Thanks to Selina for a wonderful opportunity to discuss the ‘visionary website’ and how being engaged with your clients and prospective clients through your website can be a strong tool for photographers. I will be speaking at 11:15AM EST so for you in CST it is 10:15, for those of you in MST, it is 9:15, and for our PST friends it is 8:15AM… and there are some amazing speakers before me so set your alarm and grab some coffee… this should really rock!
You can sign up NOW and participate: NOTE – after signing up check your email for the listening link.
The list of presenters that Selina has put together just for you, the professional commercial photographer.
| Heather Morton – Through The Buyers’ Eye Rob Haggert – Vision and Value Gail Mooney – Motion? Pictures? Nick Thomas – Repositioning For Your Best Shot Louisa Curtis – Show and Sell Frank Meo – The Secrets of Agents Kat Dalager – Presenting You |
Keith Gentile – Databases That Deliver Adam Sherwin – Viral and Vital Eric Kass – Designed To Sell Don Giannatti – Visionary Web Site Rosh Sillars – Socialize Your Media Jack Hollingsworth – The Twitter Tutorial Allen Murabayashi – Google and You |
I hope you all take advantage and sign up if you still can.
My talk is around these topics, and I will flesh them out a bit after the talk with Selina, so be sure to come back Sunday. BTW – Sunday we will be doing some lighting and portrait photography LIVE from the studio, so you may want to check that out as well. See the LE-LIVE button above for more info.
The visionary website is something I use to describe a site that is built to do something. Something other than simply show pictures. The word I use a lot is ‘engage’. Selina calls it ‘showing up’… and other have their own terms, but for me… engaged means attentive to all customers, attentive to their needs and attentive to your own needs as a photographer.
These are the ‘bullet points’ if you will, to my discussion. And we will go through this in about 45 minutes, so, as Sam Jackson said… “Hold on to your butts…”
1. Decide what you want the website to do. There are many approaches, which one works for you.
Websites can simply show, or they can provide a launching pad for the photographers vision. The site can be a collection of images with a set of buttons, or it can be a place where clients and prospects want to return to again and again. The level of commitment is up to the photographer, and their specific needs, position in the market and other variables that make having a custom, or semi-custom site make sense.
2. Plan for a visitor experience. What do you want the visitor to your website to do. (Hint, looking at pretty pictures may not be enough.)
You must know what your visitors want to do, or at least plan for them to do what you want them to do. I don’t think they come to chase the thumbnails around, or watch your name fade in one letter at a time. They come to be engaged by your work… and hopefully you. How do we do that?
3. Develop a strategy and implementation plan for keeping the web site fresh, dynamic and responsive. An ‘editorial’ schedule for instance.
Magazines have editorial calendars, newspapers have deadlines, bloggers have categories and posts… what will you use to keep your website dynamic, alive and ‘engaging’. Having a plan and working that plan actually makes it easier… trust me.
4. Understand the ‘online paradigm’ and work within the framework of an interactive solution. Brochure sites suck.
If your idea is to have a ‘free’ template to simply put your pictures online, well – OK. Good luck with that. If the site has no reason for people to come back, they wont. If there is no ‘vision’ on display, they will note the pictures and move on. And that may be enough for a few of them… but others are going to find sites that pull them in, challenge them with the imagery, show them stuff they haven’t seen before and more. That may not be so good for the site that does none of those things.
5. Know how to tie your complete online exposure to the website.
Websites are not enough for emerging talent, and those pros who are already working know what I mean. Facebook has emerged as a clearly important strategic place for photographers. Linkedin and Behance have made it possible to tie a portfolio to your Linked In page.
6. Keywords, Social Media, SEO, ‘digital footprint’… what does all that mean? How to plan and make sense of all the new stuff.
It is important to understand this stuff. Make sure your designer understands it as well. I have seen way too many sites that were really “cool” but did nothing for the photographers visibility. As we keep moving deeper and deeper into the digital age, the understanding of what this all means will be increasingly more important. The young people know… and they are the future of this and any business.
7. Will your site be an ancillary to a larger marketing push, or is the website the center of your marketing efforts. Decide and build accordingly.
You must bring a strategy to your website that takes your entire marketing plan into account. Your website may sit at the epicenter of your online and marketing effort. Or it could be a part of a wide sweeping digital marketing strategy that contains several ‘hubs’ of content. Take the time to make your plan make sense to you and your designer before embarking.
8. Hire a designer. Being a good photographer does not mean you are automatically a good designer. If you aren’t, it shows.
I really don’t want to go much deeper into this, but it is true… and you know it. I have seen way way way too many bad photographers websites to think this is not a problem. And don’t go get one of those free websites either. We all know what they look like and so do your clients.
9. Keep your site fresh. Dynamic sites get more interest. And by dynamic, I don’t mean flying logos and traveling thumbnails.
I mean fresh content, images, stories, new projects, stuff you are working on, behind the scenes videos or shots, ‘meet ___”, other art forms, and — wait for it — New Photographs. All the time. All the damn time. New New New!
10. Your web site should be a centerpiece for online marketing. Know your strengths and work to them. The web site functions as YOU when you are doing other things.
You may spend more time on your blog, or your facebook or writing in your journal and, hopefully… SHOOTING… than working on your website, but remember that at 2AM someone pops on to the site and it is YOU they are seeing. Your work, your aesthetic, your vision, your words… you. While you are sleeping or shooting or having a coffee at Starbucks, the site is the surrogate YOU that has to carry the load. Just make sure it is up to the task.
Your competition’s site is.
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