How to get clients to order prints after you send the gallery
A text on day three that names one photo they'll love on the wall, a close date they heard from the start, and a short reminder before it shuts.
- Time
- 20 to 30 minutes
- Cost
- Free
- Works with
- 5 gallery apps, or just your phone
- Skill
- Copy, paste and a calendar
Glad the reel brought you here. You put hours into the edit, sent the gallery, and the client loved it. Then no print order came. In a 2021 ShootProof survey, 91% of professional photographers said they believe their clients are printing photos somewhere else. Plenty never print at all. The link sits in their inbox, they mean to pick some prints later, and later turns into a year with the photos still on a phone.
Timing matters more than most of us think. ShootProof looked at thousands of orders from its US studios between January 2025 and July 2026 and found 55% came in within two weeks of the gallery being shared, and 73% within 30 days. The first two weeks are where the sales happen. Below are the texts for those two weeks, how to set the close date in the gallery app you already use, and a plain phone routine if you'd rather keep it simple.
Rather we set it up for you?
This is part of the Boldwright starter package. We set up the day-three text, the close-date reminders and the last-day text to go out on their own after every gallery, from your number, in your words, in a week or less.
Have Boldwright set it up$297 setup, then $70 a month once you've seen it work. No contract. Cancel by text.
Step 1
Before you start
Five things to sort out once. After that, each gallery takes about two minutes of texting.
- Pick your close date window. Say it in the very first message, not at the end. With 73% of ShootProof orders arriving in the first 30 days, a window somewhere between 14 and 30 days covers most of the buying. Pick one and use it for every client.
- Choose two or three go-to products you can quote by text. For example a 16x20 print, an 8x10 framed and an album. Know the prices without opening your price list. A client who asks "how much?" should get an answer in the same thread.
- While you edit, pick one photo per client that you'd hang yourself. Write down a short description you could say out loud, like "the one of you two laughing on the dock" or "Grandpa with the twins on his lap". That line goes in the day-three text.
- Get the client's mobile number and their OK to text. Add a line to your booking form or contract: "I'll text you when your gallery is ready and before it closes."
- Turn on favorites in your gallery app. Clients heart the photos they like, and you can see the list. If they've hearted something, use it in the day-three text instead of your own pick.
Step 2
Write your texts
Fill in your details once and every text updates. Nothing here leaves your phone. Send them from your own number, the one the client already has saved.
The close date goes in the first message. When the reminder comes later, it's about a date they already knew, not a surprise sales push.
By day three they've had a first look and the link hasn't sunk in the inbox yet. Naming one photo shows you remember their shoot, and a yes or no question is easy to answer from the couch.
Two options get an answer faster than a full price list. Swap in the products you actually sell. Offering to set it up removes the last step for the client who's busy.
Short and friendly. If your app already emails an expiration reminder, this text still gets read when the email doesn't.
Send it once. If there's no answer, let it go. A client who felt chased doesn't book the next session.
One honest note: nobody has published a test of naming a photo against a generic reminder, or of texts against emails for print sales. These texts are what a person who cares about the client would send anyway. Try them on your next five galleries and count the orders.
Step 3
Set the close date in your app
Pick your app. Every one below can close a gallery on a date, and most can email the client before it does. None of them texts the client, going by their help docs, and the day-three text is yours to send. Built in means the app emails expiration reminders on its own. Partly built in means you set the date, and some or all of the reminders are on you.
Jump to your app
ShootProofBuilt in
Email campaigns are listed on all ShootProof plans, the free one included.
- Open the gallery, go to Gallery Settings, and on the General tab set the Expiration Date. The gallery closes at 11:59 pm on that date.
- To email a reminder before it closes, go to Studio, then Email, then Campaigns, and click New Email Campaign.
- Pick a pre-written campaign or a custom trigger-based one, and set it to send a set number of days before the Expiration Date.
- Edit the wording so it sounds like you, and match the date to the one in your texts.
See their favorites: Galleries, All Galleries, Quick Actions, Gallery Visitors, then click the number in the Favorites column.
Abandoned cart email: Gallery Settings, Shopping Cart tab, turn on Enable Abandoned Cart Email. It goes out 24 hours after someone leaves items in the cart.
Checked against ShootProof help docs, October 2026.
Pic-TimeBuilt in
Pic-Time says its Sales Automations are included on the permanent free plan.
- Open the gallery, go to the Gallery Setup tab, tick Expire Gallery, set the date and click Apply.
- Go to Automations, click + More Automations and add Gallery Expiration.
- Add as many reminder emails as you want and edit each one. Keep it to two so it matches your texts.
- If you want a reason to order now, turn on the optional Expiration Promo, which adds a coupon to the reminders.
See their favorites: in the gallery, select the Workflow tab and click User's Favorites. You can export the list to CSV.
Pic-Time also has Early Bird, Abandoned Cart and Anniversary automations under Shop & Automations, Sales Automations.
Checked against Pic-Time help docs, October 2026.
PixiesetBuilt in
Auto Expiry works on any plan. Sending the reminder only to clients who favorited, downloaded or bought needs an upgraded plan.
- Open the collection, go to Settings, then General, and turn on Auto Expiry. Pick the date. It closes at 11:59 pm your local time.
- Click + Add expiry email and set how many days before the close date it goes out. You can add up to 3 reminders.
- Edit the wording under Settings, Email Templates, Auto Expiry Reminder Email.
See their favorites: open the collection, go to the Activities tab, then Favorite Activity. Client notes on photos show here too.
Limited-time coupon: Store Dashboard, Coupons, + Add Coupon, then set Active Dates with an end date.
Checked against Pixieset help docs, October 2026.
CloudSpotPartly built in
Expiration and its reminder email are in every gallery's settings. CloudSpot's help docs don't list a plan requirement.
- Open the gallery, go to Gallery Settings, open the Access tab and turn on expiration. The date has to be at least two days away.
- Set the reminder to go out a set number of days before the gallery closes, and edit the template so it sounds like you.
- That's one reminder email. Send the other close-date text from Step 2 yourself.
See their favorites: open the collection, click Analytics at the top right, then Favorites.
Abandoned cart email: the Send Abandon Cart Email toggle in the gallery's Store tab. It's on by default and sends once, 24 hours after a cart is left.
Checked against CloudSpot help docs, October 2026.
ZenfolioPartly built in
Gallery expiration needs a Pro or Advanced plan. Automated campaigns need Advanced or higher.
- Go to the gallery's Photos, then Access. Uncheck Sync settings, open the Privacy tab and set Expire After.
- Zenfolio doesn't send an expiration reminder on its own. Send the two close-date texts from Step 2 yourself, or set up a campaign.
- For a campaign: SELLING, Coupons and Campaigns, Get Started. By default it sends an announcement and reminders a week, three days and one day before the end date you set.
See their favorites: Galleries, My Library, Client Favorites.
Checked against Zenfolio help docs, October 2026.
If you need it
Just your phone
No gallery app with reminders, or you'd rather send everything yourself? Your phone and calendar handle it in about two minutes per client.
- Save the texts as shortcuts. On iPhone go to Settings, General, Keyboard, Text Replacement. Tap +, paste a text as the phrase and give it a short shortcut like ;day3, then Save. Most Android keyboards have a similar shortcut feature in their dictionary settings.
- Add three calendar reminders the day you send the gallery. Day 3, four days before the close date, and the close date itself. Put the client's name and your photo line in each reminder.
- Send each text when the reminder pops up. Fill in the name and the photo line, and check the date.
- Keep a simple log. A Google Sheet with client, gallery date, close date, photo line and what they ordered. After ten galleries you'll know which texts get answers.
The easier way: the Boldwright starter package sends these texts for you after every gallery, on the right days, from your number. $297 setup, then $70 a month once you've seen it work.
Step 4
Check it worked
- Make a test gallery under your own name with your own mobile number, and set a close date.
- Send yourself the Day 0 text. Tap the link on your phone. It should open the gallery, not a login screen you weren't expecting.
- Heart two photos as the client would, then check that you can see them in your favorites list.
- Check that the close date in the app matches the date in your texts. A text that says Sunday and a gallery that closes Friday is the one mistake clients remember.
- Read every text out loud. If something sounds stiff, change it now. You should sound like you do at the shoot.
If something's off
Common snags
Isn't a close date a bit pushy?
Not when you say it up front. A date in the first message reads as how you run your galleries. The pushy version is a surprise deadline in week four. Keep the reminders to the two in Step 2.
They already have the digital files. Why would they order prints?
Files on a phone rarely make it onto a wall. Offering to set up the print for them, in a size you've picked for a spot in their home, is the part they can't do themselves in two minutes. That's the offer in the When they say yes text.
They never opened the gallery
Most gallery apps show whether a client has viewed it. If they haven't by day three, skip the photo line and send: "Hi, just checking the gallery link came through okay. It sometimes lands in spam."
They want more time after it closes
Decide your answer before it happens. Some photographers reopen once for a short window, some charge a reopening fee. Either is fine, as long as it's the same for every client.
Is it okay to text clients about this?
A text about their own gallery, from the photographer they hired, is what most clients expect. Get their OK at booking, keep the texts about their photos, and stop if they ask you to. Bulk promotional texts to a list have stricter rules in the US. This isn't legal advice.
Want these texts going out on their own?
We're a small, new shop in Denver, and this is the kind of thing we set up for people: the gallery text, the day-three photo text and the close-date reminders going out on the right days, from your number, in your words. You keep shooting and editing, and the follow-up happens without a calendar full of reminders.
Talk to BoldwrightStarter package: set up in a week or less. $297 setup, then $70 a month once you've seen it work. No contract. Cancel by text.