Value Proposition: the trap of General and Generic
I’m doing a significant amount of website reviews lately. Being under a variety of lockdown orders have had us turn to some of the work we’d normally push away, like most marketing work lol! As a photographer, I get it. I want to shoot all the time too and grow creatively. But the marketing aspect is like fuel for the photography car - you need to keep the engine going so that you can hop into that car anytime and go somewhere amazing!
One of the most crucial pieces that’s missing from most websites I review is the Value Proposition. Can also be called your Unique Selling Proposition or USP. Whatever we might call it, what it boils down to is clearly letting people know what you will do for them, so that they will want to hire you.
The main landing page of your website is the most important page. People instantly need to know if clicking on your search result has gotten them to the right place. How do they know they’ve gotten to the right place? Well, you tell them! So why is it so hard?
Many (especially new) photographers don’t exactly know who they are or who they want to serve. In fact, most fear niching down for fear of losing a large pool of potential clients. I’ll tell you right now that the mass public is not, and will never be, your target audience. As a small business owner, you only need a really tiny amount of paying clients relative to “the masses” to help you fulfill your financials goals. How many shoots can you possibly do in one year? Weddings? That is not mass public, that’s a speck! But this irrational fear of turning anyone away keeps us in a generic no man’s land - where we try to be neutral enough to appeal to everyone and then we appeal to no one.
There are a few ways this manifests:
The General
Take this line for example, or variation thereof that often finds itself on our landing page, right under our header image “Capturing your Memories.” You may even have this EXACT wording on your site.
There are a million and one photographers out there. Saturated market right? So if you capture memories and so do the other million, how could any client make a decision as to who to hire? If you were to even look up the dictionary meaning of a camera, you might find something like “a device that captures memories.” Every photographer does this, that’s what photography is. By telling me this, it’s not helping one bit to make a decision. As a client I started to search for a photographer because I wanted to capture memories - it’s really the driver of the action itself. But once I get to your site, why should I choose and pay you to take this action for me?
The Generic
If you tell me that photographs are important because everyone should enjoy displayed photographs in their home, or that it’s important to print because technology changes, then you’re still not telling me why I should hire you - just that I should hire someone like you. This is the same for guides or emails or blog posts of “How to choose your photographer.” If a client has landed on your site and you direct me to a generic guide of choosing a photographer you are overlooking that A CLIENT HAS LANDED ON YOUR SITE. At this stage, you shouldn’t be reinforcing what they should look for in a general service, you should be reinforcing why they’ve come to the right place and that you are their solution, right now! I know, we create these tools to sound helpful, but it’s actually counter-intuitive to booking your client.
Building a USP
Building a solid value proposition stems from knowing :
Who you are as an artist/ service provider (your brand), and
Knowing who you are targeting (your target audience.)
Let’s take a sneaker analogy. A sneaker is a sneaker, they are all built about the same and are in the general category of athletic footwear. Imagine going to the Nike website and seeing the General statement of: providing athletic footwear to people. Or a Generic statement: Everyone should own a solid pair of sneakers for leisure activities or for workouts. It’s important that your sneaker has a good inside cushion for long periods on your feet. What would you make of this? And yet, as photographers, we do this, a LOT!
When you overlay a brand on a sneaker, you might change some things - some special construction/ performance elements, colours, textures, and other design elements. You also attach some aspirational brand elements.
So who are they appealing to? Nike targets runners, more on the fitness side. Vans on the other hand appeals to skater culture, and their most recent iteration is Simpson’s branded sneakers. They are both sneaker companies but they are targeting a specific market.
So what are their USP’s?
Nike: Just do it. Also, more targeted for a new line for runners on their website: Find your fast. Runners are always competing to go further, and beat their best time.
Vans: Off the Wall. Also, more targeted for a new, more rugged sneaker: Made for the elements. Skaters spend a lot of time outdoors and their shoes need to live up to the abuse of their sport, and the weather.
Can you see how being specific is helpful to them? Out of the masses, each has a chunk of market share. And while they compete in the athletic footwear category generally speaking, they aren’t necessarily competing for the same audience, which makes them more successful because the people that want what they’re selling will come back to buy again.
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Putting it together for you
Example 1
You are a newborn photographer. While you will accommodate families to shoot on-location in their homes, you much prefer to work in the studio. The aesthetic that defines your work is soft, neutral textures and minimalist backgrounds. You offer prints for the walls and have an IPS method for ordering. You studied fine art and use a lot of the theory in your work.
Who is your client? A client that ideally you’d work with also prefers a studio over a lifestyle session. They are eco-conscious, down to the organic clothing choices they make. The mom is a yoga instructor and dad works in health and public policy - in life and career, they put others first.
Your USP might be: Fine Art photographer specializing in timeless and classic wall portraits
Example 2
You really love shooting newborns. You prefer their home setting over studio for context. But you’re more documentary and love if the home is a mess and there are 2 dogs running around and a toddler missing his or her diaper. You do a day in a life as your signature offering. You build a story around the family for that day and present in a slideshow and album.
Who is your client? The client prefers to be at home. They are relaxed, and family comes first before dishes, so they don’t mind a little mess. Animal lovers. Mom stays at home and dad is a software engineer. Mom is all about family and dad is a geek.
Your USP might be: Documentary photographer for those indescribable, unpredictable, loving and messy life experiences
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Go deeper! Get specific! When people land on your website, your USP and your imagery should tell them exactly who you are and what you do. If they love it, they will stay. If they hate it they will leave. And this exactly what you want - only those who love it should stay, because those will be your conversions into bookings. If you are the studio newborn photographer and the documentary-type client hits your site, you want them to leave and find the documentary-type photographer because everyone will win by getting exactly what they want and need.
If you’re looking to kickstart your marketing journey, do a “Present Vision Board” exercise. It’s a process of self-discovery that will inform your business model, branding and give you some marketing clarity, available on my products page. It’s a powerful process that taps into your subconscious and can really surprise you! Read about my own personal results here.
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