Whether you need photos for e-commerce, your website or Social Media. This guide will get you started.

​Two types of Photos
There are 2 types of product photography and you WILL need both. Lifestyle photography tells your brand story and aims to capture your products with people in everyday situations. Productphotography shows your product in detail. Most e-commerce hosting sites allow for up to 5 images per product. We recommend 2 lifestyle and 3 product shots most of the time. If your product needs more views to sell, use 4 or 5 product shots.

Insider Tip
Capture a minimum of 10 shots per individual Lifestyle and individual Product image. This insures you will have choice, even with technical or design error. You are also creating an image bank so you can change up your images to keep your site and social media fresh.

Shoot Checklist
Locations and styling for Lifestyle shots
"white box" for Product shots
tripod
camera
shot list

Insider Tip

Create a spread sheet that has your item name, number, description and features. Often this can be imported directly into your ecommerce platform, but it also acts a a checklist for what you need to show in your images. Show features in Product shots and benefits in Lifestyle.

Post Production

After the shoot you will likely need to do some work on the images before you post them. This could include color correction, cropping, using filters, etc. The most comprehensive tool for this is Adobe Photoshop, but it is expensive and has a learning curve. 

PhotoShop Express - a phone app with the most options for FREE. It lets you crop, fix red eye, share on social media, collage and more.

The Take Away

Humans retain 65% of what they see. That means photos are key to capturing customers and ultimately sales. Photo shoots are a big job. Determine if you have the time to photograph consistently and produce quality. If so, enjoy. If not, consider hiring a professional so you can focus on what you enjoy and do well like MAKING your product.


For more information, Contact Anne Cecil: [email protected].


 

Until the onset of social media, brands primarily communicated with target audiences crafting one-way messages most often delivered through TV. In those days, 80% of consumers could be reached through TV advertising. Consumers were more homogeneous-most adults were married, most had kids. Traditional forms of advertising moved the consumer through a consistent path to purchase: Awareness - Consideration - Conversion - Loyalty - Advocacy. The point of the first sale originates at conversion.Today There Is No Specific Path To Purchase
Customers may interact with you through the internet, company website, brick & mortar store, mobile apps, social media, etc. Each customer will take an individual journey to purchase and they will demand transparency and two-way communication along the way.

You are communicating with a market of one. 

Consumers are blasted 34 Gigabytes of information daily. How in the world can one independent retailer get their message through? Find Your Customer!
Examine your purchasers, or competitor purchasers in-depth. Observe and study their habits. Find out what they care about, their self-image and their lifestyles. Determine how your store fits into their world. Learn what forms of communication they use and enjoy. Understand what kind of relationship they want with your brand. For example, are you a friend? co-conspirator? coach? advisor? expert? etc?
Create 2 or 3 major customer profiles. Map out a strategy for communicating with each. You have just created the Who. Now, what will you share with them? When will you begin the conversation? How will you converse with them? Why will you converse with them?
Next determine the best mix of channels for each communication and set a calendar for communicating. Select from both traditional and digital channels where appropriate.

Insider Tip
Don't rely too heavily on a platform. From the most recent Facebook fiasco, it should be apparent that platforms will change over time, mostly for reasons out of your control. In fact, recent thinking suggests that brands spend 70% of their communication time on their own website because they control their own site.

The Take Away
Use a a customer focused communication strategy to build a meaningful, pleasurable and positive relationship with your customer.
For more help on undestanding and reaching your customer contact Anne Cecil: [email protected].