For My Fellow Photographers:

CRM

If you are an independent business owner you are doing enough already! A CRM (customer relationship management) is a must have tool to umbrella all your communication with a client- your contacts, emails, quotes, invoices, contracts as well as create templates and personalized workflows. It’s also extremely useful for bookkeeping and income tracking. There are a bunch out there but after trying many Dubsado is the most customizable for commercial work in my personal opinion and very robust. I like it so much I signed up for the lifetime membership.

My code is: SnackLifewhich gives you 20% off your first year and $35 bucks to me.

Email Service Provider: Newsletters + Blasts

The most non-negotiable part of your marketing is email outreach. It’s not fun, it’s not sexy, it will probably erode your soul over time but it’s the best way of getting in front of people if you can’t get an IRL meeting and those are HARD to get. I’ve bounced around to different ESPs but my current, best love is flodesk. There are lots of templates, connectivity, good metrics and design options that help you stick to your branding.

> My link- gives you 50% and me $19

For tethering

Nothing beats Capture One for tethering! Shooting tethered as a product photographer is a big game changer especially working with stylists and clients on set- and the last thing you want is for your program to quit on you! Capture One has been the best, least buggy solution for me and great for facilitating remote shoots.

> My Link- get’s you 20% off your first subscription

Passive Income- Stock

When it’s slow it’s SLOW so having a little passive income to help along the way really helps. Gone are the days of stock being a big money maker in my opinion but for me the extra sandwich money here and there always seems to come at a good time and is a nice bonus for work you’ve already shot. I license my work through Stocksy and have been liking it. If you want to sign up as a contributor here is my referral link. As far as I can tell I think it helps you jump the line a bit in the application process to be evaluated for acceptance.

Keep Notes, Shot Ideas, and Goals Handy

Do you have 315 notebooks that you know have that great idea for a shoot in them but you have to wait until you get home to check? Wrote your goals down somewhere but aren’t totally sure what they were? Yeah me too. Knock it off. Put that shit in Notion and then you can find it in 2 seconds on your phone from anywhere. Easily look back at your goals from the previous year and see how far you’ve come. It’s really helpful and the basic account is free.

My Link: https://affiliate.notion.so/RebeccaPeloquin

Organize your marketing

I use airtable to lay out an annual marketing plan using a Kanban view so I can see each month what I need to do and if I’m actually doing it. I also use it to keep a database of my communication with people I am marketing to- who opened emails and if/when I followed up. Much easier to look at a cute spreadsheet quickly than dig in your email trying to play the memory game of what was her name at what was the place who said something…

>My link- gives me $10 in credit when you verify your email and sign up even if you use a free plan.

Easy Design for promos or emails

I use this for email graphics, quick promos and so many social graphics. The free plan is really good!

For Culling

Some folks like bridge- I love Photo Mechanic. I’ve been using it for almost a decade since I used to work award shows and it’s an incredible tool if you need to chop down a large set quickly, ID a ton of people or work with specialized metadata- you can input IPTC captions, keyworks, color code etc. LOVE it. I don’t have a code but see if it helps you too.