First impressions set the tone
You have spent months building your portfolio, investing in gear, and perfecting your craft. You finally land a booking — a corporate brand film at £2,500 or a wedding at £1,800 — and the client says yes. Then what?
For too many UK videographers, this is exactly where things start to unravel. Not because the work is bad, but because the gap between "yes" and "shoot day" is filled with disorganised emails, missed details, and awkward silences. The client wonders if they made the right choice. You wonder why they are not getting back to you. The relationship starts on rocky ground before you have even picked up the camera.
Client onboarding is not some corporate buzzword. It is the practical process of taking a new client from that initial agreement through to the point where both sides are prepared, informed, and confident about the project ahead. When done well, it makes you look professional, reduces last-minute chaos, and genuinely makes the work better.
When done badly — or not at all — it creates the kind of confusion that leads to scope creep, missed shots, and clients who never come back.
This guide walks through each step of a proven onboarding workflow. It is designed for freelance videographers and small production teams in the UK, and every step is something you can implement today without any special software or assistants.
Step 1: The welcome email
The welcome email is the single most underrated tool in your business. Think about the last time you bought something significant — a car, a piece of furniture, a holiday. The experience of being acknowledged, thanked, and told what happens next is reassuring. Your clients need the same thing.
Send this email within 24 hours of the booking being confirmed. Not a week later. Not when you get round to it. The same day or the next morning.
Here is what your welcome email should cover:
- Thank them specifically. Not a generic "thanks for booking." Mention their project by name — "I am thrilled to be filming your product launch at the Manchester studio in April."
- Set expectations for next steps. Tell them exactly what is going to happen and when. People relax when they know the plan.
- Attach or link the contract and invoice. If these are not ready yet, give a specific date when they will be.
- Introduce any team members. If you are bringing a second shooter or sound operator, mention them now.
- Provide a single point of contact. Make it clear who they should email or call with questions.
Here is a template you can adapt:
Hi [Name],
Thank you so much for choosing me to film [project name]. I am genuinely excited about this one and looking forward to creating something brilliant for you.
Here is what happens next:
1. I will send over the contract and invoice for your £[amount] deposit within the next 24 hours.
2. Once the deposit is received, I will send a short questionnaire to gather the details I need for planning.
3. We will then schedule a planning call about 2–3 weeks before the shoot date to finalise everything.
If you have any questions at all in the meantime, just reply to this email — I check it daily.
Speak soon,
[Your name]
That is it. Simple, warm, and clear. Notice how it removes all ambiguity — the client now knows exactly what to expect and when. This one email eliminates an enormous number of follow-up questions.
Step 2: Contracts and deposits
If you are still operating without contracts, you are playing a game you will eventually lose. It does not matter how friendly the client seems or how small the job appears. A contract protects both of you, and more importantly, it signals that you run a proper business.
Your contract does not need to be a ten-page legal document. For most videography work, a clear two to three-page agreement covering the following points is sufficient:
- Scope of work. What exactly are you delivering? How many minutes of finished video? How many revisions? What format?
- Timeline. Shoot date, rough edit delivery date, final delivery date.
- Payment terms. Total fee, deposit amount, payment schedule, accepted methods.
- Cancellation policy. What happens if the client cancels within 14 days, 7 days, or 48 hours of the shoot?
- Usage rights. Who owns the footage? Can you use it in your portfolio? Can the client sub-license it?
- Limitation of liability. Equipment failure, illness, force majeure.
For deposits, the standard in the UK videography market is 30% to 50% non-refundable, paid before the shoot date. For weddings, 50% is common. For corporate work, 30% upfront with the balance due on delivery is typical.
Send the contract and invoice together. Use a service that allows electronic signatures — it removes friction. A client who has to print, sign, scan, and email back a document is a client who will put it off for two weeks.
A note on pricing clarity
One of the most common onboarding failures is vague pricing. If your quote said "£1,500 for a wedding film" but the contract mentions additional charges for travel over 30 miles, extended coverage hours, or drone footage, you are going to have a difficult conversation. Make sure the contract matches the quote. If there are conditional extras, spell them out clearly before the contract is signed, not after.
Step 3: The questionnaire
Once the deposit is received, send your project questionnaire. This is where you gather the details that will make the actual production go smoothly. Without it, you are guessing — and guessing leads to missed shots and disappointed clients.
The questionnaire should be tailored to your niche, but here are the categories that matter most:
For wedding videographers
- Full timeline of the day (ceremony time, speeches, first dance)
- Venue addresses with any access restrictions or parking details
- Names and contact details for the wedding planner, photographer, and key family members
- Must-have moments (are there any cultural traditions, surprise performances, or specific guests?)
- Music preferences for the final edit
- Any moments they explicitly do not want filmed
For corporate and commercial videographers
- Project goals — what is this video meant to achieve?
- Target audience and where the video will be distributed
- Brand guidelines, logos, fonts, and colours
- Key messages or talking points for interviewees
- Location details, health and safety requirements, and any permits needed
- Approval process — who signs off on the final cut?
Keep the questionnaire under 20 questions. If it feels like homework, clients will procrastinate. Use a Google Form, Typeform, or a dedicated client management tool. The goal is to make it effortless for them to complete.
Send the questionnaire with a specific deadline — usually two to three weeks before the shoot. Include a friendly note explaining why you need the information and how it helps you deliver a better result.
Step 4: The planning call
About two to three weeks before the shoot, schedule a planning call. This can be a phone call, a video call on Zoom, or an in-person meeting if logistics allow. The purpose is to review the questionnaire responses, fill in any gaps, and make sure everyone is aligned.
This call is not a creative brainstorm session (that should have happened during the initial booking conversations). It is a logistics and confirmation call. Here is a simple agenda:
- Review the timeline. Walk through the day or shoot schedule together, confirming times, locations, and transitions.
- Confirm the deliverables. Restate what you are producing so there are no surprises.
- Discuss any changes. Has the venue changed? Has the guest count shifted? Are there new requirements?
- Address concerns. Give the client space to ask questions or raise worries. Often they have small anxieties they have not mentioned.
- Confirm the payment balance. Remind them when the final payment is due.
Keep the call to 20 or 30 minutes. Be organised, have your notes ready, and follow up with a brief summary email confirming everything discussed. This summary becomes your reference document for shoot day.
Hi [Name],
Great to chat today. Here is a quick summary of what we covered:
- Shoot date: [Date], arrival at [time]
- Location: [Address]
- Key contacts on the day: [Names]
- Deliverables: [X-minute highlight film + full ceremony edit]
- Rough delivery timeline: [X weeks after the shoot]
If anything changes between now and the day, just let me know. Otherwise, I am all set and looking forward to it.
Best,
[Your name]
Step 5: Pre-shoot prep
The final step in your onboarding process happens in the 48 to 72 hours before the shoot. This is your internal preparation, but a small part of it is client-facing.
Your internal checklist
- Charge all batteries and format all cards
- Test all equipment — cameras, lenses, audio recorders, gimbals, drones
- Pack backup equipment for critical items
- Review the shoot schedule and questionnaire responses one final time
- Check the weather forecast if shooting outdoors
- Confirm travel route and parking
- Download offline maps for rural venues with poor signal
The pre-shoot message to the client
Two days before the shoot, send a brief, upbeat message. It serves two purposes: it confirms you are prepared and it reassures the client that everything is in hand.
Hi [Name],
Just a quick note to say everything is set for [day]. I will be arriving at [time] and will have [colleague's name] with me on sound. Looking forward to it — it is going to be great.
If anything comes up between now and then, my mobile is [number].
See you soon!
[Your name]
That is the last touchpoint before you show up. It is short, confident, and removes any lingering doubt the client might have about whether you are actually going to turn up prepared.
What to do when clients don't respond
Every videographer has experienced this. You send the questionnaire and hear nothing. You follow up once, twice, three times. Still silence. The shoot is in ten days and you do not have the basic information you need.
First, do not take it personally. Clients are busy, and your questionnaire — no matter how important it is to you — is just one of fifty things on their to-do list. Wedding couples in particular are drowning in vendor communications.
Here is a practical escalation process:
- Day 3 after sending: A friendly email reminder. "Just popping this back to the top of your inbox — no rush, but it would be great to have the details by [date] so I can plan everything properly."
- Day 7: A second reminder, slightly more direct. "I want to make sure we are fully prepared for your shoot on [date]. Could you try to fill in the questionnaire by the end of this week?"
- Day 10: If email is not working, try a different channel. A text message or a WhatsApp message often gets a quicker response. Keep it casual.
- Day 14 or one week before the shoot: A phone call. Sometimes people simply need a conversation rather than a form. You can fill in the answers yourself during the call.
If the shoot is approaching and the client still has not provided essential information, document your attempts to reach them. This protects you if the final product does not meet their expectations because they failed to communicate their needs.
The key mindset shift here is to stop seeing follow-ups as nagging. You are providing a professional service and you need the right information to do your job well. Most clients will thank you for being persistent — it shows you care about getting it right.
Building your onboarding template
Once you have refined each step, turn the whole thing into a repeatable template. You should not be writing a new welcome email from scratch for every client. You should not be creating a new questionnaire for every wedding. The goal is a system that runs with minimal effort while still feeling personal.
Here is what your template library should include:
- Welcome email template — with merge fields for client name, project name, dates, and deposit amount
- Contract template — with blanks for the project-specific details
- Questionnaire template — ideally one for each niche you serve (weddings, corporate, events)
- Planning call agenda — a checklist you review before each call
- Pre-shoot message template — the two-day-before confirmation
- Follow-up reminder templates — for the day-3, day-7, and day-10 nudges
Store these somewhere accessible. A dedicated folder in your email, a note-taking app, or a client management platform — whatever works for your setup. Tools like Clients Cut are specifically built to help videographers manage this exact workflow, from automated welcome sequences to questionnaire tracking and follow-up reminders, but even a well-organised Google Drive will work in the early days.
Making it personal at scale
Templates should be a starting point, not a copy-paste job. Always customise at least two or three sentences for each client. Reference something specific from your conversations — the venue they chose, the product they are launching, the story they want to tell. This takes thirty seconds but makes the client feel like they are your only client, even when you have six projects running simultaneously.
The best onboarding processes are invisible to the client. They just know that working with you feels smooth, organised, and professional. They do not see the templates, the checklists, or the automated reminders behind the scenes. They see a videographer who has their act together — and that is exactly the impression you want to make.
Start with one step. Build the welcome email template this week. Send it to your next client. Then add the questionnaire. Then the planning call agenda. Within a month, you will have a complete onboarding system that runs itself — and you will wonder how you ever managed without one.