So you've determined who your ideal audience is, then did some detective work to discover where they hang out. But what happens when they finally discover you? Are they impressed by what they see? Are they a little turned off by the dimly-lit photos or cluttered backgrounds? Your content or products could be amazing, change-your-life stuff, but the image you put forth can make all the difference.
Excellent Photography can help you to:
- Attract more customers
- Bring in more traffic
- Give your business a polished look that sets you apart
Before you sigh and remind me that a DSLR camera is just not in the budget, and there’s no time for a photography course, we have a great solution for you.
Laura Smith of IHeartPlanners shared some great photography tips that will benefit even the newest photographers among us. Our challenge to you is to pick one of the following two options to improve your photos this week.
- Experiment with finding the perfect set-up for your product or blog photos. Try using props, natural light, and different angles to see what arrangement makes your products look stunning. Once you’ve picked the winner, repeat this composition for your other product or project photos. Here’s an excellent article on product photo composition to give you some ideas on how to get started.
- Try using a stock photo designed to insert your product or text into it. Painting your products or blog posts in a seasonal light could bring more traffic your way as Christmas approaches. There are some excellent Etsy shops who make photos specifically designed for you to add your own products, prints, or text.
That’s it! It’s your pick. We can’t wait to see the gorgeous photos, new blog posts, and product listings you create as a result.
Challenge Update
Many of you in our Facebook Group have already seen what we've been working on for this week's challenge, but we'll share our results and some tips for you right here as well.
We chose to work on Part 2 of the challenge: using stock photos to paint our products and blog posts in a seasonal light. We used two different stock photos from KateMack's Shop on Etsy.
1.) We created a gorgeous blog post cover photo. This is where using stock photos is easy-peasy and an absolute no-brainer! There's no need to add shading or anything fancy. Just grab a gorgeous photo that fits your theme and insert your text. Almost ALL of the photos we use here on the site are Stock photos.
Here's the photo, and of course, enter our Colossal Giveaway while you're at it 🙂
2.) We used a stock photo and inserted some of our products into it. While we don't sell framed, mounted butterflies on our site, we do sell beautiful, spread specimens that can be used for that purpose. We've learned that showing people how to use our products makes it that much easier to get sales. So we used the photo below to create a Pinterest-Friendly collage showing people how to craft with butterflies. Of course, we linked to one of our butterfly listings so they'd know just where to go to grab a gorgeous butterfly specimen.
I'll be honest. We don't have photoshop and wouldn't know the first thing about using it. We did the whole process using Picmonkey (affiliate link because we love them!) I think the first shadow is a bit too large and harsh, but live and learn.
I'll be writing a tutorial on how I did this using Picmonkey, and I'll link to it here when it's ready. It's not as hard as you'd think! It might not look perfect, but it's still a whole lot better than what I could accomplish if I tried to take the photo on my own from scratch. Not to mention, we don't exactly have a huge budget for cool photo props at this point!
Below is the finished collage that highlights our business on Pinterest. Speaking of Pinterest, we're going to dig into the potential this platform has to offer this week. The Holiday Season is the perfect time to invest in Pinterest. People are searching daily for gift ideas and are ready to buy. A commitment here shouldn't feel like a waste of time, but an investment in your business. Head to your inbox to see all the challenge details. If you're not signed up yet, Join 52 Weeks to a Better Business Right Here.
