As a professional photographer, one of the most important and powerful tools you have is your gallery sharing service. After all the hours that you put into creating your art, it’s essential that you have an efficient and beautiful way to share your work with your clients. This is where ShootProof comes in.
With ShootProof’s modern and gorgeous gallery layouts, and its client-friendly interface, your photos take center stage. You can customize this program to match your selling model. Viewing and ordering images should feel seamless to your clients and ShootProof makes this possible: Clients can easily view their images, mark their favorites, place their orders or download files.
ShootProof does so much more than allow you to share photos with your clients; the program can help you streamline your workflow and your business. From contracts to invoicing, you’re able to improve your brand presentation, streamline communication, speed up your workflow and ultimately increase sales.
Here are five simple steps to help you take full advantage of ShootProof’s platform features:
1. Improve your brand presentation by customizing the look and content of your page.
Whether you opt to keep your clients right within ShootProof, or you decide to embed ShootProof into your WordPress site, you can customize this program so that it presents your images to clients in a way that is consistent with your brand. Add custom watermarks, logos, and brand colors to give a cohesive feel to your galleries and client communications.
Adjust your fonts and colors.
Studio -> Colors & Logos -> New Color Set
Upload your logo, and add in the colors that are unique to your brand.
Set up your homepage.
Studio -> Homepage
On your homepage, you can say a bit about your photography business, link to your social media channels and set your homepage layout and colors.
Or if you prefer to keep your clients right within your website, you can even embed your ShootProof studio homepage into your website by grabbing the code at:
Studio -> Homepage -> Embed Code.
(You can use this for any website that supports HTML and JavaScript.)
2. Speed up your workflow by using gallery presets and integration options.
Gallery Presets
Using photo gallery presets makes it quick and easy to set up proofing or download galleries for your clients. These presets allow you to customize access and control depending on the type of gallery or genre of photography. For example, you can have different presets for proofing vs. final galleries, or different presets for family vs. commercial galleries.
Photos -> Galleries -> Gallery Presets -> Galleries
You can also create contact privilege presets which make it easy for clients to label photos for albums and other products! You can create a different preset set up for each type of client you work with so that you can customize the order interface for each genre of your business.
Photos -> Galleries -> Gallery Presets -> Contact Privileges
You can also gain further efficiencies in your photography business by integrating ShootProof with your studio management program. This ensures that all sales are automatically recorded in your books, including proper breakdown of income and sales tax for easy quarterly reporting.
The Client Dashboard
The Client Dashboard that ShootProof displays upon login is an excellent tool to help you stay up-to-date on the status of your galleries, sales and contracts. In a quick glance, you can see which clients have been in their galleries, who has items in their cart, and which galleries need follow-up.
3. Streamline client communication with email automation and templates.
ShootProof’s email templates and automated emails make it quick and easy to communicate with your photography clients and to manage promotional campaigns. You can set up templates for everything from gallery deliveries to order reminders to last-time buys before a gallery is archived.
The system has “variables” available that you can apply to your templates, such as a gallery password, so that ShootProof will automatically add the client-specific information to the template.
You can even set up an automation series to go with each gallery that includes order reminders or a pre-archive sale. Email automation can be especially beneficial when promoting a print sale, allowing you to pre-schedule communications to be sent at specific dates within the sale. To do this, first create the email templates within the Template screen, and then create the automation series under the Automation screen.
Studio -> Email -> Automation
4. Manage legalities by setting up contract templates.
You can also set up your contracts and receive digital signatures right within ShootProof. Simply create a template with a contract that you already have, or purchase a lawyer-approved contract through the ShootProof Marketplace. Once you send a contract to a client it will be saved within their contact page so that you can easily access it down the road.
Studio -> Contracts -> Templates
Your contract dashboard will quickly and easily let you know which contracts need follow-up or are awaiting your signature. You can also schedule automated invoices that link to your contacts, such as collecting a session deposit upon signing the contract.
Studio -> Contracts -> Contracts
5. Set up pricing and packages to increase opportunities for profit.
Arguably the most powerful of all the tools available to you in ShootProof are the selling features. Through this program, you can take control of what you sell and how you sell it, and maximize your opportunities for profit. Set your own prices, create discounts and promo codes, upload photos to showcase your photography products, invoice your clients – all right within ShootProof!
Create a Price Sheet.
Set up a client price list in minutes through the user-friendly interface. If you are unsure of what to sell, ShootProof will provide you with a list of commonly sold items that you can start with. ShootProof allows you to select one of the numerous professional labs they partner with to ensure premium quality products that are in line with your brand.
Commerce -> Pricing-> Create Price Sheet
After establishing your base price sheet, you can add custom-fulfilled items such as albums and frames. To do this, first create a new group of items, such as “Framed Prints.” Then within that group add the different sizes and options you offer.
One of the best features is that you can add sample pictures to these items to help your clients visualize the beauty and quality of your products, and you can even add room samples to show the relative size of the product.
Once you have set up all of your products, you can create packages! Just click on the “Create a Package” button on the upper left corner and the package menu appears on the left.
Easily select from each of your labs or self-fulfill items to create custom packages for your business. The package builder will calculate a package value based on the prices you have set for individual items. This provides a quick and easy reference point for setting your overall package price.
Once your price sheet is set up, you can assign it to a client gallery. While viewing their images, your clients will also be presented with an easy-to-use order interface.
ShootProof helps me create a great customer experience.
ShootProof is so much more than a gallery sharing service. Yes, they provide stunning gallery sharing tools that beautifully present your work to your clients, but it’s the behind-the-scenes tools that can truly help you take your business to the next level. Through ShootProof you can provide a premium service experience for your clients, optimize your communications and maximize your time investment in your business. Now that’s a program worth investing in!
Photos by Jen Bilodeau.
This is a sponsored post but opinions are those of the author.
More photo studio management tips for you:
A pro’s guide to prepping your digital images to print (and sell!) beautifully
45 Organization hacks for your photography business and workflow
10 Tips to slay work-life balance for busy photography business owners
5 Social media marketing tips to grow your photography business
