Why every professional photographer needs a website

business

What having a website does, is allow people to be able to come to your storefront, look at your window, and see if they're interested in working with you. You need potential clients to be very interested in what they see in the window. You want them to come in and browse a little bit more, with the main goal of booking with you.

Along with setting you apart from all of the other photographers who are not professional businesses, there are many other benefits to having a portfolio website!

Attract potential clients

First of all, you want to be everywhere your client might look for you. This is marketing at the top of the funnel, where the sales funnel gets smaller until you eventually book a client. The top of the funnel, or where most people are going to interact with you, is on a less personal level, but it's a place where everyone can access you easily.

If somebody recommended you to them, the first thing they're going to do is to search for your name online or on a social media platform. Your goal should be to come up during their search and to have something there for them to see.

That's one reason you need to have a website – to be everywhere your clients are looking.

Show off your best work and skills

You also want to think of your website as an art gallery – highly curated and only showing off your best work. It's easy at the beginning to get distracted and get carried away, thinking you don't have enough content, but your website doesn't need to have every photo you've ever shot.

However, if your website photos aren’t showing off your creativity and your range, then they're not really providing a variety of examples. It’s simply going to look like you threw a bunch of photos together and put it on a website.

Less is more when it comes to curating your website photos!

Potential clients want to see whether you’ve shot with brands they recognize, or that you’ve worked with people they recognize. A curated selection of your work is a great place to create those connections without even having to have a conversation first.

Call to action

Don’t expect to close sales on your website or on social media! Nobody's going to hand you $2000 and hire you just because they like your website – people are going to want to connect with you!

Your website is not only a place for clients to go if they want to browse your work, but also somewhere they can learn more about you. Potential clients want to read about and resonate with your story, because they want to see if they can trust you.

This is why you need a strong call to action on your website. You want to include really critical information, about who you are, what you do, who you work with, how to contact you, and give them a call to action.

Make sure your email is at the footer of your website, so it’s on every page. Create a “contact me” page with a form that potential clients can fill out if they want to work with you. On your “services” page, make sure you direct people to your “contact me” page.

You basically want to tell potential clients what to do next if they want to work with you, and make it as repetitive and easy to do as possible.

Websites have one goal

Yes, your website shows off your best work and skills. It helps build trust, and your call to action provides people an easy and quick way to get in touch with you. But never forget that the main purpose of your website is to attract potential clients and make sales.

Take websites seriously, and you’ll be taken seriously

Yes, you absolutely need to have a website. There’s no excuse not to have one if you want to take your photography business seriously, it just has too many benefits you can’t afford to ignore!