Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Open House attendees have spoken…

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

…and were thrilled with the event!  The following day, we sent out a simple 5 question survey to our Open House attendees to gain some feedback.  We were happy to hear that they learned a lot from our “what brides want” presentation and are really excited to use that info to help grow their business!  Within the survey, we allowed our guests to ask any further questions, so we figured we’d share the knowledge with everyone!

Here are some of the questions they asked with our responses:

Q: Will you offer the same kind of interactive ordering like zookie pro for designs we do ourselves? If we can design and upload our album for the bride to see (and also allow her to order mutiple) or order more copies later….that would be awesome.  A: Yes!  We will be building a new ordering system this year that will have many of the great features of zookie pro (like our “shopping cart”), so you’ll be able to improve the ordering experience between you and your client whether you let us design your albums in zookie pro, or choose to design your own albums and order through Zookbinders.  Our goal is to help make the ordering process super simple for you and your clients.  You can expect this feature sometime in the late Fall.

Q: When will the Zook Book be ready for in house design? A: The Zook Book (which will have a different name with zookie pro- something along the lines of “Premium Big”) will be available by the end of May.

Q: Can you recommend a good blog, for professional photographers, moving into the wedding field?  A: On the right side of our blog, you’ll see our “Blog Roll” which is a list of our favorite blogs. Specifically for weddings, DWF is a great tool (http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/). 

Q: Are you also a regular print lab? A: No, we only offer our print-to-bind services for our albums/photobooks.

Not only did our attendees ask a ton of great questions, they also gave us some wonderful praise:

“You ran and conducted a VERY NICE program. THANK YOU & ALL AT ZOOKBINDERS.”

“Thanks Mark for an informative evening. Your products are wonderful.”

“I will most certainly work with Zookbinders, making beautiful books for my couples, moving forward.”

Thank you, again, for all who attended and gave us such great feedback!

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Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

zookie pro Keeps Making Your Life Easier

For those of you who’ve attended one of our webinars, you know that our goal is to make life easier…easier for you and your bride. In our surveys, brides have told us that they do want albums. They just want the buying process to be easier, and if possible, online – just like shopping at Overstock, Amazon or Zappos.

We’ve responded and we’re continuing to make things easier. If you haven’t ordered from zookie pro yet, you can easily learn how and learn about the power of the zookie pro’s shopping cart with our Take a Test Drive page. Since the beginning, zookie pro’s album design-print-bind service has been based on the number of images you select for your album. Now, instead of looking up your price on a spread sheet, all you have to do is enter the number of images you’ll be uploading and we’ll automatically generate pricing for each of our products. We’ll even generate a quote specifically for your client’s package with your mark-up. Click here to give it a try; we think you’ll love it.

If you’d like to learn more about how zookie pro can make your life easier and help you sell more albums, check out our Events page and register for our next webinar on April 19th or attend one of our Open House events on April 26 or 27.

https://www.zookiepro.com/mainsite/priceQuote/priceCalc.aspx

What Brides Want

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Six years ago only 20% of all brides hired a pro photographer for a “disk only” service.  Today 80% of all brides are contracting for “disk only”.    Our industry has changed forever and regrettably shows no signs of returning to the “old” business model.   And while some of the reasons are obvious (digital cameras have lowered the barrier to become a “pro”), we at Zookbinders spent some time talking to brides to find out exactly why this shift has occurred.

Since brides really drive this market, we asked them several questions.  We wanted to know what was important to them.  Was image quality more important than price?  Was having 2,000 images more beneficial than 1,000 images? Was getting an album important or did they just want the electronic files?  Here’s one response we expected: Unanimously, brides appreciate the higher quality of images that came from hiring an experienced pro. However, they were quick to point out a few things that were disappointing which we want to share with you:

  1. Brides didn’t like how long it took to see their images for the first time (on average 3-4 weeks).  They were expecting to see them in days! On the day after her wedding she’ll see plenty of images…but they’ll be cell phone images from her friends! While having hundreds of images ready for her to view the next day might be tough, does it really have to take several weeks?
  2. Brides didn’t like that the photographer presented so many images (on average 1,500) and didn’t offer to help select the photos for the album.  They were expecting two folders: a folder of “album favorites” and another folder of everything else.  Most brides wanted all of their images on a disk, but that doesn’t mean they want to sift through all of them to make their selections. They’re relying on your expertise, their professional photographer, in helping them through this process.  
  3. Lastly, brides were upset by how painful it was to finally get their album.  They were expecting an online experience whereby they would simply delete some photos from the “favorites” folder and add a few from the remaining images.  Many brides planned their entire wedding online and were surprised by how many times they had to meet with their photographers to make decisions.

If the goal is to deliver a great experience to each client so that they refer you, we as an industry are doing a poor job.  While it would be easy to blame the growth of the “disk only” phenomenon on low-priced weekend warriors, it seems like delivering a bad experience is equally at fault.

The good news is… we can help. Introducing zookie pro, which launched January 16th. While at the core, zookie pro is a design service (and a darn good one that is VERY reasonably priced); the real secret sauce is its ability to help you deliver a great experience to your customer.  With our customized shopping cart, here’s a short list of some of the benefits your client will enjoy online:

  • Choose her album cover design
  • Communicate revisions to you
  • Upgrade to a larger album
  • Order additional replica albums

THIS is the experience she is looking for – she can place her order online rather than having to meet with her photographer. If she decides a month later to order an album for her parents, it will take less than 90 seconds to place this order! 

So now that we’ve removed most of the pain from the “album ordering process”, here are some great ideas to help you satisfy today’s brides:

  • Shoot less!  Brides were not shy about telling us they wanted to see fewer images and much quicker. If you really want your bride to have an experience she’ll never forget, select the images you recommend for her album on Sunday and upload those images to zookie pro by Monday.  A few days later, you’ll have your album design and the happy couple will be able to preview it on their honeymoon!  
  • Give your clients the ability to shop online! The shopping cart will give her choices of different sizes available and show her exactly what the book would look like.  She’ll have the same experience she’s used to with any other first rate online shopping experience!
  • Deliver her album 30 days after her wedding! Imagine how excited your client would be and the buzz this will create about your business! Delivering an album in 30 days is really impressive considering that the average album we ship is delivered nine months after the event.    

So while the majority of brides may continue contracting for “disk only” (and then getting frustrated because ordering an album online isn’t so easy), your job is to change your workflow so that you’re serving her the way she wants to be served.  Explain to each bride the choices of hiring a photographer for “disk only” and the challenges that await her.  Then explain why hiring you is a better choice and how you’ll get her an album in 30 days!

Here’s the last thing brides told us:  They Still Want Albums!   They just don’t want to have to work so hard to get one.  So let us help you give brides what they want with zookie pro. 

We’re here to help – Zucker

Click here attend a live webinar with Mark Zucker at 2PM on Thursday, April 7, 2011.

Drive the amazing shopping cart, visit: www.zookiepro.com/testdrive.

Click here to attend our “What Brides Want” seminar at Zookbinders in Chicago on either Tuesday, April 26th or Wednesday, April 27th from 7 to 9PM.

Take a Test Drive with Mark Zucker

Monday, April 4th, 2011

See how the zookie pro shopping cart can make you more money in this free webinar

What’s your biggest pain point in wedding photography today? If you said sales and workflow then you’re not alone. Zookbinders’ new service, zookie pro, can help. Learn first hand with Zookbinders Founder and CEO Mark Zucker how using this revolutionary new service can help you grow your business. It’s not just about album design, workflow or sales; it’s all of this and more. Invest less than an hour of your time and learn how zookie pro can take you down the path to profits.  To register, click on the link below:

Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 2PM

 

Free Webinars – Double Your Albums Sales

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

zookie pro shows you how

How can a design service double your album sales?  Easy. Each zookie pro design comes with a loaded shopping cart that is customized for your client with upgrades and additional products.  Gone are the days of buying just a 10×10 album with no bells and whistles!   Spend about an hour learning about zookie pro and you’ll be amazed how much you can sell while you sleep. This week’s webinar was a hit. We’ve got two more dates for next week. To register, click on the webinar date that works best for you:

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 11AM

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 2PM

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 7PM

To learn more about zookie pro visite www.zookiepro.com.

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