United Kingdom, Level 31 and 50 Suite 2500 I decided to separate my publication work into a separate gallery to act like a client list or a representation of my tearsheets. The other tactic is to look for chances to convert weaknesses and threats into opportunities or strengths. 
I visited a lot of talented photographers with good websites and a lot of talented photographers with terrible websites. I'll have to look at my own website critically now :). That many attorneys are already using LinkedIn to network with potential clients. We turned this into an opportunity by taking the following steps: It is not always possible to change a weakness or threat into an opportunity. I needed to reduce the amount of images drastically and merge them into one section entitled Portfolio. I decided to heed the advice, and begin the exhausting project of analyzing every single one of my images, judging the lighting, composition, processing and subject matter. Do not focus just on the digital aspects of the business. When I am shopping for anything, I want a price. You can unsubscribe in one click, and I will never share your email address. Here are some common examples of website's external opportunities: Enter your list of threats into the SWOT Analysis template. Threats can also be regulatory or technical. Just remember to find what you love in photography and be great at it. Second, it is hard to see things clearly when you are that close to daily operations. When you need a muffler replaced, do they list their prices on their site? At the same time, look for threats elements that are outside of your control that could cause trouble and prevent the website from reaching its business objectives. Again look at the websites of the most established reps such as http://www.managementartists.com every photographers section when you see a photo it has a "click for full story" pop up. A logical step is to rationalise this information into something more tangible. Im not saying delete all your lifes work, but really take into consideration your clientele and the attention span of todays world. Sometime I feel like I should tell people I do SEO instead of Photography because I spend so much time on it. Now create an external opportunities list. This list should contain advantages over competitors websites that would give your website a competitive edge and help you get to your business objectives more quickly. I help savvy marketers, product owners and UX advocates make the case that a useable, accessible and people-first experience is the best path to business success. Strengths and weaknesses refer to internal factors.
However, everybody agrees the site is failing and budget shouldnt be a constraint to fixing it. This is definitely something I've been thinking a lot lately; about how to improve my website. But, it is possible. These include: These lists could be much longer, but that gives you a taste of the kind of thing a website SWOT analysis could include. Do ask your customer-facing departments (sales, marketing, customer service, etc.) You should review this document periodically, especially when your market changes, your company targets new audiences or after you make significant changes to your website. By doing so, you disable your competitions advantage. Each client may want an extra outfit or perhaps an additional location, which is more work for you(the photographer). great article! The unique approach to handling cases. The SWOT (pronounced Swat) Analysis is becoming more and more common in business today, but did you know it can also be used to analyze websites? There are two completed Website SWOT Analysis examples that you can use as guides: one for a B2B website and one for a B2C website. That is why it is beneficial to weight elements, so you get a sense of how strong each entry is. By adding a personal touch to your About section, people will feel more comfortable reaching out, especially if they know who will be on the other end of the email or call. Don't make things up or resort to findings from prior research and interviews. What if my bounce rate is 0.32% and user spent about 2 minutes on my website is that a bad thing? Bressenden Place But, now the website is more of a gateway to a personal connection via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. Intellectual property or insurance claims). When we started working with Wiltshire Farm Foods, users had to enter a postcode before seeing anything on the site! Great article, Clay, and this for me was on the back of your TogTools podcast which I enjoyed immensely from a business/entrepreneurial standpoint. Pay special attention to customer wishes and mark those in blue. Only focus on those factors that will significantly affect your ability to achieve your business goals. If a website does not have a price, I find myself leaving that page and looking elsewhere. I love SqaureSpace. That is where the subtleties come in. Great article. Note that the items listed are a mixture. Editors want to see multiple cohesive "stories" in a portfolio this can be as few as 4 and up to 10 photos per story. That can lead you to go away feeling buoyant about the state of the site. Energy suppliers or financial institutions) and practice areas (e.g. Absolutely Jeff! Thank you for the article. For example, one of Wolfram and Harts opportunities is that the quality of sites across the sector is low. They are knowledgeable and competent but have little authority. He serves on the Forbes Technology Council and was the ninth professional in the world to be awarded Master in User Experience. They had a serious weakness because they used a franchise model. Broader issues have an impact on the success or otherwise of digital. It's great but I'm afraid I might be moving away from it soon due to the fact you have to pay separate for each site you want. Thanks for the article Clay! That is an excellent bounce rate, but what is your unique visitors count? Civic Opera Building It is an embarrassment. I then tag this as a weakness. This is what I do for specific projects, and it works really well :), One important thing to keep in mind that website should be mobile device friendly: correctly resizing to a device screen and not loading huge images where it is not necessary (real responsive/adaptive design). The purpose of performing a SWOT Analysis on your website is to discover which characteristics are important to the websites success and what factors can be potentially harmful. After two months, my bounce ratereduced to 30% and theaveragetimeon my website had increased by a minute. That is where a website SWOT analysis can help. That is awesome Jason, thank you so much for reading and tuning into that podcast. It is easy to look at a website SWOT analysis and see a long list of items in one quadrant (e.g.
That Wolfram & Harts primary sector (technology) are heavy users of online tools. After a much needed consultation and some personal research through Goggle AnalyticsI learned that the average time on my website was under three minutes and I had an average bounce rate of 72%. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(439788, 'c2684e3c-9e74-4296-9f50-b1bcb173c7e2', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); The first group we will focus on is the internal environment. Drop all the popup toolbars, disappearing slideshow controls, hard-to-navigate slideshows, etc. By the end of the day, I had responded to nearly 30 comments and critiqued dozens of websites. Here are some examples of common website strengths: Weaknesses are simply characteristics of a website that put you at a disadvantage or that can prevent you from reaching your business objectives. Thank you Aku! Being responsible and productive with it goes a long way with present and future clients. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. If you're not a "coder" and looking to add additional CSS customization to your new SmugMug site, check out my friends at Fastline Media. Just before I left the States, I had signed on with the artist consulting firm Wonderful Machine. For what I do in the commercial market, every job varies and every client is different. Subject Matters - Kicking Technicalities For Content, Anti-Strobism: How I Learned to Give Up My Strobes and Fall In Love With Natural Light, The Power of Perception Creating A Reality For Commercial Clients, Guess Which Study Photographers Ranked #1 Worst In, 5 Quotes That Will Change Your Approach to Photography, What It Is Like To Be a White House Press Corps Photographer, Expression Trumps Everything in Portrait Photography, Skin Retouching Made Easy With Infinite Guide. Opportunities and threats are external forces that have an impact on the business. The weaknesses of Wolfram and Harts are: Opportunities are external factors that could have a positive impact on the company. That said, a website SWOT analysis can be a valuable tool in establishing what your next steps should be in evolving your digital strategy. When they enter a postcode, they saw information on their local franchisee. Matching is simply mimicking a competitive advantage that your competitor holds. I also share updates about my content regularly on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. A website should only be the digital face of your brand and reputation. Intechnic Corporation, Internal Environment - within your control such as your website or your company, External Environment - outside of your control such as the marketplace, Responsive design with full mobile support, New technologies to improve user experience, New design trends to better convey messages. The internal environment is broken down into two categoriesstrengths and weaknesses. For years, I had thought I had a clean and straight to the point website, but it turns out I needed to strip it down even more. Join Our Slack Community. A big part of forming a digital strategy is doing research. I'll be the first to admit, it's not easy. We said: I like this one, that one, oh that one too, and end up with too many images making our portfolios to look more like an online backup of our photos. The fact that the web team is busy doing minor updates and not thinking strategically. I'll take social exposure over Google ranking any day, for my blog that is. The web provides a unique opportunity to gather information on the target audience and leads. I'm constantly looking at what to do with my website and have currently been using sqaurespace. So many photographers have trouble with selection and purging. I recommend setting SMART website objectives (and also looking at some website goal examples). That said, there is a danger. From this point, you can start working towards reducing the impact of the negative effects and capitalizing on your strengths and opportunities. However, this business tool can also be used to analyze the effectiveness of your website and help create a winning website redesign strategy. I tear my website apart on a regular basis out of distain and self loathing most of the time with no clue what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. Analytics show a slow decline in traffic coming to the site. I can give a real example of this relating to the Wiltshire Farm Foods website. What happens if you apply it to a company like our fictional law firm? All the established fashion shooters that shoot editorial and the better fashion advertising have complete stories on their website. Similarly, converting is developing a solution to change a negative characteristic into a positive one. Start by targeting a weakness or threat against your website. I don't pretend to know a lot about websites, however, I'm constantlyconstantly amazed by how many flat out annoying websites photographers have. But, there are limitations for photographers. 20 N Wacker Dr., Suite 1200 Through stakeholder interviews, reviews and analysis we can gather valuable insights. Ive setup SqaureSpace sites, dabbled with Photoshelter andshared some laughs with the people at PhotoBiz. I could really go on and on and spend hours critiquing all my followers and friends websites, but Id just be saying the same thing over and over again. When you hire someone to paint your house? That is better than trying to appeal to everybody in every industry. Is good practice of naming image files and impact on SEO something to talk about as well? The fact that the competition has done little with social media. These categories contain characteristics (other than the characteristics of the website itself) that affect the website. With our website SWOT analysis in hand, we need to address the weaknesses and threats identified. Thanks again man! Broader issues also have a direct impact on the success or otherwise of a digital strategy. Because companies often have a confused view of their digital strategy it is often useful to bring some order to the chaos with a website SWOT analysis. A real website 101 for photographers :). So, now more than ever its important to grab the viewer in seconds and have a simple, straight forward web experience that is easily navigated through all mediums including smartphones and tablets.
I see a lot of Adobe Flash, unnecessary drop down menus and buggy slideshows. These findings will be especially helpful to consider when crafting your overall website strategy. The second group of a SWOT Analysis is the external environment. That stuff is so annoying. Thanks for reading Chris! Characteristics of your website that give you an advantage and help reach objectives. These are much better than Wolfram & Harts current offering (although still poor). As you can see a website SWOT analysis is a useful way of providing clarity. Portland House For example: Users want clear feature comparisons (which none of your competitors offer). As photographers we need to let our work do the talking, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words right? There are some external opportunities that can be predicted, like expanding to new cities or countries. I just recently simplified my website and moved everything to only one single scrollable page which works perfectly. There is little strategy behind the website. Mark those in yellow. Personally I'm at the stage of edit and re-order sections to show only the style of photography I'm doing and left the other kinds of photography that I like to personal social media sites. Theyve really put a lot of energy into their user experience this past year and Im proud to be an ambassador. That's a great point to bring up. Elements that the website could use to its advantage to help reach its objectives. There is no reason why you cannot apply it to your digital strategy or even individual areas within that. I was happy to show off a few of my talented students! Although SWOT is often used to review entire businesses, you can also use it on single projects. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(439788, 'c2684e3c-9e74-4296-9f50-b1bcb173c7e2', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Now that you have characteristics for each of the four quadrants, you can better the performance of the website within your marketplace. Dont let this be the last time you conduct a Website SWOT Analysis!
The biggest flaw I see with many photographers websites is the fact that I cant tell what type of photography the photographer mostly captures. Instead of browsing around, the viewer simply glanced at the homepage slideshow then clicked off the site. I still have trouble understanding how a photographer can operate a business without a proper identity, which should be first and foremost. By doing so, you can compare the goals of your companys website to your competitors that have the same goals. By doing a SWOT Analysis of your company website, you and other decision makers can better understand your website's strengths and weaknesses and identify external factors that might affect your organization. Thanks my man! Something that will help identify clear goals. Unfortunately, these Attorneys are much in demand and regularly move from one firm to the next, taking their clients with them. Two of the competitors have relaunched their sites. The obvious starting point would be to do some usability testing. I have two sites, one for my automotive photography and one for personal work and I am still in the process of building both so I will be using some of the tips above! That said, it is worth working through notes after a discovery phase, assigning elements to each of the four quadrants.
Like we did for strengths, create a list of internal characteristics that are weaknesses but this time, only add the red items.
The internal environment only contains characteristics that directly affect the website or company. London, SW1E 5RS A well known legal offline publication has recently launched a blog. Maybe next time I launch a hate parade on my own work I can approach it more methodically. Weaknesses and threats are the ones that cause concern. I really appreciate you reading! Limitations over the type of content published for fear of the competition reading it or legal risks. Nice article, I'm about to go change a few things on my site. One of my biggest critiques I received from Wonderful Machine was that I just had too many galleries, to many categories and too many options. All the while pursuing my not-so-hidden agenda. Melbourne, VIC 3000 They worry about dealing with a faceless company but felt reassured to see a friendly local supplier. That is something that Wolfram & Hart have not been able to track before. Dont allow this to become a laundry list of every factor that could possibly include on your website. Thanks for this insight! I often find myself applying SWOT criteria to notes I take while gathering information on a company. I'm always tweaking my site. The external environment consists of two categoriesopportunities and threats. That mirrors the gut reaction you have in a discovery phase. Thanks Eric! Website characteristics that present a disadvantage or prevent you from reaching objectives. If you dont have a professional logo and identity, then hire a graphic designer to produce one for you. Sometimes less is more in the eyes of the user. You are also avoiding a potential conversation to connect with a future client. But, that doesnt necessarily mean you should promote that exploration on your website; know your market and clientele. Website strengths are related to the main goals and objectives of the websites creation. On this list should be anything that is outside of your control that may prevent you from reaching websites business objectives. the unique approach to handling cases). Basically, potential clients were spending more time on my website, all due to the contraction of images and links. That included a telephone number, name and photo. These categories contain the characteristics that make up the analysis. Clay I'm strictly speaking about fashion shooters and its the young shooters that don't have the full stories in their book. None of the competitions sites works on tablet devices. Portrait and Editorial Photographer, Clay Cook has learned the importance of going the extra mile, after a long, arduous run in the music business. I want to keep you on my site and engaged. That creates an opportunity to engage their audience better. The older audience that buys from Wiltshire Farm Foods loved this. The reason I decided to do that is because I wanted to keep my blog on a social site compared to Wordpress etc. I even recently critiqued a few sites with loud music, which is guaranteed to have a high bounce rate! 
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