by Kirk Russell, 3lenses.com

Imagine the following: You’ve just created the perfect website. But as with many studios’ sites, at the end of the quarter, sales haven’t increased.

What happened? You created a beautiful site. It has galleries that feature your best images. Your web address is featured on all your marketing materials. You hire a company to register your web address with all the search engines, and to make sure your site will rank high enough to appear on the first page, if not the first one or two results of a search. And you get hits, a trickle at first, and then hundreds. You feel great. Your new marketing effort is a huge success!

It’s easy to explain. You got people interested in your photography, and then left them on their own to figure out how to buy it.

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I read an interesting article on thinkvitamin.com where a business was able to double their online customer response rate by changing the words in their website’s call to action.

You have a call to action on your website today, even though you may not realize it. It probably says something like “call now for your free consultation” or “call us today”. It is the thing you want your visitor to do after reading about your studio.

The problem with a phone number call to action is that it is really a ploy to get a potential client in the studio and sell them a package before they know what the price will be. Folks who shop online are smart enough to know this. They don’t want a high pressure sales pitch (remember free vacations in Florida if you watch a condo presentation?), so they go to the next website.

So instead of their original call to action Free Trial they tried See plans and pricing. Their response rate doubled.

If you wanted to duplicate this test, put the words “See plans and pricing” on every page on your website with a link to a new page or a one-page downloadable PDF file with your package prices. Then put your phone number on that page. If you have a second line, use that number to keep track of calls, or you can name your packages something special like prix réduit, service complet, and extraordinaire (budget, full-service, and deluxe in French). Always offer 3, most folks choose the middle one.

Try it for a month, and see if putting your prices online generates more calls.

JD’s Padded Float Wraps are mounted on a hardboard with a foam padding between the print and the mount board. A lustre or matte lamination is applied to your image. A mounting block is added on the back for a floating effect when hung on your wall.

To order Float Wraps, in ROES selct Options to choose your paper type, your finish or thin float wrap mount.

Orders for Senior Rep (also called Senior Ambassador) Books are starting to come in. If you are a senior portrait photographer, now is the time to place your order.

To get you started, we have a special for you: order any size Senior Rep Book, include an order for 96 Senior Rep business-size cards, enter the code “BOGOSEN” in ROES, and you’ll get the cards half off! To make it easy, you can order the Senior Rep Kit from the Press Printed Catalog in ROES.

And there’s more…

Order a Senior Rep book at the same time you order the cards with this code and we’ll give you a coupon for a free 16×20″ senior portrait print!

If you’re not a senior portrait photographer, here’s how it works:

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I read a great blog article by Drew McLellan, owner of the McLellan Marketing Group this week. Drew describes how negotiating price with a client is like the old game where the last kid to swerve their bike as they barreled toward each other was called “the chicken.”

Drew makes a great point. When you cut your prices to make a sale, you tell the client two secrets:

• I’ve padded my prices
• I’m not confident in the value of my services

Instead of “playing chicken” with your prices, Drew makes specific suggestions on handling price objections. Take a minute to read them.