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Honeybook for Photographers: #1 Moneymaking Tool I use in my Photography Business

March 7, 2020

You did it. You own a photography business! But man, you had NO idea it would be this hard to run it! You aren’t just in charge of taking photos and editing them. You’re in charge of scheduling, answering phones and emails, client upkeep, secretarial work, content creation, marketing, the I.T. department, creative director, client experience management, branding, and bookkeeping! Whew… talk about exhausting. When you run your own photography business you can’t just be this daydreaming creative. You are the one who has to bring those dreams to life! And when it comes to getting the job done, there is one tool you’ll NEED, not want, on your side! That is Honeybook for photographers!

Honeybook for Photographers | Marketing tips for photographers with Ariel Dilworth

Honeybook for Photographers

Honeybook is an online business management tool that organizes how you communicate with clients/potential clients, contracts, online scheduling, invoices, bookkeeping, virtual to-do lists, payment scheduling, and SO MUCH MORE!

If there is ONE tool I recommend to photographers… Honeybook is it. Not only do they have easy to use templates ready for you to use (emails, brochures, proposals, invoices, contracts, etc.) but they have e-signatures and built-in automations so you get bookings without ever even lifting a finger! Like the sound of that, huh?

Not to mention that their mobile app makes it super easy to work my business while waiting at school pick-up for my daughter, sitting in the waiting room at the dentist, etc.

User Experience

Honeybook has transformed the way I run my business by always adding innovative features to their platform that don’t just make things easier on my end but also put me a step ahead of my competitors at all times. Every single thing I send my potential clients/clients is perfectly on brand and EASY TO USE. I have found this so transformative for my clients because in the past, photo sessions have been stressful. Not just the actual session but even the planning of them. The constant back and forth emailing, discussing dates, reschedules, sending contracts, sending contracts back, following up…. Ugh… it makes my head hurt just remembering back to those days!

Honeybook Client Experience | Marketing Tips for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

Proposals are a nice document that Honeybook puts together once a client selects what package they want to book from the brochure. It includes the outline of services they want, a payment schedule, AND a contract that requires an easy-as-pie e-signature from them and you! It’s literally easy as 1, 2, 3!

Honeybook Proposals | Marketing Tips for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

Now my clients have access to online booking (this is a feature you can choose to opt-in to or not). After implementing online booking my bookings DOUBLED. So I highly recommend it 😉

Online Booking with Honeybook | Marketing for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

I can send them questionnaires before their session AND a review request questionnaire after!!!!!

Honeybook brochures for photographers | Marketing for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

Time is Money

I know this. You know this. And yet, we act like time is expendable. Because of Honeybook I was able to not just run a six-figure photography business but also launch an education business and run them both without either one suffering the consequences of neglect. Honeybook has turned them both into well-oiled machines. So efficient in fact that when I had a concussion a few months ago and was forced to no screen time and laying in a dark room for weeks on end… I WAS STILL MAKING MONEY AND BOOKING SESSIONS! (YAY… HONEYBOOK!)

Automated Payments with Honeybook for Photographers | Marketing for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

Save Time AND money…

But now… those beautiful souls over at Honeybook have partnered with me to give you 50% off your first year. That’ll save you $20 a month if you pay monthly OR $200/year if you go with the annual subscription.

Honeybook Office Image | Marketing for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

My Favorite Honeybook Features for Photographers

customizable pipeline

One of my favorite features about Honeybook for photographers is it’s customizable pipeline. You get to decide what each stage of your workflow is. That way you know where each client is at in their client experience process. This really helps me ensure that I’m giving my clients an outstanding experience not just at the beginning but from start to finish!

Honeybook Customizable Pipeline for Photographers | Marketing for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

Automations

Did you know that the odds of a lead booking if you contact them 30 minutes after an inquiry drops by 21 times compared to a 5 minute reply! Even going from 5 minutes to 10 minutes translates to a decrease in response by 400%!*

-MIT Professor james oldroyd

But, thanks to Honeybook’s ability to set up automated workflows, I don’t have to worry about it! When a client fills out my contact form on my website, they get a perfectly on-brand brochure with all the information I want to give them about my business IMMEDIATELY! I have it set to where an automated email goes out to my clients after a payment has been missed, an email hasn’t been opened, a contract hasn’t been signed, etc. Honeybook is like a personal assistant that stays on top of everything for me! Except, WAY FREAKING CHEAPER of course! 🙂

Honeybook workflows | Marketing for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth
Honeybook Detailed Workflow | Marketing for Photographers with Ariel Dilworth

Valuable information

No more having to try and figure out what marketing is worth my time. Honeybook keep tracks of where all my leads are coming from and how much the clients from that lead source end up spending with me! That way I know exactly where I should spend my time (or money) marketing online.

Honeybook Reports

efficient

Before Honeybook, I would spend literally 3 hours a day responding to clients. I had inquiries coming in on my personal Facebook, my Facebook business page, my Instagram DM’s, my personal email, my business email, the contact form on my website, text messages, voicemails, etc. Stuff was starting to fall through the cracks. I even lived out every single photographers nightmare and totally forgot about a session. Still makes me sick to my stomach.

But, thanks to Honeybook, every client gets treated like the friggin’ Queen of England. Helpful resources upon helpful resources, organization, follow-up emails, responses to FAQ’s, etc. without me ever doing more than a click of a button (if that).

the downside of honeybook

Because I’m a realist… I’m going to be honest with you. Every rose has its thorn, right? Well, the only thorn I’ve found with Honeybook is that it takes a little while to set up. They’ve made it as easy as possible by creating SO MANY FREE TEMPLATES, stock photos for us to use on brochures, and they even import your packaging and pricing data into the system when you sign up. But, writing the email templates, plugging your photos into the templates, customizing the contracts, setting up the online scheduling… It does take a little time.

but hear me when I say you’ll get that time back 10-fold…

Honeybook is the best tool to run your photography business like it’s a million-dollar business for a fraction of the price. That’s why I recommend it to photographers no matter how far along they are in their business journey.

If you’re considering Honeybook for your photography business and decide to purchase it through one of the buttons on this page, I will send you a set-up tutorial video TOTALLY FREE! That’s how much I believe in Honeybook for photographers!

in conclusion…

Honeybook is made for photographers! It truly is amazing! That is literally all I can say. You can try to use another program. You can try to find some free rip-off. But you’ll always come crawling back to Honeybook because they are the best of the best at what they do. Last but not least, Honeybook gave me HOURS upon HOURS of time with these munchkins who are growing up in a blink of an eye. And that gift is truly priceless.

Ariel Dilworth & Family | Marketing for Photographers

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