Replying to Photography Enquiries With an AI Drafting Tool

A good enquiry reply answers the question that was asked, gives the next step, and sounds like you. An AI tool can get you a first draft of that quickly. It can't know your diary.

Start with a reply you already like

Find two or three past replies you were happy with. Strip out names and contact details. Paste them into your prompt as examples of your voice.

A prompt is just the text you give the tool. Wikipedia describes prompt engineering as "structuring natural language inputs" to get the output you want.¹ In plain terms, the clearer your instructions, the less you'll need to rewrite.

What to put in the prompt

• The type of shoot the person asked about, in your own words.
• The dates they mentioned, copied from their message.
• Your real availability, typed from your calendar.
• One next step, such as "ask them to book a short call".
• Your tone, such as "warm, brief, no exclamation marks".
• An instruction: "Don't add prices, dates or promises I haven't given you."

That last line matters. Leave it out and a tool may fill every gap in your information with a confident guess, which you'd then have to spot.

A starting prompt you can adapt

"Write a short reply to a photography enquiry. Use only the facts below. Keep it to a few short paragraphs. Match the tone of my sample replies. Don't invent prices, dates or policies. Facts: the client wants family portraits. I'm free on the Saturday they asked about. I'd like them to pick a time for a call."

Swap the facts each time. Keep the rest.

Keep client details out where you can

Enquiries often include names, phone numbers and children's details. The Australian privacy regulator advises, as best practice, against typing personal information into public generative AI tools.²

You can follow that with a simple routine. Give the tool a description such as "a couple planning an autumn wedding". Then paste its wording into your own email and type the names yourself. Outside Australia, your own country's privacy body sets the rules that apply.

Make it sound like a person

Drafts from these tools often come back stiff. Look for these signs and fix them by hand.

• A long opening line praising the enquiry.
• Words you'd never say out loud.
• Lists of benefits nobody asked about.
• Too many exclamation marks, or none at all.
• A sign-off that isn't yours.

Read the draft aloud. Where you stumble, rewrite. Then add one detail that proves a person read the message, such as the park they mentioned. Short and specific beats long and polished. Always. Clients can tell the difference within a sentence or two.

Marketing rules differ by country

A reply to a person who contacted you is one thing. A message that promotes your services is another. In Australia, the ACMA says marketing messages need the recipient's consent first. After that, each message must make it easy to unsubscribe.³

Whether a given reply counts as marketing is a question for the regulator. Other countries have their own rules, and the ACMA page covers Australia only. Don't let a drafting tool decide this for you.

What to look at before you pay for a tool

• Can you save your own sample replies so you don't paste them each time?
• Does it connect to your inbox, and what does the maker say it does with the messages it reads?
• Can you turn off any feature that sends without your approval?
• Does the maker's page show when its plans and prices were last updated?

A tool that sends replies by itself removes your last check. If you'd rather keep that check, look for a setting that holds every draft until you approve it. No setting, no deal.