Photography and Branding: How to Leverage Your Lifestyle Portraits

Many brands may not realize the importance of images for capturing their vision or mission statement.

Today, David and John discussed why brands should take photography seriously.

John DeMato is a lifestyle portrait photographer. He has worked with entrepreneurs and thought leaders, by capturing high-quality images that present inspiring, entertaining, and informational elements which entice people to follow a brand.

But it’s not as easy as picking up a camera and snapping a photo.

John is much more than just a photographer – he goes above and beyond.

John sets his clients up for success by educating them on how to effectively leverage their image content for blogs, social channels, publications, websites, advertisements, and other platforms.

The Importance of Building a Connection

With amazing credentials and a stellar reputation, you’d think it’s easy for clients to trust John immediately upon meeting him.

However, trust and comfort are two very different things.

John believes that in order to get amazing shots, it’s important to build a connection and healthy rapport with clients.

Photography isn’t magic – great shots don’t just happen.

As a subject, if you’re working with a photographer that doesn’t make you feel comfortable, the images will reflect that.

John likes to build a nice conversation with lots of back-and-forths to make clients feel as comfortable with him as possible.

This helps with branding as well because it helps give photos a deeper vibe. John mentions that many photographers might be able to capture the right lighting, angle, and create a perfect image, but they lack depth, emotion, and mood.

They don’t accurately represent a brand – they're just great photos.

John says that photography for branding should visually tell your story. Lifestyle photography for a brand should accomplish two goals. It should:

1.       Establish your expertise.

2.       Provide value to potential prospects because you solve their pain points.

According to John, it’s so important to find the right photographer who can capture a wide range of emotion: everything from rage-filled rants to celebrating wins.

John’s Unique Approach that Helps Him Deliver Top Results

John points out that every entrepreneur is in a different place and has different needs.

Far too many entrepreneurs and thought leaders select a lifestyle portrait photographer based on their price tag and portfolio. While the photographer’s work should speak for itself, it’s also important to get along with one another.

A lot of times, a client may not realize what they want until they’re sitting at home looking at the photos later. John’s job as a photographer is to really get to know his clients and ask a lot of questions to figure out where they’re at with their business.

From there, he can maximize the effectiveness of every session.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly which questions John might ask to get to know a person because it varies so much. Every entrepreneur has a different vision for their brand, a different personality, and their business is at a different place.

John spends a lot of time getting to know his clients before he even picks up any equipment. In fact, sometimes, his interactions with clients last for two and a half hours. This gives John time to identify the different emotions he’ll need to capture and the types of images he will need to shoot.

It’s therefore crucial for a lifestyle portrait photographer to understand how and where entrepreneurs and thought leaders will use these images on social media or other platforms.

John assesses all of this to deliver the best results possible. That’s how he creates lifestyle portraits that visually punctuate for brands.

The Importance of Being Yourself and Not Striving for Perfection

John says that although it sounds trite, it’s important to be yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin.

Yes, we hear this all the time but here’s what it means.

By being himself, John was able to open himself up because he wasn’t afraid to say what’s on his mind. This allows him to produce the best results possible for clients.

Don’t forget to get your back-end strategy in order.

The last thing you need to do is fumble around with your camera because your client will notice. This will kill any momentum you’ve created while building a rapport.

When you treat your equipment like an extension of yourself – and feel comfortable with yourself – your client will feel comfortable too.

In that scenario, everyone wins.

Retouch Your Images – But Strategically

John also points out that his mental health is more important than reaching an unattainable goal. That’s why he abandoned perfection a long time ago – there's no such thing.

So, does John retouch and edit his images?

Yes, but very strategically.

It’s important to remember the entire purpose behind lifestyle portraits for your brand: you want to appear authentic and professional.

In some cases, this might mean erasing a pimple or lightly brushing a wrinkle – but you still want to look like yourself.

The entire goal is to help build trust with your prospects.

You can’t do this if you look a certain way on LinkedIn but a client can’t recognize you when you meet in-person. Because whether or not people realize it on a conscious level, this does diminish trust.

How to Properly Leverage Lifestyle Portrait Photography

John says that lifestyle portraits are gold because they add social proof that you’re a thought leader. As you can imagine, the uses for these photos are endless.

Yes, they make great social media photos, print magazines, blog posts, and website headers, but they can do so much more.

John has shot countless photos of Ted Rubin at speaking engagements and other events. He’ll often see Ted throw some inspirational text over an incredible image where Ted’s body language is also telling a story.

That’s the lifestyle aspect of it – portraying yourself as you are in a professional manner.

How you leverage these photos to really get your vision and message out there is completely your call.

You can follow John DeMato on Instagram @DeMatoPhoto or visit his website.

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About John DeMato

John is a branded content creator who works with high-level, business leaders, thought leaders and various other change agents to produce high-volume, image libraries that present informational, entertaining and inspiring aspects of their brand to their followers.

Getting a Handle on Facebook: 4 Steps to Optimize Your Facebook Ads

Facebook is one of the main social media platforms for business marketing.

Others are quickly catching up, but Facebook has set the bar as far as what businesses can achieve through social media outlets.

Have you tried Facebook marketing?

A lot of people are somewhat confused as to how to do this properly. They wonder how often they should post, what they should post about, and whether they should invest in Facebook ads.

The latter is what we’re going to delve into today.

Recently, I had a discussion with Facebook marketing master Azriel Ratz about this topic. He explained why this type of marketing is so important and provided four steps to help businesses optimize their Facebook ads.

We Can’t Ignore Facebook – Why It’s so Valuable to Your Business

Some people wonder whether Facebook ads are a waste of time and money.

Here’s the thing – most people are really into Facebook. We’re talking millions of potential customers who are on Facebook every single day.

E-commerce is getting bigger and bigger. It gives businesses of all sizes the opportunity to build their business in ways they never thought possible. And Facebook is a big part of that because it provides a worldwide platform for brand exposure.

Facebook is an amazing way to get your content out there to your target audience.

Azriel has years of online marketing experience and has perfected his strategy, allowing him to help companies find their ideal audiences and create ads that are relevant for their company and their audience. He’s even wrote a book about it to help business owners like you!

On average, Azriel’s ad campaigns on Facebook return up to five times the original cost of the ad. He wants everyone to know that, with the right optimization, they too can have similar success.  

How to Optimize Your Facebook Ads in 4 Straightforward Steps

Azriel likens most people’s Facebook ad campaigns to throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick. The problem is that if something does stick they don’t understand why. They won’t understand why an ad made money, which means it will be really difficult to repeat the process.

Here are four tips that can help you optimize your Facebook ads to reach your goals.

1. To Achieve Your Goals You Must Know What Your Goals Are

Start everything off with a business goal.

Let’s say you want to grow more high quality leads. You want to choose an ad campaign that reflects that goal appropriately – maybe one that is conversion-based or you can even choose a Facebook lead ad.

Get very clear on your business goals so that you know what kind of campaign to invest in.

2. Find the Best High Quality People to Run Your Ads To

You want to purchase ads that will appeal to the best high quality people.

One single ad won’t appeal to everyone because each person is at a different phase of the purchasing journey.

Ultimately, you want to target those who want to buy your products.

In order to find the right audience, you need to do some sleuthing. This usually involves campaigns that target certain groups of people within your audience.

Separate your different audiences and target them with different campaigns. After a few ads go out, you can look at your results and see which audience is more inclined to buy. Then, you can shift most, if not all, of your ad budget to this audience.

3. Ad Content Creation: Work Smarter, Not Harder

Instead of creating completely different content for every single ad, Azriel has a strategy that helps him work smarter, not harder.

He starts by creating three lines of copy: Sentences A, B, and C.

Then, he duplicates the ad set and switches around the positioning of the text. So, the first ad will be sentences ABC. The second ad will be ACB. The third will be BAC. He ends up with six different versions of the ad.

Then, he chooses four different images or videos, which gives him 24 different versions of the ad.

Finally, he makes three new sentences (DEF) that are a little different than his original ABC sentences and changes sentences DEF around to end up with six versions of those sentences.

Again, he adds four different images and the end result is a total of 48 different yet similar ads. Facebook will run each ad and he’s able to see which one gets the best ROI.

4. Optimization: Analytics You Need to Keep Your Eye On

There are two clues that will give you insight into whether your ads are effective or not.

Facebook charges you based on impression. You can tell what Facebook thinks of your ad by looking at your cost per impression.

If your costs are high, it means Facebook isn’t happy. And there are two reasons for this: You’re not targeting the right audience or you’re not running the right ad.

To find out which it is, all you need to do is go to the ad set level and see which ones have high impression costs.

If all of them are high, the ads are the problem. If only some of them are high you’re targeting the wrong audience.

Now you know what you need to do: Create new copy for your next set of ads or target different audiences.

You Don’t Have to Spend a Lot for Facebook Ads to Be Effective

A lot of business owners hold themselves back because they don’t have a big marketing budget. They think they have to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for Facebook advertising to be effective.

Azriel pointed out that spending about $50 a day on ads can be sufficient. But even if you don’t have that much – even if you only have $5 a day to spend – you can effectively market.

That is, of course, as long as you target the right audience and optimize your ads to appeal to them. Only then can you garner the best ROI.

How would you like more ad marketing tips from the Facebook Master? All you have to do is like his Facebook page: Ratz Pack Media. Azriel posts three to five videos there every single week. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn.

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About Azriel Ratz

Through his years of experience in online marketing Azriel Ratz has perfected his strategy for companies to find their ideal audiences and create the most relevant ads for their businesses.

Azriel's Facebook ad process is FEO (Find, Engage, Optimize). Begin by find the right audience, then engage that audience with the best possible ads, then optimize the ads to get the best possible results. To learn more about this process go to FEO.talkaboutads.com

Feature: Magnificent Marketing Case Study: Blogging = Steady Monthly Traffic Growth

I recently sat down with David Reimherr, founder of Magnificent Marketing, and their firm’s content marketing manager, Bre South.

Here’s what they had to say about how content marketing and blogging contributes to their client’s success.

“Our content strategy success begins with a deep dive onboard with our client to walk through targeted audience demographics, content mission statement, and their content tilt. In discussing the core messaging of the client’s product; we dig into the core of a client’s product and why it would resonate with its audience. We find which content angles will serve their audience, and how to reach their audience appropriately.

We help them figure out how to talk the talk their audience wants to hear.

All content efforts are driven by the content mission statement in addition to what our client already knows about their audience and experience. This gives way to the creation of determining main pillar topics and sub-topics the client commits to producing content for.

We help them create this mission statement for which all efforts will follow.

The main pillar topics are determined based on what a persona would actively be searching for as a problem they are looking for help to solve.

The 30 Best Entrepreneurs to Look For in 2018

At 21, a young David Reimherr, full of innovative ideas and entrepreneurial mindset was working as a sales rep for a college magazine. This was his humble beginning and later on an introduction  to the marketing world. Recognizing David’s talent, the owner of the magazine offered him the VP position. With a keen interest in the marketing field and gumption enough to dare, David accepted the position. This dialing for dollars and lesson learning experience continued for a couple of years, along with a ton of hard work and putting in long hours.

Through the years, the progression continued and David’s company started flourishing. After 8 or 9 years, the company’s decision makers eventually got to the point where salesforce expansion was necessary. Along came the recognition that there was a need to concentrate more on branding, marketing, and bringing in leads. This led to promoting the company’s sales assistant and beginning afresh with another challenge that was unfamiliar with David.

Quoting from David’s favorite book, ‘The Motivation Manifesto’, the author Brendon Burchard says, “All the real riches–love, passion, joy, satisfaction, harmony–are available now on the menu of the mind, available for us to savor should we awake and order them.” The book sheds light on the joy’s of life and freedom to achieve the unachievable. David highly recommends this book to people, as he himself religiously reads through the daily repetition of its motivational content and draws positive mindset from it. With a dire need for a positive attitude and relief from the build-up resentment towards people led David to this book of though-provoking enchantments.

Team Alignment – Why It’s Vital to the Success of Content Marketing

If you work with a marketing team – consider yourself fortunate.

Trying to take care of every marketing task on your own can be overwhelming. It can also be rather limiting. After all, just how many topics or different angles on an already well-covered topic can one person come up with?

When you have a team, though, you have an opportunity for greatness.

Some people might disagree with me, though, citing the fact that teams can suffer from egos, misunderstandings, and hurt feelings.

That’s definitely true. We’re all human and make mistakes and rub each other the wrong way. But at the end of the day, a marketing team that gets on the same page and works together can accomplish great things.

In fact, Margaret Magnarelli, the Senior Director of Marketing at Monster.com, backs up that point. Her suggestion is to do all you can to ensure that your team is in proper alignment.

Start by Getting Clear on What Content Marketing Means to You

Getting aligned actually starts with you.

You need to be clear on what content marketing really means to you. Only then can you successfully express your thoughts and plans to your team and anyone else involved in the marketing and production of your product or service.

When Margaret and I spoke recently, she explained what content marketing means to her.

“I take a pretty broad stand…content marketing is a way that you use messaging across your organization – the traditional being the blog, your social channels, your site copy, sales enablement, customer service dialogue, conversation design – to engage with buyers, build relationships, and ultimately drive conversations and revenue. I think to do it right you have to be customer obsessed.”

Getting clear on what content marketing is to her has helped Margaret to convey her goals to her team. This is a great way to ensure that everyone is on the same page, which is an important step toward team alignment.

Team Alignment: Why It’s Imperative and 4 Steps to Make It Happen

If you want to be successful in business, you need to make sure everyone on your team is working for the same goals.

Some people think having a mission statement is enough to keep everyone on the same page. But really, it’s going to take consistent effort to make sure you’re always on the same page.

Margaret provided four tips that can help marketing teams to do this.

1. It All Starts With Adequate Training

When Margaret first started working for Monster.com, she spent the first 90 days working very closely with her team. She spent a lot of one-on-one time with each team member so that they would understand how she worked, what she wanted to achieve, and what she expected from them.

You might thing 90 days is pretty impressive, but Margaret actually wishes she’d spent even more time training her team. The more time you spend with them, the better understanding there will be all around.

Spending time with your team members is an investment. You’re explaining to them how you’re all going to achieve success. And you’re doing so in a way that will allow them to be just as successful without you as with you right there beside them. (We all need vacations, after all!)

2. Incorporate the “How, Now, Wow” Content Strategy

One of the best ways to stay in alignment is to have a content concept plan. Margaret came up with a strategy that works really well for her team. It’s called “how, now, wow.” She and her team create content based on these three pillars.

• How – This is “How To” content. It tends to be evergreen information and is meant to help readers overcome problems or achieve goals. You can use this content for blogs and newsletters.

• Now – This is not evergreen content. Rather, it is now – of the moment, fresh, and modern. These are stories related to what’s trending in the news and entertainment worlds. This content can be used for blogs and social media posts.

• Wow – These stories are shared mostly via social media. They tend to evoke an emotional response and are typically funny or touching.

These three pillars form the framework that helps your team think about what you’re doing and whether you’re serving your audience well.

3. Creative Freedom, Trust, and Delegation

Once everyone is on the same page, it’s vital that you learn to trust your team. Give them the creative freedom they need to thrive. Delegate projects to them without micromanaging them. Be open to suggestions and ideas, and let your team run with them to see if they work. Just make sure they stick to your basic guidelines.

4. Maintaining Regular Communication with Your Team and Other Departments

Regular creative meetings are a must. These meetings allow your team to bounce ideas off of each other to see what will work and what won’t. It gives everyone an opportunity to contribute, which is a great way to get different angles on stories/tips that have already been written about.

Additionally, it’s important to communicate with other departments that are involved in the creative process. Power point presentations are a great way to let graphic designers and videographers know what you want and why you want it that way.

You’re Not an Island – Success in Business Comes from Teamwork and Collaboration

Your number one goal as a business owner, marketer, or employee is the success of the company you’re working for. Every task you have, every product you make, every customer you serve – it’s all for the good of the company.

And the only way you can be truly successful is if you work well with your team.

As a business owner or marketer, you have a big job to do. Trying to do everything on your own is not the way to get it done.

Make sure your team is well aligned. Learn to trust their vision, inspiration, and efforts just as much as you trust your own.

When you do that, your team will enjoy the process and work even harder to ensure the success of your company.

We’re recognized as a top content marketing & copywriting company on DesignRush! Check us and other great content marketing companies out here!

If you’d like more tips from Margaret, make sure to follow her on Twitter. You’ll find her tweets completely inspiring.

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About Margaret Magnarelli

Margaret Magnarelli is the managing editor for content and senior director of marketing at Monster, the leading global platform for connecting jobs and people. At Monster, Margaret oversees a brand newsroom made up of seven content creators (all ex-journalists) who produce articles, social assets and videos aimed at job seekers. Her team took home the Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 award for Best Content Program and was a finalist for best infographic; she was a finalist for Content Marketer of the Year. Her team also was a finalist for Best In-House Content Studio from Digiday in 2016. She’s presented on content marketing at Content Marketing World and at an ANA Content Marketing Summit. Previously, Margaret served as executive editor at Money magazine and Money.com, and has been an editor at Good Housekeeping and Seventeen magazines as well. She’s written a book on tween idols, she’s expert in all things charcuterie, and she helped define the word snarky—no, seriously.