Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Level up your wedding business website with Emily Lee

Transcript

Level up your wedding business website with Emily Lee · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

• 0:00
  Emily: So that's one thing I wish I would've known
• 0:01
  earlier is like, don't stop.
• 0:02
  Just see it through.
• 0:04
  It takes longer than people you know wanna make it out to.
• 0:09
  Becca: I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert,
• 0:12
  speaker and blogger, and you are listening to the Wedding Pros
• 0:15
  who are ready to grow podcasts.
• 0:17
  I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
• 0:20
  examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
• 0:24
  If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
• 0:28
  and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
• 0:31
  love, then you're in the right place.
• 0:33
  Let's get going with today's episode.
• 0:36
  Today I'm talking to Emily Lee from Web Design Company by Emily Jane.
• 0:40
  Emily is based in Dallas in Texas, and specializes in creating
• 0:44
  custom websites for wedding Pros.
• 0:46
  As a former photographer, she understands the wedding industry and also knows
• 0:49
  how hard it is to create a website that stands out and gets you potential couples.
• 0:54
  Emily, welcome to
• 0:55
  Emily: the podcast.
• 0:56
  Thanks so much, Becca.
• 0:57
  I'm super happy to be.
• 0:59
  Becca: Emily.
• 1:00
  I love it when I have guests from the other side of the world because I just
• 1:03
  think it's amazing when we can connect.
• 1:05
  So you're based in Dallas?
• 1:06
  Have you ever been to the uk?
• 1:08
  Emily: I haven't.
• 1:09
  I want to.
• 1:09
  So bad though.
• 1:11
  Becca: I'll come on over and if you come, come over and
• 1:13
  let's go for a drink in London.
• 1:15
  That'll be fun.
• 1:16
  Sounds
• 1:16
  Emily: great.
• 1:17
  Becca: I have been to Texas, but only for one evening.
• 1:20
  So we flew into Texas when we were on our way to Alabama.
• 1:23
  I stayed one night in a hotel and left the next morning.
• 1:26
  So all I experienced in Texas was one trip to
• 1:29
  Emily: chilies.
• 1:30
  Mm.
• 1:30
  Well Chili's is pretty iconic for, for this area,
• 1:35
  . Becca: So hopefully I'll make it back to Texas at another point.
• 1:38
  So, Emily, today we're gonna be talking all things websites, which
• 1:42
  I know is a subject that some of my wedding pros really struggle with.
• 1:45
  So we're gonna cover all sorts of areas, but before we get into the detail, I would
• 1:49
  love to know how did you get into doing websites for Wedding Pros specifically,
• 1:54
  and tell us a bit more about that journey from being a photographer to where you.
• 1:58
  Emily: So I would say that my interest in the wedding industry probably stems back
• 2:02
  from my best friend since high school.
• 2:04
  She always knew she wanted to be a wedding planner, so she was
• 2:07
  talking about it all the time.
• 2:09
  Her mom planned weddings too, so I learned a lot about the wedding industry
• 2:13
  from her and then around the time.
• 2:16
  I always knew I wanted to be a photographer, and around the time
• 2:19
  I started developing a photography business after high school, she
• 2:23
  actually ended up planning my wedding.
• 2:25
  So all of these things just kind of combined and made me even more
• 2:29
  interested in the wedding industry.
• 2:30
  And so, I was dipping my toe into photographing weddings and
• 2:35
  I was learning so much about it.
• 2:37
  And then I realized that my body wasn't gonna be able to handle it unfortunately.
• 2:41
  So I had to start thinking about what can I do that's gonna
• 2:46
  be less physically demanding?
• 2:49
  And so that's when I pivoted into web design and I kind of
• 2:52
  just fell into that accidentally.
• 2:54
  because of, you know, having a photography business, you have
• 2:57
  to create your own website.
• 2:58
  So it was something I knew how to do.
• 3:00
  From there, it just developed and I started really focusing on those
• 3:04
  services and the more that I worked with different types of businesses, I could
• 3:10
  clearly see that there was a difference in my energy level, my creativity.
• 3:16
  How well I understood the businesses when I was working with someone
• 3:20
  in the wedding industry, like another photography business or
• 3:23
  a florist or something like that.
• 3:24
  I just, I did better work because I understood it so much more and
• 3:29
  it creatively fueled me a lot more.
• 3:31
  So that's kind of what I decided to niche down on.
• 3:34
  Becca: Awesome.
• 3:35
  So obviously over the years, I'm sure you've seen a lot of different Wedding Pro
• 3:39
  websites from a lot of different people.
• 3:41
  So what are the mistakes that you are seeing people making all of the
• 3:45
  Emily: time?
• 3:46
  One of the big ones is that I can't even find your website.
• 3:49
  So part of that has to do with, is it popping up on Google, which we can get
• 3:54
  into a little bit more later if we want.
• 3:56
  Another thing is like, so probably all wedding vendors at this point, or the
• 4:02
  vast majority of them are using Instagram.
• 4:04
  Right?
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  But when I go to their Instagram profile, if there's no link to their
• 4:08
  website, I, I find that mind blowing because to me, that's the whole
• 4:12
  point of your website is that's the, that's the kind of like end goal that
• 4:16
  you, all of your marketing efforts should be leading them back to that.
• 4:20
  That's one thing I see a lot still, believe it or not, and even when you
• 4:24
  have a Link tree page, if you have all these different links that they
• 4:27
  can go to, there's still a lot of times I don't see anywhere where it
• 4:31
  says visit the website or see our homepage or something like that.
• 4:35
  So I would say that's the first big mistake is that I
• 4:37
  can't even find your website.
• 4:39
  I would have to like go and search for it and hope that I can find it.
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  When we get to the website itself, I would say a lot of
• 4:47
  times people aren't giving any.
• 4:50
  Information or reason as to why someone should choose you over all
• 4:55
  the other people in your category.
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  It's more just like, Oh, I'm someone who can take photos for you.
• 5:01
  Okay, great, . Like, that's not the, you're not giving me much here because
• 5:06
  there are so many photographers and it's the same for every, you know, vendor type.
• 5:11
  So that's another.
• 5:13
  Big mistake that I see is like, just, you know, give me something else.
• 5:17
  Give me what's your specialty?
• 5:18
  Do you have a niche?
• 5:20
  Is, is there a certain location that you're.
• 5:22
  That you're servicing.
• 5:24
  I would say another one is that a lot of times we don't see any instructions
• 5:30
  on how do I actually work with you and I don't know about you, but whenever
• 5:35
  I've tried to hire someone in the past, if they don't tell me how to, like
• 5:39
  what that step is to actually start the conversation with them, I just get
• 5:44
  annoyed and give up and go somewhere else.
• 5:46
  So it may seem really obvious because you're running the business and
• 5:49
  you're like, Well, they just need to, you know, submit my contact form
• 5:53
  and then we'll get the ball rolling.
• 5:54
  But if you don't spell that out for people, a lot of the times they just,
• 5:58
  they won't be sure if you're giving them a lot of different forms of
• 6:02
  contact, they may not know which one you prefer, and they may be a little
• 6:07
  bit too scared to take the next.
• 6:08
  Or maybe you're not giving them contact information, so they
• 6:12
  don't know where to go from here.
• 6:13
  So it's all about making things really, really, really like dumbed
• 6:18
  down and just as clear as possible.
• 6:22
  Becca: And do you think you should be putting those call to
• 6:23
  actions on all pages of your site?
• 6:26
  Should you be telling people everywhere what they should do
• 6:28
  Emily: next?
• 6:28
  Yes, absolutely.
• 6:30
  So a really easy way to implement this is just, Put it in the footer
• 6:35
  of your site, so at the bottom of every single page, there's some kind
• 6:39
  of button that stands out and it.
• 6:42
  Reach out to get started or something like that, contact us today.
• 6:47
  And that can either be a direct link to open up an email that they can send
• 6:52
  or it could link to your contact page where you give them further detailed
• 6:56
  instructions like, Here's what's gonna happen after you reach out.
• 6:59
  You can expect a response within this time, Maybe we're gonna have a
• 7:03
  consultation, something like that.
• 7:05
  But yes, on every page it's great to have it if you.
• 7:09
  One at the very top, maybe somewhere in the middle of the
• 7:12
  page and then at the bottom.
• 7:14
  Becca: Okay, so we know that people get confused.
• 7:16
  The other thing I see on loads of wedding business websites
• 7:20
  is that they all look the same.
• 7:21
  So are there ways that we can get people to stand out from the crowd so they
• 7:25
  don't just look like the same bland brand that every other wedding business.
• 7:30
  Emily: Oh my goodness.
• 7:31
  I agree.
• 7:32
  , that is a big thing.
• 7:34
  Yeah, because the whole goal here is to stick in people's minds because
• 7:38
  there is so much competition.
• 7:39
  And so one easy way I think, is to include a photo of yourself or your
• 7:46
  team again, on every page, not just your about page, because some people
• 7:51
  will never click on your about page.
• 7:53
  So if we can see who you are, whether that's, you know, headshot
• 7:57
  or behind the scenes photo.
• 7:59
  On, on site, whatever it is, it really helps us feel more comfortable with
• 8:04
  you to start the conversation, but also psychologically, for whatever reason, it's
• 8:09
  just more memorable than all of like being inundated with wedding photos constantly.
• 8:14
  And so since we're seeing wedding photos all the time, sometimes we
• 8:18
  can't even remember, you know, whose photos is attached to whose brand.
• 8:23
  But having your face out there is such a huge part of your.
• 8:27
  Let's get into like branding in general.
• 8:29
  Any way that you can start from a really good foundation and
• 8:34
  create a brand identity, then that's gonna help you stand out.
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  So you wanna start by thinking about who exactly you're trying to reach
• 8:45
  and be as specific as possible.
• 8:47
  You can think about the personality type that you.
• 8:51
  Well with, and then create visuals and words that, you know, will
• 8:56
  speak to that personality type.
• 8:58
  And that's really a way to cut through the noise.
• 9:01
  Okay?
• 9:01
  So
• 9:01
  Becca: bring yourself and your brand to the forefront of your website so that
• 9:05
  you're not bland like everybody else.
• 9:08
  It's much better to niche down, right?
• 9:09
  And to stand out from the crowd rather than just be one of everyone.
• 9:13
  Okay?
• 9:13
  So if people are listening to this and they're thinking, Okay,
• 9:16
  my website's a bit bland, or I don't think my website's doing.
• 9:19
  What are some of the changes people could be making?
• 9:22
  Have you got simple changes people could be making over the next couple of
• 9:24
  weeks just to level up their website?
• 9:27
  Emily: Yeah, A huge one is your photos.
• 9:29
  So if you haven't updated your photos in a while, obviously that's an easy thing
• 9:34
  to fix, but instead of just putting your most recent work out there, , take a
• 9:40
  look at what photos you're presenting as a whole, and are they cohesive?
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  Are they telling the same story?
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  Are they in line with the niche that you want to be into?
• 9:51
  The people that you want to attract?
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  For example, if you want to be known for beach weddings or if that's something
• 9:57
  that you have been doing a lot of and you think you can keep going with
• 10:01
  that and, and, uh, stay fulfilled in that direction, then don't show these.
• 10:07
  Completely different style of weddings on your homepage and your services page.
• 10:13
  Make sure that it's all consistent so that people, again, this is a really great
• 10:18
  way to, um, stand out from the crowd.
• 10:20
  If you're showing a huge variety of work, people won't really remember it that well
• 10:25
  and they won't really know what exactly.
• 10:28
  You're
• 10:28
  Becca: great at.
• 10:29
  Is there a simple way to make your website run
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  Emily: faster?
• 10:31
  Definitely.
• 10:32
  So you can reduce the size of your images.
• 10:36
  If you are using Photoshop, you can do it there, or there is tiny jpeg.com
• 10:43
  where you can do that for free.
• 10:45
  But not uploading these huge files to your website straight from
• 10:50
  the photographer that are like 10,000 pixels wide or something.
• 10:55
  That's the biggest culprit of a slow.
• 10:58
  Having a slow website is bad for user experience, but also bad for, you
• 11:02
  know, your points with Google, because they're gonna pick up on that as well.
• 11:06
  Becca: Okay?
• 11:06
  So images are an important one, so we could be changing out our
• 11:09
  images, but we could also be making sure our images are smaller.
• 11:12
  So there's definitely some work that you guys can be doing
• 11:15
  around images on your website.
• 11:17
  Now Emily, I heard you on another podcast and you gave some really.
• 11:21
  Tech tips, especially around, um, what to do about broken links and error pages.
• 11:26
  Would you share that with my wedding pros?
• 11:27
  Emily: Yeah, for sure.
• 11:29
  So the thing about broken links is they're kind of unavoidable, especially the
• 11:34
  longer that your website is on online, you know, if you're using Pinterest
• 11:40
  or getting PR out there, and if you ever change the URL to one of your.
• 11:47
  Then one of those links on maybe a publication you've been featured
• 11:50
  on or on Pinterest or something may no longer be the correct link.
• 11:54
  So a safe backup here is to have a custom error page, which
• 11:59
  is called an error 4 0 4 page.
• 12:01
  You've, we've all seen them.
• 12:02
  It's the really ugly page that comes up when you click on a broken link
• 12:06
  and everyone has one by default.
• 12:09
  But it really just looks like, you know, there's no brand to it.
• 12:14
  It, it looks like a mistake.
• 12:15
  So there's something you can do about that to control the
• 12:17
  experience that people have.
• 12:19
  When they click on a broken link to your website, you can create a custom
• 12:23
  error page, which it's gonna be different for every platform, but I
• 12:27
  would just Google how to do that and every platform has that capability.
• 12:31
  Um, and then you can, you know, add your personality to it.
• 12:34
  You can give cute little greeting.
• 12:36
  It can be something really clever, like, whoops, this page has eloped,
• 12:40
  for example, so that it at least gives people a little chuckle.
• 12:45
  And then you can give them, you can direct them to more content on your site.
• 12:49
  You can give them a search bar to find what they were looking
• 12:51
  for, and then you could say like, Here's some blog posts that you
• 12:55
  can check out or view our services.
• 12:59
  stuff like that.
• 13:00
  So that way you're still giving an elevated experience even when
• 13:03
  there's a mistake that's been
• 13:05
  Becca: made.
• 13:05
  I think that's a really cool tip.
• 13:06
  It's something I didn't know about.
• 13:08
  I just assumed you had to have the standard error 4 0 4 page.
• 13:11
  That's really ugly.
• 13:12
  So can you change the colors of that?
• 13:14
  Can you literally make it a webpage like you would any
• 13:16
  Emily: other webpage?
• 13:18
  Absolutely.
• 13:19
  Yeah.
• 13:19
  It's totally custom, so you can make it as big or as small as you.
• 13:23
  Add all of your colors and you can add a photo of yourself if you want to.
• 13:26
  Becca: Yeah, amazing.
• 13:28
  That's definitely a tip that I'm gonna be taking away and going to change
• 13:30
  because inevitably with both my wedding blog and my website, I definitely have
• 13:34
  got broken links out there somewhere.
• 13:36
  And as a big lover of Pinterest, I've got a lot of stuff on Pinterest as well.
• 13:40
  So I'm gonna be changing my era 4 0 4 page, and if you're listening
• 13:43
  to this, there's one task for you to add to your to-do list as well.
• 13:47
  Now talk to me as well about these browser
• 13:49
  Emily: icons.
• 13:51
  Every website platform I'm talking about WordPress show it Squarespace.
• 13:56
  They typically have a, an a default little icon that shows
• 14:00
  up at the top of the browser tab when you're on someone's website.
• 14:04
  And if you don't go in and replace that, then it can just look like.
• 14:07
  It's not as custom.
• 14:09
  And so again, this is something that, it's gonna be different for every platform,
• 14:12
  but you can totally go in and replace that with like a little sub mark version
• 14:16
  of your logo or something like that.
• 14:18
  It's good to have, make sure that it's like a square, so like 50
• 14:21
  pixels by 50 pixels is perfect.
• 14:24
  And that's just another way to add a nice little custom touch
• 14:27
  because again, we really want.
• 14:30
  Branding to be in the forefront here to make your business look more credible.
• 14:35
  And also, you know, the, the more expensive you can look, the more you can
• 14:39
  command high prices, which we all want
• 14:41
  Yeah.
• 14:41
  And
• 14:42
  Becca: I think as well, trust is such an important element of the buying process.
• 14:46
  So for someone to find us online and then buy from us, they
• 14:49
  really do need to trust us.
• 14:50
  And sometimes it is those little things like seeing the little icon, or my worst
• 14:55
  one is if I go on someone's website, Says like on the top, made by Wix or
• 14:59
  something like that, where they just got the free website version, or their email
• 15:03
  address is their businessname@hotmail.com.
• 15:06
  All of those things to me are signals that maybe this business isn't legitimate,
• 15:11
  maybe I can't trust these people as much.
• 15:13
  So those small changes make a big difference to how much people will trust.
• 15:18
  Emily: Yeah, and you know, another big part of that that I haven't
• 15:21
  mentioned is how your website looks across different devices.
• 15:27
  So if you've only ever focused on designing your website on desktop, then
• 15:33
  you may not be aware of how poor it's performing on mobile, on your phone.
• 15:37
  So, you know, just, you always wanna check that it looks good across different
• 15:42
  devices because you may have created this great experience in one place that
• 15:45
  isn't translating across other devices.
• 15:48
  And
• 15:48
  Becca: most web platforms let you look at what it looks like on
• 15:51
  website and mobile, don't they?
• 15:53
  Emily: Yes.
• 15:54
  And nowadays, I think all of them are letting you edit
• 15:59
  them completely separately.
• 16:00
  So if you need to make minor adjustments, you can.
• 16:03
  So that one is a little bit different than the other, but again, that's
• 16:06
  just really important for all of us who are using Instagram.
• 16:10
  And then linking back to our website, people are gonna be on their
• 16:12
  phones and nowadays it's like over half of website traffic is on it.
• 16:17
  Is people on their phones at any given time, so super important
• 16:21
  to pay attention to that too.
• 16:23
  Becca: I think sometimes when it's our own business, we end up not being
• 16:26
  able to see the wood from the trees because we're in it all of the time.
• 16:29
  We're on our websites all of the time, and we don't see what other people are seeing.
• 16:34
  Do you recommend people get other people to look at their websites?
• 16:37
  Is that a service you provide or you just recommend people get their
• 16:40
  friends and family to look over their website and their customer?
• 16:43
  Emily: Yeah, so right now I'm actually doing website reviews on Instagram.
• 16:48
  I'll probably continue to do that, so if you want to have me look at your
• 16:52
  website, I totally can, but it is definitely a good idea to have different
• 16:57
  people look at it because I remember.
• 17:00
  Before I really got into website design and I was just trying to
• 17:02
  make my photography website look decent back in the day, I messed
• 17:07
  with that thing for hours and hours and hours and still could not figure
• 17:10
  out why it didn't look quite right.
• 17:12
  So it's exactly what you said.
• 17:14
  Sometimes we're just too close to it and.
• 17:17
  We've been staring at it for too long, so if you have a another
• 17:20
  creative friend, that can be super helpful to have them look it over.
• 17:23
  Yeah, and if
• 17:24
  Becca: you are listening to this and you're in my Wedding pro members lounge,
• 17:26
  then just share the link in there because people will give you some feedback as
• 17:30
  well, some peer to peer feedback too.
• 17:32
  I.
• 17:32
  Okay.
• 17:33
  Right at the beginning of this episode, we very slightly started talking a little
• 17:37
  bit about SEO and being found on Google.
• 17:40
  Now, we could do a whole episode on SEO alone, but I know that some wedding pros
• 17:44
  are struggling with the fact that they've got these beautiful websites, they've
• 17:48
  got these great Instagram pages, and yet they're just nowhere to be seen on Google.
• 17:53
  So do you have any simple, actionable things they could be doing to try and
• 17:57
  get found on Google, even just for what they do and the location where?
• 18:03
  Emily: I will say there's like two phases of seo.
• 18:07
  So one is like laying the foundation, which probably won't get you very far on
• 18:10
  its own, but it's still very important and pretty easy to to get right.
• 18:15
  So the next phase is like the ongoing stuff, and that's where
• 18:19
  something like blogging is golden.
• 18:22
  Um, so I will say that you wanna get the foundation right and we can talk
• 18:25
  about some really easy ways to do that real quick, but just keep in mind.
• 18:29
  Blog whenever you can about relevant things that you think your ideal
• 18:34
  clients would find useful and that's gonna propel you forward a lot farther.
• 18:38
  Even if it's like once every other month, just go ahead and do it.
• 18:41
  But, so as far as that foundation goes, there are about four keywords
• 18:47
  that I often see missing a lot.
• 18:50
  And it's just basic information that Google and humans need to know about
• 18:54
  your business, um, in order for them to be able to find your website on Google.
• 18:59
  So one is your business name because you may think, Well, I don't need to actually
• 19:03
  write my business name because it's in my logo, but Google can't read your logo.
• 19:07
  They just see it as an image file.
• 19:09
  So you definitely wanna have your business name written out and that
• 19:12
  goes the same for your personal.
• 19:15
  Some people aren't gonna know your business name if it's not the same
• 19:17
  as your personal name, but they're gonna be searching under your
• 19:21
  name on Google for your business.
• 19:23
  So that's another thing.
• 19:24
  You wanna put your whole name on every page if you can, but
• 19:27
  at least on your about page.
• 19:29
  Another one is of course, your location because most, you know, wedding businesses
• 19:33
  are very location based and if you're not just servicing one location, it's
• 19:39
  still helpful to get more clients.
• 19:42
  If you can go ahead and put your, where you're located.
• 19:44
  And then you can go ahead and say like, and beyond, or also,
• 19:48
  you know, we travel or whatever.
• 19:49
  Just to let people know that you do that.
• 19:51
  But let's see.
• 19:53
  So the last one would be what you do seems, again, really obvious, right?
• 19:59
  But there are, I cannot tell you how many of these website reviews like,
• 20:03
  That I mentioned that I do, where all, all of these things are missing because
• 20:07
  we, it, again, we're too close to it.
• 20:09
  We don't notice that it's missing.
• 20:11
  And so just tell people, tell Google on your website the service you offer,
• 20:17
  and that's a really easy way to, um, help yourself show up on Google more.
• 20:23
  And then, let's see, so another thing that you can do.
• 20:28
  , like I mentioned earlier, checking on your mobile website.
• 20:32
  So part of that is for user friendliness, right?
• 20:35
  Because of course we want people to have a great experience on the
• 20:38
  site, but part of that is for.
• 20:40
  Google because they can also kind of, they can, They're getting smarter and
• 20:44
  smarter of being able to tell if a website is functioning properly on mobile.
• 20:50
  Like for example, if there are elements that are too close together
• 20:52
  or overlapping, or if there's a popup that you can't quite exit out of,
• 20:57
  they can pick up on these things now.
• 20:59
  So you can actually Google mobile friendly test and Google will just
• 21:04
  have this little bar here where you type in your website and then it tells.
• 21:09
  , it gives you a score on your mobile friendliness, and then it tells you what
• 21:13
  mistakes they picked up, and that'll tell you quickly some things that you
• 21:17
  can go in and fix, which is really cool.
• 21:19
  That's
• 21:19
  Becca: awesome.
• 21:20
  I will put a link to that tool in the show notes as well.
• 21:24
  Now you talked a little bit about blogging.
• 21:26
  If anyone needs some help with blogging, go back and listen to episode
• 21:29
  eight of this podcast where I did a whole podcast episode on blogging.
• 21:34
  Any other things people should be doing ongoing to try and build on their SEO.
• 21:38
  They've got the foundations in place.
• 21:39
  Are backlinks still
• 21:40
  Emily: important?
• 21:41
  Absolutely.
• 21:42
  Yeah.
• 21:42
  So any time that you, I almost think like getting PR or getting featured in
• 21:48
  publications online is more about the SEO than it is the actual like, You know,
• 21:54
  visibility factor, those are so powerful.
• 21:57
  So if you can get featured somewhere, Google already, you know, knows that
• 22:02
  the, Oh, this is a, a website that has to do with the wedding industry,
• 22:06
  and then they're gonna, there's gonna be a link back to your website.
• 22:08
  So they're gonna be like, Oh, okay.
• 22:09
  So this is kind of like proof that this business is.
• 22:13
  and authority in the wedding industry and you know, it starts to build this web.
• 22:17
  So the more of those links that you can get, the more authority you
• 22:21
  have on Google, and they're gonna start recommending you to people who
• 22:24
  are looking for wedding services.
• 22:27
  It
• 22:27
  Becca: feels like such a mindfield, doesn't it?
• 22:29
  When it comes to websites, they're, people get overwhelmed because they're
• 22:32
  thinking, I just wanna be making flowers, or making cakes, or taking photos.
• 22:37
  I don't wanna be doing all of this other stuff.
• 22:39
  Out of all of those things, is there any one that's more of a
• 22:43
  priority or does they just need to be doing a little bit of everything?
• 22:46
  Emily: My opinion on this is do a little bit of everything, do all the
• 22:50
  easy stuff, so that way you are, you know, you have your SEO foundation, you
• 22:55
  have your website, looks pretty nice.
• 22:58
  Your, your photos are up to date.
• 23:00
  You know, it doesn't have to be perfect at all, but you do need to
• 23:04
  bring people to your website, somehow.
• 23:06
  And then when they get there, you need to hold their attention somehow and
• 23:09
  then you need to send them over so that they can turn to your contact page so
• 23:14
  that they can actually turn into a lead.
• 23:16
  So all of those things are equally important.
• 23:18
  Unfortunately, one without the other just doesn't work for your business.
• 23:21
  So that's why I say just focus on the easy stuff and then you know, you can build
• 23:25
  from there does not have to be perfect.
• 23:28
  Becca: That's a good reminder.
• 23:29
  It doesn't have to be perfect.
• 23:30
  Build and build and do a little bit all of the time to keep
• 23:34
  improving that customer journey.
• 23:36
  Now, I know that you've prepared or you've got a bit of a freebie that we
• 23:40
  are gonna give away to listeners of the podcast, so do you wanna just tell people
• 23:44
  a little bit about what that is and how
• 23:45
  Emily: they can get it?
• 23:46
  Yeah, so I have a resources page on my website and hopefully there's something
• 23:50
  there for everyone, but I do have.
• 23:53
  Website floor plan for Wedding Pros, which is basically a blueprint
• 23:57
  that I recommend for, it works for most wedding service providers.
• 24:00
  This is what I do when I'm building websites for people.
• 24:03
  So it has an outline of the exact pages that you need and what needs
• 24:07
  to go on each page, as well as like what happens if you, you know, if
• 24:12
  you need more pages than that, like.
• 24:14
  Where do you put all this information that needs to go on your website so
• 24:17
  that it's really easy for people to consume and go down that buying path?
• 24:23
  Great.
• 24:24
  So
• 24:24
  Becca: if you're listening to this and you're thinking, Yeah, I need to work
• 24:26
  on my website, I need to look into those things, then do go and grab that resource,
• 24:30
  I will put the link to it underneath.
• 24:32
  In the show notes, or if you can't find it, just drop me a message
• 24:35
  or Emily a message on Instagram.
• 24:37
  I'm sure we'll be happy to send you the link to that.
• 24:40
  Now, Emily, I always end all of my podcast episodes with the same question, which I'm
• 24:44
  gonna put to you now, which is, what one thing do you wish you'd known sooner in
• 24:49
  Emily: business?
• 24:50
  Okay, so this is a tough pill to swallow, but I wish I had known how
• 24:56
  long it takes to get the ball rolling.
• 24:58
  Like don't expect results right away, and don't let that make you give up.
• 25:03
  So basically it's like the marketing and networking thing.
• 25:06
  For so long I would just like try it for a while and then I wouldn't get
• 25:10
  the results I would want, and then I would stop or completely switch gears
• 25:13
  and it's like, no, I should have just kept going, kept going, kept going.
• 25:16
  And then the results.
• 25:18
  In due time.
• 25:19
  So that's one thing I wish I would've known earlier is like,
• 25:21
  don't stop, just see it through.
• 25:23
  It takes longer than people, you know wanna make it out to.
• 25:27
  Yes.
• 25:27
  That's
• 25:27
  Becca: such a good reminder.
• 25:28
  And I'm saying that to people all of the time because they come to
• 25:31
  me and they're like, I'm doing all the things and it's not working.
• 25:34
  And I say, Just keep doing all the things because if you keep doing all
• 25:37
  the things, It will start working.
• 25:38
  So that's a really great tip, Emily.
• 25:40
  Thank you for sharing.
• 25:41
  Emily, it's been a pleasure to have you on the podcast.
• 25:43
  If people wanna find out more about your services or more about you,
• 25:47
  where's the best place for them to go?
• 25:48
  Emily: So I'm always hanging out on Instagram at by Emily Jane, if
• 25:52
  you wanna hang out with me there.
• 25:53
  And my website is by emily jane.com where you can learn all about me and my services
• 25:58
  and get some of those free goodies.
• 26:00
  Fabulous.
• 26:01
  Becca: Thank you for your time.
• 26:02
  And if you're ever in the UK, let me know and we'll go for a drink.
• 26:05
  Awesome.
• 26:05
  Thanks.
• 26:07
  Such a great chat with Emily.
• 26:08
  Always helpful to get advice around your website and hopefully you've got some good
• 26:12
  things to take away from today's episode.
• 26:14
  If you need help with any of those things, do reach out to me and do take a look in
• 26:18
  the show notes where I link to everything that we talked about in today's episode.
• 26:21
  I'll be back next week.