It’s a process that newborn photographer Kristina uses to keep her diary full of loyal repeat clients throughout the year.

This guide walks you through booking milestone sessions, with ready-to-use templates for automated follow-ups and steps to streamline the process using online scheduling calendars—saving you time and keeping clients engaged throughout their baby’s first year.

The process & templates

Around 5 months after a newborn session, send a simple email inviting the client to a “Sitter” session, timed to capture the 6-month milestone when many babies are sitting up. For the first birthday, send another outreach message about 10 months after the original session to schedule portraits ahead of the big day.

Our resources include email templates for both milestones, a workflow to automate sending them at the right times, and queries to identify clients in the outreach windows if you prefer manual follow-up.

Installing the templates

1. Download the setup file, here.
2. Unzip the file, if you haven’t done so already.
3. Open Light Blue.
4. Click on the “Records” menu at the top of the screen.
5. Click Import > Light Blue Templates.
6. Select the .XML setup file that you’d downloaded and click Done.
7. The templates will install in Light Blue.
8. Find the templates by opening Light Blue’s preferences window, and going to the Workflows preferences & Email Templates preferences.

Customising the templates

Change the wording within the messages by taking these steps:

1. Open the Preferences window.
2. Go to the Email preferences.
3. Find the email template that you want to tailor the messaging for. The two email templates we’ve provided are called “Newborn sitter session invitation” and “Newborn first birthday session invitation”
4. Make adjustments to the email as required – we’d recommend keeping the mail-merge tags that have been included within the templates.

Learn how to make your emails stand out using this guide.

Including the baby’s name within your messages

The email templates include a special mail-merge tag that will add the name of the baby into the messages. This relies on there being a contact record for the newborn baby linked to the original newborn session, with a role set to “Baby”.

If you haven’t got a linked contact with a role of “Baby” then you should either:

• add a contact with the role of “Baby” to all the newborn shoots you’re planning to follow-up with,
• or modify the email template to avoid using the mail-merge tag that’s mentioning the baby’s name.

Adding a scheduling request link into the email templates

If you’re already using Light Blue’s scheduling calendars to book sitter sessions and first birthday sessions, you could include a scheduling request within the outreach email templates. Scheduling requests allow you to use your scheduling calendars to book meetings or shoots with existing clients.

1. Open the Preferences window.
2. Go to the Email preferences.
3. Find the email template that you want to tailor the messaging for. The two email templates we’ve provided are called “Newborn sitter session invitation” and “Newborn first birthday session invitation”.
4. Click the cursor within the body of the email template, where you’d like the scheduling request link to appear.
5. Click on the “Insert Scheduling Request” button.
6. Choose the existing scheduling calendar that you wish your newborn clients to use to book their next session.
7. Ensure “Create New Shoot” is selected from the dropdown.
8. Customise the link text.
9. Click “Insert into email”.

When the email’s sent, the scheduling request link will automatically link the new shoot to the existing client and use their existing details.

Applying the workflow to existing bookings

Once you’re happy with the wording of the emails, and are ready to automate sending the outreach messages, you can add the workflow to all of your past newborn clients by following these steps:

1. Click on the Query button at the top of the main window.
2. Query for Shoots where:
   • the Shoot Type is newborns,
   • the Status is “Confirmed or Completed”,
   • the Start Date is “Today or before by up to” 300 days.
3. You’ll now have a set of newborn clients that you’ve worked with over the past 10 months.
4. Click on the “Records” menu at the top of the screen.
5. Choose Records > Add to Found Set > Workflow.
6. Choose the “Newborn Shoot Date (simple milestone follow-up workflow)” workflow. Don’t click “Add“Done“ yet.
7. Change the “Relative to” dropdown at the bottom of the window to “Shoot Start Date”.
8. Now click “Add”.

Light Blue will add the workflow to all of the found records, which will schedule the two follow-up emails. Any shoots that happened more than 150 days ago will skip scheduling the “Sitter session invitation” since that milestone’s already passed.

Adding steps to an existing workflow for future bookings

If you already use a workflow to manage tasks and messages around your newborn sessions, but would like to include these automated outreach messages in future bookings, then you can add the email templates to your existing newborn shoot date workflow.

1. Open the Shoot Types preferences.
2. Select your newborn shoot type.
3. Within the “Default Workflows” window, scroll to see the “Shoot date workflow”.
4. Click on the “Change workflows” button.
5. Choose “Go to workflows”.
6. That’ll reveal the workflow that you use for newborn shoot dates.
7. Click on the green plus to add a new step to your workflow.
8. Choose “Email”.
9. Choose the “Newborn sitter session invitation” template.
10. Set the offset to 150 days after the shoot date.
11. Click “Save and add another”.
12. Choose “Email”, again.
13. Choose the “Newborn first birthday session invitation” template.
14. Set the offset to 300 days after the shoot date.
15. Click Done

When you next book a newborn session, your default workflow will get added to the shoot as usual, but will now include the two outreach messages, too.

Using Light Blue’s powerful Query tool and Quick Queries are great ways to get really specific about the Records you want to review and analyse. 👉 If you’re not familiar with the Query tool or Quick Queries have a look at this help article.

Sometimes you may be doing this to gain deeper insights about what’s happening in your business and other times you might actually want to ‘do’ something with the query results; perhaps add (or remove!) a Tag or Resource from them or maybe send an email to them all.

The great news is that rather than having to do this individually for each Record you can use the Add To / Remove From Found Set feature to do it to all Records in one go. This is accessed from Light Blue’s main menu bar under “Records” and, depending on the type of Records there’s a range of different activities you can add or remove.

What’s a Found Set

Essentially a Found Set is a set of Records that are the result of either a Query or from one of your Quick Queries.

Add To Found Set

There are a number of different activities you can add to your query results. You can add a:

• Note
• Resource 👉 Learn more about Resources in this help article.
• Tag 👉 Learn about Tags here.
• Task
• Workflow 👉 You can understand more about Workflows in this one. 👉 And how to add Workflows to several Records here.
• Document
• Document From Template 👉 Find out about Document Templates here.
• Text Message From Template 👉 And Text Message Templates are covered in this help article.

Sending emails to a Found Set

You can also add (send) an email to a Found Set by adding a single-step Workflow containing an Email Template. NB. This should only be used for emails which your client is expecting to receive either in reply to their enquiry or about the session they’ve booked with you. Bulk email campaigns, with the required ‘unsubscribe’ button, should be sent through a mass marketing tool like Mailchimp or Active Campaign. 👉 If you’re unsure how to add an Email Template to a Workflow read this help article.

Remove From Found Set

You can remove the following from your query results:

• Resource
• Tag

Whilst Light Blue uses the British English language in the user interface of the desktop and mobile apps, you and your clients may well prefer to use another language in your communications. Or indeed you may want to change the default wording for specific words or phrases as they appear in these client-facing communications.

It’s very easy to use your preferred language and wording in a lot of your client communication such as when you’re writing emails or creating templates for your forms or contracts. And the great news is that it’s also possible to change other parts of your client-facing communication such as the field names, headings or link text used in areas such as invoices, contracts or scheduling calendars.

Any change to the language or specific wording is done in the Template Translations section of Preferences but there are a couple of things to bear in mind before you start:

• Any changes you make are made globally; you can’t have multiple and/or conditional Template Translations.
• Any changes affect client communication only; they don’t change the wording you see yourself in the Light Blue app.

Changing the language

Built-in languages

Light Blue comes with several languages available within the app and if you want to change the one used for your client-facing communications it’s very straightforward.

1. In Preferences, click on “Template Translations”.
2. From the “Localisation” drop-down menu choose the language you’d like to use for your client communications.

Other languages

Manual translations

1. If you don’t see the language you’d like to use, there is the option to translate each phrase individually; simply double-click on a phrase, enter your translation and click “Done”.

Importing translations

1. If you know another Light Blue customer who has already made the translations you could use them; they export them by clicking on the “Export Custom Translations…” button at the bottom.
2. And when you receive the file you import them by clicking the “Import Custom Translations…” button.

Changing specific wording

Changing the name of a particular item

1. In some instances you may wish to change the default wording that Light Blue uses to describe something, eg you may prefer the word ‘agreement’ to ‘contract’. Though remember that these are global translations so carefully consider any changes before you make them! To ensure you translate all phrases use the “Search translations” box to show the list of phrases where the word is used.

2. Double-click on a phrase, enter your translation and click “Done”; any changes you make now show in bold.

Changing a phrase to reflect your brand

1. Light Blue has used generic wording within its phrase translations and occasionally you may wish to change these to reflect your brand and the way you’d actually speak to your clients; perhaps adding a simple ‘please’ to a request for payment! Remember though that these are global translations so carefully consider any changes before you make them! Use the “Search translations” box to find the phrase you want to change, double-click on the phrase, enter your translation and click “Done”; any changes you make now show in bold.

Reverting to default translations

1. If you decide that the changes you’ve made to the translations are not right you can either change them individually or clear them all by clicking not the “Clear Custom Translations” button; you will have to double confirm you wish to do this!

Rosetta 2 might already be installed on your Mac, in which case you’re already able to print from Light Blue. If you’re told that you need to install Rosetta 2 when you try to print, here’s how do it:

• Launch the Terminal app (which you’ll find in /Applications/Utilities/)
• Next, copy and paste the following command into Terminal, then press the Return key:
  • softwareupdate --install-rosetta
• Type A when it asks if you agree to the terms and conditions and hit Return.
• Return to Light Blue and try to print again.

You may have exported the data from another system, or have been working in a spreadsheet before using Light Blue. No matter where the information’s come from, just make sure that it’s saved as a .CSV file.

Preparing your file for import

Each column in your spreadsheet can match one of a number of fields within Light Blue. A full list of the fields that you can match is listed at the bottom of this page.

Each row of your spreadsheet relates to a new shoot record. If you also have some contact information in that row, and you’ve matched the relevant columns to contact fields, then Light Blue will create both a shoot record and a contact record for that row, the shoot and contact records will get linked to each other during the import.

Light Blue can only create one contact record per row of your spreadsheet. If you have multiple contacts associated to the shoot, we’d recommend importing the main contact with the shoot information, then import the other contacts separately (as a list of contacts from CSV) and then link those contacts to the relevant shoot manually.

If you need specialist help with importing some data, please contact support@lightbluesoftware.com

Dates need to be in the format DD/MM/YYYY, for example 03/10/2021. If your operating system is set to American date formatting and you work with American date formats then dates need to be in the format MM/DD/YYYY, for example 10/03/2021.

Importing the CSV file in to Light Blue

When your file is ready to import, open Light Blue and click on the Records menu. Choose Import > “Shoots & Contacts from CSV” and select your CSV file.

A dialog will appear with a preview of the information from your CSV. On the left hand side are all of the columns from your spreadsheet, on the right are fields within Light Blue.

By dragging the fields up and down you can match them with the relevant columns in your spreadsheet. A checked checkbox indicates that column will be matched with the field during the import.

Light Blue’s assuming that all shoots have the same status (i.e. they’re all confirmed shoots, or enquiries, or completed, but not a mixture). If your spreadsheet contains a mixture of enquiries and confirmed shoots, we’d recommend saving two spreadsheets, one of just enquiries, one of just confirmed shoots, then import each one in turn.

List of fields

Here’s a list of the Light Blue fields that can me matched to columns in your spreadsheet:

• Shoot Title
• Shoot Type
• Session Start Date
• Session Start Time
• Session End Date
• Session End Time
• Session Description
• Shoot Location
• Shoot Reference Number
• Shoot Referene Prefix
• Shoot Notes
• Shoot Enquiry Date
• Shoot Enquiry Source
• Shoot Referred By
• Contact First Name
• Contact Last Name
• Contact Full Name
• Contact Maiden Name
• Contact Title
• Contact Job Title/Role
• Contact Birth Day
• Contact Birth Month
• Contact Birth Year
• Contact Birthday (as dd/mm/yyyy)
• Contact Notes
• Contact Type
• Contact Company
• Contact Address 1
• Contact Address 2
• Contact Address 3
• Contact City
• Contact County
• Contact Post Code
• Contact Country
• Contact Email Address (options for Home, Work, Other)
• Contact Phone Number (options for Mobile, Home, Work, Other)
• Contact Web Address ( options for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Home, Work, Other)

This tutorial is going to show you how to set up Staff, Equipment, and Room Resources within Light Blue so that you can assign them to your Shoots, Appointments, and Tasks. 

Why assign Resources to Shoot and Appointments?

By assigning Resources to Shoots & Appointments, not only can you keep tabs on who’s doing the event and what equipment and room they’re using, but also check that the event doesn’t clash with another booking. This is because Light Blue not only takes the time and date into account when displaying clashing events, but also all the Resources linked to it; two events at the same time but with different staff, rooms or equipment won’t clash, but if they share any resource they will. 

Setting up Resources

To add resources, go to the “Resources” section of the Preferences pane. There you can add Staff, Rooms, and Equipment. Having a look at each of these types, you’ll be able to see the different things you can enter. For Staff, you can add the name and contact details; for Rooms, the name and notes, and the same for Equipment. 

Useful things to know about Staff Resources

Setting each staff member up in Light Blue means you can to do various things. Each staff member can have their own login allowing you to secure the app and make sure that each member of staff only has access to the information that you want them to be able to see. You can also assign Tasks to individual staff members giving you an overview of their individual workloads and they can easily filter the Task Manager to view their own Tasks. They can also send emails from Light Blue using their own email address and signature.
👉 Learn more about using staff passwords and logins, here.
👉 Learn more about restricting access to Light Blue information, here.

How to add a Resource to a Shoot Record

• Once you’ve set up your Resources, you can add them to a Shoot Record through the “Linked Records” panel.
• Once you’re there, click the plus button.
• Then “Existing Resource”, and choose which ones you want; you can link several Resources in one go.

How to add a Resource to an Appointment Record

• You can also add Resources to an Appointment Record; simply open the Appointment Record.
• Then click on the “Edit” button alongside “Staff & Resources” and choose the ones you want.

How to add a Staff Resource to a Task

• And finally you can Staff Resources to a Task; simply open the Task.
• Then from the drop-down menu alongside “Staff” choose the one you want.

Setting Default Resources

Whilst you can add Resources to Shoots, Appointments and Tasks individually if the same Resource is consistently used it makes sense to set them as the Default Resource; you may for example have a specific member of staff who specialises in a certain genre like newborns, perhaps there’s someone who does all the post-production work or even one particular person who does all your viewing sessions. There are a few places you can set Default Resources.

By Shoot Type

• Click on the applicable Shoot Type in the Preference Pane.
• In the “Default Staff” box choose the applicable Staff Resource from the drop-down menu; any new Tasks added to the Shoot Record will now default to them.
• Then in the “Staff & Resources” box choose all Resources that are linked to the Shoot Type; these are the Resources that Light Blue uses to see if there are any event clashes and which will be used by any Scheduling Calendar for this Shoot Type. NB. If needed, you can override these in an individual Scheduling Calendar in its Staff & Resources box.

By Appointment Type

• Click on the applicable Shoot Type in the Preference Pane.
• In the “Staff & Resources” box choose all Resources that are linked to the Appointment Type; these are the Resources that Light Blue uses to see if there are any event clashes and which will be used by any Scheduling Calendar for this Appointment Type. NB. If needed, you can override these in an individual Scheduling Calendar in its Staff & Resources box.

By Task Steps in Workflows

• Click on the applicate Workflow in the Preference Pane.
• In the Task detail window choose the default staff member from the “Staff” drop-down menu.

A username and password already protect Your Light Blue account on our website, but you may like to add another layer of security to the desktop app by requiring users to log in when they launch it. 

To learn more about how to do this watch the video below; though if you prefer to learn by words and pictures, have a read of the help article instead!

Adding a password to each staff member

To enable the log-in feature there needs to be at least one Staff Resource with a password; this is done in the “Resources” section of Preferences by clicking on the “Set Password” button.
👉 If needed it’s also possible to restrict access to Light Blue in different ways for different staff members; this help article explains how.

Enabling the log-in dialog

Once you’ve set a password for at least one Staff Resource, you can check the “Show User Login Dialog When Launching Light Blue” option in the Account section of Preferences. The next time anyone launches Light Blue, they’ll be presented with a dialog asking for their username and password before proceeding. NB. If you’re using a shared computer do not check the “Remember this password in my keychain”.

You can add Staff Resources without creating a password for them; they will be able to log in to Light Blue without entering a password at the login dialog. If however you also check the “Require Staff Password To Log In” box you will need to create a password for every Staff Resource.

NB. If “Show User Login Dialog When Launching Light Blue” is checked, and “Require Staff Password to Log In” is unchecked, there’s nothing to stop someone from logging in; the purpose of the login dialog is simply to get staff members to identify themselves.

Changing the log-in dialog

Once in Light Blue, you can log in as a different staff member without needing to quit and relaunch Light Blue. Simply click “File” from the main menu bar and choose “Change Login” from the drop-down menu.

Changing (or forgetting!) passwords

If they wish to, staff members can change their password at login. However if anyone forgets their password it will need to be reset by a staff member with full admin access to change their password in the Resources section of Preferences. If the forgetful staff member already has full admin access, they can log in using the username and password for the main Light Blue account and then change their password.