Product-Based Business Marketing : Visual strategies & best practices
We love working with product-based businesses, and since rolling out our Monthly Visual Content Subscription service, we've been getting a lot of messages in our Instagram DMs about marketing product-based brands and what these companies can do to really see a return on their time invested in social media and marketing in general. What can they do to increase their revenue? What we mean by product-based businesses, really are brands that sell a tangible good versus a service. So apparel, accessories, food and beverage, supplements, beauty and body products, you name it, that's a product based business. If you're selling these things, you are product-based business, and this article's for you.
What can you do to get seen?
It is so important to be seen. People need to see you to know that your product exists. One of the best ways to do this for the long-term is to build a lifestyle around your product. We use imagery to showcase who your product is for, how they use it, why they use it, so it can really paint a picture when somebody lands on a photo of your product, whether it's on your social platforms or on someone else's, the picture we paint is that this product is for me. When someone can look at an image and say, “I can see myself in that person's shoes”, it makes it so much easier for them to want to buy what you are selling.
How do we do this? Well, a strategy is really important here. When possible work with influencers. We love finding people on social media that have an engaged following. The keyword is "engaged" following. It doesn't have to be a big following, but they have to be communicating with them and commenting on their photos and liking things, and these are the people that make for great humans in your pictures using your product.
There's a double benefit here. When you work with people who have a social media presence, the images created of your product in use with them are more likely to be reshared to their own social media channels, which also means that you're now getting in front of their following that may not have otherwise known about what you have to offer. And, on your, side you're getting quality imagery of a different demographic of person who you may not have access to before.
Why does your content need to be fresh?
Newsflash, it's not a good idea to use images that are eight years old. The quality is probably not there, especially if it was taken with a cell phone back then. Flip phones, anyone? But also the trends are different. Even if your product has stayed the same for the most part, the trends around it are different, whose popular online right now may be different than it was eight or ten years ago, as well as how to style something, what type of lifestyle is on brand for you, or what the inside of people's homes looked like.
Your images need to reflect the times, and they also need to reflect your current stock. You probably have a lot of new cosmetics, new equipment, new supplements, and new apparel that you didn't have 10 years ago. We need to see those things in order to spark the desire to buy them. It's also important for your content to be fresh because it's a monthly reminder to push out and distribute the content that you have. Think of it as an accountability reminder. You've got these new pictures and content, now you’ll be more likely to put them to use.
How can you convert images into sales?
This is a big question, and sometimes it looks very similar for service-based businesses, so if you're a service-based business reading this, these things can apply to you too. Some of the ways you can convert your images into sales really boil down to the fact that when you work with a photography brand, you have guaranteed quality, and at India Jackson Artistry, we shoot full frame, so even when we're creating images that are designed to use for social media, they are photographed in full frame with professional cameras and of high quality. You're able to print them out banner size if you wanted for a convention and still have quality there. This is a very different experience than trying to print entry-level camera and cell phone images on a billboard or banner.
When you have quality, you're able to be consistent and use images for your social media also for direct mailings like postcards and flyers. You can also use them to supplement your email marketing, your blog, and social media ads. This creates a cohesive look between your passive or informative marketing and your sales advertisements. With cohesion your brand is easily recognized and trusted.
We love it when we see a client rollout longer blog posts about something. We do this too, and take the blog post and send out an email blast on it. If you're an apparel brand, it could be about five different ways to style this one pair of pants. If you're a supplement company, it could be five different smoothie recipes for this one protein powder. That's your blog post, and then you take that and you give a preview of that in your email and send people back to your blog. While they're there, at the bottom of the blog post, you link back to the page on your website to buy the protein powder or the pants and boom, you've got a sale. Cool, right?
This is how you save time too because we know that you're busy professionals. You don't have time to take all the pictures, constantly create new content and push it out, engage with your followers and still do all the things that keep a business running. We promise, you don't have to reinvent the wheel, or do all the things yourself folks! We know you're busy. We want you to really be able to just stay in your zone of genius, because when you stay in what you're really good at, which for most of our clients is sales, engaging with the followers you have, and leading your people you're able to increase your revenue. Leaving us to the photographs is one less thing on your plate.
A strategy is so important in marketing and product-based business. And even with product brands highlighting your WHY story and your people + values matter. If you guys have any other questions about visual + brand strategy or any questions at all, we would love for you to go over to our Instagram account and send us a DM.
We love your questions and enjoy helping our clients save time and provide value, and that's the most important part… providing value to your fans and followers so they become your loyal customers.
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Check out the apparel featured in this post over at EG Fit Wear
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