A photographer’s job is more than just taking pictures. To be successful, a photographer must have strong business skills in order to market their work, build relationships with clients and stay up-to-date on the latest photography trends. In addition, they must also have a creative eye and technical expertise to produce high-quality images that will stand out from the competition.
Let’s face it, I don’t know about you but the biggest struggle I had as a photographer in my early years was finding consistent business. We all want to be full-time photographers but it’s FREAKIN hard to get there! Everyone has an opinion on where to focus but the biggest focus should be on marketing your business at the start.
Once you build a name clients will come from referrals, word of mouth, social media, etc. but it then becomes even more important to manage client expectations. Building customer relationships will set you apart from most photographers, thankfully all the tools in HighLevel will allow you to do this easily and eliminate the need of using 6 different tools (I’ll explain below) and focus on driving leads, traffic, and ultimately sales which will help you leave your job to focus on photography full time.
Disclosure: I am an independent entity from HighLevel. I am not an agent or employee of HighLevel and have no authority to make binding contracts or represent HighLevel. I receive referral payments from HighLevel. The opinions expressed here are my own and shall NOT be interpreted or considered as representations, guarantees, or statements made by HighLevel Inc or any of its subsidiaries, agents, or assigns.
GoHighLevel is an invaluable tool for anyone looking to expand or improve their customer relationship management.
Developed by Shaun Clark in 2018, GoHighLevel was created with the goal of helping small businesses and agencies reduce the time and effort spent on laborious sales processes, so they can focus on growing their business. This makes GoHighLevel a smart solution for anyone looking to get the most out of their customer relationships or to increase lead generation.
By combining CRM software with customized automation strategies and data integration capabilities, GHL can significantly reduce manual workloads and make it easy to identify new opportunities.
As a bonus, GHL’s customers only have to remember one name since “GoHighLevel” was chosen as the brand name instead of “Highlevel” due to availability issues with domain names.
Regardless of its name, GHL offers an outstanding array of features designed to help every business get more done in less time.
With its rock-solid reputation and ever-expanding capabilities, GoHighLevel is rapidly becoming the go-to solution for any business hoping to make managing their customers more efficient and successful.
Photographers are busy. When not working with clients we’re usually out shooting to improve our skills, Lightroom editing, or simply trying new creative techniques that will help us stand out.
What photographer wants to spend time manually contacting all their clients or doing their invoicing/reputation management the old-fashioned way? Today, more than ever, we live busy lives and the less time we spend managing our business gives us more time to grow business.
One of the most critical tools in any business today is CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
CRM is a system that helps businesses keep track of their interactions with current and potential customers. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, a CRM system is essential for any business that wants to stay ahead of the curve and here’s why:
A CRM system helps you optimize your marketing campaigns.
With a CRM system in place, you can track which marketing campaigns are performing well and which ones aren’t. This information is invaluable when it comes to making decisions about where to allocate your budget.
Additionally, a CRM system can help you segment your customer base so that you can target your marketing efforts more effectively.
Think of it this way. If you were a couple’s wedding photographer you could tag them as such in your CRM system, set up an automation, and send an automated text/email one year from their wedding day to thank them, wish them a happy anniversary, or even add them into a “couples anniversary” sales funnel.
Or how about emailing every family or couple you do Christmas portraits for every year with the click of a button?
A CRM system enables an easy-to-use solution for follow-up and keeping your current client’s existing clients with simple email and/or SMS marketing.
A CRM system gives you visibility into your sales pipeline.
A good CRM system will give you a clear picture of where each of your deals stands in the sales pipeline. This information is crucial for keeping track of your progress and making sure that deals don’t fall through the cracks.
Additionally, knowing what’s in your sales pipeline enables you to forecast future revenue and make better strategic decisions about where to invest your resources.
If you’ve run a recent Facebook Ads campaign for engagement photos and you have a handful of couples stuck in the “contacted” stage but haven’t booked anything you should focus your efforts on converting them. You know they’re interested so perhaps giving them more attention or a sweetener will help you convert them to active clients.
A CRM system helps you provide better customer service.
With a CRM system in place, you’ll have all of your customer information in one central location. This makes it easy to resolve issues quickly and efficiently.
Additionally, a CRM system can help you keep track of customer interactions and proactively address any potential problems before they have a chance to turn into full-blown issues.
The CRM portion of GoHighLevel is invaluable but it’s the tip of the iceberg. The entire piece of software stands apart as it provides an all-in-one solution for all businesses, not just photographers.
Right now you probably have multiple apps and multiple subscriptions you’re paying monthly to manage your business.
What if I told you you could cancel them all and just use GHL? It sounds unreasonable but as someone who’s done it, trust me!
The most important features of GoHighLevel for Photographers (at least to me) are:
Truthfully, I could go on but these six features are what I use daily. The ability to enable Facebook ads and sales funnels with the click of a button just adds to its capability but you can see just how powerful this could be for your business.
Besides, I dedicated that to this next session and how it can turn your hobby into a profitable business in record time.
Everything I’ve already talked about should be more than enough to get you to at least try a 14 Day Free Trial but if it isn’t here’s why it is better than anything on the market for a photographer.
Websites are commonplace among photographers but the most focus is on social media. It’s getting harder to grow on some social sites like Instagram but your website is still a pillar of your photography brand.
Unfortunately, most photographers fall into the problem of not wanting to hire a freelancer or agency for a custom website or they end up on WIX which isn’t great at all for growth and exposure (it’s terrible for search).
No matter what route you choose, you STILL NEED A WEBSITE or multiple landing pages to send your traffic to. When you run a couples photography offer you’ll send them a website where they will enter in their information, book a time, and then be confirmed and put in automation.
Wouldn’t it be nice if this was all done for you? In HighLevel it is. Build as many landing pages or websites as needed at no extra cost for the duration of your subscription.
Sometimes your best sales staff are your existing customers. What if you could reward them with commissions (automated of course) for every referral they send your way?
The internet is full of affiliate programs so why not leverage that for your own photography business?
You set the price, you set the commission it’s as simple as that. Just another automated way of handing off sales to your existing clientele.
Finally, imagine being able to have all your social media ads up and running each month in under 10 minutes (likely even less).
Yes…you can with HighLevel. I’ve hand-crafted a handful of seasonal ads based around things like fall photos, Christmas photos, etc that are up and running each month and I’ve spent less than 3 clicks on them.
If that’s not enough the built-in business-to-business lead generation software is a cherry on top.
It’s this simple. Find a list of Wedding planners (or wedding videographers) and reach out to them asking if they have someone they work with and if not if they would consider you for referrals (hint…add the affiliate commission).
So there you have it, dozens of compelling reasons to try GoHighLevel if you are a photographer.
Not only does the platform offer an impressive array of features that help with lead generation and sales, but it is also easy to use and quick to set up.
With HighLevel, you can focus on what you love – photography – while leaving the marketing and advertising to automation. Sounds like a win-win situation for everyone involved!
When you signup for GoHighLevel under my affiliate ID I’ll send you the snapshot I’ve built for my own business. Simply import it and you can be up and running with HighLevel in less than 10 minutes without worrying about setting up sales funnels, automation, and more.
Have questions about it? Don’t hesitate to reach out, I’m always willing to help out other photographers learn about the brilliance of HighLevel and how it will transform your business.