Studio Ninja – 2023 Review The Invisible Assistant for Photographers?

Introduction

In the exhilarating world of photography, where creativity knows no bounds, one cannot help but acknowledge the daunting reality of juggling the artistic vision with the cumbersome business aspect.

As a passionate photographer, I find myself yearning for an assistant who can shoulder the burden of administrative tasks, marketing endeavors, and client management, allowing me to focus solely on honing my craft.

However, the practicality of hiring such assistance often proves elusive.
While the idea of having a creative ally is enticing, the financial implications can be difficult to justify, especially for independent photographers like myself.

Nevertheless, one can’t help but dream of a day when the perfect symbiosis between creativity and business becomes a tangible reality, freeing us to fully immerse ourselves in what we love most – capturing moments that tell extraordinary stories through the lens.

Studio Ninja aims to change that story for photographers and other creatives by automating some of the tasks that take up our time as creatives.

From keeping our customer contacts in one place to providing sales figures and even allowing the customers to book directly, Studio Ninja has the ability to free up our most important asset and that is time.

 

What is a CRM and why do I need one?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a technology and strategy used by businesses to manage interactions and relationships with current and potential customers. A CRM system helps businesses organize, automate, and synchronize various aspects of customer interactions, sales, marketing, and customer support.
Here are some key features and benefits of using a CRM system for a business:
Centralized Customer Data: A CRM system stores all customer information in one place, including contact details, purchase history, communication preferences, and other relevant data.
This allows a business to have a comprehensive view of each customer, leading to better-informed interactions and personalized services.

Improved Customer Service:

With access to detailed customer information, businesses can provide better customer service. Employees can quickly address customer inquiries, resolve issues, and offer tailored solutions, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Sales and Marketing Automation:

CRM systems often include automation features that streamline sales and marketing processes. These can include automated lead scoring, email marketing campaigns, and sales pipeline management, making it easier for teams to manage leads and convert them into customers.

Data-driven Insights:

CRM systems provide valuable analytics and reporting tools. Businesses can gain insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and marketing effectiveness. This data-driven approach helps in making informed business decisions and identifying areas for improvement.

Customer Retention and Loyalty:

By understanding customer needs and preferences through CRM data, businesses can foster stronger relationships with customers, leading to increased customer retention and loyalty.

Scalability:

As a business grows, a CRM system can scale to accommodate the increasing customer base and business complexity, ensuring continued efficient management of customer relationships.

Competitive Advantage:

Utilizing a CRM system can provide a competitive advantage by enabling businesses to deliver a more personalized and efficient customer experience, leading to increased customer acquisition and retention.
In summary, a CRM system is essential for businesses because it helps them build and maintain strong customer relationships, streamline sales and marketing efforts, and ultimately improve overall business efficiency and profitability. It is a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes, enabling them to stay competitive in today’s customer-centric market.

What does Studio Ninja do?

Studio Ninja started life purely as a studio management tool for photographers to keep track of their customers to provide a better service and has developed into a quite substantially endowed CRM offering functionality in rival to other far more expensive CRM options.

Here are a few of the features that Studio Ninja Offers.

Calendar booking.

This is a recent addition for SN in which they provide a calendar interface that you can link to from your site where the customer can choose their own date and slot and the system will take care of everything from taking their details and handling their payments right through to adding them to your chosen flow.

Automation

One of the big assets that SN does is it allows you to create automation flows.
For the uninitiated these are specific tasks that you would do when receiving a booking.

These could be for example you receive an email from your website (that goes straight through to SN)
The next thing you might do is ask them about their needs or maybe even send them a quote or invoice?
Well each of these things can be their own part of an automation flow and you can choose the time frame in which they are sent.

Even things such as chasing payment emails or even just follow up emails if they have not contacted you back.

I will discuss a full use case in the following section.

 

Quotes,Invoicing and payments.

In SN you can set up all of your products you offer and create quotes for people at the push of a button.
You can even have default quotes that can be part of your flows.

Need to upsell?
When your quotes are sent to a customer you can even set it up so they can add extra products to the quote when they view it.

Once the customer has agreed to the quote it turns into an invoice that they can pay there and then.

 

Calendar

Studio has its own calendar which you can sync with your Gmail calendar.
This will remind you when you have shoots coming up and their location along with the basis of the automation system timing.

 

Reports

Need pretty graphs tracking your income from bookings from your sessions?
Studio Ninja has you covered.

 

Contracts

Easily create contracts to send to your clients which can be digitally signed converting a quote into an invoice automatically.

 

 

Use case for Studio Ninja

Okay I want to break down a use case for how it can be set up.

Scenario Portrait photographer

In this scenario let’s say I am a portrait photographer and people book sessions based on set packages.
I like to send a contract for each shoot so everyone knows where they stand.
I also like to send an email to the client a few days before the shoot with suggestions for clothing to bring as well as a separate email with what to expect on the shoot so they know I am keeping them updated.
I also like to follow up with them a month or 2 after the shoot to maybe get them to fill in a questionnaire to see how they enjoyed the shoot and see if they will recommend someone who needs my services that I can reach out to.

In this case this is how I would set up the system.
Once i have created my packages i would then point my book me link on my website to the booking system with SN

 

Here is the flow for what happens.

1 Customer selects the package they want to purchase
2 Customer then selects the date and time slot for the shoot
3 Customer enters their details on the form (you choose how much you collect)
4 Customer pays there and then for the shoot (you can actually choose this option or not)
5 Studio Ninja then adds the job to the calendar and adds the customer to your chosen automation flow.
6 Studio ninja then sends confirmation of the booking to the customer and you and your email template advises that you will send them a questionnaire and contract so you can tailor the shoot for their needs and know they understand the terms and conditions and it advises this will happen in the next 24 hours
7 Studio Ninja then waits the time you set before sending the questionnaire and contract to give the impression it is not just an automated system and that you have sent it
8 studio ninja lets you know when they have read it and signed the contract. (contracts are optional)
9 Studio Ninja will then wait the desired time and follow up with them if they have not read/actioned the emails.
10 Studio ninja will then further wait the time you set and send an email a few days out from the shoot telling the client you are really looking forward to shooting with them and here are some tips for clothes to bring along to the shoot.
11 Then it’s shoot day!
This is actually the first point you have actually had to do anything in this process with the customer.
12 you edit the photos and upload them to your gallery of choice
If you use pictime which is one of the integration options below you can link that with your SN account and you will be able to select the gallery (or up to 10 galleries) and insert them into your pre-made email.

13 with Pic-time it will actually update your sales information for that customer in SN if you make any print sales.

And all is over right?

Nope
You can actually have SN setup so that a month or 2 later you can check in with the customer to make sure everything is fine. Maybe even send them another questionnaire to see how you did or to ask for a testimonial.
And most of that entire process was done automatically!
Can you see where this is going?
Imagine having that time released and what you can do with it.

 

Studio Ninja Setup

The basic setup of SN can be done in minutes but I would probably dedicate a full day to it.

The reason for this is it is going to take time to tailor all of the emails you wish to send to your clients and decide how you want the flows to go for your automations.

That is the key you want to have an idea of how your workflow is going to to get the best out of studio ninja.

Once you have sorted out your emails and your flows you can set up your calendar and link it with your gmail calendar and if you want you can have that calendar customer facing so they can select their date time and package and pay there and then.

Speaking of payments SN supports both Paypal and Stripe for card payments and you can also have space for other alternate payment methods such as bank transfer or cheque but these you will have to tell SN that you have received payment.

It sounds a bit daunting to read but in practice it is much easier once you understand the interface.

There is always a lifeline though.
Every SN member can schedule a video support call where they will help you set up SN or even advise on features you may not be aware of.

Once you have set it up and decided on your flows it is time to integrate it into your website.

This involves copy pasting some code into the contact form area of your website and if you are allowing your customers to book their time slots and pay there and then you can copy paste the link (that you can customize) into your site under the book now button.

And that is it!
From then on Studio Ninja will act as your messaging program storing all of your customer data in one place including any notes, messages and sales.

 

 

The Interface.

The web interface is clean and intuitive and some thought has clearly been spent on user experience.

The main interface is split into clear sections with clear navigation at the very top leading down to multiple panes.
As standard the top half of the screen is occupied with your graph data which is tabbed so you can quickly see how your business is doing over time.
These tabs are Leads, Shoots, Payments and Revenue Comparison.
There is also a lead sources Pie chart so you can see what sources people have found you by what they tell you on your contact form.

Below the main section are a further 4 panes giving essential information such as Upcoming Shoot and Appointments, Most recent leads, Overdue and upcoming payments and Job tasks with due dates.

And always there is a chat box option in the bottom right hand corner in case you are having difficulty and need some help.

The customer page as you will see from the screenshot is also very clean and this is where all of the interactions and status of your customer will go.

Integrations.

Pic-time
Connect Pic-Time galleries to your Studio Ninja jobs

Xero
Accounting software. Auto sync invoices and payments between Studio Ninja and Xero

QuickBooks
Auto sync invoices and payments between Studio Ninja and QuickBooks. Not compatible with Self-Employed.

ShootProof
Connect ShootProof galleries to your Studio Ninja jobs and import orders.

Fundy Designer
Enable Fundy-friendly features to import invoices from Fundy.

ProSelect
Enable ProSelect-friendly features to import invoices from ProSelect.

 

 

The App

The app becomes your business email platform for your business. It mirrors the information on the web page for reports but you can also use it as the main messaging app with your customers so you are no longer trying to find that email in some random account.
Every message with a customer is automatically stored in that customer’s area for ease of use.
You can even trigger manual parts of your flows for each customer.

 

Pricing

Compared to other CRM’s the pricing is very competitive even i would go so far as saying it is good value.
The pricing at time of writing is as follows.
Studio ninja has 2 tiers which are Pro and Master
Pro allow:
1 Company
3 Contact forms
3 Booking forms
Unlimited everything else!
Price for Pro is £14.90/$20.75 a month if billed annually and £17.90/$24.90 a month if billed monthly.

Master allows:
3 Companies
Unlimited contact forms
Unlimited booking forms
Unlimited everything else!
Price for Master is £21.60/$30.40 a month if billed annually or £25.90/$36.50 if billed monthly.

Considering other CRM’s can charge hundreds for the same functionality I find this to be incredibly good value for money.

A way to make it completely free!

You do get a free 30 day trial to give it a good try and they often run signup discounts and there is even a way to get it completely free!

Hello friends! Use this promo code:BXBX7916MC6Q2X and get 20% off your subscription to the world’s most user-friendly photography business software, Studio Ninja!

This is my code to give you 20% off for the length of time you are a customer.

 

Here is the thing with the referral codes: not only does the person you give the code to get 20% off but you also and i think studio ninja is one of the first companies that i have experienced that let you stack the discounts.

 

That is right for each person you refer you get 20% off and so do they so that means refer just 5 people and studio ninja becomes free for the entire time that people have the account!
If the people you refer get 5 people they get it free too!.

Use my code above and get it cheaper on me. I’ll start you off!

The Downsides

In order to give a fair review I should also give the negatives.
But to call out negatives you have to compare it to similar products that provide similar services at similar products.
The simple fact is the things that are included in SN such as the automation while available in competitors products those competitors are a lot more expensive.

There is pretty much the only downside for me.

There is no free tier.
And before you comment yes i know it is possible to get a free account through the refer a friend scheme and you do get a free 30 day trial but there is no reduced function free tier.
As it currently stands, if the proverbial hits the fan and you have run out of money, if you are unable to pay the (reasonable) monthly prices then there is no basic package to fall back on and you have to leave the service.
Even if it just falls back to message service and no automation only at least it gives a photographer a chance to come back from the brink.

Admittedly if you do fall on hard times it takes a while for you to lose access and they do make every effort to contact you.

Conclusion

It is fair to say I am a fan of the software.
As a paid user I can say that the time that it has freed up for me to concentrate on other aspects such as actually shooting has been a game changer for me.

Things that I would often forget such as following up with the customer after the shoot for example would often go to waste but this could lead to recommendations to their friends, testimonials.

If you fancy learning more about Studio Ninja why not check out my interview with Chris Garbacz the CEO and co creator of Studio Ninja.

 

To give Studio Ninja a 30 day free try visit them here
don’t forget to use my code to get 20% off for as long as you use it!

Here is my code again for you!

BXBX7916MC6Q2X