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Learning how to generate leads is one of the most difficult parts of running any sort of business, but I personally believe that it’s incredibly difficult for business owners in a creative industry.
I know that I had a really difficult time trying to get more leads when I first started my business and, if I’m being honest with you, I still have problems trying to get more leads when I start a new stream of revenue.
I guess that’s why there are whole companies dedicated to lead generation. But, what if you don’t have the money to pay someone else to get more leads for you? What if you have to get more leads all on your own?
Thankfully, there are plenty of resources available online. I’m going to skip right past a lot of the marketing tips for photographers that I see frequently. Instead, I’m going to outline a few ways for you to get more leads that you may have never thought about before.
First, Figure Out What’s Working
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You won’t be able to get more leads if you don’t know where the few leads you’re already getting are coming from.
So, go to the place where your website is hosted and figure out which pages are the most popular. This requires practically no time or know-how on your part because each web host has a ticker which counts how many people visit different parts of your website every day or month.
Now, take a good hard look at your most popular pages. Do any of them have forms that would allow people to immediately get in touch with you?
Examples of these sorts of forms are a live chat (which I’ll talk about more a bit later) or an email sign up.
I’ve found that it’s pretty difficult to get people to volunteer their emails, so you can either offer them a discount for doing so or create interesting long-form articles that require an email address if they want to read the whole thing.
Don’t Make Clients Click Off of Your Homepage
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Another great way to get more leads is to optimize your homepage as much as possible.
I have a few tips you can try out to see if they’ll work for your business. The first is to make good use of white space on your home page.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term white space, it’s basically all of the space on a website that doesn’t have any text or graphics. White space is useful for graphic designers because it allows them to direct the viewer’s eye to the information they want them to see.
Think about it like this. If your home page is too crowded with information, someone may just get overwhelmed and opt to visit somebody else’s website.
Another way to optimize your homepage in order to get more leads is to put a basic CTA on it.
Because your homepage is likely what people are visiting first, it receives the most traffic and should act as a marketing funnel for you. So, offer a discount on your products or services for people who are willing to subscribe to your email list.
You could also offer a free mini photoshoot if your business is just beginning. Free products are the best way to get more leads, but they are expensive because they take up your time. So, you’ll need to slowly stop giving away free photoshoots as your business expands.
Learn More:
- 4 Ways to Make it Easier for Your Clients to Pay You
- Easy Ways to Let Your Photography Business Clients Know You’re Still Open
Be Careful with Web Chats
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If you aren’t using a web chat on your website right now, then you’re likely missing out on a ton of clients because a live chat option is the number one digital content method today.
In order to get more leads through your webchat, though, you need to make sure that you’re responding to people in a timely manner. In the digital age, people expect a response within a few hours. If your operation is really small right now, then at least respond a couple of times each day during business hours.
You should also let people know exactly how quickly they should expect a response via the web chat and stick to it.
Make sure that you also make your web chat icon and phrasing personal, instead of making it cliche. You want people to use it, but if it feels like a nuisance, instead of like an aid, they won’t.
Follow Through
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No matter how many photography business tips you implement for your business, they won’t mean much if you can’t stay on top of your communication with your clients and potential clients.
That’s why a lot of people are turning to different messaging platforms, like Podium, which allows them to track how quickly they respond to leads on average. If it’s taking you 5 hours to respond to a potential lead from your website, then the website is likely not the problem.
Podium also helps business owners to respond more quickly to their leads because it pulls every single communication your business receives, from your email to your social media channels, and puts it on one platform. This way you can be sure you aren’t letting leads fall through the cracks.
Plus, Podium is currently offering a free trial for small businesses so that you can figure out whether it helps you to keep track of your leads before you ever have to actually purchase a program.