I've got a client who builds fences, commercial and residential. And yes, I photograph those fences. But some of my favorite work I've ever done for them has absolutely nothing to do with fences at all. It's the barbecues they put on for their tradies on work sites. And today I want to tell you why those barbecue photos might be some of the most valuable images they own. Welcome to the visual marketing podcast brought to you by C i Marketing, where we explore how to show up consistently, be more visible, and connect with the right people through your marketing. I'm your host, Liz. Welcome to today's episode of the Visual Marketing Podcast. I am your host, Liz, and today this is a solo episode. And as promised on previous episodes, I'm going to be talking about photography and the story behind it and why businesses really need their own images, Especially in the world of AI right now, where there is just so much imagery out there and it's getting kinda tricky to know what's true and what isn't. My background in photography actually goes back to when I was 17 years old. I was at the local mall and I was a gift wrapper at Christmas time. And a man came up and he had a few things he wanted to have wrapped for his kids. And we're just chatting away. I'm a pretty chatty person, as you may have realised by now. and he was like, Like, what are you doing next year? What's like what are you up to? And I was like, Okay, interesting, but hey, opportunity, right? And I'm never one to pass up a potential opportunity. So got chatting to him and just said, Well, actually I've got my final year of high school next year.~ and he's like, Are you interested in a job? And of course I was like super excited Because of course this Christmas gift wrapping job was just for a few weeks in December and then I didn't have any plans for the following year. And at that point I was getting pretty used to getting a bit of an income, a bit of pocket money essentially. and I wanted to buy a car. I was heading to uni the year after and, you know, I had stuff I wanted to save for. So I didn't even know where he was from or what it was about.~ and I actually said, Yeah, actually I I'm definitely looking for a part time weekend job. ~ and that is where my photography career kinda started because the person I was speaking to, his name is Steve, He owned and managed the ~ camera store in the mall that I was in. so we made a plan for me to go down and have a chat with him, and I got the job. And so for my last year of high school, I spent every Sunday, 10 till 5, working in the camera store. And honestly, to this day, it's actually my favorite job I've ever had. I ended up working there for six years. I went right through high school, right through my three years at uni, working there part-time. And I carried on after uni as well, actually still working there, And I guess I just started to have a love for photography through that. It wasn't a career path I ever expected I would be on.~ and it certainly wasn't an industry I thought I'd be playing in. But in the end it actually made so much sense to combine photography with obviously. ~ hence the name of this show, The Visual Marketing Podcast. So that's sort of where it all started and that's going back a little while now. I just absolutely loved working in the camera store. You know, I was chatting away to photographers who would come in, I learnt the entire process. ~ this is back in the days where it was film, so we were developing films and printing the images. And yes, we saw every photo that came through on your roll of film, just in case you wondered. And eventually my parents said, Would you like us to buy you a camera for your birthday? And I thought, well, yeah, actually that would be pretty cool. And I actually still own that camera today.~ it's actually sitting right in the cupboard next to me,~ which is pretty neat. And I probably should pull that out sometime and and have a play around with it again. It would be kinda cool to see how a film looks again these days. I just started playing around as a hobbyist. And then I actually was still working there during the time of when everything shifted to digital. So I saw a massive change. And sort of like AI, when things changed from film to digital, we actually were quite against it at the start. Like, you know, we just thought there's no way that anything can ever be better than film. Like the quality was terrible. it was grainy, the the resolution was awful, the printing process wasn't up to scratch with where the digital images were. And at that stage everyone was still printing their photos. Like nobody had phones or anything that could show images on or iPads or anything like that. So ~ or even sure, people had websites, but they weren't putting lots of images on them. There just wasn't the capacity for that. So It was a really interesting time watching that change and like I say, really similar to how AI has come in over the last few years and everybody's perception around that.~ and obviously it started not so good and like digital cameras started getting better and better and better. And here I am right now speaking to you on a Canon R5C of which I own three, and I'm able to produce a podcast utilising all of the technology that actually I was dead against. so funny how the world works, right? So fast forward a few years and I met somebody who owned a winery and they wanted some commercial photography done for them. So I worked out how to price myself, how to become a photographer, and I look back at those images now and honestly I cringe. but I guess we've all been there, right? And then I carried on my career thinking, you know what? I actually can make something of this and turned it into something that went alongside my marketing work and my tourism work And here I am today talking about both professional photography using equipment, but also phone photography and how the best camera you have is the one you have on you. Every business image should tell people something true about who you are. And it should also tell a story so that people can get to know who you are and the personality of your business. When we talk about marketing, I often refer to businesses as having their own personality. because after all, they who tell the best story wins, right? Well, why not show it? So that's where your imagery comes in. At C i Marketing, we work primarily with service-based businesses, although we do have some product-based business clients as well. But service-based businesses are honestly the hardest to market. Think about how you take a photo of a service business, right? A lot of people just really struggle with the concept of what do I There's only so many photos that you can show of somebody working at a computer or somebody in an office having a meeting. Like What is it behind the business that you can really showcase to prove to someone that you're authentic, you're real, you're human, and you're worthy of actually spending money on and working with? well, a little bit later in this segment, I'm gonna go through and talk to you about all of the different types of ideas of imagery that you can either brief a professional photographer to take for you, or you can actually shoot yourself. So stay tuned for that. But first I want to tell you a story about a client that I work with semi regularly.~ these guys build fences. They build fences for both commercial and And I've been photographing their fences for a few years now. Now their fences all look the same. so you might think surely one photo of a fence is the same as the next photo of a fence. Absolutely not. Because every fence is put in a completely different location, it serves different purpose. Sometimes it might be a slightly different color,~ a different height, it has different electronics involved with it, especially with like electronic gates and that sort of thing. These guys really get it. They understand that they need to document all of their projects or most of them and really showcase exactly what it is that they do. But they don't just leave it at photos of fences or photos of their product. They actually get me to photograph some other stuff as well. These guys have this really cool thing they do, where they will set up a barbecue trailer, they'll head out on site to where a bunch of tradies are working, essentially the people on the ground who are working with their product, and they will roll up their trailer and start serving burgers at lunchtime to these guys. I'll tell you what, that is a memorable marketing activation for a start. But here's the real interesting part. They get me or one of my colleagues to come along and photograph and film the barbecues. Now this isn't to blow their horn or toot their trumpet or whatever you want to call it. This is to document the people behind it. So we're capturing like the the real experience, the real look on people's face when they are so grateful for being served an amazing gourmet lunch while they're working hard out in the sun or the rain. We're also documenting the interaction. Like their CEO is there serving the burgers. He's making sure that even the the junior guy who's just started a couple of days ago, he's having a chat to him, making sure that he's had a burger, he's had his lunch. But it's it's not just about standing there talking about the product or the benefits or the features or whatever it is that they have. They're actually just interacting with these people to be memorable. And the fact that they get me to come and capture that, now that is the gold right there. Because those tradies, next time someone's having a conversation about a fence at the next subdivision that they're building, that might be a couple of houses, it might be one commercial property, or it might be a thousand houses, who are they going to remember? I'll guarantee you that they're gonna remember the people that serve them on that really scorching hot summer's day. And if they need to go and figure out who it was, if they can't remember. They might look up their Instagram or look up their website and they're gonna see the pictures that I took of those smiling faces and remember exactly how they felt when those people were there for them looking after them. pick any photo on your social media right now. Have a look at it and tell me, if a stranger was looking at this for the very first time, what do they know about you? If it's just that you sell fences, their photo's only doing a fraction of what it could be doing. There are four types of stories that imagery can tell. Now I say the word imagery because this also extends to video as well. So use it interchangeably between photos and videos. Whatever works for you is great as long as you're doing something. The first one is your people. What is it like to work with you and your staff if you have any? And what kind of interactions are your customers going to expect when they engage with you? Whether that be via an email, maybe an inquiry form on your website, it might be on a message on one of your social media channels, it might be picking up the phone, or it might be walking into your premises, or it might be when you arrive on site to their location for the first time. They want to understand that you are their people. Well, you can absolutely pre-do this. That's a thing, by the way. by making sure that the imagery that you have of your business really showcases authentically who you are. There is absolutely no way that any stock image or any AI image is ever going to tell that story for you. It's literally impossible. And I challenge anybody to tell me that that's not the case. Sure, stock imagery and AI imagery does have its place, and I'll talk about that a little later. But in this instance, if you're going to showcase the people that your customers are going to interact with, it needs to be real photos or videos. The next story you can tell, and this is especially important for service-based businesses, is your process. People have different learning styles. We all know that. Some people really need to see something. They're visual. And so not just having it written out on your website and a whole list of, hey, we do this, and then you, you know, you contact us and then we'll send you a quote and then you accept it. And then, you know, like, sure, that works for some people, but it also doesn't work for a lot of people. And we are living in such a visual world right now, especially with social media. And having something in your hand constantly that people are just looking you up straight They just need to quickly see something visually super fast because they're living in a fast-paced environment, right? So showcasing your process visually is absolute gold. If you can do that through photos, amazing. If you can do that through video, even better. That is something to document. So write write it down and then have a look at all the different pieces of your process and go, well, which piece of this can I showcase through imagery, through photography or video, whether that be like a whole bunch of separate images, or an entire video showcasing a process. And then you can even cut that down into smaller clips as well. So many possibilities for repurposing. The next type of story that you can tell through imagery is your relationships. So that's relationships with not just your customers, but within your team. So like interacting with each other. Maybe you guys do like a shared lunch once a month. Or ~ you know, the way you have internal meetings or the way you have jokes, like there's this cool trend around at the moment. I think it's cool. you've probably seen it on Instagram or TikTok of~ everyone gets a sticker when they complain. It's like a a funny video that's going around. So you have a sheet of stickers of like sparkly stars or whatever. And ~ the video shows like different people with different numbers of stickers all over their face. That kind of thing shows the type of relationships that you guys have And if you're a solopreneur or you're you know, you're working on your own, showing your relationships maybe with your suppliers or with like The neighbors. Like if you live next door or work next door to somebody, like how do you interact with them?~ the relationship maybe you maybe you take your dog to work, like showcase that relationship as well. There is always an option to showcase some kind of relationship in your business. And the last type of story that I think you can tell via imagery is your values. And I actually think this is probably the most important because people are doing business with people and their values have to align. And that's the kind of stuff that people value highly, but they're not paying for it. So showcasing the things that are important to you, you know, the way you do business, It might be as simple as remembering a regular client's coffee order so that you have their flat white with caramel syrup ready for them sitting there when they they come in for their meeting. It might be sending a gift at Christmas time. It might be the way you answer your phone that's just super friendly. Maybe the first couple of minutes of a phone call with anybody is actually not about work at all. It's actually, hey, you remember that Jim's kids had athletics last week and you're asking about how that day went. Showcasing all of those types of values via imagery, That is such a great story to show, and that is absolutely a great story you can show via imagery. So getting back to AI imagery and stock imagery. I use it. I use both. AI imagery, not as much, but stock imagery I definitely use. We build websites, and sometimes people need stock imagery to fill the gaps. Nobody wants to look at a website that is just totally chocka of text. Okay, text is needed for AEO, SEO, all of those bits and pieces, right? But There's also a human on the other end of that website and they want to scroll through and they want to see visually some beautiful imagery. So I think stock imagery absolutely has its place, as long as it's not the only imagery you're using. And here's why. Sometimes we're really time poor as business owners, as marketers. as volunteers for community groups, whatever role it is that you play. And getting the content out there is more important than waiting until you can get the shot to then put up the website or create the flyer or whatever it may be. So having that combination of stock imagery and real authentic imagery, I am 100% here for it. I'll give you an example. One of our websites, so debutwebsites.co.nz, which is where we talk about the small business and startup websites that we build for people. initially we were going to have that as semi-faceless, which actually goes against what I usually do, but it was just something I wanted to try. And I always test everything on ourselves first before I start rolling any ideas out to any clients. And luckily I have Two businesses that I get to test all sorts of things on. So that's always a benefit for everybody else. So the plan was to have that semi-faceless. And my business coach, Michael, actually said, Yeah, no, you can't do that. You need to tell the story. You need to show the story behind this. You need to build the trust. And of course I know he's right. So I trawled through all of our team photos and I realised that we haven't had our whole team together for a photo shoot in a good eighteen months, two years. And I actually got AI to grab somebody out of one of the photos and put them into the other group. So we had everybody in a group shop. And it didn't work. So I tried again. And I tried again. And eventually I got something that was passable. But you know what? I needed to get that page live. I needed to get my content out there. I had to lean into the eighty twenty rule. Eighty percent of the effort is enough. I'm actually not very good with eighty twenty. I'm kind of more a ninety ten sort of a girl. So Ninety percent of the effort was enough. And the first thing I did after I hit publish was I scheduled a team photo shoot day with everybody. So we got that done, we got our photo, and we were good to go. And so what I'm saying is using AI or getting some stock images out there, absolutely no issue with that. I've done the same with newsletters as well. So if you follow our newsletters, it's Seen by Liz, you will have a look in there. And some of those photos are stock. You'll probably know which ones, but I'm really good at choosing images that match our brand style. so I make sure that I choose photos that are kind of us. They're sort of the colors are toned in our brand. the style is something that you would see us doing. like if it's a picture of technology, say computer or something like that, I'll make sure it's the type of computers that we use as well. So it's on brand. So absolutely use a mix of both your real authentic images and AI and or stock images, but just make sure you've got a good combo and make sure that they actually gel together as a group. So now you ask, well how do I do this for my business? Now I'm gonna show you. The first thing you want to ask is what do you want people to know about you after seeing that photo? Then you wanna ask yourself, who or what in the photo proves that point? And lastly, where is it going to be used? Is it gonna be used on your website as a hero banner? Is it gonna be used in social, a proposal, maybe a Google business profile? Maybe all of those things. Then you want to work through the shot list. So people doing the work, maybe it's close-ups on their hands, their faces, their concentration, their smiles, their happiness, their joy. Not actually just the finished job. And that's really important, especially for service businesses. Your customer interactions, if you can capture those. The handshake, the site walk, an explanation over a plan, their happiness when the job's finished as well, handing it over. your customer interactions if you're able to capture that. And honestly, most people love their 10 seconds of fame. So there's really no issue in asking them. You'll find the majority of people will actually say yes to being on camera, whether it be just a quick phone photo or if you've got somebody there taking it professionally as well, but think a little broader. It's not just the wide shot of like if you're a builder for example, you know, the customer walking around the site. Maybe it's the pre-meetings that you're having. when they're at your office to finalise the plans. Or maybe it's meeting the electrician on site who's talking your customer through with you all the cool new lights that they're going to be installing? Maybe it's more close up details, like The handshake or their feet walking across the threshold of their front door for the first time. And keep the camera rolling or shooting when they don't necessarily think it's still shooting, because that's when you get those amazing candid in-between moments of people who are smiling, they're happy, they're relaxed. That right there is the gold. The next part of your shot list is the process details. We talked about that earlier. So maybe it's the tools or the materials or the step that people actually don't see, like the behind the scenes moments. People absolutely love having a sneak peek into what it's like to be you for a day. or even just pieces of your process that they don't usually understand or get to see. I mean Think about television shows, right? Who loves watching Gold Rush? Who loves watching crime shows, police dramas, hospital dramas? All of the jobs that none of us actually do, but we just love seeing everything that goes on behind the scenes. Take Gold Rush, for example. I mentioned that because I have just watched every episode from the very beginning and I'm up to like the last season. So ~ new season coming out soon apparently, which is cool. So I don't just love watching them get the gold and weigh the gold and see how much gold they've got. I love watching like, hey, the diggers broken down. How are they gonna fix that? Like they've rolled the rock truck. They're out of money to pay the supplier, to pay the landowner. ~ you know, maybe they're struggling with staff. And it's not just the negative things, it's also the really cool stuff. Like they show, you know, the interaction with like the wildlife that's there, or they show how they've regenerated the land afterwards. And all of those happy win moments where you even hear about how some of their teams end up meeting each other on site and end up in relationships with each other. Like that's the gold stuff that people absolutely love. And that's what makes you memorable. Now I'm not saying you have to talk about staff relationships, but you get the idea. What I'm trying to say is showcase on camera, whether it be photos or video, showcase that behind the scenes stuff that usually you think people wouldn't be interested in, but they really are. Here's an example. I recall one of the scenes where cousin Mike from the Beets he was spray painting his tools yellow. And he told the story as to why. He said, Well, when I got my first truck, all the tools in that truck were yellow. And he was literally spray painting like tens and tens of tools yellow with a yellow can of spray paint. That stuck with me. Why? I have no idea, but I can visually see that scene in my head. And I bet you can too if you think about your favorite TV show or movie or whatever it may be. It's exactly the same for your business. That's how you become memorable. Create imagery that people remember and they can visually recall. And on that, another part to add to your shot list, your planning, is the value moments. like the barbecue, like I spoke about earlier with the fence company. Maybe it's the team lunch. Maybe it's a birthday celebration for your staff or an anniversary of your business. Maybe it's the thank yous that you give to your courier who you see every day, who, you know, drops off the bags of coffee or whatever it is that they do. Those value moments that people just love, that feel good feeling. It's something they're going to congratulate you on. They'll probably even engage on social media on it. But it's also great to have as blog posts as well. And you definitely need to have visual imagery to go with your blog posts. Another pillar of imagery styles is your place, showing exactly where it is that you work. Now that might be a singular location, you might have an office, so you might work from home. Or it might be all the different locations that you work. Maybe you work in the car. That's fine too. Showcase that. It doesn't matter if you don't have the fanciest car around. Nobody cares. They just want to see what is real and authentic. Because that helps build the story of who you are. and it helps potential customers want to work with you. There's an amazing book called TheVisualSale And I highly recommend One of the stories near the beginning of the book is all about a swimming pool salesman. And he goes to people's homes and after they've gotten contact and he measures up for a swimming pool. a swimming pool is a pretty big purchase, so you can imagine they put quite a lot of effort into getting these jobs, right? Well, this guy, he decided it would be a great idea to to start investing in imagery. So he started producing videos with him in it talking about all these types of things that I'm going over with you today. one day he got a call from a potential new customer and they said, Hey, can you come round and measure up for a swimming pool? So he did. Did his usual thing. He came and knocked on the door. But this time he had a completely different experience to anything he'd ever had before. The little boy answered the door and looked up at the man and then ran back inside and goes, Mum, Dad The guy from the videos here. Straight away, he had already built rapport, not only with the parents, with the people who potentially were gonna pay the money, but with the whole family. That little kid remembered exactly who he was, and those people who eventually did become clients, they had already got to know this guy and who he was and trust him before he'd even set foot in their door. Now that is incredible marketing. So showcasing your place is absolutely a massive part of what you do, whether that be a service business or a product business. If you've got a product business, you could even go as far as showing manufacturing processes Or even the goods arriving to your office or your storage unit if you don't manufacture them There are so many options open to you to photograph and film. And of course, lastly, showcasing the finished result, which is often the only thing we ever think about. But this is the last thing I've mentioned. So in the case of the fence, yeah, we're still photographing the fence, the beautiful fence that has just been put up, that looks stunning, it's shiny, it's it's new And the people who are looking at this can see themselves with product or that service. Absolutely, you should still be photographing and filming that last result, that finished result. But there's a whole lot more you could be showing before you even get to that. I want to also talk a little bit about professional photography versus using your phone and doing it yourself. you now know that I'm a professional photographer. I've been trained in it. I have more than 20 years experience in being a professional photographer. But I'm still here for you absolutely doing some of your photos yourself. In fact, I would argue do most of your photos yourself. Maybe that's a controversial opinion. I'll leave it up to you to decide. but the best camera you have is the one you have on you. And you are in your business every single day. Or maybe if you have staff, also allowing them to capture everything that they do. If you have the ability to capture a daily happenings in your business, that is going to go so far. It's going to be authentic. It's going to build trust with potential new customers. And it's going to get you repeat work as well. But it also is a really cool thing to document for yourself too. And you never know when you might want to come back to something later on and repost something at a later date. And let's face it, nobody can pay a professional photographer to be on site all of the time and capture every single thing that is happening in your business at any one time. We are sort of uniquely lucky here that we have multiple professional photographers and videographers in our at any one time. So if we actually it kind of goes the other way, sometimes we need to take a picture of something and we're like, do we get out the big camera or like No, no, just use your phone. no, that's not good enough. Like that's kind of funny, actually. We should probably film that.~ but yeah, absolutely. Just grab a phone, whatever phone you've got. Grab your phone, take the photo. Here's my top tip though. Take a photo vertical, turn your camera, turn your phone, take a photo horizontal as well, and then if you have time, do the same with video. You will absolutely thank me for that later, I promise you. Because when it comes to doing social posting later or popping up some new imagery on your website, writing a blog, putting it into a flyer, wherever you need imagery, showcasing what you do to your clients. Maybe you're popping it into a proposal as well. Having all of those options to suit all the different platforms, that is going to be an absolute lifesaver, trust me. I also have one other top tip that I'm surprised I haven't even mentioned it yet because this is what I tell everybody to the point where I think I need to get a t-shirt made with written on it. Please clean your lens. Clean every single lens that you have on your phone. Like my phone has three lenses, three cameras. Clean all of them. And if you're using your front camera doing a selfie, clean the front of your camera before you take the photo or the video. There is nothing worse than streaky lights or like blurry pictures and videos when all you needed to take was a split second to grab your t-shirt, clean your lens, take the shot. Trust me, your photos will look so much better if you remember that one trick. But the case for a professional photographer is really important too. So I would aim to have maybe a professional photo shoot, like either on a job basis. So like if you have a really amazing job that you want to showcase, hire somebody for an hour to capture it. It is absolutely worth it. But if you're a more of like a people oriented type business, kind of like we are, like with marketing, at least once a year, at the very least. I had brand photos taken of myself roughly six months ago. I've already absolutely used every single one of those. I already need another shoot. And that was only six months ago. So six months to 12 months, getting a professional shoot done, even if it's just for a couple of hours, it will build your library, it'll keep you current. Make sure that you look the age that you actually are in your photos. and it's kind of a cool team building activity too, if you have a team. It's something kind of fun to get everybody together and like make it make a few hours of it. Go and have lunch afterwards. Go and have a coffee. Go and have a drink, preferably after the shoot, not before. ~ but it's actually kind of a fun thing to do. I'm gonna leave you with some homework. I want you to go to your social media platform of choice, whichever one you post on the most. Of the last ten photos or videos that you posted, how many of those included a person? If it's fewer than half, go and take some photos of your people. if you need a hand trying to work out what to shoot for your business, go and grab our phone photography guide, which you will find at cimarketing.co.nz. I'll pop that link into the show notes. and that gives you a handy guide that you can either use yourself for your phone photos, or you can also use it to brief a professional photographer for the shoots you're going to do. At least every twelve months. Well, I hope you enjoyed today's episode of the Visual Marketing Podcast. it has been so cool to bring a whole bunch of my knowledge together into one episode. This is something I've been meaning to do for some time. So thanks so much for sticking with me. I hope it's been useful to you. I would absolutely love to hear if you try any of these. Tag me or send me any pictures that you put up, anything that you've thought of, anything that you've shot that you haven't thought of doing before. I would love to give you any thoughts, advice, and celebrate with you that you have got out there and given it a go. Until next time. Thanks so much for joining the Visual Marketing Podcast, brought to you by C i Marketing. I'm your host Liz, and I can't wait to share more episodes with you.