98: Spring Marketing Reviews: Part Two

Brought to you by the 90 Minute Marketing Intensive - 90 minutes gaining clarity on ONE offer, ONE booking path and website cohesion. 

In this episode, I audit real photographer Instagrams and websites to find where spring offers (or main offers) get lost and how to fix trust holes. 

My Instagram + My Membership

Transcript

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Welcome Back & How Reviews Work

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello. Okay, we are back for spring marketing reviews part two. These are brought to you by my one-on-ones. If you want me to do this with you together, you can sign up for a 90-minute marketing intensive. One offer, one booking path, making sure your website supports both. Okay, so we are starting with Denise Wilson Photography, East Bay Area Photographer, specifically Concord, California. So the I'm the way if you're new to these, the way I'm structuring them is I'm pretending I am a local mom of the area this person says they are at, and I'm trying to get a sense of what they're currently booking and seeing if I can follow that path easily to their website. Okay, that's basically the whole

Audit 1: Denise Wilson Photography

SPEAKER_00 0:50

game. Um, okay, so her Instagram bio, so I'm starting with Instagram, then going to the website. Instagram bio is Denise Wilson Photography, Family Maternity, Newborn Graduates, documenting joy-filled moments of life of real life families in beautiful settings. Okay, so we are going down. She has a pin post that's her. I do always just love that because it's just really helpful when you're building trust to be able to see the person's face. So if you're not gonna be consistently showing up on your feed with your face, you should have a pin post at the top. That should definitely be one, even if it's if it's a photo of you and let's see what hers is. It's multiple photos of her and then talking about her. So if you don't want, if you only want to have one pin post, you could have an about me and what you're currently offering, or about you and your artist process, or what your favorite type of session is. But if I'm a Concord California local mom, um, right off the bat, that's probably one of the first posts I'm gonna go to is I wanna see her face. It's human connection, right? Okay, so the next reel after that is spring locations near Concord, California. Last episode we talked about the importance of having a text, like what the reel is about on the front of the reel. And it's just so helpful because my brain immediately clocks that she's booking spring photos. So, like, that's why it's so powerful, and that's why we want those. And I know that there's this whole thing of like have a pretty reel cover that goes cohesively with your brand, and there's like some thoughts around that. Go for clarity instead of aesthetic every time. So I love this type of reel because it tells the story of what she's going to be photographing. The rest of the images are very consistent editing. We have a maternity, a senior, a family, and then we have another family and another family and a senior. So she's obviously doing a good job despite having multiple session types, sprinkling them all in in the top nine or so. Okay, so then we're going to assume then our our lens of this brand is that she is looking to book spring sessions. So we're gonna go up to her link tree, or let's see what it is. Yeah, it's like a it's like a link page. So here are the options. Denise Wilson Photography is one. I'm assuming that's her website. Uh book a session, uh, right here. It's like a just a book a session button. Mustard uh flower mini sessions 2026, sold out, join the wait list. Leave review, join VIP list about me. Okay, so I don't know when the mustard sessions are. Let me see if I if I can find out. So they are coming up, but they're all sold out. So she's trying to build out a wait list for them. The people may join the wait list, and it's fine to have that, but I would rather have a call to action on whatever you're actually have availability for here because what'll happen is you'll have people click there and be like, oh, they're sold out. So what is it? What's a secondary option for me, right? So I would just have whatever that is here. So we are gonna go to the book a session button. The book a session button goes to a you session booking page that's actually a lot more meaty than a lot of the book a booking page sites that I see where it's literally just kind of minimal branding, the session type and the dates that are available. Um, so what we have is a picture of her about the booking site. We have reviews, we have images, and then she has them all broken out here. So the only option to book that seems like spring like in this is a family session. We have a family session that's available, extended family, maternity, newborn, bump to baby package, graduate session, and event photography. So if I was looking for spring photos, I would probably just end up in the family session, which takes me to the family session page, which breaks down all of her available, available dates, and I can choose my date and time. Now, looking at this booker, this um looks like it's yeah, it's use session.com or session.com. I'm pretty sure those are the same. We have almost like in in April, there's almost unlimited availability. So so you I think it's a good idea that to limit availability a little bit, just because according to this April calendar, every single day except the first and second and fifth are available. So that may be true, and you're fine like shooting every single night, but I might just limit it a little bit. Um, let me see if it's the same. So yeah, I mean, I guess it's like May, you have some dates marked off and then some dates available. If you truly are available, but like June every single evening is a choice. So I would just limit it a little bit. Okay, so I don't necessarily know that there's been a on this particular path from Instagram to book a session to this page, there's been quite enough trust building that has happened. So we're gonna back out of here and try a new path. Okay, so we're just gonna go to Denise Wilson photography. So Denise Wilson photography,

Booking Page Availability & Trust Gaps

SPEAKER_00 6:01

she has a great banner image that's a family, it's a maternity family outside. It seems very on brand for what she's doing. Um, telling your story through love and light filled portraits, maternity, newborn, and beyond. And then she says, I'm here for belly laughs, big and small moments, genuine connection. And then she says, now booking spring 2026. Oh, very rarely do we see on the home page a call to action of a seasonal offering. So that is great. And then beneath this, it looks like having okay. First of all, I am so jealous of the Bay Area photographers. Like I will just go out and say I look at the home. I'm not gonna move there because it doesn't make sense for us and all the things, but I look at homes there every single week, just as like it's like a it's like a hobby of mine because I love the locations so much there. We're actually going there in April. If you want to shoot with me somewhere down there on the first week of April, reach out to me. I would love to shoot in Big Sur. So if you are listening and you live there and you would want to photograph there, let me know. I want to do a session with like little kids there or a maternity. Okay, so she has spring image banner right below that. So as a as a Concord area mom, okay, on this home page, I'm getting clarity, clarity, clarity, trust, trust, trust, right? So I'm like, okay, she's now booking spring, and then there's a banner rolling below that's just spring-centered images. Okay, so then I keep scrolling and it is the about her. So everything about her as a person, some photos of her. So I'm I'm into it. All the images rolling in the background are very on brand, very everything is very cohesive. Then we keep scrolling down into a review section, more beautiful images, and then we talk she talks about the process, so that's great. And then we have three buttons view portfolio, book now, contact me. Keep rolling through more reviews, keep rolling through down to the bottom where there is a menu option. Okay, so this is a very good homepage. So if you want to look at one, it's denisewilsonphotography.com. And it's good because it's such a nice scrollable homepage that builds trust. Okay. So let's go, let's assume I'm this concrete area mom and I want to book a family session. So if I go view portfolio, because that was probably gonna be my next step. I'm gonna be like, okay, the images I see are pretty, but is she consistent? Because the number one fear of any potential client is that you will not be able to produce the thing that they fell in love with when they actually hire you. So scrolling down, we have um uh it's all family, all had it's broken up. So it's a clear info page, which is great. So it's not, again, it's not really a portfolio page, it's much more an info page. Um, so for clarity's sake, you could have this page be titled. Is it titled family? Hold on, how did I get here? Family. Yeah, it is. Wait. View my portfolio. Okay, perfect. So view my okay, wait, hold on.

Website Deep-Dive: Home, Portfolio, CTAs

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Clarity check here. View my portfolio goes to the family page. So it does go to a, it looks like a, is this a family page? Family, yes, so it goes to the family page. So if I'm maternity and I'm on the home page, if I'm a if I'm a maternity client or a newborn client or a graduate and I go to portfolio from the home page, I'm only going to the family page. So that button, I might either change, have an actual like split it up into the family, into the actual types down there. I'm not, I'm sure I think that could get someone who isn't a family thinking they're gonna look at a portfolio of all of your work onto the family page that might just I would just reconsider that button. Okay, but if I am a family, which is what I'm operating now, I think this particular page could be more image heavy. So again, we have this horizontal scrolling gallery, um, which I would rather just have more of a landscape layout where I can scroll down instead of horizontally. Mostly I'm thinking of someone on their phone. So, really quickly, I'm gonna look at that because I want to see how it translates. So, again, if you're listening to these, you just gotta put up with uh me uh finding stuff while while I'm on these. Okay, Wilson. Okay, so let me go to this and see what I can see. Oops, family okay, so it is it's fine on the phone, but it's the pages really sh is kind of short image-wise. Like if you I would just add in more images that connect with the scroll because when people are in learning mode, they kind of are like liking to scroll down, and the images that you have in here are so beautiful, I would just personally add more. Okay, so we checked it out on the phone, looks good. I have seen a lot of hor horizontal scrolling portfolios that do not look that well and are not very do not look that cohesive and are kind of difficult to maneuver on mobile. So if you have galleries that are sliding, meaning that I have to take my finger and bleep, bleep, bleep, you need to make sure that they work on mobile. This one does. So, okay, scrolling down, I'm a family. What are my button options here? So I've made it to this family page. The first button I encounter is family session book here, extended family session book here. So if I click family session, I'm back to the use. Okay, perfect. I have a this has been my issue with a lot of these booking, like online schedulers, is that there's only one scheduler and it's a bunch of session types and it causes confusion. This one is family session only, and it has the like you choose, it says family session, one hour up to six people, and then you choose your date, and then let's see if I'm choosing my date and time, then I'm okay. So yeah, so that's perfect. So I'm not trying, I'm not confused because it is very family centric. Okay, and then let's see what else the other buttons at the very bottom. We have a contact me form, and that just goes to a contact me form, which is fine. You can have a contact me at the bottom, but the goal is to try to get people to book right here. So on this family session info page, what is needed? If we wanted someone to we want someone ideally to be able to fully build trust as a family client on this page. So what's missing? Your process, what is your what is your ideal session type? How do you support people? What can they expect? And an image of you as well. So you have this embrace the moment, which is like an emotive bit of text. So it says like at the very end, I'll help you with locations, uh, outfits, everything in between. I would just talk a little bit more about that process, have an image of you again on this page because we don't want them to leave this page and go to your about me page if we've built this page to be the trust building page. Okay, so I say that this is very well done. And um probably on each of the individual info pages, which looks like she has made. Yep. Okay. The info pages are the same, like there's a maternity info page, newborn info page, graduate page. On all of these, I would just add more images. That would be the one thing that I would change. I know you have this scrollable thing, but if someone's scrolling fast the and down trying to get information, they might miss that horizontal. So just add more images into this um this uh hor this uh am I saying horizontal? No, that's right, into the landscape scroll. So seniors has a lot, but I would still love to see like, for example, multiple sessions from one session type. You have like a you do in the you do, I don't know what my beef is with the horizontal. I just feel like there's people who are gonna keep scrolling down. So I would just have both options, maybe. I would just have a few more uh horizont uh landscape galleries, and then you can still have the horizontal in the background, just because I would wonder if somebody would be like, I want to see more, I want to see more, you know, if we're on this info page. So that's really all I have. Let's see if she has a blog. She does. Okay, so she's doing a really good job with blogging. So we have like best spring photo locations near Concord, California for families, maternity, and seniors, spring photos at Mount Diablo, family session in Clayton County, spring photos in the East Bay. Okay, so I'm gonna say what I said before. Five reasons to book a spring photo session. All of these blog posts should be turned into helpful carousels on Instagram with a text overlay so people can see. Like I wanna see on your Instagram, it says five reasons to book a a family, uh a spring photo session. Turn that into something on Instagram that I can scroll through because you already wrote the text, you already you already put it together. So all you have left is to take to make this into a carousel. So like you have the first thing is beautiful

Mobile Galleries & Content Repurposing

SPEAKER_00 15:10

spring landscape, the next thing is perks of a later sunset, the next thing is a fresh wardrobe, the next thing is fresh update for your home decor, holiday court cards, consider them done. Like, let's take this work we've done on the blog, which is excellent, so good, and just repurpose that content elsewhere.

Audit 2: Thatcher Ban

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Okay, that is all I have for uh Denise. We are on to the next. Okay, next one we have is Thatcher Ban. So it's a big sir and maternity bay. Again, the jealousy, the jealousy of this location. Um, okay, so she has in her uh in her breakdown. We're on her Instagram page. Uh she has a camera, it says digital, she has film coming soon, she has turning moments into turning moments into forever memories. Oh gosh, memories, all love, welcome, military spouse, booking. Okay, I would booking through September 27, 2027. I would make this less emoji-filled and more of an artist statement. Just me personally, that's what I would do because um I feel like you're losing a lot of real estate here with the ability to trust build by just having like little bits of information. So I would just change that. Okay, so we're assuming, remember, we're assuming now that we're a big sur, even though not many people live in big sur, you can't really live there. I would um build like a outhouse there and live in it. But big sur Monterey Bay, those are all good words for like SEO and search. Okay, so we've got a pin post that is a picture of her, which we love to see it. Um, there we go. And then we have the next one is a couple, and then we have a maternity, and then a couple, and then a newborn, and then a maternity, and then what is this? Big sir. I think it's just a a person, and then we have another maternity and another maternity. So those are her like top nine, right? Like what I'm looking at before I before I scroll any farther. The question is can we build trust and know what you're booking in the top nine? That's always like a good way to understand if your Instagram account is serving your seasonal booking goals. So this account isn't particularly clear about if there's something in particular that she is showcasing, but more than anything, I see maternity. So we are going to view this account through the eyes of a big sir, Monterey Bay, mommy to be. Okay, so we are on this page. Now we are going to the link, which she does not have a link tree, which is perfectly fine. I feel like people think they have to have a link tree. Um, you don't have to have a link tree or a links page if you just have one thing that you're talking about. However, if you have a seasonal offer, that's when the link tree can be really helpful and targeted. So if you had a seasonal offer and the link tree went directly to that booking page, obviously

Copy Clarity, Broken Images, Missing Meat

SPEAKER_00 18:10

that'd be good. Okay, we're going into the website. So we have a let's see, we have scrolling down where every picture tells a story. Okay, so in terms of copy, I would make that copy stronger because it is generic. Every picture tells a story, is hard to like um conceptualize beyond it being a like words about photographing people. So I would instead like you to have like an artist statement or something that is a little bit more punchy. Sorry, you're gonna hear me typing because I want to tell you mine, not that it's like the winner, but I used to have one like that, and then now it says want to trade stiff, uncomfy sessions for playful, silly snuggle fest. Good, me too. So, like which one is more where so if I say where every picture tells a story or that one that's like specifically about my sessions, I feel like you can find it's because this is taking up a big part of my entry into this brand, I would just make that stronger. Okay, now this is looks like a scrollable, is it a scrollable banner image, but I can't make it scroll. Let's see, it might just be my laptop, but it doesn't want to scroll for me. It looks like perhaps it could be, but maybe it's not set up that way. Okay, so it says turning life's moments into cherished memories, capturing the essence of every story one frame at a time. Now, you have a let me refresh this. Hold on. Okay, your two top images for me, and my internet's pretty good here, are not loading. So the one that's right across from turning life's leading moments into cherished memories, that one's not mo not loading. And then the next one that says, feel the moment, cap feel the moment, capture the memory, relive the nostalgia. And this image isn't um loading. So I would just make sure you have those and this bit of text, turn it into actual statements about your brand. That's how those bits of text can be more powerful. So because I can't see what those images are, um, I'm I can only guess. So far, I haven't seen any images until I get down to the picture of her. Can I just also say how much I love the name Thatcher? I just love that name. Okay, she looks very adventurous, extremely aesthetic in her photo. Um, okay, so it says uh photographer currently based on the West Coast, so we have like a snippet of an about me here, and then ready to connect or book now. And then we have more. I wonder if this is me, but I but like on your reviews, none of your images are loading. If if that's not true and it's just me, um, then that could just be my let me look up my phone. Hold on. Okay, let's see. No, they're not loading on my phone either. So I think it's a problem with these images. So we're losing out on, and it's not like a huge deal, it's probably easy to fix, just something's going on there. Um, but this this homepage is a homepage that is missing a like um a grounding to who you are like what you're trying to book right now and who you are as an artist, just because I feel like the copy is kind of like generic, and you can take that copy and make it a lot stronger. So again, remember who I'm operating through right now is a big sur slash monterey area uh maternity client. Okay, so then we have at the so I haven't found what I'm looking for on the home page. I can't get specifically to anything about maternity. So I go up to portfolio and to the maternity page. So because you have oh man, none of your images are loading. Okay, so because you have this portfolio that has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven different session types, I would change that. To say session types instead of portfolio, just so it's very clear. We're going for ultimate clarity. Okay, so we're on the maternity page. It says, celebrate the beauty and anticipation of motherhood that captures a special chapter in your journey from glowing portraits to tender moments of connection. I'll help you preserve the love and strength and excitement that comes with bringing home your little one. So again, it's copy that is about photography, but I want it to be about what you do, how you work, how you help. Okay. And then I can't comment on anything else really because that's the only bit of text and the images aren't loading. But I would take this page and turn it into a everything you need to know about booking a maternity session with Thatcher. That would be the whole thing. What's your process?

Minis Pages, Outdated Offers, Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 22:45

What are your locations? How do you help people style? When do I get maternity photos? All of that stuff. Okay, so from this page, there's one button to book, which is book a session. So I'm gonna click it and see where it goes. And it goes to a contact form. And again, this image isn't loading. I wonder who you're I can't see who makes your website, but it might be um how if the if this is just me, then it's just me, but it but but I it's worrisome because it's me here and it's me on my phone. And so it might be the images might be loading for some people and maybe not others. So I would send your image your website out to a bunch of friends who have different um operating systems and Wi-Fi and be like, hey, are my images loading? Just to see. So if I'm a maternity client, ow, sorry, I I uh uh fractured my freaking tailbone when I gave birth to Brent, and she is 14 years old, and it still sometimes just stabs me directly into my bum hole. Okay, I don't know why it does that. All right, so if I am a maternity client, I have really failed a bit to gain the trust that I would need to be ready to contact you. So I feel like this is a website that has a very good foundation and it needs a lot more meat. So that is going to be the next task, I feel like, for this. And the way to do it is just to think about put on your maternity suit, like put on a fake belly, get on over to this website and pretend that you're trying to book a maternity session with yourself and see where you get stuck, see where things fall apart, see where you're getting frustrated, and then fix those holes. Um, okay, so that is what I would do. I just went went over to your upcoming mini sessions page. Also, there was nothing on your um, looks like these are this is older. These are of like Saturday, September 25th or 2025. So if you have anything coming up for spring,

Audit 3: Katie Lintern Photo

SPEAKER_00 24:35

you can use this upcoming sessions page to let people know about seasonal offerings. Um, just make sure that they're updated for whatever you're actually offering. Okay, so that that would be my advice for Thatcher. She has good bones, more meat is needed. All right, we're moving on. Let's go to the next one. The next one is Katie Lintern photo. So we're starting on the Instagram, calling Collingwood newborn and family photography photographer. Where's Collingwood? Collingwood Blue Mountain and beyond. I might put a state in there. Um, just for I'm always just like all about clarity. I'm sure Collingwood families would be like, oh yeah, it's Collingwood. I don't know where Collingwood is. So if you had someone in an in like a nearby place, you could call them in a little bit if you had a state. I just feel like putting a state is a good idea. Okay, so her bio is photographer, mom of three, and there's like three little kid emojis, uh camera that says newborn maternity family. Um, is there's a baby and then a baby emoji and then it says qualified, accredited, assured, an award, and it said voted number one, 22, 23, 24, and then a world and it said Collingwood, Blue Mountain, and beyond. So again, I'm a big fan of taking the opportunity to turn this bio into a very clear artist statement just because you have this little bit of information to say something. I'm also gonna say that in the age of AI, my brain, and I don't know if this is true for anyone else's brain, but there's certain little AI things that my brain has started to turn off from, and one of them is too many emojis. So if I see a caption and I know how AI uses emojis, where and my Katie, I'm not saying you wrote this with emoji with AI. I'm saying that this is what's happening in my brain. So if I see a caption and it's like a brain, and then it's like a brain emoji, and then it's like come learn, and then there's like a notebook, and it's like take notes, and then there's like a like a fairy wand, and it's like magic. I my brain is like, no. I and I think that might be happening for more people. So what I would do is just make this a very super solid paragraph. Who you are, what you do, what you're booking down. That's personally, that's what I would do. Okay, so again, we're going to be operating as a calling wood, which I do really that sounds like a that sounds like a a town in a book or something. I'm actually gonna tell my daughter that name. She loves she loves to write, and she's always looking for good town names. Okay, so we have no pin posts. I do, I am a big pin post lady. So I would love to see pin posts, you, your process, what you're currently booking. If you want nothing else, that would always be helpful. I always wish I had could have more pin posts. I have three pin posts right now, and because I'm talking about so much all the time, I always wish there was more. So when people don't use them, I'm like, but why? Okay, so the first reel is a maternity. Then we have like a studio kiddo. Okay, ooh, we have an event. Let's see if we've already passed them. Back by popular demand, uh, portrait minis are now live. Okay, the way that she's done this personality portrait reel is so good. So it's like it's black and white, which I'm assuming the portraits are black and white, and then it's a really, really quick flash through of all the kids in black and white making funny faces. I just want to give a little shout out to good marketing. Like this is really good marketing. If you ran an ad to this, it was local ad, I feel like it would do really well. Okay, I'm gonna check really quick to see if those have already happened. So you have in your links Valentine's Day minis, which I'm assuming

Link Hygiene & Trail Micro Minis

SPEAKER_00 28:30

assuming have passed. It would be kind of surprising if they weren't. Yeah, February 7th. So take that down just so you don't waste a click. Um, personality portraits. I just want to see if they've they're happening. March 1st. Okay, so those have already happened too. Let's go to micro trail minis. So these seem to be weekday mornings 11, uh 9 30 to 11. And then this last one is motherhood mini sessions, January 30th. Okay, so of your valuable linkage, that makes that's like reminds me of something that I might have said in the 90s. You're most of the things you're no longer doing. So take them out of there because we don't need like unless there's a way to be like, this is booked, but here's the next. What we're gonna go with, the only thing that is not booked, and the only thing that sends me to your actual page is the Collingwood Trail micro mini sessions. Let me see if that's true. Do you do you have your okay? So that is the through that link is the only active session and way for me to get to your site. So I would also have a link in there, replace some of those other ones with things that are sold out with just a link to your actual website. Um, so you could have your seasonal offering and then just to your website. Okay, so so what we're gonna do here is we are going to assume that we are a mom in Collingwood and we're interested in the micro trail minis. All right, I'm gonna see if they are listed here. So I don't see anything in the top nine about these type of sessions. Um, she is doing a good job of having text overlays that are on her educational carousels and reels. So she has full versus mini session. Why are newborn sessions so expensive? Why photograph at home, Mother's Day micro minis? So there's, but there's nothing about the trail. So let's just go. So we're assuming we're going, we're going as a trail, we're going down the trail to the trails. Let me get to it. Okay, so this is an info page about these, and it says when I like the way that she has this set up. It's like when weekday mornings 9:30 to 11, where Collingwood Trail details provided upon booking, price, and then it has the price, and then it has a book now. So then she has why Katie, and it says like picture of her, she looks very, very beautiful, and then it says weekday mornings, cottonwood, collingwood trail. I keep on it called Cottonwood, Cottonwood Bunny. That's not a thing, cotton tail. Okay, I'm really getting lost in the fluff here. 10 minute session, three images, private online gallery, gallery ready in less than a week. And then she has images of these trail sessions. So this is missing from the Instagram. Like, I would love a pin post. If this is what, if this is what you're booking, like let's chat about it. Make it a reel, make it a carousel, make it clear in the top nine that this is what you're doing. Then she has an FAQ. How much does it cost? What's included? Can we bring a well-behaved dog? What if the weather is bad? What if we love more? What if we love more than the set the three images that are included? When will we receive them? How can we print? Oh my gosh, so many great questions, so many great answers. Turn it into more content. And then it says, Ready, let's do this, book now. And then, sorry, I keep banging on my slider door here with my twisted weird foot. Okay, so then I go book now. Oh, okay, and it's a Sprout Studio link. So it says, hello there, welcome to your cotton wood. Oh my gosh, cotton calling wood trail micro mini sessions booking page. Don't worry, you're not obligated to finalize anything until you're ready. This is where you can view my availability. Just follow the prompts and you'll be all set. Love that like info because some people get a little stuck. Okay, so get started and then it loads up with all of her available dates. Okay, so here we have another, we have an over-availability, I think, because the the the oh the oh, excuse me, let me calm myself down. The availability just on uh March 6th is 9 30, 9 45, 10, 1015, 10:30, 1045, 11, and 1115. I would just limit availability a little bit because any sort of overwhelming thing like that can hurt us a little bit. Okay, now what we're gonna do is we're going to go to the home page and see if we can get to Collingwood Trail micro mini sessions

Homepage Strengths & Finding Minis

SPEAKER_00 33:00

from there. Go to the homepage. What are you doing? Oh, your um your logo at the top. I would make that a clickable to the home page. Just oh, Rooney sparking. I would just do that because I always do that. I feel like that's kind of a common way to get home. You have a home button. Anyway, just a little snippety thing. Okay, so we have the banner images are rotating through. We have maternity, beach, newborn, pose newborn, cake smash, and uh like a posed studio maternity. So it says effortless maternity, newborn and family photo sessions for busy families in Simcoe County and beyond. Life with your growing family is a beautiful hustle. Oh, I love that. You want to hang on to every wild and tenor moment. Your cell phone camera grows on the daily, but something's missing. Where will those images be in 20 years? Will they be printed? Will your grandkids ever see them? Are you even in those photos? This is great copy. This is like very emotional, good copy. Um, but that's why you're here, isn't it? Ooh, it's like a story. Hey, I'm Katie. I love that. So we're like basically like being in a family is hard and beautiful. Are you in any photos? You're here for that reason, right? Hey, I'm Katie. I promise you're in the right place. You've taken the first steps, you are your memories keeper, ready to create that. Oh, this is very beautiful copy. And then the same photo of her um golden hour green dress looks great. Okay, and then she has some stats: 350,000 photographs taken, six years in business, 500 plus clients, three beautiful kids, 140 newborns, and then all she is like an award collector. So she has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, four, and okay, so the way the awards are collected is great because they're not overwhelming. The amount of times that I've been on someone's website and they've won like a best of or some award, and it like is like the size of my dog on the homepage is just too much. She has made them all readable but small. So they're very trust building but not overwhelming. We jump right into reviews, love to hear it. And then we are over to let's chat at the bottom where there's another image of her family, and then it has a contact form. So let's see if me, as a Collingwood mother who barely knows how to use a computer can get to these trail sessions. Okay, so I'm gonna start with family, because like we're a family and we want the trail sessions. Up at the top, it says there's a banner that says looking for mini sessions. Click here. I'm gonna click that as a last resort because the banner goes away when I scroll. So it's only there for the one second that I'm at the top of the page. Okay, so we have Collingwood Family Photography, featured sessions, Collingwood Ontario tiny. Is this in is this in Ontario? Okay. Collingwood uh experience scroll. I'll take up all your memories, book your session, let's book it. This is the pricing, session session packages. Ooh, we have a YouTube embedded behind-the-scenes video. Absolutely obsessed. My favorite thing to see. Um,

Audit 4: Melissa Sheridan Photography

SPEAKER_00 36:10

okay, I still so on the family page, I can't find the trails. Let's go back up to the top and go to mini sessions. Click here. My calendar of mini sessions, and there we have the Collingwood Trails um minis. Here we have the personality portraits, March. This one says January through March select dates. Um, let's see if they're available. Hold on. Book now. Hold on, hold, hold with me here, folks. None are available. So if they're not available, if the personality portraits are done, I would either just have a wait list available for the next day or just pull them off of there. Okay, so here we have the Collingwood Trail Minis, and then oh, we also have the Easter Bunny Newborn Mini, but I didn't see that anywhere else. So because you offer these minis, I would have a section on your homepage that is dedicated to seasonal offerings, and then go from there because what you have coming up is the trail minis, which seem to be ongoing, and then starting next week, you have the Easter Bunny mini, the bunny mini, the bunny mini newborn session. So those are starting next week, but I've barely seen them talked about. Like I wouldn't have known that they exist unless I go onto that uh mini session page. So what you could do in your link tree is have um your home page, and then you could have your mini session page, and then you could even have like your blog or something if you want a couple links. I would just be if you're going to list two seasonal options directly, make sure they're not sold out. Okay, so good job, Katie. You just have to move things around a little bit more to clarify the booking path. All right, we are on to the next. Let me close out my tabs here. Get out of here. Who do we have? One more. Melissa Sheridan Photography, Northern Virginia photographer. We are starting on her Instagram. Okay, so we have uh another emoji uh a camera, Northern Virginia Family Newborn Photography, a little heart helping family, helping busy family savor the season, a little glitter emoji, timeless, intentional, heartfelt. Again, my advice is make that a punchy paragraph just because I just would love a paragraph. I feel like you'd have more ways to emotionally connect with me than through these tiny text snippets. Okay. Now she has a post at the top here that I really like, and a lot of photographers won't do content like this, but I think it's really powerful. Hold on, I must shift due to broken tailbone one moment. You guys have to hear me struggle. Okay, so it says four reasons I might not be the photographer for you. So let's see how this is done. You're looking for the cheapest option, you want stiff, quick, smooth the camera photos, you expect perfectly behaved children, and planning ahead is an afterthought. But if you value intention, trusting the process, imagery that feels elevated, intentional will be a beautiful fit. Love that. Perfect. I would take the emojis out of the copy. I just would. It's just AI has ruined M-dashes, it has ruined emojis, and it has ruined this sequence of copy. It's not this, it's this. So those are the three that you have to be careful about because there is like you want people to actually be like, this is her. And I'm not saying that you used AI to write that. I'm saying that instead just make it a story. Like make it a personalized story of a family that was a really good fit and why. That's going to be more connecting copy anyway. Okay, so from the top nine, what we have is a newborn session that for reasons I might not be the photographer for you, which has text on the cover, which is incredibly helpful. We have looks like a home, a homecoming military-esque type shoot with, I must say, an immaculately coordinated family for this uh military homecoming. We have, is this her? Yes. Okay, so we have a post of her. I would just pin this because you look extremely adorable in all the photos, and why not? Okay, then we have, is this her? Then we have another very cute family session, looks like at a pier, another family session at the Washington Monument. Okay, and then we have um tips for my 2026 families, and then it goes through like what are your tips for family sessions. So if we're talking about pin posts and she has none, if we just want to make it simple, you could do the pinned one of you, the pinned one of four reasons I might not be the photographer for you, and the pin one of tips for my 2026 families, because that's gonna be really good type of content to keep at the top. The next one is an in-home newborn, and then a maternity, and then another one of her. I will say she's doing a really good job of staying in the feed. I see her at almost every school. There's

Newborn Flow: Bio, Site, Form, Copy

SPEAKER_00 41:10

a there's some sort of real or post with her face knit, which is great because we want to feel like we know this person who we are intimately inviting into our lives to judge us for our children's wild behavior. Okay, so I do not see a seasonal offer here. So when that has been happening with these, I'm just going with the thing that is posted the most. So I'm gonna go with a newborn. So I'm pretending I'm a Northern Virginia newborn mom. I have I'm a mom of a newborn or a pregnant newborn. No, I'm the mom of a newborn and I live in I live in uh northern Virginia. Okay, sorry, really literally lost it there. Okay, first link option is the Facebook page. If you don't want people going to your Facebook page, remove that. If you do build a lot of trust on your Facebook page, leave that there. But I found that most people don't, if you had to choose, if you if you had a click that someone could give you, would you rather it be to your Facebook page or would you rather it be to your website? So we're gonna go to the second link, which says start here, and it's her welcome page. Okay, so it's loading and it's like a bunch of options. So it says, hey, Instafriend, that's very cute. So I would just take the Facebook thing out of there altogether and have it be one link to this welcome page, unless there's a specific reason that you want people to go to Facebook. Okay, so it says hi, it says I'm Melissa family photographer. Use the links below to find out more information. So we have website home, newsletter sign up, contact me, families, maternity, newborns, military events. So this is great. We've broken up, we're sending the people on their way. Now remember, I am a mother who is trying to get her newborn photograph, so I'm gonna click newborns. When I click that page, it says newborn or no, it doesn't say that. It says Northern Virginia newborn photographer, timeless and intentional portraits for your newest little one. I scroll down and I see her, and she is holding a port printed portrait of a newborn post. Okay, going down further, and then we have the investment. So what the investment is for a newborn or a fresh 48, and then we have a portfolio. Again, the portfolio is in the horizontal frame uh the horizontal way. Why why can't I think of words? I'm hitting the time frame where my brain stopped working in terms of length of speaking. Also, can I just say that I was really brave and I'm going to be speaking to my chamber of commerce and I'm really nervous, but I feel like hours and hours and hours and hours of yapping that I've done on this podcast will help me. Okay, so we have that horizontal portfolio. It's probably fine. I don't know why those bother me. I just feel like I want to scroll down. That's just what my little finger wants to do, and maybe the Northern Virginia new. Mom's finger wants to do. I don't know. I'm sure it's fine. I just like the idea of being able to keep scrolling instead of all the sudden switching up and scrolling horizontally. Then we have reviews, and then we have the experience. I will say your text is really small. So, like on the newborn experience, my tiny fingers, big emotions, a relaxed session at your baby's pace. I can like I'm 41, so my eyes are not fresh and new, but like I want to zoom in on my screen to read that. So I would just make the text a little bit bigger. That's true for quite a bit of text on here. You want to always make text big enough for someone with slightly bad eyes. Okay. Then it says the studio experience, and it has a picture of the studio and then a dress that's like on a mannequin, which I this makes me want a little mannequin like this that's so aesthetic for my studio. Everything you need for beautiful photos, you don't need to bring in except anything except baby, the client in the wardrobe with curated collection. Then she has an FAQ. How far in advance should we book? When will we get our photos? Um, all of this stuff. Then we have a book your session button, and then we have a little thing at the bottom that's just like about her. So I'm gonna click the book your session button because remember, I'm this mom and I want to get this done. So then I say, get in touch. Your um intentional seamless photography experience begins here, and then it says her email, her office hours, and her location, and then there's a contact form. Now let's go through the contact form. Okay, so it says first name, last name, email, phone number, preferred date type of session, where'd you like your session to take place? How did you hear about me? Share details. So this is like sorry, tailbone maneuvering. This is the kind of like max that I would like to see on this sort of form. I wouldn't ask any other questions than this many. Otherwise, you're just gonna get people that are like overwhelmed with this experience, right? Okay, so overall, if I'm a mom from this area and I am interested in booking a session with her, um, let's see if I had enough, enough imagery. I think the issue is just like I want to see more newborn photos as I scroll. And I I this may just be a personal note about how I like to view things. I'll also say that the professionalism and information education, assisting and passion about being the the um expert of her own brand is much more clear, like on this page than on her website when it comes to newborn photos. So, like here, her latest newborn photo that or carousel that she posted one day ago said, sent off this sweet girls gallery this morning. I love every single shot. A happy baby, relaxed, supported parents, wardrobe for mom taking care of neutral tone, the perfect mix of natural and studio lighting equals perfection. I'm so honored to document your newest edition. See the slide for my upcoming availability. Ouch. Sorry.

Final Advice, Intensives & Membership

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I love that I have a seated injury. Like I'm literally sitting here not moving, and my tailbone is stabbing me from the inside. Okay, so I love this as what uh what mama texted me after this session. Thank you so much for today. You made everything so easy, and I cannot thank you enough. As a sleep-deprived mom trying to navigate our unexpected move, I didn't think we'd be able to get pictures done, and you made this such a great experience. That should be literally the caption of this post because that story is so connecting for a for a potential client, right? And then you said, I only take a few newborns every month. Here's my availability. All right. So I would just if when you're talking about newborns, if you're if you're stuck on what to say, I want to go to one more newborn and I see if you have kind of an educational vibe throughout. So this says, as I go through my work from one year to or as I go through my work from the year, these images gave me all the feels. I have so many sessions I haven't showcased here. I'm so grateful. So again, instead of information like in the copy, tell the story of this session. Not only will that help you if you ever blog these type of sessions, if you're coming from a place of being the local expert, um, I just love the idea of hearing more about this particular session, how you helped it come together, like this wrap that this baby has. Is this something that you provide? There's a little poodle in the like, what's your position on dogs? I just think there's a little bit more room for being like the helpful educator that's so, so clear on your website and missing a tiny bit from your Instagram. Okay, so I hope this was helpful. Um, I have, let's see, one, two, three, four, five more. Um, so it's either gonna be one more episode that's long or two more episodes where I don't lose my voice. So we'll just see. Um, but again, brought to you by the 90-minute marketing intensive. So if you want to work with me, have me look at all your stuff, give you my honest opinion. I'm but I'm very nice. You can see that I'm a very friendly lady. Um, and I just want people to be very, very clear. And if you need help setting up a specific booking path, so maybe you're like, I am sick of social media and I want to figure out a different way to get clients, that's another thing that we can talk about. So there'll be linked in the show notes. And uh yeah, I'm excited about those. I think they'll be really good. And as always, the membership is here to support you for only $35 a month. Okay, have a good week.