A functional, user-friendly, e-commerce-equipped website is a key customer service piece for any photo booth business. Potential customers turn to business websites to learn about pricing, packages, availability, and contact information. They’ll want to see a portfolio of your company’s photo work, and follow links to your social media presences.
Event vendors will want to know how your business operates, a little bit about the owners, and the best way to get in touch if they’d like to collaborate on an event. For either group, the information sought should be easy to find and presented in a clean, professional, aesthetically pleasing way.
To stand out from the difficult-to-navigate, cluttered websites of industry competitors, contract with a professional web designer to build the site, and focus on the following areas:
1 Navigation: The front page of the site should showcase your business aesthetic (a sample of your work, a clean graphic, and contact information). It should include a navigation bar, with drop-down menu options, that directs visitors to additional information.
2 Important information: Make the things potential clients want to know the focus of the site. Pricing options should be listed — some prefer to create a menu titled, “investment”; the word “pricing” also works just fine. Include a page with photo samples. Include a contact form for new and old customers to submit questions or comments.
3 Fresh content: Further down the navigation menu, consider including pages for updated photos, and blog posts. These items will keep customers coming back to the site, and offer shareable content for social media.
4 A simple design: Let the web designer take the lead here. Web pages work in boxes filled with words and pictures — follow that principle, and your website will be clean, accessible and visually appealing.
5 Remember mobile: Resist the urge to overload the front page with videos, pictures, and flash elements. These items take too long to load on a PC or laptop, and frequently don’t translate to mobile platforms.
6 Proofread everything: Carefully read every word of the business website before it goes live, from the front page description to the confirmations created by the “contact us” form. A single typo can damage credibility with potential clients. Apply the same editor’s eye to all blog posts and social media posts.
7 A good website doesn’t need flashy add-ons: Skip the background soundtrack, auto-play videos, and animations. These elements increase load time, might not work on mobile platforms, and can be annoyances to potential customers.
8 Opt in forms: You must have a way to collect email addresses to build your lists. Whether you build it through subscribers to your blog or give away some great tips or information in the form of a white paper, infographic or ebook.
A website’s design, the company’s logos, and the photo business’s portfolio should convey your photo booth venture’s brand identity to clients.
