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So I might be biased, but I have been organizing my client management with Sprout Studio since they came on the scene, and I believe it’s the best investment I make for my business, and now with the merger with the Find Freedom team, improvements and new features are being added at a rapid pace! So let’s take a look at why Sprout Studio is the best CRM for photographers today.
It’s changed the way I run my business – for the better! No more sticky notes, notebooks, random pieces of paper and lost invoices, and no more needing 5 or 6 subscriptions to accomplish all the different tasks needed. Everything is in one spot, and the client experience is soooo much smoother.
Reasons Why Sprout Studio is the top choice CRM for Photographers
Standard CRM Stuff – Client Contracts, Questionnaires, Invoicing, Workflows, Automated Reminders
You can create as many different price lists as you need. When you create a booking proposal, your client can choose a session, package or collection from the options you provide for them. I then have them fill out a questionnaire that helps me better plan their session, and they pay their invoice. Easy. Set up workflows for your leads and shoots, send automated emails when you choose, or put in a pause to personalize before sending. Sprout sends out appointment reminders and gallery expiration notices automatically, and you can adjust the timing of those to suit your needs.
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Scheduling Mini Sessions
Your client can even schedule their own meeting or session time through the options you set up in your Scheduler and Booking Pages. You can set up your calendar to show the dates and times you’re available, and they book themselves right in! Perfect for meetings or mini session scheduling, or you could even set up a booking page for each session type you offer and add it to the corresponding page on your website. The scheduler will cross-check your availability with your calendar so you don’t double-book, and you can also choose between automatic and manual appointment approval.
Do you offer multiple mini sessions throughout the year? Add them all to your Booking Catalog and you can direct your clients there to choose the sessions they want to book from the list.
Easy-to-use Galleries with Coupons and Credits
Upload proof images or final jpegs, depending on your workflow. You’re in control of who downloads what, your watermarks, image resolution, your pricelist, and more.
When you add credits for the items in your packages, clients can auto-fulfill their order right in their gallery. Offering a dollar amount or percentage discount is easy too, and you can limit the number of uses per code.
Automatic Lab Fulfillment
Freedom Print Lab is fully integrated (and more labs will be coming soon). It’s super simple to choose the lab options you want to offer, and add them to your pricelist, in either $USD or $CAD. Apply a standard markup, or create your own pricing. You only pay for the product and keep the entire profit amount, Sprout does not take a cut. Shipping is free for orders over $20, whether shipped to you/your studio, or drop-shipped directly to your client!
Plus they have promised to absorb any potential tariffs, so you can have peace of mind knowing your costs won’t increase drastically overnight.
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Gallery Sales and Promotions
- campaigns triggered by activities
- abandoned cart emails
- holiday and seasonal drip campaigns
- customizable templates and unbranded product photos
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Design Proofs – Perfect for Album Proofing
Upload your finished album designs and your client can digitally flip through the pages, add comments, request image changes from an attached gallery, and submit the changes to you. Upload a revision, and once the client is happy with the design they hit the Approve button and you can send it to print. For the actual design of your albums, SmartAlbums makes it super fast and easy!
You can also use this feature for clients to approve wall art layouts, thank you cards, or anything else you design that needs approval to move forward.
Beautiful Email Marketing
Send beautiful emails to your clients, or to a segment of your contacts in Sprout. Only want to email your newborn clients? No problem. Want to email all your sessions from the current year? You got it. The gorgeous templates and customization options rival the top email marketing providers, and it’s all included right within Sprout Studio.
Concierge and Migration Tools
If you’re coming over from another CRM, Sprout can help ease the transition. Use the Migration Tool to transfer data yourself, or take advantage of the affordable Concierge service to transfer your current and most recent data into Sprout Studio.
Listening to User Feedback
In the last quarter of 2024 Sprout Studio joined the Freedom family, adding a UI expert and tripling their development team, focused on server management and faster rollouts. They have big plans to improve on what’s already there, and introduce new features that help photographers streamline their business and workflow, and make more money in less time!
And they aren’t fooling around!
Check out this list of features and improvements on the roadmap:
Payment Processing
- auto-pay and saved cards
- allow clients to leave tips
- pass on credit fees to your client (though I never recommend this – raise your prices to account for the fees if you need to, nobody likes extra fees!)
- flexible payment options, and “buy now, pay later”
Social Media Scheduler
- schedule and auto-post to all your platforms, including Google Business
- built-in audience insights
- peak-time posting
- pull photos straight from your Sprout galleries (This will be such a time saver!!)
- preview your feed to keep things looking good and on-brand
Improvements to Email Marketing
- better analytics and activity reports
- smarter list-building and better segmenting options
- new templates that look great on both desktop and mobile
- automated drip campaigns to drive sales
- beautifully branded emails, no coding needed
Website Builder
- easy-to-customize templates
- built-in SEO tools and audits
- AI tools to create high-converting titles and meta descriptions
- mobile-ready designs
- no coding knowledge needed
More Print Lab Partners
- additional lab fulfillment options, and in more countries
- more product options
- commission-free sales, as always
- fast, reliable shipping
Two-Way Messaging
- send and receive texts and emails all within Sprout Studio
- trackable communication history for each client
- respond quickly with saved replies and message templates
- all built-in, no integrations required
Take a peek below and let me know if you have any questions! The Sprout team is constantly making improvements and adding new features, and their support staff is always on top of things.
If you’re ready to jump in, USE THIS LINK FOR A 20% DISCOUNT and get started with Sprout Studio!
Have questions? I’m happy to help!