As I said in my last post. All roads lead to your website and your website is your number one salesperson.

Your website is where prospects make a decision to contact you or to book with you. If you make it hard for them to trust you, they’ll move on.

Remember the “know, like and trust” factor?

Let me first explain through an analogy.

Have you ever been to a film festival and watched films you could tell were made on a low budget and they kind of bored you? Or maybe you’ve seen low budget films on a local channel and noticed that something just wasn’t quite right?

They do still exist by the way – low budget films on daytime network shows. I know because my Mom always has the TV on in the background when she’s cooking and I see them!

Anyway, when you feel like something isn’t quite right, what your subconscious mind is picking up on is a lack of attention to detail because of budgetary limitations.

For example, a lack of attention to editing so it’s choppy and doesn’t flow. Maybe the director is also the editor and the writer. A lack of attention to continuity so an actor may have a purse from one angle and the same shot from another angle won’t have the purse in it because there is no continuity department. A lack of attention to proper casting – as in, there is no casting director, only the producer. A lack of attention to lighting. The list goes on.

There are many components of a film that when done right, bring together one piece of HIGH QUALITY entertainment.

When these details are overlooked because of budget preventing there being a costume department, a set design department, a casting director, a director, your radar goes off and you know it’s not going to be a masterpiece. It might even be boring.

Would you spend two hours of your precious time on a movie you know isn’t going to be enjoyable as a whole or would you rather spend it watching something that’ll feel like it’s worth your time? Unless of course your cousin made a movie and you’d go support them even if it means suffering through it.

SAME GOES FOR YOUR WEBSITE.

There are many small components that come together in perfect harmony to make a professional website. A masterpiece of sorts. One that has a prospect’s subconscious brain saying, “oooh this person is a pro, I trust them.”

And it starts with the details in each of these components.

Components like design.

Like branding with logos, fonts and colors.

Like the needed information at a user’s fingertips.

And most importantly consistent flow and formatting from desktops to phones.

When these details are not refined, the website doesn’t flow and the user experience isn’t smooth like it is on the myriad of pro websites they’re used to visiting.

As a photographer, merely by being the owner of a website, you’re in fact competing with big brands from all sorts of industries. Not just your own.

Because consumers are used to shopping online.

They’re used to clicking on ads from their social media feeds that take them to websites that look top notch, that flow, that don’t break and don’t have formatting issues on their phones.

In the rare case where they stumble upon a website where text is not where it’s supposed to be or it’s blocked by an element and therefore can’t be read, or the site is too cluttered with no white space or there’s too much white space, or there’s a lack of color contrast and typefaces that have no contrast or are hard to read, or elements that are supposed to be symmetrical but are not, their subconscious will alert them as to something not quite being right.

When that happens, you lose trust.

So you’d better make it up with an irresistible offer with tons of case studies and testimonials or a huge social media presence where trust is established.

If you have none of those, you’ll likely lose your prospect because trust comes before know and like.

In order to buy from you, I need to trust you before I invest time to get to know you and to decide whether or not I like you.

So the details are important.

They’re VERY important especially if you’re trying to become a full time photographer and you need your website to convert.

If you built your own site, would you like an audit? I’m happy to do one IF I can share screen grabs here so other photographers benefit from the audit too.

Just comment below with your URL and with the URL of the template you used (if you used one)!