Today we have a very special guest joining us, my IRL bestie, Kate Hejde of Dear Kate Brand Strategy.
In this episode, we dive deep into the anatomy of a GREAT website and how to optimize your photography services page to build your SEO + grow your business.
The Business-First Creatives Podcast is brought to you by CRM and Dubsado expert Colie James. Join Colie each week as she discusses how to build a business that brings you joy and a paycheck! From business advice with fellow entrepreneurs to sharing automation tips and tricks, Colie and her guests are sharing industry trends and resources, along with a little bit of sarcasm.
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Guest Bio:
Kate started her photography business in 2011 as her first baby turned one. She loved being able to stay home with her but also have a creative outlet. While she fell in love with photography, she discovered that she was even more passionate about the business side of things. Afterall, she had spent my childhood on the corner selling homemade perfume and even going door to door trying to sell a gerbil. (yes, really. Why did her mom let her do that??)
As her business and family grew, she realized that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to running a business. Instead, she’s passionate about helping small business owners build a brand that fits their dream lifestyle.
That’s why she offers brand strategy sessions, done for you Showit websites, and the Website Launch Accelerator.
She’s all for sharing what she’s learned in her nearly 12 😱 years of business and she does that on her podcast, How You Pictured It, her blog, and her YouTube channel.
Here are the highlights…
01:39 – How we met
03:17 – How I updated + optimized her original maternity session blog post
06:33 – Do you want someone to just answer your questions?
10:15 – Why you should spend ALL your energy on your services pages (and how to optimize your photography services page for SEO and client experience)
14:07 – Use words your potential clients are using
19:45 – Why you need your location on every page of your website
24:51 – Perfect person reads headlines, remembers compelling pictures
28:20 – About that About Me page
31:28 – Be authentic and consistent across all platforms
34:44 – How to use social media to drive people to your website
39:09 – How to choose a website template for your business
Mentioned in this Episode
Website Accelerator Save $200 October 2-13th
Your Website Report Card
About Page Framework and Showit Template
Dubsado Save 30% with COLIEJAMES
Showit – Get One Month FREE
CRM Blueprint for Creatives Use the code PODCAST for 10% off.
DIY Systems Shop Use the code PODCAST for 10% off.
Connect with Kate
Website: dearkatebrandstrategy.com
Instagram: @dearkatebrandstrategy
Podcast: How You Pictured It
If you’ve tried setting up your Dubsado account, yet aren’t actually utilizing all of the features it offers, I want to invite you to check out The CRM Blueprint. My course includes templates for all of the forms, emails, and workflows that you need to get paid in one easy step. Ready to maximize your use of Dubsado, enroll in The CRM Blueprint today! Use the code PODCAST for 10% off.
Review the Transcript:
Colie James:
I know you guys are sick and tired of hearing me talk about the importance of having a good website for your business, but that is today’s topic. Now, another like surprise today, I am interviewing Kate Hyde of Dear Kate Brand Strategy. And the funny thing is guys, this is my in real life bestie. Like, we have known each other for over a decade. Our children are friends. We live like 20 minutes apart on a good day, but Kate, hello. And finally, welcome to the Business First Creatives Podcast.
Kate Hejde:
I’m so excited to be here. Thanks Colie for having me.
Colie James:
Ah, okay. So we are really going to try hard today guys, not to get off topic, but I know that we will. So it’s okay. Kate, why don’t you tell the listening audience how we know each other? Because I feel like every time someone’s like, Oh my God, your best friends in real life. I feel like it should come with an explanation.
Kate Hejde:
a kind of funny thing because we’ve known each other since the days of like old message boards before Facebook groups and we met each other in a photography group. When you were looking for a maternity model and I was pregnant with my second baby and then it turned out that our daughters are really close in age and we really hit it off and have had a long friendship since. We’re conference buddies, we travel a lot together, um, and it’s been really fun growing businesses alongside of you.
Colie James:
Yes, I can’t agree more. And yes, guys, our daughters are a little bit less than three months apart, so we are both dealing with 13 year old girls. Everyone should have pity on us, don’t you think?
Kate Hejde:
It’s a little scary. It was, we had a scary night last night.
Colie James:
Well, I feel like in this household, it’s like a switch has flipped. Oh, by the way, your little friend, Chloe was cussing in the car yesterday with me, James and mom, all of us in there. And then she tried to say, I didn’t say shit. And we just looked at her. Like all three of us heard you say this, like this is insanity. So yes, guys, Kate was my very first maternity model. When people ask me how I started my business and how I managed to grow and thrive it, I’m always like. Well, what happened was I had a few really good models in the beginning and I just marketed the shit out of those photos., Because for Kate I made a fresh 48 video and I tell you guys I made this video I put it up online and granted Kate shared it, I mean that was a big part of it, but literally everyone who watched the video would contact me and be like, okay I saw this video that you made at Poudre Valley Hospital and like I want that Can you do that for me? And I was like sure
Kate Hejde:
Do you know, I still get hits on, um, old blog posts that have your photos in them.
Colie James:
I mean, that’s true. It’s a funny story. And hey, let’s tell this story before we kick off talking about websites. So guys, one of the things that people always ask me is, well, you know, I’m doing this new thing or I have a new style. And so I have all these blog posts, like what should I do with them? And so I tell the story of what I did with Kate’s blog post. Cause again, guys, she was a maternity model for me outside at a lake. Who here thinks I would still let those images be on my website? I don’t do outside. I don’t, I don’t do any of that, but Kate’s original blog post had probably 30 images in it.
Colie James:
Because that was when people were telling you, you know, you practically throw an entire session worth of images in one blog post. That is no longer the thing, words count more than images now guys. But anyways, I’m digressing. So her original blog post was outside, with like 30 images by a lake, and plus my editing style back then was like really contrasty and with a lot of matte. I mean, it’s way different than it is now. But her blog post for Longmont Maternity Photographer has continued to get like, I don’t think it’s getting hundreds every month now, but for a while it was getting hundreds of hits a month. And I was like, okay, but I don’t want someone to see that blog post and expect me to take them to Macintosh Lake outside and take photos. So what I ended up doing was taking every single image off.
Colie James:
I chose my five favorites, I re edited them in my current style, and then the rest of the blog post was about fresh 48s. Like they came for the maternity, but hopefully you’ll stay for the newborn, right? So that is how I took a very old, and outdated piece of content, and made it new so that when people came on that blog post, they were actually seeing what I wanted them to see, which was either in home newborn sessions or fresh 48s.
Kate Hejde:
I love that. That’s such a good idea.
Colie James:
So let’s talk about websites. So my friend Kate has done lots of things, guys. She has a studio where she does posed newborns, she dabbled in brand photography, but now she has landed on what is like the new love of her life websites. So Kate, tell me how that came about. Okay.
Kate Hejde:
Well, you know, it was, I was kind of getting out of shooting all of the time. I love photography, but I am a person whose business has to fit her life. Um, not the other way around. And it’s vitally important for me that whatever I do, fits our family schedule. When I dabbled in senior photography, I loved shooting the seniors, but I was doing in person sales and I hated the schedule that came with that. And that really like, um, like opened up my eyes to the fact that whatever I do in business has to fit with our schedule and our family life first. And then, um, kind of. Be something that I’m passionate about as well.
Kate Hejde:
So pandemic comes around. I was kind of pivoting into teaching. I was teaching how I left in person sales and started doing soft proofing. Um, and so I was building another website for that on Showit. And I was getting so frustrated because I knew all of the steps, like I knew what needed to be done. I know how to make a website. I’ve used Showit before I was using it again. And I was getting really frustrated that I didn’t have someone to like guide me through it.
Kate Hejde:
And with that, you know what they say is like, you know, find the thing that’s missing and do it. And that’s where I’m at now. So I love websites. I love designing websites. I love the strategy and like the theory and the marketing behind websites. And so now I help other small business owners, creatives build their own websites.
Colie James:
I mean, the, the fact that you can have people that are coming to you and are asking you very specific questions and you can answer it because I’ve always joked around, like, if I could just get someone like in a company, I guess, to pay me to answer their clients questions, I would hop on that in a minute. I literally just want to answer people’s questions. Like you, you have questions, just, just hop in, just ask them. I will answer them and I will move on because I think that you and I agree the thing about doing the fully done for you services, like a fully done for you Dubsado or HoneyBook set up or creating a website is that it takes so long and it takes so much of your brain to do like the entire process, but I love, I mean, that’s why I love my course. I love giving my students the pieces that they need and then you come to me when you get stuck and then I can help you get unstuck very quickly, but I’m not responsible for building your entire system from beginning to end in that kind of situation.
Kate Hejde:
I just think that, um, especially like with small business owners like us, you have to be able to make changes on the fly. And there are things that you need to know about your website and your business that you can learn from doing it yourself.
Colie James:
DIYing, your website is such a hard and daunting thing for most people, but I know that you can help people and make it easy. But let’s say that someone has realized that their website is like really old and needs to be refreshed. What is the first thing that you suggest that everyone do when they are starting out to refresh their website?
Kate Hejde:
Well, first I would say I have a website report card that helps you grade your current website. It gives you an overview of like exactly what’s hitting and what’s missing and kind of gives you a guide of like what you need to have on the new site as well. Because you’re seeing like, Oh, I’m missing this, I need that. And that helps too. Um, the next thing I would say is. That copy always comes first for me when it comes to website design. The words are the most important thing. The design is dictated by the copy.
Kate Hejde:
So figuring out who you are, who you serve, and how you serve them differently than other people is going to be critical. That’s the brand strategy part of things. Figuring out what your messaging is going to be and then how you want to explain that would be my first steps. I, um, in my course have outlines and templates and frameworks for every page of your website. I also have, um, free resources on that about what goes on each page of your website too, to help you kind of figure out, like, what pages you need. I think that a lot of the time we get caught up in like, okay, I bought a template and the template has this space for this copy and this space for this copy. And I need a portfolio page. And I need this page and a testimonials page.
Kate Hejde:
And honestly, that’s not really how your website should look in the end. Like, that’s not how people are working through a website. They’re not going to your website and saying, Oh, let me look at her testimonials. No one’s looking at that page. Right? Like that drives me nuts. I, and the portfolio page too. I, feel like if they do click to that website or that page, then they’re just seeing a bunch of pictures. There’s no information.
Kate Hejde:
Google’s not finding that page because there’s no words. Um, so I do have quite a few like pet peeves about website pages. After doing this for like over a year now, I’ve been working out with websites. Like really figuring out one, what’s working and what’s not working on your current website. And then two, what that messaging and strategy needs to be going forward.
Colie James:
I mean, I almost feel like when I was coaching students, photographers with their business. I was not a website guru. Let me put you that way. I just, I’m like Kate. I have a lot of very strong opinions and I think that having a super strong services page is something that most people overlook because they are really caught up in, Oh my gosh, well, I need a pricing or investment page and I need a portfolio page and I need, you know, the, the testimonial page, as you said, yeah. But if you build a really strong services page, you can actually incorporate pieces from all three of those in one page, and then you can really work on the SEO for like that kind of service because, like, I mean, you know, I do newborns and I do families and I do some other stuff. But they don’t get services pages like those are my two main services pages. And if I can create one for newborns, that’s talking about, you know, your children are not little forever.
Colie James:
And, you know, a bunch of really powerful things that pushes someone to hire me for a newborn, that can be a very different way of talking than I do on the family page. But each of those can have the portfolio images. Each of those can have really great headlines. They can have social proof, testimonials from clients that hired me for either one. So is that a page that you cover in your course, by the way, like a services page?
Kate Hejde:
It absolutely is. I’m very much pushed for services pages, either for individual services or like a work with me page. If you have multiple services that kind of fit the same audience, the same target person, um, then we can put them all on one page. But when you have like newborn photography and family photography, you’re talking to two different people. So having a way to talk to them individually and giving them all of the information they need, and less friction, um, getting to that like contact form, is super critical I think in a website design.
Colie James:
And I think one of the other things I was on a podcast interview, I apologize for whoever it is that I was interviewing. I can’t remember which one it was, but we were having a conversation about sales pages. And I, you know, I just brought up, I’m like, well, that’s one of my pet peeves with photographers. I was like, they completely ignore sales pages because number one, they hate to seem salesy. And number two, they just think that doesn’t apply to their kind of business. And I’m like, no, like you can take the outline of a really great sales page and that should be your backbone for your services page. And they’re like, well, no, I have a portfolio. I’m like, yeah, but you don’t need a portfolio.
Kate Hejde:
No, it needs to work together. Like it’s a marriage between the words and the images and showing your work and telling your work and explaining who you are and how you help people through both the words and the images is critical. And when you separate them by doing like a portfolio page and investment page. One, that investment page just has a bunch of words and numbers. No one wants to read that. No one wants to look at that. And it like overwhelms people and they think it doesn’t show the value of what you’re offering at the same time as you’re introducing the price. So having the services pages really brings both of those things together.
Kate Hejde:
Like the messaging and the imagery and sells it as much as you don’t want to be salesy. You don’t have to be, your website is selling for you.
Colie James:
I mean, and when it comes to, I always laugh. I mean, I laugh hysterically at people. So if you were one of those people, I apologize in advance. I really crack up at people who insist on having an investment page and there’s actually no pricing.
Kate Hejde:
Yes.
Colie James:
Like it’s like a whole page talking about what I will do for you. And then in the end, it’s like, fill out this contact form to get pricing. Like, I definitely don’t think that you should have a pricing page if you are not actually communicating your pricing. I mean, starting prices, okay. But like, you’re not giving them anything and you had them click on this page for nothing. That is going to bring frustration. That is going to have someone clicking off of your website and saying, okay, next.
Kate Hejde:
Yep. Absolutely. And I think speaking of pricing pages and investment pages, one, I hate the word investment. No one is Googling. What’s the investment for newborn photography? What’s the investment for a realtor? They’re looking up pricing, like how much does it cost? So using those costs and price on your website is going to help Google serve your results to people that are looking for that question. Um, And then having something I think is really important, having starting prices, having some kind of information about like, yeah, how much is this going to cost me? Because it helps weed out the people who one, can’t afford it or think you’re out of their budget automatically. And then two, it helps anchor people who aren’t sure how much things are going to cost. It gives them like a vague idea to get them started.
Kate Hejde:
And it tells them like, oh, for this level of service, this is how much it’s going to be. To just know and then to want to contact you. I think a lot of the times people will look at something and if it says, like, think about like you’re going to a steak restaurant and like that filet mignon says MP next to it, right? Market price. Are you going to order that? Are you going to ask how much it costs? Probably not. If you have any kind of a budget in your mind, um, even if you maybe could afford it, it just like feels daunting, I think to ask that price. So not having any kind of pricing on your website, I feel is like putting that market, market price, market value on your, on your menu.
Colie James:
Well, and also making sure that you are not hiding your prices, because it’s one thing for you to leave a starting price. It’s one thing for you to have it on the website. But guys, if you are getting too many people who are contacting you and being like, Oh, you’re out of budget. Oh, you’re out of budget. I mean, I don’t want people to get on the phone with me if I’m completely out of budget with them. And so, even if you have that price on your services page, the 1 thing that I’ve started doing, and I mean, I guess this is related to Dubsado. I’m sorry. We had to talk
Kate Hejde:
That’s okay.
Colie James:
on your contact page. I actually have above the form. These are the starting prices and then also when people are inquiring about my Dubsado setup services, when you click the drop down in the contact form, it actually lists each service and it gives the price because when you’re, you know, when you’re charging 5, 000, you want to make sure that someone knows it’s 5, 000 before I get on the phone with you. Otherwise, all I’m going to hear is, oh, that sounds great, but you’re just too expensive. Okay. But did you not know I was too expensive before we got on the phone? No. Okay. Okay.
Kate Hejde:
Yeah, I agree. Having, having it multiple places is smart, but at the very least, having it somewhere, um, along with what it is that you offer and who it is that you serve, um, is really critical to getting the right inquiries, getting good inquiries and not just like how much.
Colie James:
I mean, that is true because how many of us have gotten those inquiries were in our questions box. It’s just a how much do you cost? Well, I’m sorry. Let me refer you back to the page that you completely skipped over where it said my session fee is 350 and my digital collection start at 750. I mean, if you want additional information, I’m happy to share that with you, but you could have found that in like, 5 different places on my website. So. Cool. Yeah, that just means that you didn’t even take the time. To go through my website, which to me, someone who offers photography, who, I mean, it’s not very different from everyone now.
Colie James:
I will be the first to admit that, but for the longest, my photography was very different. I wanted to make sure that you saw my work, that you knew I was not going to come into your house and pose you to look perfect and get, you know, that Christmas card or that one for the wall where everybody’s staring at the camera and smiling. Like, I don’t do that. It’s nowhere on my website. So if you’ve done a good job of looking through my website, then you know what to expect. But let’s talk about your homepage. Cause I feel like we’ve talked about your services page, which I think is like that hidden gem. It’s the thing that people should spend the most time on that they don’t.
Colie James:
But like what makes a really good homepage? Like what are the must haves for your homepage?
Kate Hejde:
So simply, like the most simple thing is your location. If you’re a location based business, um, that needs to be on every page of your website. And it’s like, God, if I click to someone’s website and I can’t tell where they’re located, that drives me totally bonkers. But having some kind of core message and, um, explanation of who you are and what you do, who you do it for. Um, yeah. needs to be like above the fold at the top of the page. It needs to be like blam. I need to be able to land on that site and know those three things, right? I need to understand if I’m in the right place and I need to understand if you understand me.
Colie James:
Kate, what if I travel? You know, that’s what I always come back with. And that’s what people tell me. And I’m like, no, I’m a traveling photographer. And in my footer, it still says I service Denver, Colorado, Dallas, Texas, and anywhere that planes will fly. So I’ve told you where I’m located. I’ve also told you that I travel and that is available everywhere on my website, because when it comes to photography. Like, you know, Pinterest, this is not even a website topic, but Pinterest, like you get so many hits from Pinterest, especially since my most viral posts are fresh 48 posts, but like, I’m not photographing your baby in a hospital if you are not located inside Denver, or the occasional Dallas client. But I mean, still, I think it’s very important for you to know when you land on my website, I am not located in Milwaukee.
Colie James:
No, I will not come photograph your fresh 48.
Kate Hejde:
Well, and like, even if you’re not a local service provider, I think it’s important to have your location somewhere on your website. Um, multiple places, preferably because Google is going to pull results for the service that’s closest, even if it doesn’t matter. So say somebody is hiring me to build their website, I don’t need to be in the same city as them, but if my locations on. Uh, my website and someone Googles website designer, it’s going to pull the locations or like the websites that are closest to them first, the results that are closest to them, um, regardless of if it matters or not that they can be served locally. So having that is important, even if you just have a time zone or like, give people an idea of where you are in the world. I think it’s important.
Colie James:
I mean, yeah, because how many times, I mean, even for business coaches, guys, like I, it’s not that I wouldn’t hire a business coach that lives on the other side of the world, but it does make scheduling phone calls incredibly difficult if, you know, they’re always sleeping when you’re awake and vice versa and all that good jazz.
Kate Hejde:
like we’ve ever done that, right,
Colie James:
I mean, sometimes I’m up at 3 a. m. for business calls from Australia. I, you know, but you want to know that going forward or up front before you get too invested. All right. What else goes on your homepage? Location? What else?
Kate Hejde:
Location, who you are, what you do and who you do it for. Mostly you want to target like at the beginning you need to talk about like how you understand where they’re at right now. You would need to talk about that client’s pain points or like what brought them to you? Um, I know in photography, especially like, I’m talking about photography a lot. I help people in all different businesses, but I have a lot of experience in photography obviously. And I know you do too. Um, so, um, like you feel like there’s no pain point, right? Like. Oh,
Colie James:
Oh, there is a painpoint…
Kate Hejde:
They’re going to forget, or they’re not going to remember what they look like, or they’re not going to be in pictures. And yes, like, that is a pain point, but it’s the same pain point everyone else is using. How do you make it different? So, uh, like with my photography website specifically, I talked about how I, my sessions are relaxed and fun. And it’s, you’re not there for like everyone’s perfect hair in place images. I talk about it’s not the highlight reel. I talk about like the Instagram worthy photos. I talk about all of those things, but I make sure to focus it on like what I most want to do and how I most want to help people in my messaging. Then next on my homepage, it goes into the different services that I offer.
Kate Hejde:
And those, there’s three buttons that lead them to those three services pages. Yup. And then I talk about who I am. I also have testimonials sprinkled throughout all of these pages. Every page of my website has testimonials on it. Um, that also helps Google. Uh, I was working with a client just yesterday whose website is up, but like not complete yet. So she hasn’t gone in and done all of the SEO things.
Kate Hejde:
And what Google pulled for her meta descriptions were testimonials. Yeah. So, you know, it’s interesting to see how much Google values that, um, and how much people that are reading your site value it. They need to see like, Kate did this, this, this, and this so that they know that that’s what they’re getting too. So homepage is really about nailing in that overarching messaging and overall strategy of your brand. I think even if you service multiple different types of people, there’s gotta be some common thread in the why of what you do and the how you do it.
Colie James:
Yes, absolutely. And then like the homepage, I mean, they say when they land on your website, you’ve got 30 seconds, which I think it’s less than 30 seconds now, but whatever, you know, they land on your website and they almost make an instant decision as to whether or not they are in the right place. And so all those things that Kate just listed are things that are going to help you communicate to the people who are visiting your website, that they are in fact in the right place for what they’re looking for. And if they’re not. Bye!
Kate Hejde:
right,
Colie James:
It’s
Kate Hejde:
right. Absolutely. You don’t want them there if they’re not the right fit, because then you’re going to be getting those, how much inquiries you want the ones that say, Hey, I saw your work and I love it. And I really want to work with you. And my baby is due. And you know, you want them to re-state what you said on your website back to you in the inquiry. And that is the best feeling in the world. I feel like when you both understand each other and you both have the same common goal.
Colie James:
That you’ve gotten to the right people and that they’ve understood what you said to them. I mean, it’s funny. This has nothing to do with the website, but like contracts. I was working with someone the other day that like read my contract and sent me back questions. And I’m like, no, I love it when people read my contract, cause it means that they’re really invested in working with me. It means that they’re really making sure that I’m a good fit. And I feel like the same is true of your website. Like they’re reading your headlines.
Colie James:
The perfect person for you is going to read the headlines. They are going to remember the pictures that spoke to them. And when they inquire, they are going to lead with either flattering you or just, again, telling you what they found on your website most compelling, before they get to the questions. I mean, those people might still ask you how much. But there is a difference between someone saying how much of your services or someone saying, oh, my God, like, I love that photo of all of the siblings on the bed in the hospital. That’s so sweet. I’m having a baby, blah, blah, blah. I’m hoping that you’re in my budget.
Colie James:
Can we discuss pricing? Like, that’s a very different conversation.
Kate Hejde:
is. Absolutely. And I think, um, that, you know, when I’m saying that how much email, like that’s all that that email says. And those are people
Colie James:
And capital letters, have you ever gotten one of those?
Kate Hejde:
So many times before, before I really nailed down my messaging on my website, that’s what I would get. And then, you know what? That’s a dead end. Like every time. Like, if I’m getting a how much email, I probably won’t even bother responding or I’ll just let my auto responder from my Dubsado
Colie James:
that for you.
Kate Hejde:
take care of it. Yes, exactly. So, um, I think having all of those, those touch points with people and explaining who you are and what you do and how you can help them, creates a better business for you. Um, and it leads to that being able to work with the people you want to work with and have that joy in your life, and have your business fit your life.
Colie James:
Yeah. I think we’ve got like two more pages to talk about. I feel like I hear you like screaming about this next one over and over again. So guys, I, I apologize in advance if she gets up on her high horse. Let’s talk about the about me page.
Kate Hejde:
was what you’re going to say.
Colie James:
Okay.
Kate Hejde:
So your about page is typically the second page that people click to when they land on your website. Like they land on your website, the first link they’re going to click is about. More than 50 percent of people click about you talk to people that are like I never looking at about page, but it’s like statistically that’s that’s what people are. Yeah, looking at and then like if you actually watch your behavior when you’re scrolling a website, you’re going to click to that about page. So, when you land on that about page, do you want to read? Hi, I’m Colie. I like Disneyland and want, um, and I love capturing photos of your family and, you know, like, do you care? You have to give somebody a reason to care before you get to that part. There’s the idea of the know, like, and trust factor. And I feel like we’ve got the order of those wrong.
Kate Hejde:
We have to get them to trust us before they can get to know us and like us. How we get them to trust us is to show them that we understand where they are and what their problems and feelings are right now and how we can solve that. So, take the opportunity of your About page and do that. We’re skipping out on an opportunity when all we put is like, I like iced coffee and sunny days. We like to play by the river. I know I’ve got my iced coffee here too. But, but that’s like skipping straight to like, let’s go on a date versus like, I’m not a creeper. I know who you are and I know what you need, which is a much better introduction to somebody.
Colie James:
And granted, again, we know this audience is not just photographers, but the one thing that I tell all photographers is number one, if you have not hired someone to photograph your own family, like you need to hit pause, you need to go find someone to hire, because there is so much that you can learn from being on the other side of the lens. But I also say that there’s incredible value in having professional photography on your about me page. Because when someone gets there. like, for instance, we were talking about pain points before and how everybody has the same pain points, but for me, it’s you are probably the person who takes all the photos in your family and don’t you want to be in some that are not taken at the selfie angle? And so I’m showing all of the people that I’ve hired to take photos of me so that they can see that I put my money where my mouth is.
Kate Hejde:
Right.
Colie James:
I go on vacation. I hire someone to take photos of us at the beach. And also I’ve had two Disneyland sessions. I’m in desperate need of a third one, but hey, I mean, but also when you were talking about like, tying who you are to what you do. Like I rarely mentioned Disneyland without telling people the only reason that I can ride on Dumbo is because Dubsado is taking care of my inquiries. Dubsado is sending out the communications. It’s making sure that all of the things are getting done in my business, while I’m hanging out at Disneyland with my daughter. So yes, I talk about Disneyland.
Colie James:
But I also talk about how they can go spend time wherever it is that they love if they have good systems and automations in the background too.
Kate Hejde:
Well, and I, I think, I think it’s okay to, to also have those selfie photos in there too. I think it’s relatable and it, it creates that like and trust or the know and like factor. Um, But it goes further down on your page. It’s trust, then like, then know, almost. Like, it’s just not the order that we say it in. And I think, um, you have to be really clear on, you know, why it matters to them that you like iced coffee. Like, you know, like, like you’re saying with Disneyland. It has to matter to them why Disneyland’s important to you.
Kate Hejde:
Um, and, sometimes it’s just like a way to relate to people and that’s totally fine too. Like there’s fun ways to add just that personality factor. Um, and I think personality throughout your site is important throughout your copy. Um, and. I think having like thinking through like how you actually talk and using your voice,
Colie James:
Mm hmm.
Kate Hejde:
throughout your website gets them to that about page, gets them to know you a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and then you can throw in the, I like iced coffee and sunny days and you’ll find this by the river, you know,
Colie James:
Okay, you said that and for some reason in my head I heard Olaf saying, I like more hugs.
Kate Hejde:
like warm hugs. Well, I was thinking, um, about the man down by the river living in a van. Chris Farley.
Colie James:
Mm
Kate Hejde:
But really, my family, like, I do have stuff on my website, on my, uh, photography business website about our family loving to go play by the river. Um, and I do river photography too. So it’s tied in.
Colie James:
So it’s tied. Yes. I mean, I just, I love the about me page and I’m so happy that you brought up the whole voice thing, because in the month of August, I had an entire series on brand and marketing and all of these things. And the one thing that you have to be in your business, everywhere on your website and your social media, if we’re being honest, is authentic, but that word gets overused. So in other words, let’s just say, You should be yourself. The same person that they meet on your website should be the same person that they have a consultation call with, should be the same person who shows up at their house or outside at the river to take photographs or to design a website or whatever it is that your service does. But your website is just one more way to get that, to get them to get to know you. And you can’t do that if your brand voice is different than your voice.
Kate Hejde:
absolutely. And I, um, I, speaking of social media, I think that we rely on it so much to drive traffic to our business when we have this website, if it’s a good website, Google’s sending you traffic and they’re sending the right people. Not just like broadcasting into a sea of people like you are on social media. Google’s helping you refine who’s coming to your site if you’re doing a good job of speaking to them.
Colie James:
Yes, I mean, search engines. So it’s funny because you and I know we, we, you use the TikTok. I don’t use the TikTok. I can’t get behind using TikTok as a search engine. But when you think about it in that way, people are not typically going to Instagram to search for their photographer. They may find your work through someone else, or through that main page, the Explorer page. I
Kate Hejde:
I don’t even use
Colie James:
of it is. Yeah, I mean, you could. But when it comes to your website and your SEO and using Google as an actual search engine, those people are kind of opting in with their hand saying, I am looking for a photographer or whatever your services in this area to do this for me. And Google is trying its damnedest to match you with websites that it thinks fits the bill. And so you really need to make sure that your website is up to, up to snuff or that it fits the bill so that when they land on it, they’re instantly like, Oh my gosh, Google did such a good job. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Kate Hejde:
Right, and then you also have to be really strategic in your website that you’re leading people through the pages and the information that they need. And that goes back to that, like, having a pricing page and a portfolio page and a reviews page. Like, people don’t want to click all of that.
Colie James:
Which one should they go to first? Anyways, like if you have those, how do you make them do one
Kate Hejde:
Right. And it’s overwhelming. And I think a lot of the time that when you build your own website, you get that template you, or you like, look at somebody else’s website and try to guess like what needs to be on there. Or you write down all of the information and then you try to like puzzle piece, stick it in. Where it fits in their template and it doesn’t always make sense. Um, and you’re not walking people through like, uh, a sales process, buying process, uh, to get from like interest to inquiry to booked.
Colie James:
Because, I mean, we’re doing that on social media. Like, we’re hoping that by posting our carousel, or our reel, that you have a really good call to action, that you are sending them to your links page, or your profile, or whatever it is, and you’re hoping that they’re going to click on there, and then you’re really hoping that they go to your website. I don’t think many people are just throwing up a contact form directly in their Instagram links, and being like, contact me. I mean, granted, you might get some people that way, but more often than not, you will not. Um, but you’ve mentioned this a few times, and so I think that this is something that we should really chat about. How does someone find a good template for them? Because I feel like people will probably be searching for like one that is aesthetically pleasing. But the thing is like colors can be changed. Fonts can be changed.
Colie James:
Your images and words are going to replace whatever is in a placeholder for the template. But so like, and I feel like maybe that’s a piece of education that’s really missing. I would love to see a freebie on how you choose a template. Hey
Kate Hejde:
Yeah. You know, I actually have one that I just never finished or never published. It’s part of my course, uh, the how to choose a template. But mostly it’s, it’s more, it’s an interesting thing because templates, especially for Showit, that’s the platform that I work in, um, range from like you can get a $200 template to a $2k template. Um. And the difference is going to be the number of pages and canvases included, which is huge. When you have more, like, pieces to work with, it makes everything much easier. Um, some template designers will include, like, education on how to, like, put things in how to get started.
Kate Hejde:
Um, but then like the more basic templates are really they’re really simple and like they’re not going to be as easy to customize because there’s fewer things to customize and change. Um. The thing about Showit is that you can design anything and Showit. It’s drag and drop. It’s really easy to do. Like so if I buy a template and I want like the picture on this side versus that side I can easily swap that. Yeah, like I can just move it, right? But I think a lot of the times the templates come with just not enough base for those lower price templates. The other thing that I’m looking at when I’m looking at templates is more like the design elements versus the colors and the fonts.
Kate Hejde:
So like, the Monstera template that’s part of ShowIt has, yep, it’s free, um, has those like lines, like the color block lines behind some of the text. And that’s a design element that flows throughout the site. Um, or like some, some templates have like blocks of color behind an image or like, there’s just like little design elements that flow throughout a site. Um, and I think that’s more of what you want to look for. What catches your eye that way. Again, fonts and colors can be changed in like literally five minutes, like. It’s so easy to do and Showit. You go into your design settings.
Kate Hejde:
You change the colors. It changes it throughout the
Colie James:
Everywhere. Mm hmm.
Kate Hejde:
super simple to do that. So you’re not really, that’s not what you’re looking at when you’re looking at a template. You’re looking more at. Like how many pages are there? How robust is it? Um, does it have specialty elements for like your blog posts? On your website and on my website, we have podcast, um, feeds. Yep. And feeds where like we’re, we’re using some like more advanced techniques to pull blog post titles into that feed. So like there’s some little things like that, that are worth it for the more expensive template because it’s going to save you time.
Colie James:
Yes, absolutely. And I would just say one of the other things, because just in case you guys don’t know, like Emma Troy is the template that my, um, coliejames. com website is built on, but I have like two extra of her templates. I just love the way that she designed things, but I mean, there are some things that I don’t like, like she uses a lot of curves and I’m just not like a round person when it comes to like the shapes, but like the other thing that I like to look at is like the spacing.
Kate Hejde:
Yes.
Colie James:
I have finally figured out I do not like templates that look cluttered. I do not like them where they don’t have enough like white space or blank space so that I can, you know, not feel like I have to read every line so carefully and I get lost when I’m reading. So the other thing that I will say about getting a template is if you’re a photographer, even though you can buy a template from anyone, it might be easier if you are looking for a template that was made for a photographer. Because they might already have that services page that Kate and I were talking about that’s very nicely laid out with, you know, the space for the testimonials and the actual work and the portfolio. And maybe they have like sliders built in. I mean, there’s a lot of things that can help photographers display their work. And the same is true of like a business coach. Cause like you and I both have podcasts.
Colie James:
I don’t think that I would buy a template at this point that did not already come with a podcast page because I don’t want to build that from scratch. Like, if you’re giving me all of the other things, I want to make sure that I can get a podcast page. Now, I’m redoing my template shop and I’m really regretting buying a template that didn’t have a shop template page because I had to create it from scratch, which, you know, I love making websites, but like, that was time that I didn’t have that I wish I could get back. But,
Kate Hejde:
Well, and the magic too of Showit is that you could probably find a shop page. Standalone, yep, that you can plug into your template, like that you can plug into your site and adjust to match the rest of your template.
Colie James:
I did what you said. I found a template, but then when it came to it, I only really wanted, I think it was two canvases from that page and I moved it over to the page that I was already creating. And then I basically looked at their product page as like a template for how to design my own. And I ended up doing it because I was just I was being too picky. I mean, I realize this, but it’s okay. Cause I love the way that it looks and I’m very happy, but it, it took me a little while, but again, Showit as easy. Once you figure
Kate Hejde:
right,
Colie James:
where you’re going with
Kate Hejde:
it. Well, and that’s like the beauty of the course that I offer is that I’m here to help you figure out all of those little things. And if there’s something like you’re building and you want this. Like, I had a client who wanted a video slider and that wasn’t part of her very expensive template. So she wanted,
Colie James:
make a video slider.
Kate Hejde:
wanted a section,
Colie James:
I’m like, okay, Kate and I are going to discuss this when
Kate Hejde:
Yeah.
Colie James:
hitting record.
Kate Hejde:
So she wanted a canvas where they could, there could be a video. And then she wanted them to like be able to click to the next video. So we used, I created it for her on my end and just shared the canvas with her. So she didn’t have to go through that. Um, so there’s some like benefit to having a designer help you work through those things. And you know, like a lot of it is you’re, you’re looking at a ton of different websites and there’s going to be things that you want to pull from each one. And having that option in Shoah is amazing. You can even like I use the free, the free, uh, Showit library to pull canvases for projects all the time.
Kate Hejde:
Like, there’s this one canvas that I like from this website that is not included in mine. I can pull that canvas, just that one canvas and use it in my project. So, there’s benefits to templates. They do make things faster. Back to the photographers, when you’re shopping for a template for a photographer, you’re going to find a lot of website designers who don’t necessarily know exactly what a photographer needs. And they’re gonna give you those portfolio pages and honestly Showit requires designers to include a portfolio page.
Colie James:
Did
Kate Hejde:
Yes, it’s part of the design standards for like the Showit Design Partners is to have a portfolio page. So you’re going to see a lot of portfolio pages in templates. That doesn’t mean you have to use it. Doesn’t mean that you should use it.
Colie James:
All right, Kate, I think that we’ve had an amazing conversation. Uh, if people want to hear more about you, I mean, guys, you can find her on my feed on my Instagram, you know, when we actually have time to get lunch together. But anyways, if they want to find you on the Internet, where can they find you?
Kate Hejde:
I’m at Dear Kate Brand Strategy, D E A R, Kate Brand Strategy on Instagram, on TikTok. My website’s Dear Kate Brand Strategy. I will also give Colie links to my free website report card and I also have a free Showit template for your About Page. It gives you my framework for your about page as well and like a copy template. So it makes doing your about page a lot easier. Um, and I will give you links for those. I would love to see you in my DMs. Come talk to me.
Colie James:
I thought she meant she would love to see
Kate Hejde:
Yeah, I’d love to see you
Colie James:
yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s been like, what, like three weeks?
Kate Hejde:
been a while. Well, we went to that conference together. Is
Colie James:
We did. That was like three weeks ago, Kate. All right, y’all, that is it for this episode. See you next time.
Kate Hejde:
Thank you.
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