• Business and Management

Post-shoot school photography workflow: Fast editing, organization, and delivery for customer satisfaction.

If you’re like me, you might be thinking that school or preschool photoshoots would be too much to handle alone. Or maybe you’re telling yourself that you don’t have the organization or capacity to handle such a large volume of clients in such a short amount of time. But when faced with an opportunity, I couldn’t resist the challenge–and with preparation and workflows, I found out how much fun I could have with the lucrative side-hustle of preschool photography. 

Here in part three of my series on preparing for PreSchool and school photoshoots, I’m dishing on all my best post-shoot workflows and image delivery tips. The number of images you’ll come home with from a preschool or school photo day can feel overwhelming–kind of like culling your first wedding, except you’ll need to keep a larger percentage of the images you shot. 

If you missed the pre-shoot parts of this series, you’ll find my walkthrough of how to gather the information you’ll need for a school photoshoot day and set yourself up for success by organizing the student and parent info in part one. In part two I shared my organizational processes, including a timeline for pre-shoot prep. 

Batch photo culling.

After importing your RAWS into your editing software, your next goal is to cull quickly yet efficiently. You do not want to give your parent clients decision fatigue having to choose between a gallery of photos that all look too similar. The final photos should be different enough that they can either choose quickly or they can decide right away that they want to buy multiples; or better yet–all of them!

Ideally, you have the same number of final photos for each student–you don’t want parents to start talking and share that they loved all 4 images of Timmy, only to learn from Tommy’s parents that their gallery had 8! With this volume of photos, even a few minutes of time saved per student is precious, so choose a number and then be ruthless.

Uploading and sorting your school photoshoot images.

If you have used the QR Code Workflow feature, your upload will be a snap. When you upload your photos to your NextZen account, the QR Code Workflow will auto assign the images to the correct galleries. Yes, you heard that right! Start your upload, including both your image files of the kids and QR codes, and Zenfolio’s tool sorts them in the background while you get on with your day.

The best part; the QA tab of the feature will tag all images that it thinks don’t fit in the auto assigned gallery. If the number of participants appears off, or if there’s a potential photo mismatch, you’ll be able to review the images and make corrections. I recommend toggling “ON” the option to hide QR reference images from their galleries to give your customers the most professional experience.

Zenfolio has a handy QR Code Workflow support guide to walk you through the whole process, and you can even schedule a 1:1 demo with their team to learn more about how their volume tools work together. 

Quick, secure, and customizable school photo gallery delivery.

Now that your galleries are ready to go, automate your gallery deliveries, coupons, upselling, orders, and even gallery expiration reminders. Zenfolio offers invaluable automation tools to its users that will help you send these out to your entire school photo customer group at once! 

Bulk sharing your galleries with parents is simple–go to your top-level Folder for organizing galleries for this school photo day. Choose “Bulk Share by Email” as your sharing option. Customize your gallery (and folder, if sharing that with the school using this method) emails, review for mistakes, then send or schedule the emails and check it off your to-do list. 

If your contract requires you to send everything to the school directly, you can also export gallery and participant info (CSV or PDF), including anything created with Folder/Gallery Registration, and send it straight to a school admin system.

Use automations: Order approval notifications and integrated lab order fulfillment.

Setting up my price lists with products fulfilled by Zenfolio’s integrated labs means that as orders come in, my job is simply to review, approve, and in the case of a potential mistake, communicate with the parents. 

Choosing to use an integrated lab means I don’t have to send the order information over to the labs or place bulk orders myself; I can move on to the next thing while the orders are processed, printed, and shipped to parents by the lab. In the case of digital downloads, NextZen will send them to your clients automatically, or after your approval.

You can elect to approve all sales before they go to the lab or are delivered to customers (such as a digital download). This ensures you catch any duplicate selections or even missed opportunities for them so save some money. 

I once had a parent place an order for two photos at their individual price rather than choose a cheaper package that would give her an extra digital. Since it was set up to need my approval, I caught this and took the time to email her, explaining that she could actually save money and get more. She thanked me, and I canceled her order so she could correct it. 

Much to my surprise, she went on to order the next level package that included even more items! She got great savings, and I made even more from that sale than if I had missed that opportunity.  If your goal is to build lasting trust with your clients through quality products and delivery, this feature is one way that helps you do just that.

What photo products do parents want? The best sellers. 

In my experience, by far, digitals are the best sellers. This is no wonder because parents are proud of their children and want to shout it to the world! Thankfully, a lot of parents also want more than digitals. This list includes my top sellers for preschool and school price lists:

1. Digital downloads. As an add on or as part of a package bundling them with printed products, these are a top seller. 
2. Packages (aka “bundles”). Whether you offer two packages or five, bundling together popular print sizes like 8×10, 5×7, and 4×6–and even that old-school classic: wallets–with a bit of a discount will always be popular. It’s hard to resist a deal!
3. Photo gifts. My top “extra” are 3×5 photo magnets, but you can experiment and see what your community likes best; keychains, mugs, and buttons can all be great add-ons. 

Why are these the top sellers? Here’s what I’ve seen with my preschool photoshoots. In our digital age, social media and texting allows them to share with loved ones and friends how much their little one has grown, or let’s be honest, how crazy adorable they are. I have been delighted to see the school photos also end up as phone lock screen photos or desktop screen savers. 

As far as prints, I have found mid to top tier photo packages sell well if you pack them full of deals that include multiple prints and at least one digital image. About 30% of my orders were these types of packages, showing that families do still want prints for themselves and loved ones of their child’s school photos. It makes the sentimental part of me happy and warms my heart to think I got to contribute to these kiddos’ lineup of school photos displayed on the walls of their home in the years to come. 

The integrated lab I work with also offers 3×5” photo magnets. These are popular as an individual or packaged item; I think because the relatively low unit cost makes these magnets a fun and inexpensive add-on that customers can see on their fridge every day. 

(Up)Selling strategies that help your customers and your business.

In the previous blog about pre-shoot preparation, I discussed creating a price list and how to determine pricing. In my website, I set up the store for my school sessions to include many opportunities for families to save the more they buy. 

You can do this a few different ways–and some of them can be combined.

• Bundle products together in packages, with a slight discount compared to the cost of purchasing them as individual products. (Also part of the top selling “products” list!)
• Create coupon codes your clients can enter during checkout for a percent or dollar amount discount. 
• Zenfolio’s Smart Upsell feature; a tiered pricing system that adds exponential pre-set savings when a dollar amount is reached in a customer’s shopping cart. You can customize the discounts and the pricing tiers to fit your business. 

My goal is to have clients who are happy with not only the final product, but feel they got a great deal. These features allow me to meet that goal because they encourage larger sales and therefore more profitability. 

The nature of school photography is you will always be compared to the big-box companies and what families have paid them in the past. In order to retain your clients, its important you  keep this pricing in mind and stay competitive–or at least not wildly above their range–while you are starting out. 

If you don’t have children in the preschool or school system, ask friends with kids to share their most recent school photo pricing. Zenfolio also includes a Smart Pricing feature that flexes with typical product prices in your area. It’s best practice to obtain school specific product costs as well to make sure you arrive at a good number. 

Maximize sales and professionalism: Proven strategies for school photographers.

1. Email templates to announce, deliver, and remind. 

Zenfolio has been so helpful in each of these areas when it comes to getting the finished photos from my computer to the clients. Along with their provided email templates, you are able to customize and save your own templates to use for emails announcing gallery delivery. Using the contact information in the gallery, each email can automatically include the parent’s first name to add a personal touch. These templates also have a big bold “Call to Action” button so parents know exactly how to access their student’s photos. 

2. Batch email automation feature.

Part of the QR Code Workflow, this newer feature also lets you send batch emails to entire folders of clients at once. I am seriously so excited about this feature! So much time can now be saved by launching all the galleries simultaneously. There is even an option to send your emails immediately or schedule them for later when you’re ready to sort all the orders that come in (especially handy for choosing a reasonable time during the day when you stayed up late to get the galleries and customized email set up!)

You can also use this amazing feature to send reminders to every family before their galleries expire. In the past, when I was sending out a gallery of multiple students to one family, the family may have to wait hours before all of their students’ photos were delivered while I set everything up manually. This can delay their window of purchasing when they’re ready for action now. With this new batch email feature, they can receive all their students’ galleries at once and begin purchasing when they’re ready, not when I’m ready. 

3. Reminder emails: How useful are they?

Scheduling reminders is so invaluable! Without them, I would have missed quite a few sales–purchasing before expiration is such an easy thing to forget to do on a parents ever growing to do list. I have had so many clients thank me for these reminders and have said they’re so helpful. You can be sure I’ll be sending them out using that batch email feature we just talked about. 

It’s amazing to have so many things checked off my to-do list, fully automated, and freeing up my brain space!

4. More upselling strategies: Bundles, deadline discounts, family add-ons

I am not a natural salesman–which is why I keep coming back to the Smart Upsell feature. As a consumer myself, I know how great it feels when I feel certain I got the best deal possible. You can build these money saving strategies into your offerings so they can close the sales for you.

Like I mentioned earlier, one way is to create irresistible packages that help a client’s budget. I love that on Zenfolio, you are able to build packages that bundle any of your individual offerings, and any savings can be displayed in the description. Knowing these numbers,  they can proceed with confidence in their decision. Offering to increase their savings the more they buy helps the client know they’re getting an amazing deal for themselves. 

Another way you can utilize the email tool is by creating custom emails with incentives for early birds or last calls. Make sure to be extra clear about the timelines for special offers in your communications; i.e. what is your date range for “early bird” and what will the incentive include? This will allow you to gather anyone who is ready to snag a deal by being early or was on the fence about purchasing or grabbing one more item before it’s too late.

When you have families with multiple students, they respond well to coupon codes. This way they’re able to buy more images or products for all of their students. They feel good and you have made a great sale that may have otherwise fallen through due to the cost threshold of having multiple kids to buy for. 

Zenfolio also offers Smart Upsell that lets you reward your clients the more they spend. You can set it up ahead of time in your price list so the discounts are automatically offered to your customers, triggered by the thresholds you set. Choose from a discount when they reach a quantity of product or a specific dollar amount. Or offer a free shipping price threshold. It’s a great way to bring value to your clients and your business. Keep in mind, you may not want to offer both upsell thresholds and coupon codes–you still need to make a profit!

5. Gallery privacy: Password protection and data security.

Here is another area where the QR Code Workflow can save you hours of time; passwords. Follow these steps before uploading your CSV file with student and parent information and generating your QR codes for the shoot day: 

1. Create a column in your spreadsheet that will contain the passwords. Whether using the provided student ID for each student or custom-generating randomized passwords, these will all live in this column 
2. Give the column a clear header. Just as you have columns for Name, parent email, teacher name, etc, this column should be titled “Student ID” or “Password” so you can easily identify it during CSV upload.
3. After uploading the CSV, assign the option “Gallery Password” to your column during the data mapping process. 

This way ALL your generated galleries will be password protected, and only individuals with the password can enter and view the student photos.

Alternatively, if you forget this step or aren’t using the QR Code Workflow, each gallery can be password protected or restricted in the Access Settings; both options mean the gallery can’t be located without a specific link, and can’t be viewed or entered without the necessary password or verified email. This can be especially useful if you have a parent who is concerned about who has access to their child’s photo. 

However you set up a password, if you decide to use one, you can use the “[password]” variable to share a password via their announcement email to give parents peace of mind. 

Should the school need a copy of each student’s photo for their own use such as yearbooks, art projects, etc., a separate gallery that includes a copy of each students’ photo can be created and delivered directly to the school’s administrators. I used this method, and it was well received. This allows the school to benefit from the photos’ use and keeps the circulation within the school and its activities. They can employ their own privacy policies after delivery.

6. Handling customer questions and issues with confidence.

I once heard that the best answer to a question you don’t know the answer to is this: “Let me find that out for you.” Though you already will have established the answers to most of the questions that will come up through your hard work of preparation, communication, and expectation establishing, there will inevitably be one that hits you by surprise. 

First, take note and include it in future FAQs, and then, assure your client you will be right there to help them find their answer. 

This is where you get to stand out from a big-box company in your quick response and custom care. Some questions you will be able to answer from your professional knowledge. For example, sometimes clients may have trouble navigating parts of the purchase process or knowing where to find their downloads after they’re bought them. You are accessible and personal, and they have your direct email. Show them what quality care you can give them. 

Other questions may be beyond your knowledge pool. “Why is my favorites button not working?” may stop you in your tracks, but do not panic! Zenfolio’s Support team is amazingly quick and ready to help. They provide their users with technical chat support, feature how to’s, and tech support’s quick replies. Between all that, you will have an answer to confidently help your clients and learn a little more yourself. 

Creating a school or preschool photo session doesn’t take a big team, just great tools and workflow, like the ones offered through Zenfolio.

In conclusion, though school photography can seem impossibly complex, it’s so very doable especially with the great tools and team like the I have through Zenfolio. 

The hardest part is laying that foundation. So the good news is, once you have it, it’s easy to repeat.  My profit margins have helped my business thrive in this hard economy. Through what I have shared, I hope you feel that preschool and school photo day can be smooth, efficient, and profitable for you. 

So learn from my experience written out in this guide. Then GO in the school photos world for yourself.  And, trust me, you really shouldn’t pass up a chance to do it with all the game-changing, time-saving features offered through Zenfolio. Take your next step, and explore their features through a free trial or schedule a walkthrough with Customer Success.

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