It’s always great to bring you good news, so today we can announce an extended range of embossings fonts, the return of title pages and … a mistake fixed! Title pages They’re back! We’ve found a new supplier after a long search, so please feel free to order :) Standard personal embossings Personal embossing is our most popular cover style, and no wonder — they’re a lovely way to personalise an album cover and add visual interest, and we’ve just made some changes… But first, we offer two types of personal embossing, Custom (where you supply us with To View More >>

We often make the mistake of making our marketing about ourselves — what we're doing, and what we need, rather than the value we're creating for our audience. People who write code love what they do, but their customers don't. They just want an app that works. You love photography but your clients love the memories you make for them. Memories or a picture for the wall. When you're thinking about business or marketing campaigns, focus on your customers. What's in it for them? To View More >>

When's the right time for a promotion? Certainly for the holidays — so your clients can have their  beautiful printed products under the tree for Christmas. The ultimate in personal gifts! Or when the wedding season's over — and you have time to chase past clients who're still dilly-dallying about their album. And for what purpose? Maybe to turn your social media audience into paying customers. Or lapsed enquiries into future business. Or past customers into repeat business! But once you've defined your goal, what's involved? This is our take on it, but of course To View More >>

There are two types of photographers — those who love the sales process, and the rest of us! Yes, most of us really are shy about sales. We don't want to come across like car salesmen or slick real estate people. But we run businesses, and it's sales that make the business world go round. So here are some ideas to boost your album sales without being pushy or sales-y. To sell but stay true to yourself. To leave your clients feeling they've been listened to while consistently delivering beautiful wedding albums to them.  By the way, these ideas will work with all product sales — To View More >>

This is the last in a series from Megan DiPiero with advice about how to build a stronger brand and brand message — to add purpose to your marketing, draw attention to your service, and ultimately increase sales. Click here for Parts 1, 2 and 3. Today Megan shares her opinions on marketing. I’m betting that many of you clicked this mentor post because you thought your question would finally be answered: “How do I get more people in?” In the past 6 years, I’ve created a six figure profitable business that provides the sole To View More >>

Sonja Gardien's Studio 541 has taken on the Auckland art scene, showcasing both emerging and established photographers. We took some time out to chat about what it takes to run a gallery space, and what photographers need to know before they submit their work. Sonja wanted to create a space for photographers to exhibit, learn, meet and be inspired. “It’s important to identify a niche," she says. "There are a lot of galleries around. You need to be different. It seemed logical to utilise Studio 541, not only for a gallery, but also as a space to attend workshops and To View More >>

Jessica Reeves claims to have been "very average" at school — "never did badly, never did amazingly well". But after two years as a photographer she's come to believe that this is something she can be great at and love at the same time. Ideal foundations on which to build a career! The biggest lesson she's learned is very simple: make friends. "Running your own business can be pretty lonely, especially at the beginning when you feel you are running along with a blindfold on. Making friends with other photographers, or others in the industry, takes a huge To View More >>

A few weeks ago Luke, who works at Queensberry, told us his grandparents were away overseas. After selling their movie theatre they’d decided to take a trip to Italy. They kept in touch, as he asked them, but little did they know he was collecting their photos to make an album of their adventures and special time together.  It was a fun project to work on. He kept feeding the images to Steph as they came in, and in some ways, we almost felt like we were travelling with them… We loved seeing their smiling faces, and loved even more the stories that Luke would tell us as he dropped To View More >>

Tonight we went out for dinner to celebrate our daughter Alexandria being accepted into University, and Charlotte's recent awards - a lovely night with our beautiful girls. I was just dozing off to sleep, when I felt Alex get into bed beside me. "What's up Al?" "I'm just going to lie here with you for a bit, I can't sleep." "It's okay, you can stay." I put my hand on her forehead, and she was asleep within minutes. Just like when she was little :-) What she doesn't know is that when I said she could stay, I meant she could stay forever if she wanted. I know she won't. I know she's excited To View More >>

When our friends from NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) wanted a customised book designed for Judith Thompson, the retiring Director of Better by Design, we were more than happy to jump aboard. The brief was for Queensberry to design, print and bind a book filled with photos and personal messages supplied by staff, clients and friends from her time with NZTE. Click on the images to take a closer look. Judith’s overall responsibility included a range of design education initiatives including the regional CEO talk series, study tours to Silicon Valley and Better By Design's annual CEO Summit. To View More >>