Business Breakthroughs for Photographers: Part X

by Skip Cohen

It's Marketing Monday, and we're also coming down to the wire, ending the "slow season." This is my tenth post in the Business Breakthrough series for this year. The concept is based on things you should be doing to help you break through all the noise your target audience is dealing with.

Regarding timing, just because incoming business is slow through the year's first quarter doesn't let you off the hook. Now is the time to prepare for spring seasonality and the year ahead.

Today, your Internet presence is the equivalent of a brick-and-mortar business just a few years ago. It's your storefront, and it's important to make a visit to your cyberspace real estate a memorable experience. Just like those stores people like to shop at most, they have a choice.

Although I've written a lot about your galleries over the years, it's a topic that I can't say enough about. Less is more - and you don't need to show every image you've captured - just the very best ones. The images you show in your galleries are important to "hooking" your clients into wanting to see more of you and then contacting you. 

The goal is for your business to thrive, NOT just survive. Remember, the difference between "survive" and "thrive" is just a few letters combined with some well-placed energy!

Cleaning Up the Images on Your Website

• NEVER put up an image that's less than your best! Every photograph needs to be a "wow" image, meaning it's so strong it's the only one you'd have to show to get hired.
• You don't need more than ten images in a category to demonstrate your skill set. (I did a website review for a photographer many years ago with 4000 images! Your galleries are about quality NOT quantity.)

• Wedding photographers - you don't need to break out a wedding in multiple categories. Everybody knows how a wedding unfolds.

• Show images that as a group tell a story.

• Demonstrate your skill set by showing different techniques.

• If you're going to show an entire wedding, then do it by showing actual album pages. This demonstrates your ability to tell a story.

• In most cases, if an image is over two years old get it off your site. Keep your images fresh.

• Keep your galleries in themes - for example: showing landscape shots because it's your passion together with children's portraits will only confuse your clients.
• Don't "biggy-size" your images - this isn't Burger King. Keeping images at an equivalent of 5x7 is plenty. Now and then somebody wants to give me images that fill my screen. It's distracting and most of the time won't show your work the way it deserves to be seen.
• Pay attention to where the fold hits your images.
• Give people click-on thumbnails, allowing them to see all the work your presenting in one category rather than just one image at a time.
• Don't repeat shots of the same people over and over again in non-wedding galleries. If you want people to consider you for seniors for example, you need to demonstrate your skills with more than just one model, and don't forget the guys!  
• Make sure you can actually duplicate the techniques you show in your images. I've seen so many photographers who post images they captured while standing behind an instructor at a class. First, it's really not your shot. Second, you weren't the only person in the class, which means that other photographers have access to the same images and may be including them on the websites as well!

• ALWAYS make sure you have the rights to post each image - That means it's in your contract with the client or you have a signed model release.
• Test your site a few times a week on different browsers to make sure it's loading properly and looking the way it should.