourselves. That’s why we have a revolving team of Zookbinders employees who take 30 minutes or so out of their work day to do nothing but compare album covers to order forms to make sure we get it right.

The busy season is fast approaching, when photographers are racing headlong to finish projects and get them uploaded to Zookbinders in time for holiday delivery. Now is he time to make it a habit to take the extra 15 or 20 minutes to make sure your order is correct.

Better still, you can avoid ALL the above pitfalls by letting Zookbinders design, print & bind your albums through zookie pro.  You’ll get gorgeous designs done in less than 5 days and have added benefit of a customized shopping cart created for each client helping you sell more of your photography as a result.  No mistakes, no repairs, no kidding. Get started today at zookiepro.com.

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The changes deal with cover stamping instructions. On previous versions of our order forms there was language stating that we would substitute the word “and” if you used the ampersand ( & ) character, and use the standard date format “June 2, 2011″ even if you wrote down “6-2-11″.

Many customers are now looking for non-standard cover stamping using such things as “Mary + John” or “10.17.10″. To accommodate the growing demand, we have added many characters to our stamping die collection including periods ( . ); plus signs ( + ); forward slashes ( / ) as well as the ampersand ( & ).  It has created some confusion on some orders because we are often not sure if customers expect us to “correctly” format what they have written on order forms or not.

In order to clear up any confusion, the downloadable PDF order forms have been updated and replaced with new forms with language that states that we will stamp EXACTLY what you type on your form without any interpretation on our part. The forms are editable from your computer (click and type) so we strongly recommend that you complete the forms on your computer and then print them out rather than printing the form first, then hand writing your information. This will eliminate the need for erasures or any difficulty on our end trying to read your handwriting.

It is imperative that all customers discard any old Zookbinders order forms and use only the new forms effective immediately. Customers submitting orders with old order forms will be contacted by customer service representatives asking for clarification and/or new forms to be filled out thus delaying the production time of those orders.

To download the new order forms just go to the Customer Center tab at Zookbinders.com and scroll down to “Forms and Instructions” (you do not need to log in).

To further simplify and streamline your workflow, we strongly encourage Zookbinders customers to leave the printing to us and take advantage of our Print to Bind services. Over 80% of Zook Book and Matted album orders are printed right here in our suburban Chicago plant. Not only does Print to Bind eliminate the tedious work of numbering prints and preparing order forms, but you’ll also save on shipping costs, have faster turn around times for albums, and you’ll be able to purchase “clone” albums for parents and loved ones from the PhotoBook product line by just ticking another box when you upload your order to us. For example, you can order two 6×6 PhotoBooks as a package for as little as $112.50 for the pair (including the 10% discount if ordered together with a Zook Book or Matted album). These PhotoBooks would typically retail for two to three times what your cost is! These are additional sales that you cannot even offer unless you are a Print to Bind customer.

For more information on Print to bind, see the services tab on Zookbinders.com and click on Print to Bind, or call a customer service representative at (888) 326-0967.

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Our Feature Photo demonstrates what has become one of Peter’s signature shots.  A radio triggered flash unit mounted on a tripod (better than a lightstand because of the wind factor) provides the rim light on the couple, and he under exposes the ambient light by one stop. As a former studio photographer Peter says he loves doing this kind of lighting and believes it helps distinguish him from other photographers out there in the market.  But most important . . . the clients love it!

A  Zookbinders customer since 2003, Peter reports that he shoots about 120 weddings per year. These events are mostly 2-4 hours of coverage with 20-40 guests.  Couples fortunate enough to be photographed by Peter making thier vows on the beach will be treated to skillfully designed Zook Book bridal albums. Most of Peter’s sales also include at least a pair of PhotoBook companion albums as well, following the well travelled “design it once, sell it twice” path.

To see more of Peter’s work, check out his website at http://www.photohawaii.com/ “Like” him on Facebook!

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This week we launch of our latest offering which is a satin paper finish for our press printed PhotoBook and PhotoBook Plus product line.

When we introduced digital press PhotoBooks in 2007, we did so with a high gloss, laminated paper finish that is durable and really makes color pop. While the attractive pricing opened up a wealth of new sales opportunities from companion albums to high school senior keepsakes, many photographers wanted something not so shiny and less prone to finger printing. After one false start in 2009, we re-introduced our current matte paper surface in mid 2010. This paper has a rich, pebble texture and an almost water color reproduction of color and contrast. This paper has high appeal for those looking to add an artistic touch to their imagery. Still, many photographers just wanted their PhotoBooks to look more like PHOTO albums.  

Our new satin finish fills that sweet spot for those who find the glossy too shiny, the matte too dull, and books with photographic paper too expensive. We believe it’s our most attractive look ever in a press printed book! It looks so much like e-surface photographic print that we can’t even show you the difference here online! We’ve already begun to see many orders for satin finish only 4 days into its availability. We’d love to hear from those of you who have placed the first orders once you have received your books. Add a comment below or on our Facebook page!

We at Zookbinders feel that our new satin paper surface is a big deal. After scores or tests involving dozens of papers and manufacturing techniques, we’ve hit upon the right paper and manufacturing formula to pass our rigorous environmental testing, and we know your clients will love it!

To order satin finish PhotoBook and PhotoBook plus, simply select “Satin Pages” from the page finish tab found in the cover options palate in ROES.

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We have made a manufacturing change that eliminates the need for the double-black spacer. We have added to the thickness of the first and last page of Zook Books making is possible for us to mount photographs back-to-back with the fabric moiré without risk of warping that page. All folded pano Zook Books will now open to {moiré – moiré} followed by a full photographic spread.

If designers begin a folded pano Zook Book with a right-side half pano, the sequence will be: {moiré – moiré} {photo black half – customer design half pano}

If you still have questions about folded Pano Zook Books, or any other Zookbinders products, call your customer service representatives at 888.326-0967 and they will be glad to help!

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