Photographer’s CRM – Customer Relationship Management

CRM is a fancy acronym for saying how you manage your clients and leads. When I was starting out all of my clients and leads would get put in a simple spreadsheet.  I would track their place in my booking and work process simply by placing an “X” in a column of which step they are in. Updating it rarely happened. I sent simple questionnaire’s through Google Forms to get all the information I needed from them. It all worked okay. This wasn’t high end and it didn’t update automatically for me though.

The main reason I wanted a CRM for my wedding photography business was so I could keep better track of following up with my leads. If someone inquired then forgot about me, I could keep track of that and email them again. Dubsado makes it so easy to do that with automatic emails, a way to save my email templates, and a way to put in the exact workflow I want. Dubsado will even send me reminders to me to email someone or I can set the software to automatically send emails for me.

The biggest benefit of Dubsado has been the proposals! Before Dubsado, I would confirm with the client what collection they wanted to book then send an online invoice (which would take 10-15 days to be deposited to my bank account after being paid!). Now, I can send a proposal so the client makes their selections, it auto populates a contract from what collection they chose, and they can pay online. I have had clients pay on the same day as inquiring because it is that easy! It is processed through Square so I now get my deposits in just 2 days!!!

 

 

There are lots of CRM and studio management softwares out there but here is why Dubsado is the best for photographers! Here are the top 2 reasons:

1. Custom Branding in the CRM

Everything in Dubsado can be completely branded to fit your photography business. I spent thousands on my branding and am building a luxury brand so I need it to be cohesive in every aspect of my business. Dubsado allows me to add photos, colors, change up the layout on emails, questionnaires, proposals and more. I have even created a client lounge where they clients can access every document I have sent them all at once and it looks beautiful.

2. Schedule Clients in the CRM

The scheduler is a game changer! I no longer need to use calendly or acuity to schedule meetings, calls, or photo sessions. I can setup multiple appointment options for my clients. Each appointment can have it’s own workflow as well to send reminders and thank yous to the client. This is all included in one low monthly price (20% off if you use my link, you’re welcome!)! It will also keep track of my wedding dates so I don’t double book!

 

 

I actually did a free trial of all the top CRMs back in 2017. At the time I didn’t have a beautiful brand or much of a workflow so that wasn’t my top concern.  Dubsado has come along way and ultimately won out because of their scheduler and branding capabilities! I also loved Honeybook’s interface, but since then I have been a client of someone else that uses Honeybook. I didn’t like that I had to login to Honeybook to reply to their messages (I couldn’t just email them). You want a CRM that your clients will love too!!!

Shootflow is a great place for brand new wedding photographers to start though because it has the workflow and email templates already built in for you https://kacilou.com/crm-workflow-software-wedding-photographers/. But I quickly realized I needed something custom for my business. Plus the Dubsado customer service is AMAZING, they will actually help you get all setup when you first start! They have made tons of awesome videos to help you learn how to get the most out of their interface.

This blog post does include my affiliate link for Dubsado. I use Dubsado to manage my business and love it so I think you will too! Use my link to get 20% your first year of Dubsado now https://www.dubsado.com/?c=kacilouphotography.