Melissa Love

Are you setting up Your Portfolio to Sell? Melissa Love

You’ve attracted visitors to your website and let’s assume they like what they’re seeing. How do you now turn that interest into sales? Melissa outlines the steps that will help turn those casual browsers into buyers.

ET’S TALK ABOUT HOW a website visitor becomes a buyer. The first thing to realise is that it doesn’t happen by accident. The path to purchase is paved with small nudges that move people into your world, from recommendations through to Instagram stories or even great SEO.

It’s easy to focus too hard on getting traffic to your website in the first place, thinking that once people arrive that somehow that very experience is magically going to take care of the entire sales process. Because surely when they see your stunning portfolio, they’re bound to book your services, right?

In fact, getting a potential client through the front door of your business is only the first step in the process, because the way people browse for, and then buy, photography has changed beyond all recognition and you need to make sure you are giving your visitors all of the tools they need to move through your website and to then take action. L

How do people buy photography? It all seems pretty obvious - they look at your work and get in touch. Or do they? Researching a purchase can now happen anywhere. In fact, 60% of Google searches now take place on mobile, which means a potential client’s first visit to your site is likely to be via this route. And this is the kind of research people do during their downtime; commuting to work or lounging on the sofa at the weekend with an iPad.

If you’re lucky you’ll make their shortlist and then it’s time for round two. Here’s where it starts to get interesting. Good news: returning visitors are much more likely to visit on a laptop or desktop, because they want to get a better look at your work.

Now you’re through to round three. You’ve make the cut and you’re on their shortlist. You’ve received an enquiry and you’ve responded. If you’re in the right price bracket, it’s decision time. Here’s where you need to make sure you’re giving them the right tools to sell you to someone else. Because the final decision rarely happens in a vacuum, particularly

RIGHT: The blog posts on Andrea Ellison’s website are all tailored to her ideal wedding couple, with the intention that it will atract the clients she ideally wants to be working with.

BELOW: Detail shots should be a crucial element of your blog posts and those that are bright and colourful can stand out whatever size they’re viewed at.

when it comes to wedding photography. At this stage, most people will sit down with their partner, a relative or trusted friend to make the final decision regarding who they want to work with. They’ll be looking at your work on a bigger screen and revisiting the websites of everyone on their shortlist. Are you ready to wow them? Here’s my checklist.

The Killer Gallery Everyone needs one gallery of all-killer, no-filler shots. It’s needs to be your best-of-thebest work, and around 20-30 images maximum is ideal. If someone is going to sell you as their first choice to another decision-maker they need to be able to pull up your best work and to show it off, quickly and easily, and it has to look its absolute best. Don’t make them go digging through blog posts or several pages to get to your gallery. If it seems like too much hard work they’ll walk away and never come back.

Consider your own shopping experiences. I like to compare TKMax with a curated retail experience like Waterstones, the booksellers. When you go into TKMax, you know there are likely to be some gems in there somewhere, if you take your time and are prepared to look hard enough. But generally it’s chaos and sometimes you just can’t be bothered with it.

Waterstones, on the other hand, is a magical, carefully-crafted experience. The best sellers are just inside the entrance - an easy win. Head for a department and you see more of the same with popular books on a table. Browse the shelves and you’ll see the recommended staff picks, helping you to find more of what you like. They make buying easy.

Niche Blog Posts Whilst having a killer main gallery shows off your general style your portfolio area is also a great opportunity to attract your ideal client more strongly. The best way to do this is by signposting your visitors to key blog posts, which have been carefully crafted to show people the niches you are interested in.

If you want an example then go and tale a look at

© ANDREA ELLISON

TOP: Read through the blog posts on Andrea Ellison’s website and they’re full of images of the types of couples she wants to attract.

ABOVE: Andrea’s site is bright, lively and visually attractive and it’s designed to work on every format from big monitors down to smartphones.

RIGHT: You need to have images on your blogs that have the ability to jump out and work whatever size they might end up being viewed at.

Andrea Ellison’s website and portfolio page. From the moment you land on her site she lets you know the ideal client she’s looking for. Chilled out, relaxed and fun loving. Hit her portfolio page and the message couldn’t be clearer. The titles of the blog posts she shows below her main gallery - such as ‘A Laid Back London Pub Wedding,’ ‘The Chilled Out Castle and Beach Wedding’ and ‘A Relaxed Back Garden Wedding’ - describe exactly the kind of couple that she’s looking to attract and it draws you in.

Ruthless Curation and Consistent Editing I build a lot of websites for photographers and the biggest battle I tend to have is over the portfolio.

Problem #1: Inconsistency of editing style. Editing styles evolve over time - of course they do. But it’s easy to let your portfolio gallery get stale and just keep adding to it. I’d also throw into the mix that lots of different crops can be distracting.

Problem #2: Too many similar images Culling is hard, I know that. And sometimes it’s hard to let go of old favourites, but you need to be ruthless. Divide what you shoot into topic areas - for example, getting ready, the wedding ceremony, the speeches etc - and make sure each is fully represented in your gallery. P

/ The Design Space: https://thedesignspace.co/ Visit Andrea Ellison’s site at: / https://andreaellison.co.uk/

NEXT MONTH: The Contact Form on your website is the standard way to generate enquiries but it can also be formulaic and boring. Melissa shows how it’s possible to stand out from the crowd by being just a little bit more inventive.