How to Save Money Yet Create Engaging Content to Drive Sales​

How to Save Money Yet Create Engaging Content to Drive Sales

The digital world is full of all sorts of content and customers are sifting through thousands of pages every single day. With so many fishes in the sea, it is a challenge for brands to get the attention. Your saviour – create engaging content to drive sales. Anything that really makes your readers stop and stare can mean a successful sales funnel.

Fortunately, you don’t need to spend money recklessly on content creation.

Read on to understand how you can create engaging content to drive sales by being highly economical and smart.

Focus on Visuals

How can brands possibly land the good fortune of getting noticed by their prospects in this content-flood is a big question. Brands are well aware that humans love visuals and tend to remember 65% of the content if they see an image attached to plain text. So, if you are really thinking of deep customer engagement, then why not direct your efforts towards the most authentic and tried recipe – using images as visual forces. Investing in sure-shot successful strategies can help you save money and put it in other areas of business – like ad campaigns, promotional activities etc.

The awesome thing about visuals is they are not only interesting to see but also exciting to create, with 32% marketers considering visual images as the most important form of content. They use it on their own website, on marketplaces and even social media. Every channel has their visual rules, of course. Facebook study suggests that images with 20% content is the best way to display your product or services. Follow these principles like Bible and you are sure to do well.

How does visual content increase sales? Great visuals, like awesome product images are a good replacement for touch-and-feel. They give the store walk-in experience virtually. Professionally edited images are also a testimony to serious branding, building trust. This is the first step of conversion and can help you fill top of the funnel – the aware stage. Images can accelerate call-to-action clicks by clients, making them enter your sales funnel without any forceful ad or mail.

Unlike in the past, you don’t have to spend a fortune for these visuals. You can use apps or bulk editing services that cut down your cost by half.

Think multi-channel Usage

Think multi-channel Usage

We should figure ways of stretching the rupee. Ever wondered why in the world does a multi-purpose tool set get more sales than a single purpose tool? It is no mystery. We all love to cut-back and always opt for multi-use objects. Brands too, need to imbibe this approach and figure ways of repurposing their assets.

When it comes to product imagery, it is advisable to go for agile imagery – a concept that allows usage of one asset/image across many platforms and through the different sales conversion stages. So, you take one image that works for your brand and keep it common for all channels including- Facebook ad, Instagram feed, Website home page and eCommerce marketplaces.

The key here is to create a brand-style image that incorporates the brand’s voice and identity. When you incorporate agile imagery in your brand, your product photography should follow the lead of your style guide

 

Taking product images in a way that enables usage across many backgrounds is one sure shot way to cut down costs related to product photography.

A handbag shot on a white background enables brand to use it on varied channels with proper post-production of images. You can remove the white background easily and place it on any background that you require. Similarly, it can even be placed on a mannequin or a model’s arm without much hassle.

Why is adapting this strategy a hit for the frugal marketer? Clearly, this one image, multi-use concept is full of benefits. Brands need not invest in photoshoots or creative shoots. No more changing of backgrounds or searching for models. Just follow an easy set-up and take images in a home studio. Use it later in different avatars through professional editing.

Make the Customers Imagine

Make the Customers Imagine

In the current market scenario, customers are the main influencers of any marketing or operational decision that a brand makes. He is truly the king. And the king needs true representation of a product in the eCommerce pictures.

Using images as a visual engagement asset can be both benefitting as well as challenging. Beneficial because product photography when done in the right manner can attract the right prospects to your brand’s page, leading to guaranteed sales. Challenging because creating great imagery is an art and it is necessary that your product images make customers stop, think and envision themselves flaunting those products.

Hiring professional model for every product image can be cumbersome and burn a hole in your pocket. Instead, you can create an illusion by styling your piece of jewellery on a mannequin or using a ghost model to display your designer collection of clothes. Don’t stop at that though

Do you need more props or better styling of products to enhance the product?

Do you need more viewing angles to showcase products in an appealing manner?

Does your product need more styling and composition?

Answers to these questions can vary from industry to industry but it is vital that brands do ask these questions for building a strong identity and presence. The only aim, here, should be to create consistent imagery that resonates with the brand’s value. It is a long-term investment and distinguishes brands from competition

Know the rules

White Light Background for a Clearer Color Expression

“The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed.”

This saying may have aimed portrait photography but stands true for the eCommerce photography world today. While you step out to take brilliant product photographs, it is best to go with classic shots first.

● Use natural lighting to highlight the details of your product.
● Opt for a white/light background for a clearer color expression

  • Keep the styling simple as complex styling may confuse the viewer.
  • Maintain a good distance between camera and product, picturize from more than 3 angles and avoid zooming in.
  • Invest in the right props to make your product stand out. For example, a chop stick to make the shoes stand uptight or clips to style the clothes go a long way in making a professional look.
  • Remember to edit the final image before upload using tools or service providers for a professional touch.

Similarly, know the sizes required for various marketplaces and arrive at a sweet spot of dimensions. Little tweaks will allow you to have a multi-channel approach.

Remembering basic rules can help you create awesome product images in less budget, even from the comfort of your home with a good smartphone camera.
Making wise and well thought decisions like skipping a DSLR and shooting with smartphone makes good sense. Investing in more necessary processes like final editing of images will be money spent wise

Hail Technology

You don’t want to create visuals or content once and leave it at that. You need to figure a way of batch producing it through a proven workflow. So, every time you have a new product, you use the set processes and get professional images in no time.

For example, once you take a good product image using a white background, you can use software like Photoshop, Lightroom to render final editing to the images. You don’t need to take images on different backgrounds for usage, use an editing tool and keep on removing the background and put up a new one. You can simply record your action – resizing and color correction and train photoshop to automate it for all uploaded images. You can also set batch processing with professional editors.

Not just this, there are a handful of good stock agencies that offer multiple lifestyle image backgrounds quickly. All you really need to do is place your product image over the backgrounds and circulate it in your ad campaigns, Facebook page, e-mail snippets and so on. So, it comes as no surprise that stock photos are used by 40% marketers as their visual content.

Even if you are trying your hands on designing or editing for the first time, options like Venngage and Canva allow you to play with your images and create stunning designs in minutes without using complex set of tools.

The Summary

After all this, it is not secret that visual content is crucial for your sales and drives customer engagement like a magnet. All you really must do is pitch your money on brand-centric visuals, and great agile imagery. You are all set to make an impact without burning a hole in your pocket

Add a comment

;