How important are online reviews? According to online marketing research, 6 out of 10 potential clients look for online reviews of your studio before contacting you, and 8 out of 10 consider those reviews critical to making a purchase.

This means that even if potential clients know your name, 48% won’t consider contacting you without reading positive online reviews.

While that number should scare you, the solution is easier than you realize. Here’s how: (more…)

Like any small business, the professional photographer should be constantly looking for ways to improve their website. But often, it isn’t clear which changes you need to make to “tweak” your website to make it more attractive to potential clients.

That’s why I was so excited to find this article over at SearchEngineLand.com. They asked 1,790 consumers across the country to rate what they felt was most important on a local business website. This simple graph says it all. (more…)

Google Places lets potential clients find you based on what they are searching for in Google. For example, if you’re a photographer in Fenton, and someone searches for “photographer fenton mi” they should see you on the first page of Google.

By default, every business in America has a Google Place linked to Google Maps. However, only those businesses that take the time to create a Google Places account, update the information, and encourage reviews will rise to the top of the list.

In addition, if you have a studio or business location, it is more important than ever that you monitor your Google Places account. Google now lets strangers “update” your account information that potential clients would see on Google Places page or Google Maps when searching for your studio.

For example, someone could post on your places account something as useful as “closes at 5pm” to something as evil as “business closed.” If you’re not monitoring your account, you’d never see this.

This is even worse if you haven’t yet claimed your Google Places account. By default, Google lists every business in the United States in Google maps, typically using information gleamed from the Yellow Pages. If your contact information is missing or outdated, potential clients won’t be able to find your business.

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Searching the web with a cell phone is growing. Experts say that by 2013, more people will use their mobile phones than PCs to get online. By 2015, their will be one mobile device for every person on earth.

If you haven’t yet updated your website to make it easy to use for mobile devices, you’re not alone. Most photographers and studios have not. But for the ones who do, this will be a unique competitive differentiator in 2012.

What you can do today: Google has put up a new website called howtogomo.com that lets you type in your current website and see what it would look like to a mobile phone user. Better yet, if you or one of your staff has a smart mobile device like an iPhone or a Droid, take a minute to search for your studio, then walk through your own website the way a potential customer might. You should look for things like:

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If you still use a Flash based website for your studio, you’re in luck. Google has figured out how to open the Flash SWF file and look for text inside in order to decide where you should be located during a Google search.

(Here’s an example of a Flash website in case you don’t know what I mean).

The “Googlebot” (the software that scans your website) can now index almost any text a user can see in the Flash content, and can use that text to generate search terms and keywords for Google searches. Additionally, Googlebot can also discover URLs in SWF files (for example, links to other pages on your site) and follow those links.

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QR codes are an easy (and fun) way to get smartphone users to access a page on your website or to collect emails for your marketing newsletters. Here’s what you need to know about QR codes, and how they can help market your studio.

What Are QR Codes?

QR stands for “quick response”. They are a special type of square bar code made of squares of black on a white background. In the same way that a regular barcode stores numbers, a QR code is designed to store text like a website address or an email address. In order to read a QR code, you need a smartphone (like an Android or an iPhone) and free software downloaded to the phone. You take a photo of the printed QR code with the smartphone, the software reads the code, and the phone’s browser is directed to a website or email address.

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If folks are looking for your studio online, chances are they are going to type in something generic like “photographer” and include a specific location. If you want your customers to find you online, it is important that you have your studio listed in every local directory you can find.

For example, I typed “photographer flint mi” into Google, and found that most local photographers don’t even bother to take the time to put their studios online. Looking for a photographer when you don’t know their name is like looking for a word in a dictionary when you don’t know how to spell it.

Below are 10 local directories you should check to make sure your studio information is listed and accurate:

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From a photographer’s artistic point of view, websites are digital portfolios of their work. But from a business point of view, a website only has one goal: to get potential clients to send an email or pick up the telephone.

In marketing, the business goal is called the conversion rate. If 100 folks look at a website and 5 call, that means the website has a 5% conversion rate. The better the website, the better the conversion rate.

Here are 3 easy things you can do to your website that will only take a few minutes each to accomplish, but have repeatedly been shown to increase any website’s conversion rate:

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If you’ve been thinking about creating a custom business (or fan) page in Facebook but didn’t know how to get started, Tim Ware has created the best “step-by-step” instructions I’ve found on the web. He shows you graphically what changes you can make to your Facebook business page so that it can become a virtual website for your business.

Did I say website?

What we learned during the recent photo contest was that some photographers have started using Facebook instead of a regular website. This is a new, growing trend. While there are good reasons to have both, there is some logic to focusing on Facebook. If you only have the time and energy to keep one site constantly updated with new information, why not use Facebook as your main marketing site?

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If you aren’t ready for mobile phone users to find you online, you need to get started. Here’s why:

• By 2013 — 50% of web traffic will come from mobile devices
• 74% of smart phone users made a purchase based on a phone search
• The US population is approximately 306 million. 69 million have smart phones now

“Mobile” is growing faster than any other aspect of computing. If you expect your customers to be able to find you online, you need to be ready for mobile.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a video you should watch.

So what can you do to get ready?

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