What is a CRM for photographers?

You’re an entrepreneur and your photography business is booming. In fact, you have so many clients, you can hardly keep up. You manage everything with Microsoft Excel, which has been great for the last couple of years, but now it’s time to join the big leagues. You heard about CRMs, but where to start? And how beneficial can a CRM be for a small business like yours? Weren’t they for large corporate entities managing thousands of clients through hundreds of employees? In this article, we’ll find out how a CRM can be adapted to your needs as a freelancing photographer and we’ll dive into some of the features best suited for you.

What’s a CRM?

Every business, corporation or organization now appreciates the key role that the customer relationship holds in the development of professional activities. While it’s crucial to have productive teams, the use of digital solutions is also recommended for numerous reasons.

A CRM (acronym for Customer Relationship Management) addresses numerous issues related to this invaluable customer relationship.

What are the main functionalities to look for?

CRM software comes with many useful tools. Regardless of the nature of your business, corporation or organization, some functionalities are more helpful than others for properly managing your customer relationship.

Marketing

CRM software allows you to create online campaigns to maximize your return on investment by:

• Identifying the best textual content w
• hile analyzing the ideal periods for sending messages
• Integrating sales and analyses to target and convert every prospect
• Assisting in the creation and sending of messages based on specific channels that track target customers

Sales-related functionalities

The centralization of data naturally allows crucial information to be shared. Sales team members can then benefit from a comprehensive overview of the performance of a business, corporation or organization. Additionally, CRM software makes it easier to identify “good buyers” (customer relationship development). Lastly, the integration of artificial intelligence within CRM software allows professionals to identify ideal strategies and to implement them during the sales process.

Optimizing customer service

CRM software also serves to optimize customer service. This is evident in the following characteristics:

• Establishment of contact via your clients’ preferred equipment and channel
• Presentation of detailed analyses where cost reduction and service optimization are visible
• Decisive visibility of the clientele to guide your staff during proposals (personalization of proposals)

Dispatch service

Organizing your technicians and distributing tasks are other sought-after functionalities in CRM software. Once again, the centralization of data in an online storage space allows employees to quickly access critical information. Improving services (deliveries) will inarguably strengthen clients’ trust.

Furthermore, the automation that comes with a CRM allows you to effectively match the skills of each technician depending on your needs. Lastly, geolocalization and live dissemination of information during an intervention strengthen the internal organization of a business, corporation or organization.

Optimal project management

To maximize the results of a business, corporation or organization, it’s essential to choose a CRM that includes project management functionalities. This way, you’ll be able to:

• Efficiently plan your projects and allocate resources
• Determine how time will be managed for each task
• Track billing and spending
• Generate reports
• Access a portal for collaborative purposes

Other equally essential functionalities

Besides the above-mentioned functionalities, CRMs offer other digital tools that are useful for professionals.

The automation of manual and repetitive tasks is a perfect example. This functionality offers convenience while also limiting entry errors and improving the reliability of analyses for each department (this is especially true for the sales team).

Intelligent management of sensitive data is another functionality offered by some CRM software. The identification of critical information allows customized strategies to be reviewed and applied.

Depending on their profile, a business, corporation or organization may prioritize other functionalities. Again, choosing CRM software is a crucial step towards guaranteeing optimal results.

How can I benefit from using a CRM?

What can a CRM bring to my business, corporation or organization? This most pertinent question has many answers. The following is a non-exhaustive list of benefits linked to digital solutions that are now considered essential.

Better client management with CRM software

Your relationships with your prospects and clients are optimized thanks to information provided every time a client is contacted. By displaying complementary data, a CRM allows you to personalize your clientele and gain their trust, all while giving them greater responsibility during buying decisions.

A CRM centralizes your data and makes it easier to access information

The centralization of pertinent data naturally makes it easier to access this information. With a few clicks, each department can quickly find accurate data that’s updated in real-time.

Optimized overall management

Functionalities related to marketing, customer insight, field service and sales, as well as other essential elements for every business, corporation or organization improve your sales and your brand image.

An ideal solution for increasing productivity and agility

Besides the many functionalities previously discussed in this article, you could also ask yourself the following relevant question: What are the concrete benefits of a CRM for my business, corporation or organization? Again, several answers may be noted:

• Better communication between each department and your prospects/clients
• Significant amount of time saved thanks to the automation of repetitive tasks
• More efficient employees

Maximize your sales figures and benefits

As you can see, the many features of CRM software offer significant benefits. Deploying Customer Relationship Management software will quickly boost sales while ensuring that costs are properly managed.

How can I choose the best CRM for my business, corporation or organization?

Without any specific knowledge, selecting CRM software that’s customized for a business, corporation or organization can turn into a complex process. Therefore, it’s worth highlighting several characteristics that will help you decide.

Personalization

To achieve the best results, you should have the option of personalizing every “detail” and feature of CRM software. While some solutions come with restrictive limitations, others properly fulfill this requirement (the Microsoft solution offered on our (Gestisoft’s) website is a perfect example).

Choose extensible CRM software

Dealing with deployments via the cloud or on-site can satisfy certain needs that are particular to a given business, corporation or organization. Additionally, a CRM must be compatible with other platforms and software, such as your architecture software, your ERP software, etc.

Set security levels for each user

An effective CRM system allows you to set security levels for each user. By assigning them a specific “role”, you are authorizing the user to access, integrate or modify centralized information, or denying them these permissions.

Choose a scalable solution

Expanding a business, corporation or organization is obviously a major priority for professionals. Your current needs may therefore change. Effective CRM software will assist you as you scale up your professional activities while also allowing you to streamline every process on a daily basis.

The CRM ecosystem

The CRM ecosystem (or stack) consists of the set of tools that are directly (or indirectly) connected. For optimal results, this set-up should evidently be constructed gradually. Safeguarding client data (and prospects’ data) is essential to fully benefit from a CRM stack. Again, a CRM ecosystem will be shaped by your choice of software.

Features of CRM for photographers

With a customized tool like CRM for photographers, image professionals save a lot of time in their work week, boost their revenues and strengthen their client relations.

Organize your work like a pro using a CRM for photographers

During a photo shoot, you need to be ready to snap your shutter at the right time. The overall organization of your day-to-day work reflects your preparations for a photo shoot. You need to have a panoramic view of your client data. Perhaps you are also looking for a tool to store and organize your massive photo archives. You use another app to manage your meeting schedule.

A CRM for photographers meets all your professional needs by centralizing these various tools. It’s the best professional photography assistant: you have everything you need to succeed in your photography assignments at your fingertips.

Simplify your sales process with a CRM for photographers

Whether you are just starting your career or you are an experienced photographer, you have the same goal: growing your business. You choose the best lighting and focal distance for your subject, but your work doesn’t stop there. You also need to correspond and follow up with your clients, create invoices, etc.

Imagine software that lets you automate your email while acquiring leads. With this one digital tool, you can create invoices, ensure client satisfaction and even generate detailed reports on your financial performance. This is exactly what a CRM for photographers does. This tool gives you more time for finding new contracts—your primary goal.

How does a CRM for photographers improve your marketing activities?

Marketing-related tasks are an inevitable part of your professional work. Managing contacts, deploying retention strategies and creating new projects are all tasks that you can automate in a CRM for photographers. You can then dedicate the time saved by using this type of tool to work on an image that’s important to you: your brand image.

Get accurate analytical reports

As a photographer, you want to have a clear picture of your business. By automatically generating your data analysis, a CRM for photographers lets you stay focused on your results.

It gives you an accurate picture of your project management and boosts your productivity. You can use the filtering option to zoom in on and isolate the data you want to visualized

Entrust Gestisoft with implementing your CRM

When you’re ready to choose a CRM, keep in mind that you’re making a long-term investment for your office. Your choice of software needs to be a well-informed decision. At Gestisoft, we make this easy with our team of CRM and ERP experts who will guide you in making your purchase and support you in implementing your software. Contact us today to discuss your needs, we’ll work together to find the solution that’s most suitable for your professional situation.