Case Study: Heather Read Photography achieves 10 hours/week time savings with ActiveCampaign

How a Photographer Saves 10 Hours a Week with Marketing Automation

Heather Read Photography, a family photography business serving the Chicago–Detroit area, faced an all-too-common small‑business problem: too many leads and not enough time. Heather was spending hours on manual follow‑up with “zombie” leads—contacts who never converted—while juggling a new baby and running her business, which left her overwhelmed and unable to focus on photography.

By implementing ActiveCampaign automations, Heather automated lead capture (using pricing as a gated PDF), set up a warm, automated nurture sequence that creates deals and tasks when a contact engages, and unsubscribed unresponsive leads to protect deliverability. She added Calendly via Zapier to qualify prospects and streamline bookings. After a six‑hour setup she reclaimed about 10 hours a week (34 hours in the first month), reduced stress, and now spends far more time on paid, high‑quality clients and photography.

Heather Read Photograpgy

Heather Read

Owner and Photographer