Photographers: Did you know your website copy directly impacts the quality of your leads?

I accidentally did an experiment a couple months ago when it comes to generating leads and we can all benefit from the lesson I learned.

 

When we redesigned our site, we had to shut greenchairstories.com down for a couple weeks.

 

We had been experiencing a lull in inquiries just before we turned off the site and put up a splash page. Nothing serious, but noticeable.  And then on the very day the splash page went up, BOOM! Here came the inquiries.

 

For about 12 hours, I panicked. I’m about to launch a huge site and look how well a dumb splash page is doing! Is this even worth it?

 

I read the inquiries. They … weren’t great. People weren’t giving us nearly enough information about their projects, there were several from people who were a bad fit for our offerings, and I could tell most were just price shopping.

 

I spent so.much.time responding thoughtfully to all of them only to hear crickets in return. We hardly ever get ghosted and we got ghosted a tonnnn in March.

I’d love to tell you. Our website copy qualifies people in so many ways:

– We identify ourselves as only copywriters for photographers. There goes about 98% of the population looking to hire a website copywriter.

– We have our pricing listed clearly in multiple places. There goes another big chunk of people. We aren’t the cheapest option around.

– We say doucheburger right on the home page. There goes all but 1% of our site traffic.

 

And those are just the major ones. There are tons of little hints all over the site that either signal “WE ARE FOR YOU!” or “RUNNNNNN!”

Oh, so badly. These qualifiers are intentional. I want the people who reach out to us to be crystal clear about who we are. I want them to be so “in” that by the time they submit a form, they are almost ready to book at the same moment.

 

This not only saves us a ton of time in managing inquiries, but it keeps our calendar full of people who we align with as a company. We spend every single day writing for clients; we want to jive with them! We want to enjoy our daily jobs. Don’t you?

 

Business owners forget that their work is more than their paycheck. It’s how you’re spending your days. I’m not saying you should prioritize it more than your time alone or time with your loved ones. But why not try to enjoy it as much as you do the rest of your life?

 

It’s not dramatic to say that your website copy can change your life. When written well, it slides people into your DMs that will make you love what you do even more. People who are ecstatic to work with you and will treat you well. People who see you not just as another bill to pay, but a relationship to build.