Why am I not getting ANY clients - look at my website?

[holly_swanson]

<p>I have been working on starting my photography business, and so far I have only had one "real" client - a friend of a family member who I didn't even charge, and who for some reason never replied to me after I asked for the address to send the flash drive of free images to. No idea why, but it's been almost 2 months and never heard back. I have shot a few wedding with a large studio near me as a second shooter, but do not want to specialize in weddings.</p>

<p>This is the web site I launched - documentingyou dot com (still somewhat under construction, some little things need to be changed/added).<br /> Oh and also my flickr is to see more pics if you're interested.</p>

<p>Please, can anyone take a look and tell me what might be wrong with it that I am not getting clients? I haven't got ONE client - I even advertised on craigslist to shoot for FREE and got no one! So please tell me, look at my portfolio and be honest with me - are my photos bad quality? Is it just a style that no one is interested in? Something else? As you can see, my prices are not even profit-making level at this point, and yet whenever I respond to anyone with a price inquiry an answer that's any more than about $150, I get a subtle look of shock and disgust, like that is an outrageous amount. Um, excuse me? :/ A friend asked about me photographing her daughter's baby shower, I replied I could do it for $200 and yeah...her reaction wasn't pretty. I highly doubt I'll hear from her.</p>

<p>Please help. I live in the suburbs of Chicago if that helps at all - it's not like I'm in an especially cheap area, so I have no idea why I'm having so much trouble. Most things I read about photography businesses talk about having to turn clients away and charging as much as they darn well please.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>What kind of web traffic are you getting? If you don't know where people are coming from when they visit your site, which pages they're landing on, what kinds of searches they were doing when they found the site, etc., it's premature to ask why they are or aren't considering you for hire.<br /><br />Are you using Google Analytics or any other sort of traffic analysis tool to see what's going on? Is anyone even seeing the site?</p>

[randall_pukalo]

A side effect of the rise of digital is that great photography is so much easier. Cameras are cheap, everywhere, and

capable of fantastic results. Good photographers are now a dime a dozen, so to speak. Everyone has a friend or family

member who takes great shots. Digital has made photography so easy, that sadly it has also killed the market for selling

photos. That is part of what you are encountering.

[holly_swanson]

<blockquote>

 

 

<p>A side effect of the rise of digital is that great photography is so much easier. Cameras are cheap, everywhere, and capable of fantastic results. Good photographers are now a dime a dozen, so to speak. Everyone has a friend or family member who takes great shots. Digital has made photography so easy, that sadly it has also killed the market for selling photos. That is part of what you are encountering.</p>

 

 

 

</blockquote>

 

 

<p>Yes...and yet still, many, many others are getting plenty of clients.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Are you using Google Analytics or any other sort of traffic analysis tool to see what's going on? Is anyone even seeing the site?</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Hadn't heard of that before - setting it up now.</p>

<blockquote>

 

</blockquote>

 

 

<p><a name="pagebottom"></a></p>

[JDMvW]

<blockquote>

<p>yet still, many, many others are getting plenty of clients.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>but are they, really? How do you know this?<br>

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2011/05/26/sobering-truths-about-making-a-career-out-of-photography/ </p>

<p>The transition from amateur to professional is difficult in many occupations, but in things like travel writing, photography, and sports, "Many are called, but few are chosen".</p>

[bill_burke1]

<p>Hi Holly, your website is done well. Its simple and classy. Just a few thoughts - on the home page, I would put a few more images on the slide show. They should be the best of the best of the best to grab visitors and make them want to start looking further. The images are beautiful - they show your distinct style. That said, to ask the question about why no clients and relating it to the website is a little "off". Very few clients are going to find you just by doing a web search. Do you know how well your SEO is getting you to show up on the first page of google? If someone has to type in your exact business name, city and "portrait photography" to see you on google, you need to tweek your SEO. Also, your website is only 10% of your overall marketing strategy. You should be networking with other vendors (hair salons, bridal shops, limo companies, floral shops, etc etc.) Offer them big beautiful images of their work with your logo to post in their stores. Use facebook and the targeted ads they offer. Hook up with existing studios and offer to back them up for dates where they double book themselves (you'd be photographing as part of their studio, but this will help you build up your portfolio if you get them to allow you to use certain images.) Also - work on getting a diverse portfolio (different ethnicities, religions, same sex marriages, etc) - this makes you more marketable and opens up a wider cliental. I know you probably don't want to do weddings, but consider this - newlyweds will need to update their portraits and will probably end up having babies. As these families grow up, you'll be there to do their portraits - as long as you have a good method of staying in touch and on their radar. As a previous poster mentioned - there are WAY too many newbies and hobbyists out there with a D90 and a Go Daddy website offering portraits and weddings for free, just to see if they can do it. That's your competition, not the veteran photographers who have a solid client base.</p>

[holly_swanson]

<p>Thanks for the tips Bill!</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Are you doing any prospecting? Do you have photo postcards and business cards tacked to every permissible surface in your neighborhood? Door to door flyers with "This week's specials"? That's the oldest and most effective form of social media - in meatspace, in your own neighborhood.</p>

<p>For example, one of my neighbors makes incredibly crafted pinatas. They're not cheap, but they're not cheaply made either. They're papier mache sculptures that happen to be pinatas. She makes them based on feedback from kids in her family, who were disappointed by cheap pinatas that broke open on the first whack. I've taken photos to help her promote her business locally. Unfortunately I don't think she's doing so effectively at the most sensible level - our neighborhood. I haven't seen any flyers with the photos I took for her, stapled to bulletin boards at local stores, taped to windows, etc., with her contact info prominent - including those pre-cut tear-off tabs. She's an incredible artist, more sculptor than mere crafts maker. But she's not doing the marketing. And I don't speak Spanish well enough to help her write up an effective flyer.</p>

<p>And don't overlook the oldest method for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising: Bring the coupon, flyer, business card, etc., to the session to get the discount. For more than 100 years that's the basic business model of community/neighborhood marketing and advertising, and many stores still rely on physical coupons to evaluate where their ads are most effective.</p>

<p>How's your social media presence for your community/neighborhood? For example, some of my real-life friends and Facebook friends have relatives and friends who are professional photographers. They do a lot of community/neighborhood focus marketing via social media. Some of them aren't even particularly good photographers, but they're successful because they focus on their communities.</p>

<p>Are the URLs for your website and Flickr page prominently visible in the banner area on Facebook, G+, etc.?</p>

 

[MichaelChang]

<p>I fully concur with Lex's proactive neighborhood approach, but even that can be a challenge when residents might receive a 2" stack of flyers and specials a week, although there is really no shortcut for proactive marketing, advertising and sales that simply takes time to achieve brand recognition and service identity.</p>

<p>It can be done, and over the past few years I've seen quite a number of photographers achieve success through various traditional and modern methods available to them, and more importantly, they know how to successfully sell themselves although I suspect they are in the tiny minority as a percentage of the numbers of photographers attempting it. </p>

[mike dixon]

"If you build it, they will come" does not apply to business websites. Several years ago, a couple of friends started an aerial and architectural photography company. Both of them already had extensive experience shooting professionally. Most of their first year was spent sending promotional materials, calling potential clients repeatedly, and participating in local organization that would get them familiar with potential clients. The second year, they still spent more time on marketing than on actual photography.

 

Putting up a website is kind of like having business cards printed. In itself, it does very, very little. You have to spend a lot of effort promoting yourself in order to get clients.

[danmarchant]

<p>I am going to echo what Mike said. Simply putting up a website isn't nearly enough. People won't visit your site unless they know it is there. You have to do actual marketing to let people know. Advertising in local papers, leaflet drops, attending local events, working with local companies to offer promotions, contacting the papers to see if they will do a story on your business (you need to have an interesting angle for this). etc etc.</p>

[michael_darnton2]

<p>My business has a web site that's relatively well-visited, but I would guess that 80% of our business comes from word-of-mouth. Advertising is OK, but as Bill Burke and Lex Jenkins have already pointed out just having a good web site is a small part of what should be a larger and broader advertising program.</p>

<p>I think the customers who see ours are using it mainly to convince themselves that we are real after they have heard of us in other ways. The traditional concept behind advertising is that a customer needs to be touched seven times before your name even sticks, so we have various other things going for our name--occasional magazine ads, free pencils (17 cents each--a bargain, and people love them). The only thing we have done with zero or negative value has been Yellow Pages.</p>

<p>And as Mike Dixon says, just building it does not make them come. I believe the figures for the average time it takes a business to become profitable is something like three to five years, with most of them failing along the way. So you really do need to be both durable and proactive.</p>

[goldbergbarry]

<p>I strongly recommend taking a business or marketing course. While your intentions are good, it would help you vastly to learn about marketing. You need to determine who are your customers and how you are going to reach them. As a pro, you should expect to spend a lot of ongoing time on marketing your business. Wish you the best.</p>

[DickArnold]

<p>I successfully started a photo business from scratch several years ago. I joined the Chamber of Commerce and attended all their functions making friends. I also made friends with Chamber employees and they recommended me and gave out my brochures because they seemed to like me in person. I talked to as many local business owners as I could not necessarily about photography but to have them remember me and what I did. I got a large real estate firm because I served with owner on a town committee. I picked up a local Inn the same way. I joined the Rotary. . I joined with a local Justice of the Peace and got her referrals. She does a lot of weddings. These were low priced weddings but they helped build the referral base over time. I volunteered in local government. I got weddings from those referrals. For me it was about building a referral base and having as much human contact in the town where I had my business as I could. It takes a good while to get accepted. I would like to think building a wedding business was about photographic talent and there is certainly a required minimum skill level but but I believe it is really about human contact with potential customers, their friends and people who refer you. The web is a valid marketing tool but human contact through prospecting is better. I believe it is mostly about marketing by getting known. I also developed a gallery of my wedding photos hung in my small studio where I did my customer meetings. I closed almost every customer who came through that door. I developed relationships with local business owners through my volunteer committee work with the town. I ultimately cashed out the business because I am old and it took a lot of work to keep it going. Above all, it took time to grow.</p>

<p>One thing that really helped me was quick delivery of the product. My business was all film then and I delivered proofs guaranteed within two weeks. I used local film processors. I did not have time to do that myself. Today I would use Lightroom. I delivered in person when I could because it gave me a chance to sell prints and strengthen my referral base. A final thought. I believe that developing relationships with brides, mothers, and family before the weddings makes for more emotionally appealing pictures if they like you and you have established comfort in communicating with one another. They then become another source of referrals. In one wedding out of doors the bride yelled at me, "hey Dick get your butt over her and take my picture". We had established rapport. Having done it I do not think this is easy and there is no formula. I developed most of my business outside the web in a town where people came to get married so there was business to be had. Things have changed since I had my business but like politicians there is nothing like face to face human contact. Good luck.</p>

[yanavas]

<p>I've noticed that you are not offering any prints, only hi-res images on the flash drive. I would think that people looking for the service of the professional photographer expect to get some high quality prints.<br>

just my 2c.</p>

[randall_pukalo]

<p>Yes, in the end, you may make a living (or at least, some $) from photography. I wish you the best. My point was that it is very difficult to do so in the digital age, as skill sets that were once rare are now much more common. So you should expect what you have encountered to date, it will be difficult to get established, and you may need to do many freebies, and perhaps weddings to make a local name for yourself, where people will be willing to pay more than just your basic expenses and a few extra bucks gratuity. Until you have developed a great reputation, you are just one of many people nowadays with a fancy camera and lens (many of whom will do the shoots for free).</p>

[vrankin]

<p>Holly: It seems that social media are more important than ever, for getting people to your Website. If you're on Facebook, Twitter, etc., you can invite people to your site from these communities. My son-in-law was a Web developer for a few years before becoming a teacher. He draws thousands of hits to his professional Website through those other channels.</p>

[Ian Taylor]

<p>You need to have your meta-tags set up so Google can find your site. Right now it's possible you are invisible.<br /> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/holly.swanson.71"><br /></a></p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Meta tags aren't used anymore, at least not the keywords. Title tags matter a lot, and keywords in the content itself are important, but meta tags are done. Too much abuse so Google stopped using them. The only tag that makes your site invisible is noindex.</p>

[holly_swanson]

<p>You guys are incredibly helpful as always. I'm thinking of raising my prices to a sort of "non-desperation" level. This is what I've heard from everyone should be done - price appropriately, not undercutting... I've put together a quick better price list, in addition to offering prints as suggested, based on the pricing of prints I could get from Queensberry. It's on my investment page if anyone wants to check it out and give thoughts. It may be totally ridiculous, as I have been having so much trouble getting anyone to pay anything at all hah.... but, it doesn't seem ridiculous compared to what I've seen marketed elsewhere.<br /> Also, I recently received business cards and will see this weekend about distributing them. I'm also hoping to learn how to actually work together with other vendors - that's all new to me too. But I love doing all this :) I'm thinking contacting people to see if they will swap referrals? <br /> <br /> Thanks</p>

[Ian Taylor]

<p>Good info Jeff, as I have just redone my site!<br>

But I am usually only concerned about the title and description anyway. Those seemed to index quickly and people are finding me in my several markets. </p>

[rick_m.]

<p>Holly. You have gotten tons of good advice already. Clearly the secret to success is a good referral network. You can't put up a website and expect the world to come running to your door. I would encourage you to think of your website as a portable portfolio. The fact is that unless you can get onto page one and maybe the top of page two of a google search your site is invisible to anyone not searching for you by name. Referrals are the key. Read what Dick Arnold said three times. Then print it and read it every morning.</p>

<p>When you get up in the morning you should have a schedule of PREPARED prospecting activities to fill any of the day not actually spent with a client or potential client. It is that simple really. Prospect or die.</p>

<p>Help me understand your pricing. You said that you are not at a profit making price point yet. I disagree strongly with this. I read your "investment" page. You charge $200.00 for the sitting. Then if I want one 8 X 10 that is an additional $75.00? If I want "limited license" to that same image it is $50.00? And for digital files you offer 20 shots per session and charge $2000.00 if I want to keep them? Frankly Holly, that is absolutely top dollar for an established professional with a sterling reputation. According to your price list, if I want you to shoot my wife's baby shower it will cost me $2200.00 for 20 shots and I have to pay for the prints. You have got to be kidding me. God only knows what you would charge for a wedding.</p>

<p>So:</p>

<p>If someone is going to your site they are seeing very nice pictures but not a great deal of depth of experience. They are looking at a price point that puts you in the league with the very best society photographers. On a google search of Chicago Portrait Photographers, your rates are higher than any of the three who post prices and are on page one.</p>

<p>I don't mean to be unkind but you have to do the grunt work first. If you do, and if you develop a reputation for outstanding work, great delivery and obvious talent, you will be able to command the kind of prices you want starting out. It is sad that the price for photography has come down pretty dramatically for all but the top echelon of photographers. Sad but true.</p>

<p>Let me offer a suggestion. Take the prices off of your website altogether. IF anyone is finding your site, or you send them there, they are likely to be 'at-best' confused by them. Then start to talk to people. Everyone. You are a small business owner. Your time has no value to your company unless you are actively engaged in acquiring business. If you are not scheduled to shoot tomorrow and you have the opportunity to shoot my wife's baby shower for two hours and 4 hours post would you do it for $495.00? If you had an employee, would you send the employee to do it for $495.00 and give me a disk of 30-40 prepared images? Or would you stay home and worry about not having any clients? Think of yourself as an employee of your company. If you hired someone and they were not actively working they would be worth exactly nothing. That is not because they are employees. It is because they are not generating revenue. Trust me. Once you get so busy that you are turning down work, you will have no trouble raising your prices.</p>

<p>One more thing. Put your phone number on your website. If someone should stumble on it and want to get information on the spot they are unable to reach you other than floating their personal information out there for you to follow-up at YOUR convenience not theirs. Which should it be? Yea I get it. Telemarketers can get your number. So what? Hang up on them. You need to be available to your clients and prospective clients at a moments notice. That is how you get the job. Without your number all I have to do is click on the next photographer down on Google, pick up the phone and call them. My clients and prospective clients have my cell phone number.</p>

<p>I don't mean to be harsh but it will do you little good to get softballs thrown at you at this time in your career. You are a good photographer. Your portfolio shows you can provide a workman like product. That is good. Now go out there and talk to everyone, shoot anything you can get your hands on, belong to every organization that will have you and have fun. Then someday when you and Annie Leibovitz are having coffee you can discuss how hard it was starting out;)</p>

<p> </p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Part of the problem that makes marketing difficult is Holly's target clientele - newborns, family, seniors and personal portraits. While the list may appear specific, in reality the client base fitting such descriptions actually includes the entire population.</p>

<p>There are lots of other business with similar generalities and they usually differentiate the market segment by income - a high end restaurant will target a different client base from a fast food restaurant, and both will approach their respective markets with very different strategies.</p>

<p>So, the first step is to determine the market you intend to serve, and I must say casually adjusting your prices for all the wrong reasons will only serve to the detriment of your business unless you have a well developed marketing, advertising and sales strategy companion to your prices and skill set.</p>

<p>Once you've determined the market you intend to serve, go on Google Maps and draw a circle corresponding to the radius you intend to cover geographically, then highlight the residential and commercial areas whose income demographics fit your target market. This will give you a good idea on your potential market, in tangible numbers, which you can look up on various Internet census resources.</p>

<p>Then find out how many photographers are serving the same area and clients. This will determine your competitiveness in the marketplace.</p>

<p>If you've gotten this far, then develop a plan on how you will market and advertise your business by figuring out the direct channels and conduits to your prospects, then act accordingly.</p>

<p>None of the above is anything new. In fact it's the fundamentals of a business plan and marketing plan that few small business owners have the discipline to think through carefully. The exercise doesn't take long and doing it right will pay off big time, but if you're unfamiliar with it, do a Google search for business plan template or software, and do the same for a marketing plan.</p>

<p>Spend a month or two on it, be brutally honest with yourself, and you'll be amazed by the outcome - you might very well discover that the business will never be viable, or there's more than enough low hanging fruit ripe for the picking.</p>

[Ian Taylor]

<p>I do that stuff full time in a few markets. My early strategy was simple, shoot like a madman and don't worry so much about money for the first couple of years. This did two things, improved my skills and got a huge amount of work out there. Eventually word of mouth took over. Now I can shoot in a few different cities and make a decent living. <br>

Now I use social media to find new clients as well, but you have to have a large following to make that work. I see Facebook pages with 150 followers, that isn't going to do anything IMO.<br>

Bottom line is you have to love it and work like crazy for the first few years. If you are good, the money will follow.</p>

[holly_swanson]

Rick - I had said that last night I just

changed the prices and made a rough

mock up of what I would consider

profitable pricing, as that is what I've

heard should be done.

My prices before were not profit-

making. At this point I feel it doesn't

quite matter if I experiment a little, as I

don't have any customers. And

speaking of Facebook followers, I only

have 56. Hah. I've been present on

Facebook for about 10 months. I don't

know why I am having such a hard

time of this, I suppose maybe it's

because I don't have a large network to

begin with? I mean I don't have a ton of

friends and I have an extremely small

family. I am not a particularly outgoing

person either. (I know, that's bad.)

 

Also Rick, I want to only be open to

shooting newborns, seniors, maternity,

and children. So weddings as far as

pricing goes are not even being

considered. What frustrates me is that

people around me don't seem to

realize that I need to make a living

here. I can't afford to just give anything

away, or shoot for free or $150 for an

entire flash full of 100 edited files :/ And

yet it seems that's what everyone

around me expects. So I'm going to try

to appeal to higher end clients.