Say you're thinking about buying a new couch for your living room, what do you do and how do you go about it? If you're like me it'll probably go something like this: You'll start your research online. You might take a look on Pinterest for some inspiration or some snazzy interior design websites to get an idea of the style and colour you're after. You might then decide to browse some online furniture stores to see if there's anything that takes your fancy. You make a shortlist and a plan to take a trip to said stores at the weekend. For the rest of the week, your Facebook feed has been throwing up pictures of different sofas all over the place. One of the adverts catches your eye and you add that one to your shortlist too. The weekend arrives and you venture out to your carefully selected stores. You walk in to the first store and scan the floor for the one you liked on their website. You spot it in the far corner and head straight to it. You plop down onto it and do a little bounce to see how it feels. You make a mental note of it's squishiness and imagine yourself curled up on it with a blanket while you Netflix and chill. You then check out the swatch book to see what the colour you had in mind looks like in real life. Eew... it's much darker than you remember from the picture you saw online. You ask the store assistant if there are other options. He explains the differences in the available materials and the advantages of each. He tells you that the new Navy colour is really popular and very on trend. You hadn't thought of Navy before but seeing it in reality now, you actually really like it. It feels super soft too! Mental notes made, you move onto the next place and the test starts over. Several couch visits later you figure you need to sleep on it before you make a decision but there are two definite contenders. You dig out the brochures you picked up in store and take another look. You get the measuring tape out to confirm the dimensions of where it will go. Ah ha... one of them is a tad too big and would mean you'd have to lose one of the side tables. Decision made! You head back to the store the following day and place the order. The store assistant advises you that it will take 6 weeks for delivery and recommends an upgrade that will help protect it and keep it clean. It's a little extra than you had budgeted for but you figure it's worth it. You also spot some cushions that will look divine with it and you just have to have them. You walk out the door cushions in hand, excitedly anticipating the arrival of your new couch which will be delivered just in time for Christmas! Job done. So what was the point of that story I hear you ask? The Answer: It's so important to show what you sell as many times and in as many places as possible! Take our couch shopping example above – how many times did we look at the products between online research, in store, Facebook ads and brochures before a decision was finally made? It might seem obvious but you'd be surprised how many photographers forget to show people the products they offer. In many cases, the first time the clients see them is either at the photoshoot or when they come back for their viewing. Give this experiment a go: Pick 5 random photographer's websites and see if you can find out what products they offer. Do they have lots of beautiful photos of them? Videos too? My bet is that you'll find lots of beautiful photos of their work but many if not all of them will have very few (if any) photos of the actual products they sell. I'm not entirely sure why this is but the reality is, you should be showing your products to your clients as many times as possible throughout their journey. Failing to do this can result in a poorly prepared client and less than average sales and that's definitely something you want to avoid – especially when it's such an easy fix! When and where should you showcase your products?1. Online – Your Website & Social Media Wherever you have an online presence, you should definitely be showcasing your products. Show photos and videos on your website and of course make the most of your social media platforms too. Post videos, photos and slideshows to Facebook and Instagram. Go live for a personal touch and talk about why you love a particular product or talk about a new one that just came in that you're really excited about. People love that type of content and respond really well to it. Create some stories and highlights around your products and maybe even a Pinterest board. Create testimonial videos of your clients that also shows the products they bought. There are so many possibilities. 2. On the Phone If you do a phone consultation, make sure you talk about the products you offer. If you're doing a video call, show the products while you talk about them. It's the next best thing to an in-person consult. 3. In-Person If you do an in-person consultation, make sure you take the opportunity to let your clients touch and feel the products you offer so they can see the quality for themselves. This will plant the seed of desire for products early in the journey, well before they've even had their photoshoot. It will also give you an idea of the type of products they are interested in so you can shoot with that in mind. For examples, if you know they are interested in a large piece of wall art for their living room, make sure you shoot for a mind blowing image that will look fabulous in that space. If they're interested in a folio box or an album, make sure you shoot enough variety to maximise the sale. After the photoshoot, take the opportunity to let them see the products again and give them a printed product guide and price list so they can go away thinking about what they will purchase when they come back for their viewing/sales appointment. When they return, they'll most likely have a very good idea of what they want and it'll simply be a case of choosing the right images for each product. It's a good idea to use an IPS tool such as ProSelect to help you with this too. The Next StepThe good news is, we are here to help you every step of the way because our mission is to help photographers turn their passion into profit. That's why we exist and why we do what we do! Physical Samples We believe that it's extremely important to show what you sell. Letting your client see, touch and interact with a tangible product will help drive their desire for that product. With that in mind, we offer 25% off Studio Samples of any of our Folio Boxes, Print Boxes and USB products. We see it as an investment in you because we believe in helping photographers like you to sell more. Click here to find the right product for you. Then simply mark it as a sample in your cart and the 25% discount will be automatically applied. Prints in photos courtesy of Whitney Scott and Paulina Duczman Virtual Products - Use Our Product Stock Photos If you want to show pictures of your products on your website, social media or other marketing materials but don't have the time to photograph them yourself then we can help with that too. We have a gallery of photos that you are free to download and use as you please. You can find them here: https://mypro.photos/3xmproducts The apertures have all been left blank so you can simply pop your photos into them using Photoshop or similar software. Marketing Image Creator If the thought of trying to Photoshop your own images into our stock photos makes you want to scream, don't worry – we have the perfect tool for you. Go to https://3xmsolution.com and under Products, click Marketing Images. Choose the product photo you'd like to use, upload your photo and our tool will automatically place it in the aperture of the product within the image. Then simply click download to use the image wherever you like. It couldn't be easier 😃 |
AuthorsRonan Ryle Archives
August 2023
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