Have you ever wondered why you don’t get more leads from your website?
Are you frustrated because your website is far superior to some of your competitors, yet they always seem to be more successful than you?
Have you ever wondered why that is?
And no, it isn’t all about price.
Trust me, I know how this feels. I used to be that business owner when I was a photographer.
I had a beautifully designed website with great photos (even if I do say so myself) yet most of my leads and clients used to come via other sources.
And I couldn’t understand why. Until one day it dawned on me, but by then it was too late. I had already closed my photography business.
You see, my website was just lots of photos and a beautiful design.
I wasn’t giving people a reason to choose me.
I wasn’t making a promise to them, let alone showing people why they could trust me to fulfil that promise. I wasn’t telling them what they needed to do next. And I wasn’t giving people a reason to act now.
I was just relying on them having an eye for photography, and deciding from just looking at my photography, that I was the photographer for them.
How crazy was that? My average portrait sale was just shy of £1,000 (this was back in 2014).
And I was wanting people to make a decision to spend a healthy sum of money based on little more than just looking at my photographs, with some blog posts, an about me page and a few testimonials to back it up!
No wonder my website was doing a terrible job for me.
It certainly wasn’t earning it’s keep. You see I got so excited about how easy it was to create a website, how easy it was to update it, add new images without printing costs or any of the associated costs of “traditional” marketing that I lost sight of the fact that I needed to have a clear message.
As a mentor of mine, Dr Glenn Livingston, says “I might as well have been re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic”!
You see I had no Persuasion Architecture. I wasn’t using the Five Step Persuasion Formula.
So next time you are wondering why your website isn’t working a little harder for you ask yourself if it answers these five simple questions:
- Who is this for and what is the desire or need that you are addressing for people? And don’t just answer brides for example, they are not all created equal and have different desires and ambitions when it comes to their wedding photography and how it’s presented…
- Why should your prospects choose you over every other photographer in the market? You can’t rely on your photography to help non-photographers distinguish you from every other photographer out there. What is unique about you and your services?
- Why should someone believe that you are the real deal, that you can deliver on your promise, for them in particular? They need more than your photographs – for sure they are important, but what do others say about working with you. What awards do you have? There are about 30 different ways that you can prove you are the right photographer for the job.
- How can you make your offer so irresistible that it is harder for a person to click away than to take the next step? You are making an offer of some kind on every page of your website? Are you? It could be something as simple as downloading more information, or filling in an enquiry form in exchange for their email address. Make them some kind of offer.
- Why should a prospect take that next step NOW, and not just think that they might do it later?How can you give them a reason to take action right now before they click away and forget about you?
Does every page on your website answer these questions?