The Trick to Turning Pictures into Dollars

By Amanda Warren

With the focus on visual media online, particularly on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, it is important to put your best “face”. Forward. The ONLY way to do this is by sharing compelling images to attract your customers.

Everyone has digital camera in their pocket, but it takes more than that to make products/services pop for a visual audience. If you feel confident in your photography/design skills, then take the time to construct the kinds of images that can advertise your work. Keep in mind that amateur photography and basic design skills don’t always do your work justice.

Consider this..

SEEK OUT PROFESSIONALS!! Hire a photographer yourself, or work with the wedding photographer to cross-promote wedding services. Work with a graphic designer, or utilize online tools to make your images stand out. Those images increase the likelihood your services will be seen, shared, and reshared by potential clients!

Social Media is IMAGE Heavy (and There are Stats to Prove It):

• We are 65% more likely to remember a piece of information if there is a linked picture, according to John Medina, PhD, of Brain Rules.
  
• Blog posts that use an image every 75-100 words are twice as likely to get shared on social media

• FB posts with images have 2.3X more engagement than posts without images, according to BuzzSumo.
  
• Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets, 59% more favorites, and 18% more clicks than tweets without images, per Buffer, the world’s most popular Social Media Management Tool  (SMMT) 2017 shared data.
• 84% of online communication will be visual by 2018, according to an article by Inc. Magazine.

The popularity of image-based social media sites like Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest is on the rise, especially among people between 18-34 years old. Hello…wedding professionals….take note here!

But how do you get the images you need?

Pooling (or maybe paying fo) Good Images

The #1 thing you can do to gather images of your work is creating a network of other wedding professionals who can help. This is easier done than said, actually.

 

Here are a few tips:

• If you are working with a client, gather information about the other vendors they are working with…and pay special attention to the wedding photographer.
• Make sure you get to know the photographers in your area, and if you are working a wedding together make sure to share email addresses and links to galleries.
• Get to know other wedding vendors as well. Coordinate so that you can share work on social media as cross-promotion.
• Spread images of one another’s work with credit.
• Be willing to pay photographers for work if you can’t make a trade…it will be worth the money in the long run.

Remember that your skills are worth the expense, and so are those professional photographers. You can take snaps of your own work (be it cake, flowers, tablesettings, or what-have-you) but you get what you pay for…and, sorry, but DIY isn’t always WOW!

Easy to use online resources that can turn meh to marvelous

There are resources out there that can help you create better images, without your having to learn photoshop. Here are a few that can help you out.

Canva

Canva is an online resource that can help you create slides, memes, infographics, formatted posts for various social media platforms, and printable items. The easy to use tools can help you design eye-catching images and the best part…most of it is free. There are upcharges for specific fonts, backgrounds, and tools, but one can make professional looking, shareable images with free-tools alone.

Promo Republic 

 

 

 

This low-cost tool ($15/mo) provides fantastic graphic content creation tools and templates you can use to help you create vibrant image-centered posts. A bonus is that PromoRepublic can also publish your creations all of your social networks with one click, or schedule automatic posting.

You don’t have to learn graphic design or fifteen different programs to get your professional-looking posts out there. This user-friendly program looks good and seems easy to use. It can also be used as a stand-alone image creation tool/SMMT, or integrated with Hootsuite, Buffer, or Tweetdeck for maximum effect.

PicMonkey

 

 

This online photo editor offers impressive editing capabilities and slick design tools. If Photoshop makes you want to tear your hair out (please don’t), PicMonkey’s easy-to-use tools might be a better fit for your needs.  Much of the site’s tools are free, but a few are reserved for “premium” ($3.99-$7.99/mo) and “supremium” ($8.33/mo) users.

If you are a wedding professional the way to book more clients is to SHOW them what you can do. Pump up your use of images, and turn your posts into eye- (and client-) catching opportunities to grow your business.

 

Do you seek our other professionals for your business?

 

 

 

 

Amanda Warren is a freelance word-nerd interested in a variety of topics from medical discoveries and digital trends to fine art and critical theory. She is a former college instructor with a doctorate in English, and a slew of creative and professional publications. You can check her out on Google Plus.