This happens all the time.
Potential photography clients stumble across your website through a Google search or maybe an Instagram post, they hang around for a bit, clicking through your photo galleries and then… that’s it.
They leave and you are erased from their mind as quickly as you popped up in the first place.
Doesn’t that drive you crazy?
You know your work is good and if that potential client had just taken the time to fill out your contact form they could have gotten to know you in-person and realized how awesome you are.
Why do they leave without contacting you and booking?
Here are 3 reasons potential clients DON’t fill out your contact form and what you can do about it.
1. No Connection
Your website isn’t just about showing off your work, it’s also about letting potential clients get to know YOU. After all, YOU are the one they will be working with to capture an important moment or event in their life.
Give them a sneak peak into what it’s like to be your best friend. What are some of your favorite things, how would your friends describe you if they asked.
You introverts out there are giving me a funny look. It’s okay. I’m an introvert too, so I totally get it. It’s uncomfortable to show a personal side of yourself (to a stranger on the internet) and you’re probably thinking, why would anyone care?
YOU are the main thing your photography business has that no other business does. YOU are the special ingredient that pulls everything together to make it work.
Don’t sell yourself short and while your work is amazing, don’t rely on that alone to sell your photography services.
Add a brief bio section to your homepage with a photo that captures your personality, then encourage people to head over to your “about” page to get all the juicy details.
Tell them who you are, what makes you special, and most importantly why you do what you do as a creative biz owner.
You’re a storyteller… tell them your story.
2. You didn’t ask
This one may seem like an obvious, but it’s not. You can’t expect people who browse your site to do anything other than show up, get distracted, and leave.
You’ve got a short window of time to capture their interest and get them to fill out a form to get in touch… Get those digits and follow up promptly by phone to show you care!
It’s like chatting with that cute girl/guy at a coffee shop. Don’t waste too much time on the small talk. “Wow” them with a catchy tagline to show you’re not just their average cup of joe and let them know what’s next if they’re interested.
Tell them exactly what you want them to do to continue (or start) this conversation.
That means saying (typing) things like “Head over here to fill out this form if you want more information on pricing”
or
“Get in touch to learn more about my wedding packages.”
Now is not the time to be shy. Be BOLD, my friend.
Add buttons, links, whatever it takes to make sure people know exactly how, where, and why they should reach out to you.
3. Barrier to entry
If things are hard to do, people are less likely to do them. When websites don’t load fast enough, we close the browser window.
When we head to a contact form that looks like it’s going to take more than a minute or two to complete, we skip over it.
Shorter contact forms can be better. Now don’t go deleting all of your contact form fields and leave yourself with the the bare minimum just yet.
It’s totally fine to have a few qualifying questions in there that help to weed out your less-than-ideal clients from the rest, but if your form starts to require a lot of scrolling or has more than 10 fields, I’d look at cutting it down a bit.
Plus, there are other ways to qualify potential clients. If you don’t want to share your pricing or packages with the general public, you can have a “starting at” price visible so that you don’t get requests from people looking to shop on a tight budget.
How do you get more potential clients to your website?
The million dollar question. There are lots of ways to increase traffic to your website, but one of your biggest traffic drivers should be search engines like Google.
Learn the basics of SEO to make sure you always have a steady stream of potential clients finding you online.
