Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to the Wedding CEO podcast, where we discuss all things marketing, sales and scaling so you can become the CEO of your life and business. I'm Elora Wachell and I've been a wedding photographer for over a decade and now I'm sharing all of my secrets so you can stop sacrificing your time and make more money like a CEO. Hello, ceos, and welcome back to another episode. Today we're going to be diving into maybe a huge mistake you're making on your website. Now I can talk about websites all day. It might be a toxic trait that I have, but, honestly, this was going to be my profession, so it kind of makes a little sense that I'm obsessed with it. Now, the thing about websites is a lot of people don't think you really need them nowadays, like, oh yeah, you just need to use your link in bio or your Instagram has three links now and they can just link to those three, or maybe it's three to five. I actually have not tested that, so verify that for me. Point being is, I don't think that websites are getting the recognition that they still need to have. I feel like it's a non-negotiable at least when you charge a higher ticket, I think it's a non-negotiable. Clients need to be able to research what you're about, see your vibe, understand your brand, get a glimpse of your messaging. You can't really get all of that from Instagram. Instagram is kind of like the sprinkle. The website is the cake.

Speaker 1: 1:38

So a lot of times photographers, even business owners if you are listening the main pages that people have are home about galleries and contact, and then, if you're not a photographer, maybe home about services and contact. Right, maybe you were just playing with a free template and you're like I'm just going to just add a photo or two out of sentence or three, and there you go, it's live. I have a website. But what if you really decided to take the experience up a notch by adding the irresistible experience page? After years and years of redesigning and making changes to my own site before I either decided to get a template or hired my designer, I would actually skip this page because for some reason, all of us had the about page right. It was an unnegotiable. That's like the page everybody has If you don't have anything, you have that page.

Speaker 1: 2:34

And then you think that your portfolio page is really going to carry you. You think your pictures are so good that that portfolio page is going to carry you through and guess what? It doesn't, because, honestly, now that the industry and just time has shifted, like having social media, having Instagram, do people book off of Facebook anymore? I'm literally 10 seconds away from deleting Facebook. It might hurt my parents' feelings. I just don't know if I can do it. Please do not tag me in any embarrassing things. And Facebook stopped reminding me what I posted when I was 19 about getting my first job. Anyway, I'm chasing a rabbit.

Speaker 1: 3:12

So point being is that, however you attract your clients, however, you constantly are bringing awareness to your business, to your brand. Your portfolio is kind of the first thing they see. So, before they even decided to go on their website, they probably already have a little bit of a connotation of what your style is. And the website visiting is them being like okay, what is this person about? Do I really need to pay attention? Are they drawing me in?

Speaker 1: 3:41

And so your website is the cake. It's the first slice, it's the bite. When you bite a piece of cake that's delicious, I'll say strawberry cake, strawberry cake is delicious. Take a bite of the strawberry cake and you're just like oh, that was so good. Yep, give me more, I want another slice. I feel like that's just how your website should be. They should be doing that with pages. Your pages are your slices, guys. I'm going to make a framework about this. Let's talk about website cake. But seriously, if you think about it, you need to have every single page be drawing them to the next one, to the next one, and eventually you want them to reach out and inquire and then hopefully book, right?

Speaker 1: 4:21

So having the portfolio, I'm not saying it's irrelevant, I'm not saying that, but I am wondering, and I'm just thinking out loud now that I'm thinking about this and I'm an external processor, so the more I talk about it, the more it makes sense to me. I can't just live in my head. So now that I'm saying it out loud, I feel like portfolio, it's not irrelevant, but I don't think it's a non-negotiable anymore. I think your Instagram page is your portfolio and I think it was 89%. When I looked at my Honeybook metrics for my weddings, you know, this year and last year it was all Instagram. Like my leads were all from Instagram. They would browse, they would get a glimpse of my style and then eventually they would, you know, copy my website, start doing their homework on me, right? So I am wondering if having a portfolio is just the sprinkles on top of the frosting.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Okay, and that being said, because I talked about this topic for so long, the experience page, I think, is the non-negotiable. Maybe that's like the center piece of the cake. You know the filling, like maybe there's strawberries inside or maybe there's chocolate inside, but either way, it's kind of like that pleasant surprise. So when clients go on the website and they're like, the first thing they want to know is the website homepage is pretty much a sprinkle of everything they're going to get in the rest of the pages. They want to know what you're about, what's your vibe, what's your moment, who are you? Who are you? And then, after that, they do their homework and try to figure out why you do this, or your story, or if they have anything in common with you, which that is the about page. But the experience page is something different, because this is where you're going to set yourself apart from the rest of the industry.

Speaker 1: 6:07

So when I started charging higher ticket for weddings, I think my experience page was like pricing I think I used to call it pricing. When someone's browsing on my website, I didn't want them to immediately be like oh, how much do they charge? Like I really wanted them to be drawn to me and what I had to offer and feel compelled to like, skim around and play at my website. So I took the word pricing off. I just don't like the way that it perceives my brand. I just don't like it. So I replaced that with experience and I feel like it definitely helped me for the better. And when I started charging higher ticket for weddings, I feel like they appreciated that more because it was more than just here's your website. Who is this and how much do they charge? And then, oh, do I want to inquire, yes or no? Like the experience page was me selling them to the experience and telling them why I was the best fit.

Speaker 1: 6:55

So if you're listening to this and the main pages you have is home, about portfolio or galleries or contact, maybe figure out a way to weave in an experience page and play around with it. And clients are looking for a unique experience. They want to be wooed, they want to know you're going to take care of them, they want to know what sets you apart and they want to know why they should choose you and no one else. Because I remember even when I was looking around for photographers for my wedding, like almost a decade ago, but regardless, I remember having like 10 photographer pages open in tabs and I was shopping essentially, and I was looking, I was looking to see if we connected, I was looking to see if I wanted what they were essentially selling and then did I like their work.

Speaker 1: 7:50

But now I think things have changed because there was no push on Instagram so much. I think Instagram was like just building a business portfolio, like they just created business accounts when I was getting married, so like back then we were kind of all just that was a personal account. I feel like so old talking about this because I'm like, wait a minute, there weren't business accounts back and then so all that to say, because I am just talking about nothing at this point is the website mistake. This website mistake could be costing you clients, you not creating a unique experience that draws your clients in, that really has them wanting to reach out and be like I really hope you're available because I want what your clients have, or you treat your clients so well and I can't wait to be the next.

Speaker 1: 8:40

I think that's amazing and I hope that this was helpful and that you think about this episode and also like go do a little bit of cleanup because, guys, it's fall, fall is here. It's time to get your stuff positioned correctly. It's time to get to work, because it's almost holiday season, when everybody is getting engaged or last minute weddings, elopements, you name it. It's all about to happen. What is it? September 28th today, and this will probably go live in October, which means now more than ever, you need to start cleaning up.

Speaker 1: 9:14

If you're not overwhelmed with weddings, you need to start cleaning up and just making sure that everything looks good and it's ready and it's presentable for the new clients that are going to be coming your way for 2024. Okay, so I am so excited because the waitlist is going to be open soon for the wedding CEO. So if you're listening to this and you're like, okay, laura, that's just one website page out of many, we have a website workshop inside of our program, the wedding CEO, where we walk you through, page by page, exactly what it needs to have, how it needs to look, and at the time being, this won't be for long. At the time being, I am personally reviewing the structure of your website. If you submit it inside of the program, I will take a look and I'll send you a video back and you can keep it moving and make sure your website is optimized for your brand new clients. Okay, I will see you in the next episode. Bye.