Tips for Getting Better Business Images on a DIY Budget

Let’s call this the “fake-it-til-you-make-it” photo tip sheet.

To be clear: We are proponents of professional photography for your website, and all of your marketing material. High-quality images attract attention, communicate clearly, and sell.

Simply put, professional photography makes you look better. The better you look, the more people will look. The more people look, the more leads you’ll see.

But professional photographers aren’t always available when photo ops present themselves. And, a professional photographer doesn’t fit in every small-business budget. Still, every business needs quality images.

Here, we offer general guidelines and specific tips to help you get better quality photos of your business, your people, and your products – on a “DIY” budget.

See more tips for photographing employees on the job.

What You Need to Know about Small Business Photography

Equipment Matters. Photographers like to say the best camera you have is the one at hand – and that’s true, so plan ahead and use a real camera – or the best one you can get your hands on. If you must use your cell phone, follow this advice from TechRepublic. And no matter what kind of camera you use, use a tripod. (More on that later.)

Photography is the art of capturing light. So learn to use the aperture and white balance settings on the (best) camera you have. Also pay attention to color cast, and learn what temperature settings work best for your site. (Industrial lighting can be tricky, often turning images yellow or blue.) When framing your shots, notice shadows – and try to eliminate them. Generally speaking, shadows detract from your product images.

Closer is always better. The subject of the image should be obvious. You want to direct prospects’ attention so they look at and consider specific features of specific products. Nothing in the photo should distract from what you’re trying to sell.

Background Noise Detracts from your photos. Some tips to tune it out:

• First, look critically at the background when you frame a shot. If you can tell that a picture was taken in your break room, so can everyone else.
• Second, learn to use aperture settings to minimize depth of field. (Learn from the Fstoppers or see Nikon’s more artistic explanation.
• Challenging background? Some professionals recommend using a fog machine to blur the background, for example, when you need an image of a large machine in a shop setting and cannot isolate the machine or eliminate a distracting background. If that sounds too complicated, try creative lighting or professional post-processing. The point is to make it easy and pleasing for your viewers (prospects) to focus on what you’re trying to show (sell) them.

Remember, post-production is your friend. Many a photo has been saved by a little TLC on the back end. While very robust post-production software can run into the thousands of dollars, quite a few free, easy-to-use packages offer enough functionality to make your images look really good. (LunaPic and iPiccy are two nice, free options.) Standard post-production features to improve the quality of almost every image:

• Straighten the image. Unless your restaurant is the Leaning Tower of Pizza, your image should probably portray the subject straight, not at an angle.
• Remove or reduce shadows.
• Frame and format. Having each image the correct size (both file size and height/width ratio) makes a world of difference in the way your images, website, and handouts look.
• Crop. Crop. Crop. Less is more, and close-ups are generally better. Aim for less in the frame. Are you getting the picture? We hope so.?

5 Fast, Practical Tips For Improving Your Business Images

1. Place a white sheet of paper under a product to get an instantly clean and bright background. Or use a piece of Plexiglas to create a nice reflection. Shopify offers more ideas to improve your business photography here.
2. To improve lighting and reduce shadows, position two or three light sources on different sides of the product you’re shooting.
3. Use compressed air to blow away dust particles, stray hairs, and anything that takes the focus (pun intended) off your product.
4. Take pictures straight on – and if the resulting images are crooked anyway, use a photo editor to straighten it. The exception: when you’re taking pictures of people. In that case, some angles are good. Passports and mug shots are taken straight on – why draw comparisons?
5. Use a Tripod. Sure, you’re steady Eddy. Use a tripod anyway.

Follow these tips and picture yourself increasing sales!

We’re marketing professionals, not professional photographers. If you need a business or corporate photographer, we are happy to recommend the business and corporate those that we work with. How can we help you improve your marketing programs and grow your sales? Let’s find out!

Better Images of Your Employees at Work, Better Marketing Material

Even among professional photographers, industrial portraiture is a niche specialty. But every business needs a few high-quality, up-to-date images of what goes on inside the company. Below are some general tips and tricks for photographing people who work in your business. Follow these and get the images you need for your marketing communications!

Tips for Photographing People at Work

Selfie sticks had a good run. And look around – people don’t seem shy about having their pictures taken – at work, at play, all day, every day. But something happens when you need images of your employees at work…and, it’s complicated. Here, a few simple tips to get the images you need for your website, social media channels, email newsletters, and other marketing communications:

• Proper dress is required. Ensure that safety gear is worn and/or used correctly in all photos taken at your business.
• Don’t say cheese. When it comes to images of your people at work, they don’t have to smile. They don’t even need to be recognizable. When the image is intended to focus on equipment or process, we like over-the-shoulder shots showing employees at work, and other angles that don’t focus on facial features. Speaking of which…
• Ask permission before photographing employees at work. Just because your company handbook says you have the right to take photos of your employees at work doesn’t mean you can be insensitive. If you’re planning a photo shoot, give your employees a day or two’s notice, and if possible, give them nice new company shirts to wear – and the option to opt-out of the shoot.
• Taking pictures of work social events? A little goes a long way. One or two images of the company picnic or office party will convey the idea that yours is a fun place to work. We highly recommend getting the subject of each photo to OK its use (even if you’re ‘just’ posting to the company intranet) and giving your HR department a chance to review anything that you’re considering using, whether it’s for the employee newsletter, your website or social media channels.
• Make sure it’s OK to share images from clients, vendors and partners. Is it OK to take pictures at a client worksite? Usually. Should you ask for a release before you share it? Absolutely! (We have a boilerplate release that’s yours for the asking.)

Need better business images, but a corporate photography session isn’t in your budget?
See our tips on the DIY approach to getting better business images.

We’re not professional photographers, but we know a few we’re happy to recommend. Need marketing help to increase sales? That’s our specialty!

Surveys, Complaints, and the Value of Regularly Scheduled Listening

Who doesn’t get excited about survey responses, right? Right?!

In case it’s not coming through on screen, that was written in a sarcastic tone. Creating and managing customer surveys online (or paper, or phone surveys) is rarely earthshaking. Survey response rates are often low, and responses tend to roll in rather slowly. But the insight from even a very small number of respondents can be invaluable to planning and executing your marketing and sales strategy.

Customer Surveys Are Worthwhile

Low response rates do not necessarily indicate failure. The voice of the customer always has value. An ongoing collection of input (and responding to that input) positions your company to be successful in several key areas.

Our advice? Keep asking questions. And even more important: Listen.

Of course there are things you can do to improve your customer surveys and response rates. See below for tips to improve your surveys and feedback forms. But remember, how you handle the process and what you do with the responses is every bit as important as the collection process. To put it simply, you need to make listening to the customer a habit.

Customer Stories = Marketing Gold

If you don’t already monitor your “listening” channels, make a list and check it twice (or more) in the coming year. A robust website should have several touchpoints or data collection tools. Consider how you use those on your website:

• RFP/RFQ Buttons
• Contact Forms
• Social Sharing icons
• Sign up for newsletters/promotional communications
• Thank you for shopping with us auto-responders
• Sale cancelled/abandoned cart follow-up emails with surveys

Employees, Vendors and Partners Have Stories Too

Speaking of the voice of the customer, one thing we hear repeatedly from our small business customers is how valuable it is to have regularly scheduled marketing meetings with a team of people – both internal staff (a cross-functional team is great) and in-sourced marketing experts. In monthly marketing meetings with our clients, we consider all customer reviews, complaints, survey results, anecdotes, and other input, and discuss it briefly in the opening few minutes of a monthly marketing meeting. That input informs not only marketing strategies but often, also the company’s overall business direction.

Hidden Value, Surprising Benefits of Using Surveys in Your Business

We say surveys are a marketing “gold mine” because surveys –

• Provide a mechanism to listen to customers
• Personalize your brand
• Strengthen your relationship with your customers. (Even if they don’t complete your survey, making one available creates a line of communication.)

Listen, and Share

While constantly running promotions and discounting your products is not recommended, listening all the time absolutely is. We’ll go so far as to call it a best practice. But, listening isn’t enough. Listening and using customer feedback to improve operations isn’t even enough. You have to share, too.

By the way, this is one of the reasons why we like Yext Ultimate Reviews so much – the powerful tool makes getting client reviews and adding them to your website easy and attractive – and because of its design, businesses that use it see increased natural search traffic to their sites. More on that in a future post.

Letting your customers and prospects know what you’ve learned from them is part of the process. People like to know that they’ve been heard; they’re interested in hearing what others think about the same thing; and they LOVE IT when a company makes changes based on their imput. So sharing on your website, newsletter, social channels, and in face to face marketing events (like trade shows or at point-of-purchase displays) is critically important to getting the best ROI on your survey program.

When you continually seeking feedback, ideas and other input from customers you’ll gain insight that will help you make good business decisions. You’ll also gain a reputation as a company that’s receptive, and easy to work with.

Not a bad way to start a New Year.

Regularly-scheduled meetings are a hallmark of the JointSourcing client relationship. We are committed to listening to our clients, and to their customers, in order to recognize and respond quickly and wisely to changing market demands and opportunities. Need a partner to help you listen and respond to your customers in order to grow your business? We’d love to help you start a conversation with your customers – and meet your sales growth goals.

A Unique Selling Proposition May Be the Big Idea You Need

Creating a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is a risky move – but with a well-developed strategy and a coordinated public relations and marketing effort, it can pay off.

Creating a USP

Jim Bolin was born and raised in Casey, IL. As he grew up, Bolin watched a familiar small-town story unfold: Casey lost population, visitors, business, and industry. As the town’s revenue went downhill, so did Casey. Bolin responded with a plan to put the town on the map, and back in business.

Bolin knew Casey needed a marketing plan, a plan that focused on why people should visit (and shop, and eat, and otherwise spend money) in the town. After all, there are a lot of quaint towns with friendly people and small businesses with great customer service in the Midwest. What Casey needed was something to truly differentiate it. So if marketing Casey as a great small town wouldn’t work, what would? Something a little bigger. What Casey needed was a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.

Casey was about to become the small town where big things happen.

In Business, It Pays to Think Big

Bolin was determined to give people a reason to visit Casey. What he came up with were several reasons – big reasons. They include the World’s Largest Wind Chime, World’s Largest Golf Tee, World’s Largest Rocking Chair, World’s Largest Knitting Needles, and the World’s Largest Mailbox.

The unique attractions drive traffic – a lot of traffic – to Casey. In fact, so many people visit Casey to see the (big) sights that it’s created a (small) problem: the occasional traffic jam.

At this point, it’s safe to say that Bolin, and everyone in Casey, has learned that success can drive traffic – and more success.

Certification Supports USP

The USP that Bolin “made up” for Casey may sound quirky, but it’s legit – all of the town’s World’s Largest attractions have been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. Casey’s largess goes a little further, however.

Once the town began to garner attention for its World’s Largest items, Bolin (with the support of the majority of residents) added several other oversized attractions. While they don’t carry the official “World’s Largest” designation, they’re still part of Casey’s allure, and they align with the USP.

What If You Don’t Have a USP?

To be clear, we don’t necessarily recommend that clients “invent” a USP – but we won’t create a marketing plan without one.

The efforts led by Jim Bolin in Casey provide an excellent example of how you can put your business, services, or attractions on the map.

Bolin clearly had a vision. Big Things in a Small Town is what Bolin dubbed his local workshop, which is now a tourist attraction in its own right. But vision isn’t enough.

Bolin put Casey on the map with a solid strategy and coordinated marketing effort.

Here’s how Casey’s “invented” USP drives traffic to the town and its businesses:

• Excellent use of Social Media – check out the town’s Facebook Page to see what we mean.
• Face-to-Face Marketing – all of the town’s retail businesses participate in some way to promote Casey’s unique features.
• Operational Support – a trolley runs on the weekends, carrying tourists from one big attraction to another, and the local post office hand-cancels postcards deposited in the World’s Largest Mailbox with – what else? – a stamp that reads “World’s Largest Mailbox.”
• Coordinated Marketing/Public Relations efforts have resulted in press coverage from regional news outlets and niche publications like Roadside America and Road Trippers to a recent feature on CBS Sunday Morning

As we’ve stated before, a purely invented USP won’t work for everyone. But when you have a USP, a solid marketing strategy, and coordinated, well-managed promotional tactics, then you’re on your way to growth. Big time.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Effective marketing starts with a thorough understanding of your business and how you stack up against the competition. (In other words, discovering and testing your USP.) You also need a methodical assessment of your opportunities, and a little bit of vision. This is why we start each client relationship by completing a Blueprint, a comprehensive assessment of your business. It is invaluable in determining the strategies needed to grow your business, and once it’s complete, the blueprint becomes an actionable plan for that growth. We use the Blueprint to weigh each marketing program and expenditure before launching any initiative. For our Joint Sourcing clients, the Blueprint also forms the basis of our shared risk and reward. In fact, we’ll go so far as to say that Joint Sourcing is our USP. Contact us to learn more about the Sales Renewal JointSourcing™ process.

Best of Growth Spurts – Our Favorite Posts from January

We regularly update our Growth Spurts blog with actionable marketing & technology advice, news and information. These articles are often hand-picked to address issues and projects we’re working on with our clients, but they are relevant to most business owners involved with any aspect of marketing their business. Here are our 5 favorite posts this month:

On Content Marketing

10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing – Content marketing – your blog, downloads, white papers – is quite often one of the biggest marketing expenses, and one of the most difficult to measure.

Adwords and email gives the satisfaction of seeing immediate, measurable results. But your investment in “content”? It’s often a big unknown.

The goals in this article help put that investment in context: Invest in content, and you invest in your business. Consider: building trust and rapport with your audience; attracting new prospects; deepening loyalty with existing customers; helping with SEO; and even attracting strategic partners.

And to help you develop your 2017 Content Marketing plan, this article – B2B Content Marketing 2017: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – gathers 25 content marketing stats all in one place … dive in, explore and learn.

On Email Marketing

13 Things to Start, Stop & Keep Doing With Your Email Marketing in 2017 – Email marketing is a powerful tool to encourage your audience to engage with content and to nurture leads in your database along the buyer’s journey. Understanding the points made in this article will ensure that your email marketing is 2017-ready.

On Exit Planning

First Impressions are Critical in the Sale of a Business. What Impression Does Your Website Give? – For business owners contemplating selling their business, one of the many factors that can help them achieve their exit revenue goals is better and more cost-effective marketing. This includes their online presence, which starts with the company website. Not sure if your website will help or hurt your ability to sell your business? Our alliance partner at Business Transition Academy outlines five factors to take into account.

On SEO

8 SEO Trends You Need to Pay Attention to in 2017 – SEO is a constantly changing landscape. This article highlights eight trends to be aware of as we start 2017, including:

• HTTPS is no longer just an option. Security issues aside, Google has confirmed it’s a ranking signal.
• Social media will be an even larger referral traffic goldmine.
• Mobile-first strategies have become a necessity.
• Links will continue to be important, but they should be a by-product of excellent content.

Continue reading for details on these and 4 more SEO trends for 2017.

The Most Effective SEO Tactics – According to recent research from Ascend2, marketers say creating relevant content is the most effective search engine optimization (SEO) tactic. Results also show that it’s the most difficult to execute. Read the article.

On Analytics

How Google Analytics Ruined Marketing – Strategy => Content => Channel. This article reinforces the need for all marketers to understand the difference between a marketing strategy (what message are you trying to convey) and a marketing channel (what’s the best method for conveying that message).

It also reinforces one of Sales Renewal’s key beliefs that “there is no ‘digital marketing’ and ‘traditional marketing.'” Sure, there are digital channels and traditional channels, but they all should be used to support the marketing strategy. Read the article.