This may be a sneaky sales page...

A lot easier to just provide the link for you...

New York City | Long Island | Wedding Photographers | Wedding Photographers in New York City & Long Island

Best,


Mark Andrews...

Thanks for looking.

There's no sound because the majority of brides surf wedding sites for their wedding planning during work hours. If sound starts playing, they'll surf right off the site rather than alert everyone in earshot that they're not working.

The video fills up most of the screen space because it's visually more impressive for photography. The vast majority of brides have screen resolutions large enough to see the images well.

For photography - they want to see photos. If I hit them with a headline and copy on the home page, they're not going to bother.

The bounce rate is currently 35.03%. When I previously had sound, and/or text (I've tried several things), in addition to images, the bounce rate was almost 60%.

I've read over and over again on various sites and literature that a pop up on exit may increase opt-ins by a significant percent.

I decided to try it one day. And I found that to be true.

It may be annoying, but I tend to not permit personal biases to color my efforts too much.

I still think you need some copy... even if you work it into the video.

I would imagine you want to touch on why skimping on a wedding photographer is the worst idea in the world.

It's the one day you feel like a princess... not to mention how much time, effort and cash goes into setting up a wedding in the first place.

Do you really want to destroy all that with a wedding photographer who isn't the best of the best?

I'd imagine the message you want to get across is something like that.

Kudos on testing and knowing your market tho'.

-Daniel

P.S. You might want to make a special website-only offer so you can track (at least informally) roughly how many people your website is referring to you.

Hi Jack...

Here are some notes.

* I'd rewrite your opt-in form headline. I'm not sure "Cookie cutter" aspect doesn't really does it. Dig a little deeper. What's the benefit of not having cookie-cutter pictures?

You look more attractive... you capture the most important day of your life beautifully... breaths life into your pictures... (keep going)

* Consider creating captions for all or some of the photos. Tell the story.

* Are there any excerpts about you from the magazines that are worth taking out and placing above the magazine. Not sure if reprinting your ad helps you.

* It's possible that the main fly-over doesn't really "Fly" in this market. This is something to test.

* Focus on easy navigation. Get your photos looked at. Get your pages clicked on.

* Bury the "For photographers" section as a small link at the bottom of the page. It distracts from your target market.

* The small grey font is hard to read.

* Put best testimonials up top. Also improve readability.

* Have a stronger call-to-action on your contact page. Doesn't need to be much. Just a sentence or two that tells them to act.

* Maybe create a short and succinct bio page for browsers. It just gives a testimonial or two, press credentials... and reinforces your USP with a quick detail or two about yourself.

-Hans

P.S. What Daniel said... track, track, track your results.

So... you know what's working and what's costing you.

Thanks everyone.

Daniel: To today's bride, it works against you if you warn brides about spending less than they should. They see that as the vendor trying to give them the old corporate sales line trying to profit off of them. They'll flame you in the wedding forums for that.

Hans: Lots of food for thought there. Though "cookie cutter" is their words, not mine. It's what they say they wish to avoid. They already understand what that means to them. I know what you're saying about emphasizing the benefits of it, though.

Azarna: Here's the thing about cliches: when they're terribly stereotypical, they're cheesy. But otherwise they can be used to instantly paint the picture, no? I don't know which cliches you're referencing on my site, because even the word "cliche" is a cliche.

I think you guys are onto something... I need to distill it and translate it into something copacetic with how I understand the bridal market works.

Thank you again, so much.

Okay! I've made tons of changes to my website since I first posted this thread - changes to the site design, content, strategy... so do you think the results are better?