Are your workflows working for you, or are you working for your workflows? This might sound like a silly question, but I encourage you to pause for a moment and think about it. Of course, you’re doing some work to execute workflows. After all, this is your photography business and you are likely your only employee. But are you using your CRM and workflows to do the heavy lifting for you or are you running yourself ragged to barely keep up with your clients and sessions?
If you relate more to the second example, your workflows are not working for you. That’s a problem because it should be the other way around: your CRM and workflows should be doing the heavy lifting for you. My guess is you didn’t start your photography business to run a business. Instead, you likely started it because you love being a photographer and want to share your photos with the world.
This means you need to make your photography business, CRM, and workflows work for you. If you’re not sure how to make that happen, keep reading, friend, because the rest of this blog post will walk you through exactly how to do that.
Let’s start with the “easy” way to make your workflows work for you - by utilizing your CRM! My guess is since you’re reading this on the Pixifi blog, you’re a Pixifi user. This means you already have a great CRM, built specifically for photographers, at your fingertips to make your life easier and let you build workflows that work for you. Here are some of my favorite ways to make sure you’re making the most of your workflows in Pixifi..
Embed a lead capture form from Pixifi into your photography website. This automatically drops all of your leads and their information into Pixifi. It will save you the time of having to do this task manually and let you immediately kick off a workflow to get back to your leads while they’re hot. Which, means you stand a better chance of booking them. I like to embed my lead capture form in my website and then as soon as a lead comes in have an automation set up to send them a “hey, we got your message, we’re checking our calendars and will get back to you soon” email.
Yes, automations can be scary, but they can also save you A LOT of time and ensure your clients are taken care of no matter how many photography sessions you have. Pixifi gives you multiple ways to automate your workflows based on your comfort level. My favorites include using the Automatic Items section in your Workflow Templates to automate things like sending questionnaires, photography contracts, text messages, and status changes. All of these things will send without you having to lift a finger. But, if you’re new to automations or like to have a little more control over things, you can also automate your workflows by creating tasks you have to check off. Then use those tasks as a trigger to send an email. I recommend using this second type of automation for any email or form you might have to customize for your photography clients.
Often when you’re working with a photography client you need to gather and use information that isn’t included in basic contact forms, and you’ll still want that information to show up on your client profile. Luckily, Pixifi gives you the ability to create Custom Fields so you can gather this information (or add it yourself). You can take those custom fields and plug them into your contracts, questionnaires, emails, and invoice templates so everything you send feels completely custom. I also like to use custom fields for things like gathering bridal party or family member names and use them to input the number of photos I took on a wedding day, my favorite memory from the day, and an estimated gallery delivery date. I’ll then use those custom fields in an automation that goes out two days after a wedding to thank my clients, reassure them they had the best day ever, let them know I’m already working on their photos, and give them an estimated completion date.
One of the things that can take the most amount of time in any photography business is scheduling meetings and sessions. If you do it by email, it takes at least 3 emails to get something scheduled, plus the time it takes you to check your availability on your calendar. Instead, use a Booking Page that’s native to your CRM. Pixifi’s Booking Pages lets you set your availability, read your calendar for conflicts, and let your clients automatically book their session or meeting with you, without all of the extra emails. Pro tip: If you’re trying to schedule sunset sessions, set a reminder on your calendar to go in once a year and spend 45 minutes adding session start times based on sunset to your calendar.
There’s nothing worse than setting a goal or making a to-do list you know you’re not going to follow through on. The same thing can be said when you build steps into your workflow you’re not going to actually complete. Here’s how to make sure the workflows you’re using in your business are realistic and will actually work for you, instead of creating more tasks you’re going to avoid doing.
Okay, so you’ve got your workflows built in Pixifi and they’re starting to work for you, but how can you make sure they continue to do so? You have to review and update them when necessary. If you find yourself pausing or skipping tasks, or constantly updating email copy before you send it, or even not using a workflow at all, that’s a sign it’s time to update those workflows.
You’ll know if your workflows are working the way they’re supposed to during busy season. If you find that you keep adjusting things, or that something isn’t working for you anymore, take a few minutes to tweak it so you can make it through busy season with workflows that work for you. If you don’t have time, make a list of what’s not working for you so you can tackle it during slow season. Pixifi’s Tasks Board will let you add tasks to the board, and you can classify them as “Admin” or “Workflows” so you’ll know exactly what you need to tackle when it pops back up on your radar.
Once things slow down a little bit I recommend taking a deep dive into all of your workflows, questionnaires, email copy, contracts, etc., and making sure they’re still up-to-date for your processes and business. If they aren’t, it’s time to make updates to your workflows. Remember the list I mentioned in the previous step? This is a good time to tackle that list as well.
Life happens, and sometimes with that your brand, deliverables, or expectations for your clients change. Any time one of these things changes it will likely impact your workflows. Instead of manually tweaking the components as you go, take a few minutes to update your workflows in Pixifi to save your future self time down the road.
Now that you’ve nailed your workflows in Pixifi, take a minute to think about the workflows that exist outside of Pixifi. Are they working for you? Do they even exist? Here are a few ideas for you about where else in your photography business you can create workflows to make your life easier.
Do you have a solid, repeatable, could-do-it-in-your-sleep workflow for everything post-production? If not, I strongly encourage you to develop one and document it; you never know when you’ll need to teach it to someone on the fly, remember where you left off, or have someone step in to take over for you. This should include everything from loading and backing up cards and photos after a photography session to culling, editing, delivering, and any order fulfillment. The great thing about Pixifi is that these additional post-production workflows can be created in Pixifi using tasks, project, and product workflow templates.
Do you spend hours staring at your Instagram planner trying to figure out what to say? Coming up with a repeatable system you can use every time will help. For instance, after every wedding maybe you pull photos for a slideshow, drop those photos into an Instagram folder for future use, create a blog post using those photos, and then pull parts of that blog post (and that slideshow and photos) into your Instagram feed. Having a solid system will save you not only time but also keep you creating and sharing on a consistent basis.
This is one of my favorites to incorporate in a photography business that takes so much stress off your shoulders. Do you have a solid workflow for posing during a session? Or are you constantly winging it, trying to come up with new poses? Developing a solid posing workflow will help your sessions move smoother, make sure you get allll the deliverable photos that you need, and make you look like a rock star in front of your clients. And who doesn’t want their clients to think they’re a rock star?!