Every brand, company, or individual needs an online presence. Simply having an online presence is okay, but optimizing it towards their goals is vital.
Resulting homepage of findyara's website that I managed the creation of.
When findyara photography came to me to oversee the creation of their website, it was clear that their current website had no direction.
Although it was professional and presented information about their offerings, it did not have a story to tell. There was a home page, a pricing page, and information about the photographers, but the content did not have a structure that felt natural and drew potential clients in.
Here are the X steps I took once I started planning their website and directing the team.
1. What is the goal of this website?
findyara's website at the time provided information, but that's about it. There was little more for clients to find besides pretty pictures, some pricing, and send an inquiry form. Although they attracted some clients with this website, they were often misaligned with the company's culture and did not always result in quality bookings.
After discussing with the team, findyara's goal with this website was to attract ideal clients, and filter out unwanted clients.
"Our goal was to attract ideal clients, and filter out unwanted clients."
2. What pages, structure, and visuals will best serve that goal?
Since I already knew findyara's goals, I discussed them with web development professionals.
Our web advisors made it clear that a website should not amount to information simply posted for anyone who's interested to find. Instead, it needs to be optimized for those likely clients and what would solve their problems.
findyara did some deep diving, and they found that many of their clients may have an emotional barrier stopping them from eloping, or, they may need a small push to do what they really want for their wedding.
Here's what was decided would be needed:
- Landing Page with stunning visual and an emotional headline
- Section describing the photographer's and their values
- Section describing what would make a good fit
- Section providing more info on elopements & why they work
- Blogging: to provide content on elopements and optimize SEO
3. What tone does your brand have?
It's vital that the words and sentence structures of a website are crafted to fit a brand's voice. Is it aggressive, or sweet? Is it esoteric or simple? Is it inviting or invite only?
findyara already understood most of this, they only need a soft push to perfect their copy. Their tone was approachable & friendly, knowledgeagble, and passionate.
This tone was created because they wanted potential clients to understand that their service is a partnership: these people will be with you at your more important life events. You need to trust them, and it's helpful if you even like them.
4. What resources would best serve your clients?
Now that we had designed the layouts of each page and decided on tone & the visuals, it was time to create content that would provide value to clients.
This is part of a marketing technique in which a brand provides in depth and valuable information, whether it be a step by step guide or a template that helps solve a problem for the client. This creates a sort of imbalance in which the client thinks, "Wow, they already helped me and I feel like I owe them. Also, wouldn't they be a good fit if they already helped me this much?"
Since most of this content is published in blogs, they created some content types:
- Elopement Planning Guides & Examples
- Locations to Elope/have a couples session
- How to Elope in "X" country/region
- Stories of Elopements already completed
Mobile Website Render: Blog
Blog layout. This is the home of their blogging which not only provides value, but attracts the clients who would find it valuable.