How Photographers Can Use Online Technology to Grow Their Business
July 1st, 2021
Let’s face it, the craft of photography involves plenty of technology to manage. Even before the digital age, lenses, apertures, lighting…it all had a learning curve. Today, there are also chips, pixels, post-production software and monitors to coordinate. When you press the shutter button, all of that technology is applied to create your signature product.
That’s just the “photography” part. When it comes to the operations end of running a photography business, you can find yourself struggling to balance all the tasks between sessions. That’s why photographers turn to a one-stop online resource like Zenfolio to deliver all the administrative technology needed to run their photography business, leaving just the shutter button to manage.
Zenfolio is a technology partner that helps streamline the business management of photography by consolidating multiple aspects technology needs into one simple solution. From webmaster, to office manager, to booking agent, to accountant, Zenfolio wears multiple hats behind the scenes so photographers can spend more time behind the lens.
Start with a Genuine Photography Business Website
The technology cornerstone of any successful business is often the website. And few business people have the time or skills to build and maintain a custom website. Zenfolio makes it easy for any photographer who can drag-and-drop a content block on a computer screen to build their own custom website in minutes.
Creating a website to showcase their work for potential clients, proof images for current clients, and process orders, is the foundation from which to build a thriving photo business. Zenfolio offers dozens of pre-designed website templates that allow plenty of room for customization and branding.
Build Custom Galleries – No Frames Needed
Imagine a virtual representation of not just one, but multitudes of custom galleries to display photos. Zenfolio galleries afford photographers the ability to create public galleries by genre or specialization, and private galleries by event or session that only a client has access to view.
In the brick and mortar world, a photography business would need to shell out money for a city block of space in order to have the same capacity to show work and sell prints. Technology offers a decided advantage for a photography business in this regard. Without knowing how to code or structure a website, photographers can build and upload images into numerous custom galleries to show and sell their work.
Scheduling Without a Book. Payments Without a Register.
As recently as five years ago, a thriving photo biz needed someone to answer the phone, answer questions about rates and availability, and pencil in a session in a calendar book. And can you believe that actual cash money might have changed hands if a sale was made? BookMe by Zenfolio is a new technology tool that clearly puts a photography business in the digital age.
The BookMe app can be added to any photography website home page or booking page. It streamlines the process of scheduling, client pricing and payments in a single resource. In the past, photographers often used 3-4 different tools or software to manually accomplish these tasks.
BookMe auto-syncs with Google Calendar, so a photographer can show open session dates, block out free time, and avoid double-bookings. It all happens automatically behind the scenes, taking the work out of managing complex entries across multiple resources.
Potential clients can instantly see photo session pricing and any packages offered by a photographer. The photographer determines when and how they get paid – upfront, partial deposit, or upon completion. Payments are processed by a well known national processor directly into the photographer’s specified bank account right away.
Photographers Sing the Praises of Technology
If you’ve been on the fence about adopting online technology to help enhance your photography business, see what other photographers say…
Custom Gallery Websites
“The clean design and beautiful new layouts [within Zenfolio] make it easy to navigate, create and provide customers a seamless way to see their images and purchase packages.”
– Lyryn Yacoe, Lyryn Yacoe Photography
“PortfolioPlus allows the photographer like me to know that I now have a website & portfolio that truly is truly working for me”
–Michael Pintar, Michael Pintar Photography
Scheduling & Payment Tools
“I loved the ability to create custom services and packages with BookMe. This will be a great tool to allow me to be behind the camera more and not the computer!”
– SWVA Photography
“I recently started using the BookMe feature from Zenfolio and it has been an absolute game changer. [With my old workflow,] I had all these different ways of people communicating with me trying to find the time they wanted and how to pay. It was just chaos for several days just trying to get everyone booked and then everyone wants the last session, which is the best time of day. With BookMe I can just put up a link for them to book and see the details. it’s up to them on how fast they get it done, what time they pick, and to send payment. It has been amazing.”
– Lindsey Kenna, LKW Photography
“I like the simplicity of BookMe and the convenience of managing multiple aspects of my photography business in one place.”
– Audrey Rock, Audrey Rock Photography
