Small Business Photo: A Smart Website

I met Laird Brown over a year ago and have enjoyed getting to know him and his Phoenix, AZ photography business. As a savvy and cost conscious small business owner, Laird has created a lot of his marketing collateral himself. I will tell the truth here—I normally turn my nose up at self-made marketing materials especially websites. Most of the time they look very templated and have very poor content.

Laird’s website is absolutely the exception. It is not a super sophisticated design but it looks nice (and not at all templated) and more importantly the content is completely optimized to the needs of his consumer. You can tell from his website that he totally gets his client, knows what they want, and has made it easy to find.  Check out Laird’s website below or at smallbusinessphoto.com along with a few of my points on what makes this website so strong.

1)    URL and Title: Tells visitors exactly what types of photos he does, not weddings or fine art, but small business. If you own a small business and need photos, then you know you are in the right place.

2)    Navigation: Laird has kept the site simple, addressing the main questions up front:

Why YOU should be in your marketing? Who he is? How to contact him?

3)    Portfolio: This is the best part of this website and probably the most important. Of course, prospects want to see his work to know how good he is. They do not (and will not) spend hours trolling through his site looking through hundred of photos. The mistake most photographers make is to include too many images on their website. They want to include everything in the hopes of appealing to everyone. All this does is bore and chase off potential clients by overwhelming them.

Instead of the typical scattershot approach, Laird has focused his portfolio into four main categories and given them meaningful titles. They tell a visitor how they might use photography in their business beyond the typical boring headshots: Showing the People Who Make Your Business a Success, Presenting your Facilities, and Product Pride. Each gallery features only five to ten of Laird’s best pieces—enough to give them an idea of his ability, but not so much that they get bored.

I am not advocating that you all run out and dump your web designer or marketing agency and build your website yourself. It is a lot of work and you do need to have a very thourough understanding of your client base. My point here is that it is not impossible to get a good handle on your client’s needs and how effective a marketing piece can be when it is built with the client in mind. Great work Laird!

(Disclaimer: Though Laird was not a client when I conceived of this post he has since hired me to update his logo and business ID.)