We all know that third party endorsements are more credible than singing your own praises. As a photographer, what better way is there to get endorsements than to provide them with a sample album from an event on which you collaborated? They’ll be thrilled to show off a sample of their work, and when they do, each and every one of their clients will see your work as well. This pre-qualifies those prospects by introducing them to your work.
Zookbinders offers a few different ways to make the album design and display process as easy and affordable as possible for you. Our Digi-MatZ® templates are designed as a “plug-in” for Adobe ® Photoshop® to help you create beautiful album designs. Once you’ve created your album design through either Digi-MatZ or your own software, Zookbinders’ ROES system completes the process by making the order process for your sample albums a cinch.
Here are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind when creating your sample book for your vendor:
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Be aware of where faces or other focal points of the photo land on full-page spreads and panoramas. While most Zookbinders products lay flat, some do not (i.e. Soft Cover Press Book), causing the crease to possibly hinder the design.
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Watch your margins to ensure nothing important is cut off during trimming (a 1/8 inch is trimmed off the top and bottom and a 1 /4 inch is trimmed off each side of a PhotoBook two-page spread).
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Create an eye-catching design that will appeal to a wide range of your clients.
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Remember who you are designing these books for; your layouts should feature your best, most creative work and that of your vendors rather than what your bride may select for her own book.
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Use your name and logo, as well as the vendor’s name and logo, in the book.
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Leave business cards or photo cards with your contact information along with your album so brides have an easy way to contact you.
Once your design is done, you can order these vendor books as samples and receive Zookbinders standard sample discount (50% off Zook Books and 25% off PhotoBooks) with no annual limit on the number of samples you order. These vendor samples are an investment in your future. For less than $100, you can have a beautiful album of your work at a vendor’s store selling your photography services each and every day. These images and the referrals from your vendors can add up to thousands of dollars in new business for you. That’s money well spent.
Think what you could do with these books. They would make great wedding party gift books, save the date books, family books for parents, grandparents and siblings, venue and vendor books, BFF books for high school seniors, the possibilities are endless. Come check out these new books at WPPI and tell us how you would use them. 
Start by designing your collection of books. This will be based partly on the services you offer as well as how you package your products. With Zookbinders you have the choice of two photographically printed and leather bound album styles. The matted album and our flush mounted, all panoramic album, the Zook Book are our premium books. Next we have the PhotoBook and PhotoBook Plus. These more affordable, press printed books give your clients the option of leather in the Plus sizes along with great package combinations in the smaller sizes. And finally, we now have our Soft Cover Press Books. These very affordable, soft cover books make for great accompaniments to larger hard cover books, proof books, and sample books for marketing. You could even design a soft cover promotional book as a take home item from your party to promote your business. 
As you design your various collections, remember to show all of the different uses of these albums. Of course weddings and parent albums are the natural fit for any photo book or album, but don’t forget family session books, baby’s first year books, senior session books, engagement / guest books, Bar and Bat Mitzvah books and books from any type of event you photograph. Also remember to show various album sizes, formats and cover options so your clients can see the wide variety of ways in which they can package their images into an album. 
Sure it’s a bit of work and an investment in several samples but since you can’t sell what you don’t show you should have several samples already made and be designing new products to sell to your current clients anyway (of course we at Zookbinders do offer studio sample discounts). Finally, think of the great buzz you’ll create when you host a party and show off the beauty of photo books and albums. 
