I was standing in line at Target the other day looking at all the different magazine covers… As I was looking, thoughts were coming in my head like ‘I know they are trying to portray the split – but nothing about Courtney’s expression wants to make me pick up that issue!’ I was also thinking about depending on who it is, I may or may not pick one up as well as what it is.

I’m not one that’s too into the Hollywood mags so I probably wouldn’t grab US or People… I love fashion but only for the images and never the articles so I do like InStyle’s Cover but not as crazy about Cosmo’s. As my eyes scroll down I almost want to avoid InTouch and Life Styles (I think that’s what it’s called). They are just too busy and cluttered and than I finally get to my favorite type of magazines…. The Home, Cooking, Family type… What’s the first thing I’m going to look at? Hands down it’s the image… The image will determine if I even read the article’s captions. I thought about web presence and how it correlates. Your web presence is just like this rack of magazines… If your potential client did a Google search to find local photographers and you came up… Chances are it wouldn’t be just you on the page, there would be pages of options. Like this rack, the web offers lots of choices….

A few things to think about:

1. Find your target…. I’m the target market for the cooking & family magazine companies, you may be the target for the fashion or gossip magazines. You have to know who you are trying to “grab”.

2. Once you know your general target (do you shoot wedding, families, babies, etc)…. It’s time to narrow it down even further. What type of style does your client have, where do they shop, how is their home decorated? What would grab their attention? If we are talking magazines… I would grab Real Simple. I’m a sucker for food photography, I love soup and I like the contemporary vibe of the cover. You might choose differently and that’s the good news, we all won’t grab the same magazine!

3. The market is saturated. You can either see that with frustration (which I don’t advise) or you can observe that the more options there are… The easier it becomes to really stand out and make obvious the strong from the weak. When given 4 choices, it was easy for me to know which one I wanted to grab.

4. Presentation is très importante!! Are you seeing why having a great logo, a strong brand and a great marketing campaign could very well be the defining factor over and over that will set you apart when a client compares apples to apples?  Your blog or website is the very first thing a potential client sees. You have the opportunity to either pull them in or, unintentionally, you may be pushing them away.

If you feel that you need some guidance on reviewing and refining your web presence to make it stronger and more alluring to your potential clients, Phone Consultations are available where we can review your look, the design and feel, portfolios and I can help you find potential improvements for your site(s). $100/hr.