how to use Dubsado as a brand photographer
how to use Dubsado as a brand photographer
If you are new to Dubsado*, it’s a client relationship management (CRM) tool designed to help you organise your client projects. It’s been nearly a year since I signed up and I can’t tell you how much I love the platform!
Dubsado has helped me to transform my client journey, creating a more professional experience
Dubsado has also saved me SO much time in typing, admin, and design
Dubsado has been just as loved by my clients, many of whom said they love it and have signed up for the platform as well
I really feel like it’s helped add a level of care to my clients’ experiences that has so paid off. So many of them have said that their portal looks so beautiful, was so helpful, and that it has made their brand photoshoot journey feel even easier.
If you are not new to Dubsado, you may be aware that it can be an intimidating tool! It can do so much that I know plenty of folk who have signed up but just not known where to get started. I am indeed a branding photographer, but I’m hopeful that this post will still prove helpful to those of you in other service fields. I’ll be going into my favourite features in the hope that you get some inspiration for how to use it yourself… I hope you enjoy!
*This is my affiliate link for 20% off your first month OR year of Dubsado, depending on the plan you pick! When someone uses your code, you will earn a month of Dubsado free.)
why i love using dubsado as a brand photographer
It feels like there are so many reasons why I love Dubsado so much, but I would say the key ones are:
It creates an elevated experience for my clients. As a photographer, I want every part of their journey to look beautiful, and Dubsado lets you set your brand colours and logo for an experience that so beats the Google Docs I used to use a few years ago.
It’s accessible to clients. With the month-long planning process that typically goes into my branding shoots, I love knowing that they have everything they need together in one place as we go on that journey.
It saves me time. Now I have my most-used canned emails set up and the workflows I love most sorted, I’m freed up from so much admin that I would be doing from scratch otherwise.
i use dubsado to host my brand photography enquiry, welcome, and feedback forms
Let’s kick off with the Dubsado features I get the most use out of for my branding photography!
First things first is form hosting, the first way that my clients will interact with Dubsado on our brand shoot journey. My booking, welcome, and feedback forms all used to be on different platforms, but Dubsado now takes care of them all.
I especially love this because when a client makes an enquiry via my brand photoshoot booking page, Dubsado easily pulls all the details they input so as to create a project for them automatically. Previously, I’d have done this all myself. You can cleverly toggle each question to link to an aspect of their project, even letting you add tags based on a client’s answers.
The welcome questionnaire is a vital part of my photography process, and previously I would set up a Google Doc for clients. I’ll be honest, those Docs were not my favourite! Not every client is a Google Drive user, and visually they left a lot to be desired. You can customise your forms to include your brand colours, include your logo, and much more. So much nicer.
I recently set up a client feedback form too, which I’m using to learn from clients and easily gather testimonials for my website. I know of some photographers who even use their Dubsado forms to populate the blog posts they write for each client shoot. I’m not there yet but I’ll be considering this one in the future!
dubsado allows me to create portals for every branding shoot client
This one is the main feature my clients comment on. I’ve included an example portal above with my details so you can see! Client portals contain all the documents, invoices, contracts, forms, and key info they need in one handy place:
There’s tab where they can instantly see all the emails from us in one place, rather than searching through their inbox
All the forms that I’ve asked them to fill out, such as their welcome questionnaire
All their invoices, with the option to download them when they need to
Their portrait guide PDF, which I used to email them separately
Their contract, which I’ve set up templates of for each shoot package
These portals really help set the tone of the shoot together, creating a more professional feel for what might be a significant investment in their business. I always tell them to bookmark their portal and I’ve noticed that it massively reduces the number of emails I get asking for copies of an invoice or similar. That’s good for me, certainly, but most importantly it shows that it’s accessible to clients and that is so super important.
You can customise the appearance of these too (I think even towards the individual client, though I’ve not yet dabbled in this feature!) I think these really help clients to feel at home during our work together, which is so important to me given my process is all about helping them feel comfortable.
i can use dubsado to create canned emails and workflows that save hours of time
Some email sequences happen every time we work with a client… why would we do it from scratch for every single one?
One of my favourite Dubsado features is the canned emails + workflows.
Canned emails are smart templates that you can format so that they automatically add a client’s correct details every time you send them.
Workflows string these canned emails together, where you can specify when an email or action should take place, if it needs approval or should happen automatically, and plenty more
Combined, these two Dubsado features have saved me hours, hours and hours and hours, truly!
My current most-used canned emails are:
A “Welcome to your portal” email with an introduction to their portal, links to their questionnaire + contract, and next step instructions for what I need from them to get the photoshoot started
Reminder emails before any online calls, their photoshoot, and their payment deadlines
Reminder emails to prompt them to fill out their welcome forms, check if they saw my last email, and to join/use our Pinterest board
A pre-shoot check-in email with a link to my calendar so we can jump on a call the week before their brand shoot
Enquiry responses, and lots of them! Some saying yes, no we’re not a good fit, no I can’t do the dates you need, and more
I have a few workflow sequences I use as well:
An enquiry workflow that sends an automated email to say their enquiry was sent successfully, adds a reminder for me to add availability to my consultation calendar, then sends a link to the calendar
A welcome workflow that sends their welcome email, their contract, creates their invoice, and activates their client portal
A pitching workflow that contacts and then follows up with a client that I’m particularly keen to work with (I’ve used this lots to find Scottish businesses and it’s led to a few successful shoots so far!)
i use dubsado to book consultation calls with clients
Scheduling tools are a lifesaver and I am so grateful to Dubsado for having one built-in, rather than paying separately as I have in the past! You don’t realise how much of your time is spent emailing about availability until that time is just gone.
I know some people have set hours in their calendars and share their calendar links publicly on their site; I, though, like to add my availability as I go given that my weeks look so different. You can set up different appointment types and easily specify availability on each one, which is great if you offer brand shoot consultation calls and 1:1 editing sessions like me!
I simply just have to add the link to my emails (or send my scheduler link via a canned email) and the rest is done; so, so helpful.
other things i love about dubsado as a branding photographer
Last of all, I thought I’d share a quickfire round of other things I love about Dubsado that don’t quite fit into the above:
Their help is really great and supportive if I do have questions and very open to feature requests
They have options that let clients pay their invoices directly. There’s a charge, fair warning, and there can be a delay in the funds being released into your bank account, but I’m considering this for the future if clients tell me they especially love it
You can set monthly financial goals that can be great if you’re someone who gets motivated by that kind of feature (it updates to say how far along you are in reaching it, amazing!)
You can create proposals super simply, once you have your packages set up. I’d not used this until a couple of weeks ago when two clients asked and I was amazed at how fast they were to create!
There you go my loves!
I so hope that this post was helpful to those of you considering Dubsado, and this is my affiliate link if you would like to join with 20% off your first month OR year of Dubsado… thank you so much if you do!
In the meantime, lots of love and happy Monday,
Anna xxx
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