As a photographer running a one-man photography business that involves client work, teaching, and writing (such as here on Social Photo Talk), a powerful solution to manage contacts and relationships is an important component of my business. This is the realm of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. As a photographer who works closely with people using social media, a CRM that can interact with social media is a nice bonus. After trying a variety of small business CRM systems, I’ve found BatchBook by BatchBlue software to be a great fit for my needs. Here are some thoughts, with a special offer for Social Photo Talk readers near the bottom.
You can check out their website for a good overview of the product in general, but I want to talk specifically about the social media and client features I use most as a working photographer.
Social Media Leads into BatchBook
For getting contacts and content in to BatchBook, there are two primary methods: one is to manually input the information into the system via the website, and the other is through an email inbox (BatchBook can also import from other contact systems but that’s not going to be something used in day to day business). When contacting someone via email, Bcc: your special BatchBook email address and the message will be logged, associated with a particular contact by the email address. If the contact is already in BatchBook, your communication will be added to their record; if it’s someone new, a new contact record is created for the communication.
Whenever I send email to a client (either new or established), I always bcc: my BatchBook account so that the communication is logged for reference. Email received from a client can also be forwarded and logged automatically. Other types of communications can be manually stored. Whether it’s a random note, a record of a phone call, or a copied/pasted Twitter message, BatchBook can store the information along with the client.
Social Media Monitoring with BatchBook
BatchBook has some very basic Twitter monitoring included. The homepage/dashboard can include a Twitter search module, so it’s easy to have a running search for your business name or industry terms. This is an area where I’m hoping to see enhancements; it would be nice to be able to have multiple searches.
The Tags are Super, Thanks for Asking!
Some small business CRM systems take a minimalist approach and don’t allow for customization. Others give you a zillion options without any real control or order. BatchBook’s approach is very slick, and it’s called SuperTags. What’s a SuperTag? You’re probably familiar with the concept of a tag… it’s a word used to describe/categorize something. Adding tags to your contacts in a CRM system, you might use terms like “client”, “photographer”, “vendor”, or “lead”. A SuperTag is a tag that has custom fields attached. In my system, I have a tag for leads, and I have fields attached to note where I obtained the lead, the type of the potential work, and how strong the lead was.
Being able to attach custom data via SuperTags is great, but it can get really powerful when combined with some nice queries. For example, I’ve created a list that monitors clients when I haven’t communicated with them in a certain period. This allows me to easily know when it’s past time to reach out and make contact with clients and see if they have any new photographic needs. Other lists and searches can monitor followup on leads and potential work. With the flexibility of the SuperTags and searching, it’s easy to mine your data for all sorts of information.
Conclusion – and Special Offer
I have yet to find the perfect CRM, but BatchBook is my favorite of the current options on the market. It’s easy to keep track of data and they’ve built a good start at monitoring with their Twitter integration.
It’s easy to try BatchBook. They offer a free trial, and if you use the code BatchPhoto when signing up, you’ll get an extra month of fully-featured free access to evaluate the system. Check it out!
Photo by jcestnik, used under Creative Commons licensing
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