Lessons

Lesson Info

The Viewer Experience

I did have the opportunity to speak to the r re starters a couple days ago, and I did explain that it's going to be a dense day so yesterday I mean excuse me last month, it was the three experiences that we covered, the client communication, the client and the shooting experience, and that was stuff that we can go home and tangibly do and feel like we're making so much progress this month it's going to be so much more tactile hands on, I have so much to do work, so we're going to see a lot of people find reasons why they can't do it. You don't have the ability to have those reasons because I'm going to be on top of you guys and anybody at home, if they're beginning to feel frustrated, should be able to turn to you guys and you should be able to say I know where you are, but I'm doing it and you could too. So the first. So we spoke with three experiences last month. Today we're gonna be focusing on two experiences were going to be focusing on the viewer experience, which have alternatel...

y labeled the your online store front, and then the second experience we're talking about is the pitfalls of pricing the reason I decided to focus on these two experiences today is because this is where a lot of photographers get stuck specifically in how to create a website that's reflective of them, and that really feels like them, and then all of a sudden, they're pricing so way spoke about getting new clients last month, and we spoke about it spoke about establishing your business early on, when once these things get going, you're gonna want to raise your prices, and this is where most photographers get caught in the weeds I'm getting ahead of myself. So what we're going to do now is we're gonna get started specific day on this and where you're going to focus on the understand the importance of your website and your block. This creates what I call a visual experience what people are experiencing online with you. Now this experience is different. The online experience is different than the first three experiences that we spoke about because those three experiences deal directly with you. They're emailing with you, they're talking with you where they're shooting with you. I say these two experiences in regards to the online because they do this in the comfort of their home and their office on their tablet on their phone. So it's a division of you but it's, not you personally, so this is really important to have something that's reflective of you. Now today we're going to talk about why the viewer experience is important and then we're gonna talk about how to create a powerful online storefront, so to kind of dynamic things and then we're going to push each other to think differently about what we do and why we do it. So we're first asked, why is your online storefront important? My online store front is important for me in these following ways, but I want you to think about what you want your online storefront to accomplish. So I think I referred to my website and my blog's as my online store front because it's, what people see in front of them and it's how they couldn't cope by my services, right the same way that we buy our clothes away, that we buy things from amazon that's what I want you guys to start thinking about this is how people are, quote unquote buying u if they're not seeing you directly in person. Now we know that a good a good brand is a series of experiences now if you had to guess what clients were having with your online experience, what would you think? No, I don't want you to vocalize this I'm not gonna put you on blast, but it's important for you to ask yourself understand to put yourself in the shoes of the people that are viewing your website candidly, like you randomly came across your web site what do you think about it? I think it's going to be really open conversation now every every aspect because I know I have an online store front every aspect of my website and my blog's are made with intention and today I'm going to help you figure out your intentions so that when you make your website you can answer and say to people this is why I made these decisions and this is why I am putting this section and my website because this is what I ultimately want to attract when I was intentional my website I I wanted the following results so three main things for you if you have the ability at home to watch or you guys here when we come back from the break if you guys want to have pens or pencils just to doodle we can get you something like that to number one thing that I wanted with my website was I wanted to attract a specific client nicky spoke about this earlier I showcased I showcase now more of what I want to shoot versus pretty pictures so things that I wanted to shoot I wanted to shoot outdoor weddings I wanted to shoot non traditional weddings and I wanted bright wanted to attract brides who had attentions to detail so if my photos did not rep a showcase this then they were pulled just like what nicky did so bravo great job like that we're going now the second component to this I was unafraid to showcase more of who I was now there's some of you at this table who are far more comfortable showcasing who you are and their people at this table who are less comfortable showcasing who you are we're going to get into the specifics in the second in mom in a past course I spoke about the theory of attracting and repelling this idea that you want to attract people who are like you and you want to repel people who are not like you and a lot of times photographers want to showcase pretty photos on the web sites because they're pretty photos and they're kind of afraid I don't want to offend somebody what if? What if they don't like this that's it better because what happens is the more that you put out, what what you like and who you are people are attracted to what you like and who you are so there's less time faking the funk and dealing with miscommunications at a later point in time they thought like me they felt like me you want your clients to think like you and feel like you cousin they implicitly understands you. Secondly, what I wanted it to do on the web for me was I wanted my website to solicit validity that was a big thing when somebody went postal website, I want her to say this isn't a girl with a hobby, this is a girl who has a profession that's going to be a big thing, so a strong brand, wherever you are. If you're on the high end or low end it's too, create an experience that that bride wants to share. It doesn't matter if you're charging a thousand dollars for ten thousand dollars for your wedding. If you have a website that she's excited to see, she wants to sit, share it with her mom with her mom with her mother in law with her friends. And guess what she's doing she's marketing and advertising for you that's how I get more and more clients, which is easy for you. And how much is this costing so far? Nothing, it's, just a lot of elbow grease. Third, I wanted you that I wanted my website to do was I help? I wanted my website to help build grant because the brand is a siri's of experiences, so we're creating experience. How are people feeling about what they see? What opinions are people having about your storefront? What kind of opinions do you have when you go to store friends that you like, so if any of you shop online there are some times where you go to shopping cart you're like oh, this is so nice easy what okay amazon one click the end of me seriously there's a moratorium on me it's buying books on amazon but it's so easy it's like one click it's that experience which is why I go there beyond any other book retailer on the web now I'm not saying that your services should be one click although if you got it like that good for you but that kind of experience that joy going there getting excited I have not bought something because the website was confusing or I didn't like and I just went well done you're not the only one absolutely you're totally I couldn't agree more with this now the last thing you want for somebody to go to your website is to not have an opinion so they go to your website they think nice website cool and then they move on because you're in competition with so many people I would rather have somebody come to our website and be like I don't like this girl I think that we would not get along anything he would be a bad fit great we were never supposed to work together to begin with how can your website gives somebody a distinct feeling they like you or they don't that's the goal for your website starting out next month all of this is going to lead me to your first homework assignment, so the first step is going to entail making a checklist in answering the following questions. The first question is who is your ideal client now when you're creating this ideal client, I want you to create a client profile this is really specific let your mind go wild talk about where your bride shops talk about where's what she splurges on if you're a portrait photographer and you shoot children described the mom who's buying your services if this mom is a p t a mom if she's the mom that because at five o'clock in the morning to make her kids a warm breath office and then do their hair with little red bows and she's the president of pita write that down, write down all that whole story so then you know this is my client now I know how to go after these fortune five hundred companies do a ton of rnd research and development on why you shop where you shop and why you shop where you shop and yet what do we do? We're just like I hope somebody books me wait no dreamer up, dreamer up and then figure out a marketing plan to go after her that's what we're getting into episode too, but first you need to figure out who your ideal client is secondly are you showcasing what you want to shoot? Nicky took out babies and families correct she doesn't want to shoot that anymore good for you I had to come to that decision early on in my career I started shooting families in babies because I can get two hundred or two hundred fifty dollars to show up and shoot a family for an hour and then turn over a disc and it was ok money but the referral started coming in and then I started realizing I don't want to shoot babies and families that's not what I'm called to dio so I cut it cold turkey and instead I went and worked for free at weddings forthe shooting. Why change your career to something that you're not adjoining? If you're gonna change your career, make sure I think you wanted precisely how I was feeling precisely and that's not everybody's cup of tea but to me I knew I only wanted to do weddings so I'm not going to take the funk and do anything I don't want to do so first thing who is your ideal client? Second thing are you showcasing what you want to shoot third are you showcasing who you are? This is going to be a big thing with your new website I want teo I want to feel you and I want you to again I'm going to say, whose I want you to lose off those pages I want to click on every single page and see your thumbprint it's gonna be a lot of hard work, but I know that you guys can do because I feel like you guys are ready for it. Fourthly is your online is your online presence a conversation piece? Is it a website regardless if you're high end or low end? Is it a website that your that your prospective clients want to send to their brides maids that want to chat about you and wedding forums they want that they're at work and then they send it to their mom. Can you say yes about your website like that right now? If you can speaking about indians, you know, so the homework then becomes if your answer is no, then you have thirty days to implement these changes. Now there are going to be some people who can say, oh, I can't afford to get a new website. I can't a lot of reasons outside of money you could still do the outline of your ideal client that doesn't cost any money. You could still showcase what you want to shoot that does not cost any money you could still showcase who you are by judging a few parts of your website will get into the specifics of how and maybe that last one is you're really is your online presence. A conversation piece, maybe that's going to be the ones require more work. But three out of four are possible without any money, just a little bit of time.