Most of automation is waiting
The step that gets dropped is rarely the email. It is the three days you meant to leave before sending it, so build the flow once — trigger, condition, wait, message — and the gaps get held for you, for every client after that.
Built once, runs for every client
Start from a trigger
A real CRM event kicks it off — enquiry in, contract signed, invoice paid, gallery delivered.
Branch on what you know
Mid-flow it checks the client's record and picks a path: opened the gallery, went quiet, bought something.
Wait without remembering
Hours, days or weeks between steps — held for you, for every single client, forever.
Send in your voice
Email from editable templates, a text through your own Twilio number, or a step that drafts the message from the client's record.
Automation that chases the booking, not the busywork
Not a generic workflow tool bolted on afterwards. The triggers are the things that actually happen in a photography studio, and the flow you build off them can branch, wait and speak in your own voice — built to catch the deposit, the signature or the sale that silence would otherwise have cost you, not just to look automated.
Something real happens
- An enquiry arrives
- A booking is confirmed
- A contract is signed
- An invoice is paid
- A gallery is delivered or downloaded
Only if it applies
- Hold the sequence for hours, days or weeks
- Check the state first: has the gallery been opened?
- Branch, so two clients on the same flow get different messages
Something useful goes out
- Email from a prebuilt template you can edit
- SMS through your own Twilio number
- Instagram DM, coming soon
- An AI step that writes the message in your voice
Waits, conditions and branches
A sequence is not a straight line. Pause it, test the client record part way through, and send two different messages down two different paths.
Templates and starter flows
A library of prebuilt email templates and ready-made flows to start from. Every one of them is editable, so they end up sounding like you rather than like a template.
Email, SMS, and DMs to come
Reach people where they actually reply. The same flow sends an email and can follow up by text through your own Twilio number, and Instagram DM replies are in build.
An AI step inside the flow
Drop an AI step into any sequence and it writes that message in the voice of your studio, using what the CRM already knows about the client.
Flows photographers actually run
Built once, then running for every client after that. Time runs downwards.
Build one, or start from a prebuilt flow and change the bits that are not yours.
Automation that knows the job, not a list
Marketing automation tools sequence emails. They don't branch on whether a gallery was opened or a contract signed.
| How it stacks up | Dubsado workflows / ActiveCampaign — the usual way | lemon.gallery |
|---|---|---|
| Triggers | Form fills & lists | 144 real studio events |
| Branching | Simple yes/no at best | Reads the client record mid-flow |
| Starting point | A blank canvas | Prebuilt emails and ready-made flows |
| Waits | Rigid delays | Hours-to-weeks, held for you |
Flows that run a studio's busy season
The enquiry-to-book flow
Reply, then a three-day quiet lead gets its check-in — and every enquiry leaves a trail on the record.
Post-delivery upsell
Gallery opens, nothing ordered in a week → print offer on one branch, polite nudge on the other.
Pre-shoot reminders
Contract signed → two-day wait → prep guide; shoot tomorrow → the reminder that stops a no-show.
Retainer renewals
A quarterly check-in that drafts the renewal pitch from the client's record, ready for you to read before it sends.
Pick a plan, not a spreadsheet
Start free. Upgrade whenever a client actually pays you. Annual billing takes two months off every plan.
- Galleries and sales, 0% platform fee
- Client hub and file transfers
- Unlimited projects
- The CRM, without automation
- 25GB storage
- Everything in Solo
- Automations and email marketing
- Instagram DM automation, coming soon
- Lightroom plugin and custom domain
- 100GB storage
- Everything in Pro
- The AI suite
- Every tool included
- Team accounts
- 500GB storage
- Everything in Growth
- Bring your own storage and keys
- Higher limits on emails, research and AI runs
- Priority support
- 1TB storage
Free
Client galleries, 8GB storage, the full CRM, bookings and contracts, 2 projects at a time, 2.5% platform fee on sales.
Questions, answered honestly
Just what the product actually does today.
Is this just a mail merge with a delay on it?
No, because a sequence is allowed to check the client record part way through and then take a different path. Hold it for hours, days or weeks, test whether the gallery has actually been opened, and send the print offer down one branch and a text nudge down the other. Two clients on the same flow can end up getting different messages, which is the part a scheduled send cannot do.
Do I have to build all of this from scratch?
There is a library of prebuilt email templates and ready-made flows, so the usual ones are already sitting there waiting for you. Start from one and change the bits that are not yours, or build your own from an empty canvas if you would rather. Either way you build it once and it runs for every client after that.
What can a flow actually send?
Email from a template you can edit, and texts if you connect your own Twilio account (texts from a lemon.gallery number are coming soon). Instagram DMs are in build, so do not plan a sequence around them yet. Whatever goes out lands back in the same client thread in your inbox, so the reply is not stranded somewhere else.
Can a step draft the message for me?
Yes. A drafting step writes that message in your studio's voice from what the CRM already knows about the client. It runs on your own connected Claude or your AI allowance, and the AI worker page sets out what that costs. You still see and edit the templates around it, so a flow is never a black box.