The Walden Coaching Community

Tim and Beverly Walden

Walden's Photography

Tim and Beverly Walden have been on StudioCloud's Board of Experts* for years.Together, they have received many awards including the prestigious PPA Imaging Excellence Award and the IUSA Gerhard Bakker Award for outstanding photographic education.

For photographers who are serious about learning, Tim and Bev Walden have created a brand new website that allows photographers to gain new insights into photography.

This amazing resource is called, "The Walden Coaching Community".

Tim says, "[The coaching community] is all about the next level of education. The community is filled with promise and potential for photographers."

The wealth of knowledge runs deeps at the Walden's Coaching Community. There are Image Studies, a Knowledge Library, a Members Forum, Questions and Answers and much, much more! Each section is available to Community Members and is updated regularly.

So, if you're a photographer looking to gain powerful insight from two highly educated people about photography, then stop by The Walden Coaching Community.

*The StudioCloud Board of Experts are industry-level professional photographers that share their expert knowledge and insight to help produce the most popular studio management software in the world.. For a complete list of the Board of Experts, please click here.

All images are © Walden's Photography 2010.

Better, Faster, Stronger!

StudioCloud is now faster and better than ever!

Our development team has been hard at work to bring our StudioCloud members a software that is quick, responsive, and reliable. In the most recent updates of our program, we have streamlined the way StudioCloud manages large amounts of information.

What does this mean for me?

A better, and faster, StudioCloud experience.

If you are a larger studio or business with thousands of clients, appointments and invoices the speed improvements will be the most obvious. The initial load time for larger businesses has been decreased by over 70 percent and speedy access to your information throughout the program has been dramatically improved.

What are the benefits?

With the new speed and reliability of StudioCloud, you can:

• Save time by accessing your information faster
• Quickly schedule appointments
• Instantly search your client database in seconds
• Promptly complete projects or tasks with immediate retrieval of information
• and more!

How do I download the new update?

Simply open StudioCloud and you will be prompted to download* the latest update.

We recommend all of our StudioCloud members update to the faster version of StudioCloud.

You won't regret it.

*If any problems occur during the update, please contact support@studiocloud.com

Rock Solid Relationships=Recurring Revenue

Today is your last chance to sign up for a FREE* webinar called "Rock Solid Relationships=Recurring Revenue".

This webinar is tomorrow, July 27 2010 at 2:00 PM EST.

Hurry and sign up while you can!

To sign up, click here.

*The webinar is free for PPA members.

New Email Features

StudioCloud is happy to announce brand new ways to email clients in StudioCloud.

HTML Emails

If you're computer savvy, you can easily create an HTML email template and send it your clients via our new HTML email tab in StudioCloud. Any time you email a customer, you can choose either Plain Text or HTML. The benefits of HTML emails allow you to add images, different colored texts, and more.

Email Blasts

Have you ever wanted to email all of your clients in one marketing campaign in StudioCloud? Well, now you can! Simply choose a marketing campaign, click on More Actions and select Email Blast Clients in Campaign. This will then email all the clients in your marketing campaign reminding them of promotions, sales, or special offers.

Add Attachments to Emails

If you're tired of going to your normal email service to simply send an attachment to your client, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Simply open a client information window, click on More Actions and choose Email Client. In the new email window, select Add Attachment. You can attach any file and send it to your customers.

Email Multiple Clients

If you want to email an entire family, but don't want to spend the time searching for their email addresses, just select their names in the Client list, go to Group Operations and choose Email Selected Clients. With this new feature, you can quickly remind an entire family of their photo shoot, or simply send a nice check-up email.

With the new email features of StudioCloud, the possibilities seem endless.

Cloud Alerts-Text and Email Reminders

StudioCloud announces a brand new feature created with the business professional in mind.

Cloud Alerts are a simple way to remind your clients or employees about appointments, due payments, project deadlines, and more!

You can rest assured that your clients will never forget another appointment. Each text or email reminder can be sent out hours or days before the Cloud Alert deadline is set, giving your client ample time to head to your office, or head to a location.

Cloud Alerts will automatically text or email your clients, giving you extra time to spend focusing on the needs of your business.

For more information about on Cloud Alerts, please view our online tutorial.

StudioCloud Back Up

We are proud to announce an exciting new feature for our free customers and paid customers.

StudioCloud Back Up

Free Accounts

• Now, you can easily and quickly back up* your StudioCloud files without having a CloudBoost account. Simply go to Settings>>Back Up StudioCloud. This will save a copy of all your important StudioCloud information to your desktop, harddrive, external hard drive, or even a flash drive. You can rest assured that all your StudioCloud information is safe and sound, backed up in case of computer failure.

Paid Accounts

• With this new feature, you can easily create a file of all your information and transfer it to another computer! Instead of waiting for your StudioCloud information to download from the server, simply save the file, transfer it to another computer and you will have quick and easy access to all your StudioCloud business information in seconds!

For more information regarding backing up your StudioCloud account files, please read our online tutorial.

*If you have a free account, you cannot transfer backed-up StudioCloud files from one computer to another.

5 Ways to Market Your Business

(1) Be Social

If you haven't jumped on the social networking bandwagon yet, it may just leave without you. There are many benefits that come from creating a Facebook page, Twitter account, or even a blog. The largest benefit is that social networking is 100% free. You don't have to pay a single dime to market your business around the world. Not only will you save money, but you will provide your clients an easy way to track what your business is up to. Just remember to periodically update your social networking sites.

(2) Start an E-mail Newsletter

If you have thousands of clients in your StudioCloud database, you can easily export their information including their email addresses to create an email marketing campaign. StudioCloud prefers and recommends MailChimp. MailChimp is an easy-to-use and free way to send out emails to your clients using MailChimp's web-based software. You can create your own unique template, or choose from their predesigned templates. You can even schedule a time for when your marketing campaign will be delivered, which can save you time and energy.

(3) Market to your Target Demographic

A demographic is a group of people who share common statistics like age, race, gender, location, etc. Make sure you know your target demographic before you begin marketing your company. Many new and small business owners will market to everyone in their local community. Find out your target demographic by analyzing the products and services you offer and see if they match the goals and interests of the people living in your community. You can also keep track of your demographic by adding tags to each client in your StudioCloud database. If you need to see how many clients are in each tag, simply go to Settings>>Manage Tags. This feature will help you determine who to market to in your target demographic.

(4) Keep in Touch

Did you know that it costs less to retain customers than to find new ones? If your customer base has been on the decline, we recommend to keep in touch with your clients. Send them a quick email, give them a brief call, mail out a postcard, or even send them a text message. Letting your customers know that you've been thinking about them will make them feel valued, appreciated, and special.

(5) Be Nice

People want to associate with others who are happy. When you first meet with new clients, be postive and upbeat. Avoid negative topics like local gossip and banter. Focus on their needs as a person and a client. If they can see that you genuinely care for their well-being as their photographer, they're more likely to refer you to their friends and family.

Of course, there are countless of other ways to market your business.

What suggestions do you have for others as they learn how to market their business?

We'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below!