There are seemingly countless ways to market products online these days, but they all have one thing in common – they need visual media – photographs and video.
The internet is a visual medium; we interact with it by looking at a screen. Mobile internet is even more immersive because we interact with the screen directly – part of the power of mobiles and tablets is that we engage with the visual content itself, through touching and swiping the images.
This may seem a minor point, but psychologically, this is a completely different experience for us than navigating via an indirect, secondary method such as a keyboard and mouse, and is one of the reasons that your visual content (and its design) is now even more important than it was just 2-3 years ago.
If you are selling on an eCommerce platform, then you will already have product photos. If you haven’t, then you should check out our ultimate guide to product photography before you do anything else.
But product photos are not just there to show what your goods look like on your product listings; they are the core of every marketing campaign you run.
Here are some other creative marketing ideas where you can use the power of product photography to boost your eCommerce business. As is often the case, not all suggestions will apply to all businesses or products but pick and choose a few that apply to you and adapt them to your needs.
After reading this, check out our other post – Top tips you can use today to sell more online – which looks at some more ideas in more detail.
1. Know your market
It’s not just about having the right product – make sure you research the kind of visual content your target market responds to.
If your ideal customer avatar is 16-19 years old and has specific style tastes, then your product pictures, as well as all your other marketing, must reflect this.
Before anything else – make sure your current photos and marketing campaigns reflect their style; if not, it might be time to arrange a new photoshoot…or even relaunch.
2. Rebrand / repackage / relaunch
Got an existing product that is selling well? Planned properly, a rebranding or even just repackaging project will not only keep your existing clients buying but will attract a whole new customer base when you relaunch.
New customers get picked up by the new marketing and buzz around a relaunch, and your current clients get excited about the new design/label/name/options (delete as appropriate to your product).
3. Tell a story about your product
Tell a story – not about your product, but about a problem and how your product solves it. People love stories, they are brought up on them and stories are processed in the mind in a different way to regular advert copy, or any other reading or imagery. This means they are accepted, and the customer is affected, emotionally instead of logically. Stories induce emotions and customers make buying decisions emotionally. Take the customer on an emotional journey and they will go with you.
Or tell the story of the origin of your design, how it came about in the first place.
Arrange your photos to accompany this – have some before/after shots of your product being used. Storytelling is one of the strongest, yet most underrated marketing tools.
If your business is older, you probably have an archive of old photos to dig through and create an amazing hi/story.
4. Encourage customer reviews
You have a great product – you have great customers! Give them a platform to share from. Customer reviews mean powerful marketing, so ask for them.
A few days after delivery, drop them a ‘thank you’ email and ask them how they like it. Give an incentive – log onto your website, leave a review and be entered into a draw, or some other prize.
Have space on your review page for customers to upload photos of them using their new purchase as well as a written response or ‘5-star’ rating. Customer photos have an impact because they are social proof of your product and service quality.
5. Remember your existing customers!
While we are talking about them, remember not to forget your loyal customers.
So much time and attention are focussed on gaining new business, it’s easy to overlook your strongest market – your existing customers. Market to them too!
Follow up emails, a thank you (see below), a reminder to top up before they run out…but get personal!
Make them feel valued and looked after – and when you do email them, use images! Visual email has a far greater impact than text alone and generates a better response.
Read more about visual email marketing best practices.
Here are a few more ideas for email content:
6. Ask for feedback
Apart from reviews, which we have already mentioned, ask your customers for feedback about your products and service. An honest response can highlight something that has been holding you back.
Use customers for future market research; send photos of new product lines they may be interested in and ask their opinion about options, colour or anything else. You are partly getting useful feedback and partly marketing to them already.
7. Send offers and promotions
Customers love a bargain. Send existing clients exclusive offers or opportunities. Send them pre-launch photos for a new product or line; give them exclusive access to early-bird shopping. Look after your customers and it will pay you dividends.
8. Send out tips and useful information
Ways to use your products – even advice and discovery from other purchasers (which you have collected because you have been encouraging customer reviews, right?).
Include in-use photos and show how others using your product every day.
9. Have a Wishlist feature
Create a Wishlist feature on your shopping platform so your customers can browse and save for later.
Email them from time to time with photos of their Wishlist content and reminds them of the items they were thinking of buying. Seeing them pop up in their email will get their attention and bring them back.
10. Answer your emails
OK – this one is not photo related, but it is important.
While we are ending this section about emails – answer yours! Unanswered emails lead to frustration and dissatisfaction. That’s all.
11. Have a website membership area.
This can be free on signup or for a fee – but have a ‘sign-in’ area which gives access to exclusive photos, articles, interviews, news, special offers, whatever.
Update it regularly and post photos and videos.
Customers signing in should be rewarded with a visual treat.
12. Create a community of users/customers
Encourage community among your customers.
If you are aware of a social media group of people who enjoy your product, get involved. Offer them behind the scenes photos or other access, occasional prizes for competitions or even a tour of the premises.
People share photos on social media – give them some great photos, either yours or their own that they have because you helped them.
This is practically free marketing – and getting involved with a community group like this is incredibly powerful for brand loyalty.
Give away some branded T-shirts to a group like this and they will flood Facebook with photos!
13. Customer-generated content
Get some customer-generated content on your website and eCommerce platforms.
This could be home reviews, unboxing photos (and video), advice and tips.
Customer-generated content is free – and if the photos are not up to professional standards, here it doesn’t matter, because they are authentic.
Give your customers a platform on your platform! This is not your review page – this is customer interaction and is a far more immersive experience for them.
14. Visual gift guides
If it suits your product range – have a gift guide area with suggestions for him/her etc.
Make it easy for visitors to scroll, find, and click on an image for further detail – or to add to their shopping basket or Wishlist.
15. Build your platform to deliver
Is your website visually driven? Is it optimised for mobile use?
Even as the shift to online commerce is still occurring, it is becoming a shift to mobile online commerce.
Make sure your website and eCommerce platforms are optimised for mobile screens and interaction; check that your content – especially your photos – are small enough to download fast over mobile networks, as slow downloads mean lost customers.
Inventory pages with multiple slow-loading product photographs will lose you more sales than they generate.
16. Immersive web experience
Make your customer website platform experience immersive – and personal.
Personalised web pages sell more than static ones! Make your eCommerce platform responsive to how your customer wants to use it.
Use today’s technology to customise the website for visitors. This could be based on their location, previous visits to the site or any other data that you know about them.
17. Holiday specials!
Your marketing photos should reflect the season – it keeps you looking fresh and up to date.
Christmas, Halloween, holiday seasons; your website should be responsive to these, with updated visuals.
You don’t always need a new photoshoot – get some of your current images edited instead, or even repurpose older pictures.
18. Coordinate social media presence
You need to be on social media. And you need to coordinate your social media activity.
Streamline your posts by using the same photos and sending the same messages across multiple platforms.
Don’t have one campaign running across Facebook and an unrelated one on Instagram.
19. Comment, like and share
Encourage your social media followers to comment, like and share your photos.
Run a promotion or competition to encourage this.
20. Social photo engagement
Post a photo of your product being used in a unique way – then ask followers to comment with a photo of them using your product in an unusual situation.
This often generates a huge amount of engagement and exposure – plus a few laughs and even the idea for your next marketing campaign.
21. Create a mobile app
This could be anything from photos of your inventory plus news updates, right up to an interactive game featuring some of your products. Advice, tips or exclusive content – or almost anything else we have discussed above.
Get creative!
There are countless ways to use product photographs to boost your business.
Many of them are simple, many can be automated, but they all require visual content.
Now is the time to review your product photos and eCommerce presence – the coming months and years are going to witness an ever-increasing shift to online sales platforms for almost every type of product in every market.
Keep ahead of the competition, keep your product photos fresh and up to date, as they are the cornerstone of your marketing success.
This can be done on any budget – even older photos can be reedited to give them a fresh, new look. You can read here more detail on editing product photographs.
Photo retouching services don’t have to be expensive! Splento photo retouching starts at 49p per photo and can breathe new life into your existing stock.
Or, if you need new images, take the headache out of product photography, and get the best results for your eCommerce platform, by booking a professional with experience and with a great product portfolio already established.
Splento has experienced professionals who specialise in product photography, for a fixed hourly rate – just £99 – which includes all retouching and editing.
For more advice on product photography, and how it can help boost your business, read about the impact of the quality of photography on eCommerce.
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