Our Guide to Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School (INSANE VALUE!)

Last Updated: February 14th, 2020

Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School is an all access membership that provides Lightroom presets for editing photos, business card templates, email templates, a posing guide, and multiple online courses on topics like Email Marketing, Pinterest, Facebook Ads, Search Engine Optimization, Photo Editing, and so much more…

This package includes $2745 worth of products (if you bought them individually) being sold at a remarkably low price!!

If you are someone just starting a photography business – this is a MUST BUY collection of products.

There are no other products like it that go so far to streamline so many processes that can take years to refine.

These are hand crafted digital items put together by an experienced photographer with the goal of providing immediate value by allowing you to trim years of wasted effort trying to figure things out on your own.

A little while ago, I got my hands on the Photography Marketing School Membership, and even as a professional photographer with years of experience myself – I am still finding the content incredibly useful for my own workflow.

Heck, the preset packs alone are worth the cost of admission – and will probably give you the most immediate gratification, while everything else works incredibly when applied to specific photography business situations like sending the perfect follow up email message.

What is the Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School?

SE’s Photography Marketing School is a collection of 48 digital products assembled meticulously to provide the ultimate solution for marketing your photography business.

These products take you through every step of the photo business creation-to-success process – from enhancing your own knowledge on photography and marketing, applying presets to get a distinct photo editing style, to email templates that will help you send the best follow ups to your prospective and current clients to get the responses you want (and more!!).

By leveraging these products, you will be able to achieve the goal of booking clients and building the photo business of your dreams!

A Guide to EVERYTHING in the SE Photography Marketing School

Whether this is your first time hearing about Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School, or you are just looking for a review to get an idea of what is included – I’ve gone to great lengths to check out EVERYTHING. Yes, EVERYTHING, in this package.

Throughout the rest of this post, I will breakdown all of the included items.

I’ll look at the features of each, show you how they can be used in “real life”, and give you some hands on experience to show you the benefits.

Are you ready?!?

Premium Lightroom Presets

Okay – I wanted to start this off by looking at the most visceral part of the marketing school.

I consider Lightroom preset packs to be immensely valuable since they can help expedite your photo editing workflows. I have personally used preset packs since the start of my wedding photography business, and they have made a dramatic impact.

Presets are especially valuable for photographers who are new to editing that need the help to simplify getting a good looking end product.

In many cases, all you need to do is apply these presets to your images and make minor refinements (if any at all!), and you’re ready to move on to the next picture.

Genesis Lightroom Collection: Presets + Workflow System

The Genesis Preset collection is an incredible offering in its own right.

The image edits speak for themselves when you see them (and you will in just a second!) – but as a short description I’d say they help make digital photos look like film by adding warmth and cinematic stylings. In some ways, the included presets in this pack remind me of Mastin Labs presets because of the emphasis on retaining natural looking greens – yet are at a fraction of the price when compared.

The Genesis presets are clean, yet moody. Warm, yet feel balanced.

These presets can be applied to a wide range of photographs – regardless of subject. I’ve gone ahead and tested them out on photos ranging from weddings and portraits to personal landscape photography trips I’ve taken. It’s nothing short of amazing!

Features:

• 20 total presets (5 main, 15 sub-presets with different intensities in color, exposure, etc.)
• 16 color presets, 4 black and white presets
• Over 2 hours of training videos showing you how to edit effectively with these presets
• 9 retouching brushes
• 5 enhancement brushes
• 3 special effects brushes

Sample Image Edits:

For more – you can read our full review of the Genesis Preset Collection.

We also showcase a HUGE range of the black and white presets contained in the Genesis pack in our Tutorial: Black and White Photography Edits Made Easy post.

Moody Vibes Lightroom Collection: Presets + Workflow System

Signature Edit’s Moody Vibes preset collection provides a more atmospheric editing style. Inspired heavily by the look of vintage film – the effect is very subdued and beautiful.

If you are looking to create images that have a darker mood to them, this is a great pack to get you started in that direction.

As you might imagine, these presets resonate really powerfully with soft lighting and environmental effects like fog, mist, rain, and snow. That’s not to say it lacks uses for brighter images, though, as you can see in the 2nd sample image below.

Features:

• 20 total presets (5 main, 15 sub-presets with different intensities in color, exposure, etc.)
• 16 color presets, 4 black and white presets
• 9 retouching brushes
• 3 enhancement brushes
• 5 special effects brushes
• 4 export presets

West Coast Lightroom Collection: Presets + Workflow System

Inspired by the West Coast of the USA – SE’s West Coast presets offer up a dramatic warmth that you would associate with the region. The color grading when applying the preset to virtually any image is consistent throughout – and works beautifully on wide shots capturing the environment, as well as more intimate portrait photography as you can see below.

There is a drama and a romance to these presets, being washed in warm oranges and yellows, while maintaining depth and contrast in the shadows. The results are stunning.

It’s really an amazing preset collection – and one of our personal favorites from Signature Edit’s offerings.

Features:

• 9 total color presets (3 main, 6 sub-presets with different intensities in color, exposure, etc.)
• 9 retouching brushes
• 5 enhancement brushes
• 3 special effects brushes
• 4 export presets

Autumn Vibes – Lightroom Preset

The Autumn Vibes preset is only available if you join the Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School.

To our surprise, it turned out to be one of our absolute favorites. While the Genesis collection still takes the top spot for us because of it’s diversity – this single preset has a lot of power when applied to a variety of different shots.

One of the funny things we realized as we began to use it was that it made our images – taken in the month of July – look like they were taken in the middle of the fall. This effect being achieved with one-click and some minor tweaking to increase the exposure (as we underexpose most of our shots). That’s “autumn vibes” alright!

The autumnal effect is stunning, while still maintaining the integrity of color to make it feel authentic and real.

Orange and Teal Vibes – Preset

Another bonus preset that is only available with the Photography Marketing School, the Orange and Teal vibes will resonate with you if you are into this trending photo editing style.

Orange and teal color grading has become incredibly popular with Instagram photographers, and has even been bleeding into modern movies for at least the past decade like Blade Runner 2049 and even the hit TV show Game of Thrones.

What can make orange and teal work is the contrast between these two complimentary colors.

Out of all the presets included in this package of products – this is the most unique. For someone looking to add a layer of otherworldly vibes to their images – this is a pretty awesome direction to go in. The most dramatic changes will occur on images with a blue backdrop (as you can see in our edited sample photo #2).

Also – I have to give props to my cat Sheldon for being a good representative of the orange and teal vibes. Now you know that this CAN WORK on photos you take of your cat(s).

Lightroom Mobile Preset Collections

Many of the preset packs we already have showed off come included with Lightroom Mobile versions.

This means you can take many of the same great presets on the road and have your photo editing made easy from your tablet or phone.

The Lightroom Mobile preset packs include:

• The Genesis Collection
• The Moody Vibes Collection
• Lifestyle Travel Portraiture Presets – a special LR Mobile Collection

Email Templates

If you have ever found yourself struggling to write an email, these templates serve as incredibly powerful tools when applied in the right situation.

It took us well over a year to get comfortable and confident in the things we were saying to our prospective and paying clients. It’s easy to imagine that things would have looked very differently for us if we had something like this in our back pocket.

These email templates have been crafted through hands on experience – which has helped reveal what works and what does not.

If you’re unsure how to reach out to another photographer to be their assistant – this is for you.

If you struggle getting clients to review you after you provide them an image gallery – this is for you.

And if you’re needing help every step of the way to respond to inquiries, lock in a meeting date, get a contract signed, and correspond effectively with your client from first contact to gallery delivery – this is especially for you!!

Included in the Photography Marketing School package are these 3 email template products:

• 2nd Shooter / Assistant Email Template
• 37 Email Templates for Wedding Photographers (read our review)
• Google Review Request Email Template

Remember: emails are the primary method of communication you will have with most of your clients. Running an effective photo business absolutely depends on you getting this step right!!

Business Card Templates

These photography business card templates are one-of-a-kind. I’ve honestly never even seen anything like this packaged and given away.

When I started my photography business with my wife – I was able to leverage her graphic design skills to whip up our business cards for Hand and Arrow Photography (as well as the rest of our branding…). I’m probably in a unique situation and got a sweet gig with her, but many other photographers will definitely struggle in this area.

Each business card template comes as a Photoshop (.psd) file. To create your own card, you can simply update the text fields and background image. The file also includes pre-set bleed lines, so when you take your digital card to get printed through a printing service like Moo (the one we use!) – you know where the “safe zone” is.

There are 4 total photography business card templates for you to use:

• Banff Photo Co Business Card Template
• Bliss Photography Business Card Template
• Honey Photography Business Card Template
• Scott Photography Business Card Template

Candid Photo Posing Guide for Couples Photography

If you photograph couples for any reason – weddings, engagements, “Day Afters”, anniversaries…you name it…then you will absolutely benefit from Signature Edit’s Candid Couples Posing Guide.

This is actually the first SE product we ever were exposed to – and we wrote a detailed review about how it helped us enhance our posing process.

It’s possible you may have already seen plenty of other posing guides out there – one of the big named ones is The Unposed Field Guide. We actually own that one, too, and while it’s not a bad product at all – for someone who needs a good jump start, you get more bang for your buck here.

When purchased as a standalone product, the Candid Couples Posing Guide is a good deal (and more affordable that other similar products). Included in the price of the Photography Marketing School – and it is literally a steal!

If you would benefit from having a comprehensive list of posing prompts in addition to even just a few of the other products included here, then it’s a no brainer to join the Photo Marketing School today!

Photo Business Questionnaires

In case you were wondering, questionnaires are the essential way to collect information from your photography clients prior to their shoot.

I actively use questionnaires to gather info to put together wedding photography timelines. I also use them for smaller shoots like engagements and families.

When you are collecting the right information – you will be able to use it to do important things like set expectations, define timing, and make sure you’re capturing images that your client(s) will love.

The questionnaire templates provided in this package were created in Google Sheets – and have been applied to real life professional photography situations. You can make tweaks to the style to fit your brand, and take note of every question being asked to see how these have carefully been chosen to make sure you are getting the information you need to have a successful photo shoot.

Included in Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School are 5 questionnaire templates:

• Couples Engagement & Portrait Shoot Online Questionnaire
• Family Photographer Questionnaire
• Newborn Photography Questionnaire
• Wedding Timeline Questionnaire
• The Ultimate Blog & Publication Questionnaire

Guides & Templates

Altogether, the 14 guides and templates included in the Photography Marketing School provide incredible resources to get your photography business running.

These will help you get a jumpstart on areas of your business that might just be essential – like creating a logo and defining your personal brand.

Not to mention, they will even help you down the line once you’ve booked a few clients and want to get around to sending thank you cards and selling gift certificates for sessions and prints.

Some of these resources have the an application to photo businesses in general, while many of them are specifically designed for wedding photographers and portrait photographers.

General Photography:

• Photography Gift Certificate Template
• Photography Logo Template Set
• Photography Personal Branding Guide
• The Ultimate Photographer Pricing Guide Photoshop Template

Wedding Photography:

• Wedding Photographer Magazine Template
• Wedding Photographer Thank You Card Template
• Wedding Photography Welcome Guide Template
• Wedding Planner / Decorator Pricing Guide Template
• Wedding Videographer Magazine Template

Portrait Photography:

• Portrait Photography Magazine Template
• Engagement Style Guide Template
• Family Photographer Client Magazine Template
• Family Photographer Thank You Card Template
• Family Photography What to Wear Guide

Email Marketing for Photographers (Online Course)

I honestly cannot believe I’ve written over 2,500 words talking about the products included in Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School, and am only just now getting to talk about the ONLINE COURSES…the value of this thing is freaking amazing for anyone wanting to start a photography business and have a quicker road to success.

Also – to answer the big question you may have in the back of your mind: “Yes – I did take these courses and learn something from them.” I screenshot each class showing my completion for each!

To kick things off, let me take a look at Signature Edit’s Email Marketing for Photographers course.

Email Marketing for Photographers is a 4.5 hour course that you can take at your own leisure. It includes extensive video walkthroughs (22 in total) broken across 3 modules.

The presentation is simple and accessible – with some videos leveraging the power of a virtual whiteboard to help showcase ideas like you would find in a formal classroom, and other videos presenting information like setting up mailing list popups in a variety of common website platforms like WordPress and Squarespace.

In short – this course will help teach you how to effectively generate more and better inquiries so you can book more clients.

In addition to the coursework, this also includes a lot of FREE extras like:

• The Irresistible Offer Idea List
• Irresistible Offer Emails – Wedding Photographer
• Irresistible Offer Emails – Family Photographer
• The Ultimate Wedding Timeline Guide Book
• What to Wear Template (For Families)
• Engagement Style Guide
• Engagement Guidebook Template
• Successful Landing Page Components Cheatsheet
• Upside Down Website Banner Designs
• Wedding Photography Studio Email Templates
• Family Photography Studio Email Templates

Facebook Ads for Photographers (Online Course)

Okay – I’ll be honest, Facebook has been this sort of beast that has always sort of p***** me off. 

Early on when I tried to promote my business, I jumped into Facebook advertising with the hope of getting some new clients. It started with 50$ here, then 50$ again. How many leads did I get? Like 2 – and they both wanted discounted services (no – I didn’t book them).

That type of experience led to me feeling totally deterred from using Facebook for ads.

After going through Signature Edit’s Facebook Ads for Photographers course, it’s shown me a new perspective.

Now – bare in mind – FB has still left a bad taste in my mouth and I have solid success with other social media platforms (particularly Instagram), so it’s not a “necessary” thing for my photography business marketing plan – but it may be a good outlet for others out there.

Where I connected most with this course was from the very beginning where Ryan points out how he went through a similar set of hurdles as I did – investing money in ads, and getting nothing in return.

Honestly – it feels like gambling in Las Vegas, the the odds are against you – unless you know how to do it right.

The true value of this course doesn’t just come from showing you how to set up ads (…like pretty much any other course on Facebook advertising out there), but it begins by taking a step back and showcasing how to make a sale.

Facebook ads is just a tool that, when used effectively, can help attract new paying clients.

I’ve read countless stories online of photographers (like myself) who got FB ads wrong – and just abandoned all hope. In the same breath, I’ve also seen a lot of success stories of photographers putting out a couple hundred bucks in ads, and walking away with THOUSANDS of dollars of bookings. That’s crazy to me – and what you will ultimately learn to apply to your advertising strategy through this course.

Facebook Ads for Photographers is a course comprised of 5 modules helping you to identify your sales approach, strategies for attracting clients, and actually assembling an ad and measuring its performance. By following the guidance in this course, you can get Facebook advertising right the first time.

Oh…And of course, there are some added FREE goodies included here too like:

• Family Photographer Email Sequence – How to Take Amazing Family Photos
• Family Photographer Email Sequence – Free Engagement Shoot Contest
• The Ultimate Wedding Timeline Guidebook

Instagram Marketing Essentials (Online Course)

In my opinion – Instagram is the must have social media platform for all photography business owners. I owe around 75% of all my bookings to using IG well.

If there is an area of marketing my photography business that I felt really confident about going into these online courses by Signature Edit’s – it was this. And by the end of it – much of the information I personally learned just reinforced my own best practices. There were, of course, some new things that came up – but through and through, the education presented here is fundamentally designed for a beginner – or someone who just isn’t having success attracting clients through Instagram.

This is, of course, the purpose of this course. If you are struggling to get your IG account off the ground, attract new followers, and get new inquiries from people who want to actually work with you – then this course will walk you through what to look out for, what to do (and what not to do), and teach you how to effectively get that growth you so desperately need.

It is actually a real compliment to Signature Edit’s Instagram course that the content mirrors my own success – because it’s this very success I’ve had and leaned on that has enabled me to grow a six figure photography business from scratch. I learned much of this information the hard way – reading many articles online and trial-and-error over the course of at least a year until I was up and running successfully.

The Instagram Marketing Essentials course is one I can HIGHLY RECOMMEND just because I know the value Instagram has had in being a lead generator for my own photo business.

Getting this right can lead to a full time career in photography – only made more comfortable as you expand your marketing to other social media platforms and client/vendor referrals to strengthen and diversify your sources of inquiries.

Pinterest Marketing Mastery (Online Course)

Of all the social media platforms out there, Pinterest has been the most interesting to me – but I’ve only begun to scratch the surface with it. Signature Edit’s Pinterest Marketing Mastery course was the one class I was most excited to go over.

On the Pinterest Marketing Mastery Course page, one of the key highlights for me was:

“Want to know how to get social media to work for you, without being glued to your phone 24/7? Well then you’re in the right place.“

This hit me hard as my exposure to using Pinterest as a marketing tool for my website has mostly been through the result of tediously going through things on my phone. It’s not a platform that hugely appeals to me – especially not to post and seek out posts of other people in a super sterile kind of way.

So with all that said – this course caught me by surprise. I’m extremely impressed with the content in here.

I’ve listened to a number of free Pinterest tutorials that I would still consider pretty great (you know: because free), but the information here is much more complete to help simplify and even automate Pinterest posting.

Now, as a photography blogger – it’s easy to see the value of Pinterest since one of the goals is to drive traffic to a site. But, as a photography business owner, I’d actually consider Pinterest to be a pretty untapped market for finding new clients – and utilizing Pinterest to post images and other types of content from your photo portfolio will help you increase exposure in a big way. 

Included with the course are a few bonus treats:

• 110 Blog Topic Ideas
• Pinterest Pin Template

Web Design Essentials for Photographers (Online Course)

Every photographer needs their own website presence. This is where you will display your online portfolio, talk about yourself, include pricing information, and offer a Contact page so potential clients can inquire with you.

In all the time I’ve spent building websites, including my photography business site, I’ve never come across that teaches how to put one together in this format.

Normally, much emphasis is given to just choosing a theme – often times just buying one. This is only one aspect of website development, and this course helps to answer “why?” you should do some things and not others.

The last thing you want is to have great pictures, a great business model…and lose out on potential customers just because of a clunky or poorly optimized site.

Signature Edit’s Web Design Essentials for Photographers is a course that will help you create a photography business website with the ability to draw in an audience and make them fall in love with you, your work, and help you get booked solid.

SEO for Photographers: How to Show Up #1 On Google Search (Online Course)

Search engine optimization (or SEO for short) is one of the major keys to success for any business that relies on securing clients through the power of the internet.

I will admit, I have a depth of knowledge on the topic of SEO that is a result of over a decade of building websites and producing quality content that ranks highly in Google search results.

Formed From Light (…this website if you haven’t noticed…) ranks highly for many search terms. And my photography business site (Hand and Arrow Photography) ranks for targeted keywords that my potential clients are using every day for find a photographer to take their portraits and shoot their weddings.

Signature Edit’s SEO for Photographers course features 4 modules that teach the essentials from the ground up.

The particularly nice thing here is that it is actually designed with photographers in mind.

Not every photographer is an internet marketer, and most probably don’t want to be (I’ll admit – it can get a little boring from time to time). But, it’s so essential.

This course showcases the many things that impact your ability to rank in search engines, and more importantly, shows you how to really fuel your own fire. The specific strategies on display are empowering because they have been applied and work – and I can serve as a reference as some of them I’ve already utilized in the development of my own business.

Vendor Referral & Networking Workshop (Online Course)

It’s not who you know, but who knows YOU.

Signature Edit’s Vendor Referral & Networking Workshop is a 45 minute presentation showcasing 12 keys to building referral worthy relationships, 3 steps to consistent referrals, and 4 key techniques for building solid connections in the industry.

This is a presentation that will most significantly benefit wedding photographers – as we often rely on our relationships with other vendors to get new clients.

In my own photography business, about 75% of our leads are organic through search engines and social media, and the remaining 25% come directly from other vendors we have worked with in the past and built solid relationships with.

Engaging with other vendors involves both short-term and long-term thinking.

In the short-term, I try to make an effort to be professional, nice, and good to work with. I look for the same in the other people I work with – especially those I’m in close quarters with like videographers and DJ’s on the wedding day.

In the long-term, I have learned that nurturing the best of these relationships will help keep food on the table (so to speak).

For already established professional photographers, it won’t give too much new information unless you’ve somehow managed to entirely neglect vendor relationships.

If you are a total beginner to this stuff, this offers a lot of great insight.

Travel Photography Editing and Instagram Masterclass (Online Course)

All of the courses offered in the Photography Marketing School are presented by Ryan – Signature Edit’s creator, except for this one. This course is unique in that it features the guidance of Daniel Han – an established travel photographer with a HUGE Instagram following.

While many of the tips directly relate to aspiring travel photographers, so much of what is talked about have applications in virtually any photography niche.

Daniel’s success has been in the travel photography space – but so much of it hinges on being able to run an effective business, having good marketing techniques, and supporting this with rock solid photos.

In this course, the layout is different than the others that feature more module-based learning.

The first half is an exclusive interview between Signature Edit’s Ryan and Daniel – which offers a much more informal tone that I found to be very interesting and engaging. Getting to hear from an established professional in this space in this very authentic way is inspiring and loaded with helpful information. Their discussion covers everything from camera gear and nailing composition to business tips and photo stories.

The second half is much more hands on. Included in this course are some exclusive Lightroom Presets created by Daniel Han, and a collection of RAW image files so you can practice editing yourself. What makes this so incredibly useful is that there is also an included guided tutorial where he shows you how to get the edits adjusted in LR effectively.

If you’re an aspiring travel photographer, you have to check this out. For non-travel photographers, much of the content still is incredibly useful as you can apply it to any niche – weddings, portraits, families, etc.

What Are the Standout Products in this Package?

I am very impressed with Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School.

As a package – it is absolutely, positively INSANE!!

The cost-to-value ratio is staggering. I’m going to imagine that your average person will take weeks to fully get through everything included here. Almost every time I opened up a new product, there were a couple extra bonus products waiting behind the door.

There are some products that will have long term uses for enhancing your photography and building a photography business.

For example, any of the preset packs you really click with could end up serving as the foundation for your photo editing style. I particularly liked the Genesis and West Coast preset packs – both offering up end results that really speak to my personal aesthetic.

On the other end of things (and if we’re being real for a minute), some products may only be used a handful of times or even once, then you’ll have no more use for it.

The business card templates are a prime example of this. It helps expedite a process that may take a long time if you don’t have the graphic design background, and removes the need to hire someone to help with the design since it is right there.

For me – it’s the mixture of products that make this a standout buy. As a “Photography Marketing School” – it provides everything I would expect and more.

You can build a firm foundation of knowledge on photography, business, and marketing through the included 8 courses. You can create a business then constantly be referring to everything from the email templates to questionnaire templates and every guide, tip, and secret put on full display.

30 Day Money Back Guarantee Pledge – You Will LOVE It!

Signature Edits is a reputable name in the photography industry. They are rapidly growing, and creating amazing content along the way to help photographers take better pictures and create businesses that can be sustained for the long haul.

I first met it’s owner, Ryan, online via email over a year ago. Through our conversations, I’ve learned just how much energy and time has gone into the creation of all these great products – 6 months of active development in fact. This membership package is the result of the hard work he has put in to ultimately help you grow a photography business that has the ability to be successful.

I’ve consistently been impressed not just with his product offerings, but with his motivation to make success a two way street. Yes, like any good business owner, he charges for what he is offering – but he will meet you half-way. In the internet world of cheap digital products, refunds are almost NEVER an option.

Signature Edit’s 30-day money back guarantee is an amazing thing, and gives you (the customer) control to make sure you benefit from your investment.

Because of this, Signature Edit’s Photography Marketing School is the perfect collection of resources to help you create the photography business you’ve been dreaming of. It’s a recommended buy from me.