These 5 time-consuming business processes are simple to automate so you can free up your to do list and spend more time doing the things you love!
We wear so many hats as business owners. The to do list is never ending and it can feel like you’re just constantly putting out fires right and left. If you’re currently living in a state of overwhelm when it comes to your photography business, it’s time to automate! Nowadays so many of those boring admin tasks can be set up to be fully automated, freeing up your to do list and mental capacity to fully show up for more of the business tasks you actually love…ya know…like capturing cute families and editing galleries! Keep reading for my recommendation for the top 5 things to automate first in your business.
5 Simple Processes to Automate in Your Photography Business That Will Save You:
1. Create Email Templates
Responding to email inquiries and questions from clients can eat up sooo much time. Save yourself time spent drafting individual replies by creating a handful of preset email templates. Platforms like Session and Honeybook already have options ready to go for you, but they also allow you to customize them to your brand. When creating your templates, remember to leave a couple areas open to fill in later to make them more personal! I’ve loved having email templates in place for my business because not only does it save me time and energy, but since it’s so easy, I am able to respond to inquiries in a much shorter timeframe which is always a bonus!
2. Create Contract + Invoice Templates
This is another no brainer task to automate in your business. We’ve got more important things to do than draft individual contracts and invoices from scratch! Create basic templates for these, that way when you need to send one to one of your clients, all you need to do is enter in the specific details! I recently transitioned to Session and love it!! It’s super user friendly and easy to edit your templates and send out the final version to clients!
3. Set Up Email Marketing
Automating my email marketing is one of the single greatest things I have done for my business. If you don’t already use an email marketing platform, I highly recommend looking into it! This way when someone signs up for your subscription list you can have emails set up to automatically send their way without you having to do a single thing. I started doing this for my mini sessions and I really think it’s one of the main reasons my minis have been so successful!
I have been using Flodesk for a few years now for emails and really love them! Everything is pretty straightforward and easy to set up, and their customer support and online resources are really helpful. Plus their premade email templates are honestly way cuter than any of the other ones out there. They’re really easy to customize and make your own too! It’s an investment but 1000% worth it in my opinion. If you use my link above you can get 50% off!
4. Utilize ManyChat For DMs
If you’re like me and often get behind on responding to DMs, ManyChat will be your new best friend. You can integrate it with Instagram to have saved replies for common DMs. That way you don’t have to take 5 minutes out of your work day trying to craft yet another response to the same question for the 86th time. You can also use ManyChat to automatically send messages or resources in DMs to people who comment key words on your posts! This is such a great way to elevate your marketing game but have it all automated! A lot of times I’ll use this feature to have it send my Pinterest outfit inspo board to my audience when they comment “OUTFIT INSPO” on one of my posts. The options are endless though, you can get really creative with this resource!
5. Automate Payment Reminders
Reminding clients about payments can get so tedious, which is why it’s a great task to automate! Honeybook and Session are both great options for getting this set up to be sent out automatically, but you can also design your own!
Want More Photography Business Tips?
I hope you found this list of tasks to automate in your photography business helpful! Remember, running an entire business is no easy feat. You’re killing it! And if you’re into all things photography business tips and education (with a side of crazy mom life humor), make sure you’re following me over on the gram! I share a lot more of this kind of content over there too!
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