How to Find Quality Images for Your Content

Blogging, Copywriting, Social Media Marketing, Web Design, , , ,

Quality Images for contentPhotos give customers a rich impression of your business, and articles with photos in them are 47 percent more likely to be clicked on, reports content creation agency Curata. Not only do compelling photos encourage engagement, they aid in SEO efforts, since photos may be tagged with keywords and show up in search results. Photos are essential for a company’s SEO strategy, writes SEO agency AudienceBloom CEO Jayson DeMars. Besides supporting written or filmed content, photos tell stories. Great photographers combine technical proficiency, style and vision to creatively illustrate ideas, according to a digital photography school. Whatever your budget, there are things you can do to ensure you only use quality images for your content.

Rule of Thirds

While outsourcing to professionals is ideal, if you shoot photos in house, there are things you can do to make the pictures look professional. Spanish business photographer Alexandro Lacadena Gomez suggests you are conscious of the rule of thirds; imagine an image is divided into nine parts with two horizontal and vertical lines spaced equally, and put your subject where the lines intersect, since that is where people’s eyes naturally gravitate.

Show Perspective

If you’re photographing a product, shoot it from all angles to show off all features. For other subjects, shoot from multiple angles to show unique perspectives. Use black or white for your background to make your product pop, and light the product from all sides. Be mindful of your white balance setting to ensure white backgrounds don’t appear yellowish or brownish, according to blog.cx.com. Consider diversity when using models.

Composition

Once you’re familiar with composition, you’ll be surprised how universal most of the tips are. You’ll find the way to make a photo look professional, according to photographymad.com, instead of a snapshot:

  • Place your main subject off center
  • Think about the way you place your leading lines: straight, diagonal, radial, zigzag, curvy, etc.
  • Work with symmetry and patterns
  • Consider photographing from above, ground level, close up, far away, from the side, etc. for a unique perspective
  • Keep the background simple
  • Give depth through a background, middle ground and foreground

Cropping and Editing

After shots are taken, crop photos to optimize them if needed. Photos may be edited later for color, for elimination of red eye, and for exposure — most basic computer editing programs, such as Apple iPhoto, have these features built in.

Learn.columbia.edu has a photo resolution and size guide, which recommends photos for the web be at least 600 pixels wide with a 72 DPI resolution and a file size of 20-200K. To embed photos into your website, use a free popular uploader such as Picasa or Flickr, according to Practical Ecommerce, since your Web platform may have photo limitations.

Portrait Lighting

Photographer Bill Hurter’s book, “The Best of Photographic Lighting,” states there are five basic portrait lighting setups:

  • Paramount, butterfly or glamour lighting: produces symmetrical shadows beneath the subjects nose
  • Loop lighting: great for people with oval-shaped faces
  • Rembrandt lighting: the shadowed cheek of the subject has a small, triangular highlight
  • Split lighting: occurs when the key light illuminates half of the face
  • Profile lighting: used when the subject’s head is turned 90 degrees from the camera lens

Inexpensive Photography Resources

Using royalty-free photography can give you many quality photos for free through sites such as SXC.hu or Flickr. Examine the photographer’s terms to ensure you’re using the photos legally, suggests Search Engine Journal.

During the photography process, relax and breathe, Phoenix-based photographer Maria Vassett told Phoenix People. She encouraged photographers to follow their creative sides and inspirations when shooting.

By Peter Marino, owner of reelWebDesign.com, a complete content marketing company in NYC.

Create Online & Offline Branding Strategies That Support Each Other

Copywriting, Reputation, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Branding both online and offlineTo keep up with their competitors, companies should be cognizant of the power of offline branding. Even online merchants use offline branding, whether it’s in the form of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns or through word-of-mouth from employees. “Branding strategies are more than just a company’s image; it encompasses the experience you want people to have when interacting with your organization,” says Jody Bivens, art director at UPBrand, a firm that helps companies to hone their brand visibility. “It is important to keep your branding consistent so people ‪have the same experience with your company every time. That means the look, feel and tone of your brand’s voice – both digitally and in the physical world – should reflect what you want your company to stand for.” Continue reading for tips on how to build on and manage your company’s brand reputation and align your offline and online advertising.

Types of Offline Brands

Analyze your audience, and determine what offline brand types are most effective for converting new customers, as well as reinforcing relationships with current ones. If your target market is not Internet savvy, consider talk radio ads. Print campaigns, billboards, television commercials, and vehicle wraps may work for businesses with large budgets. Business cards can be modified to fit your brand as well. If your brand prides itself on innovation, you could use plastic cards to convey a unique sensibility. Eco-friendly brands could print business cards on recycled or seed paper.

Other areas of offline branding to show consistency with online branding include stationery, annual reports, brochures, direct mail, and trade show banners. Grassroots advertising and word-of-mouth promotion can also help a company’s brand. Make sure your employees understand your brand’s mission and can effectively convey it to clients and prospects.

Brand Guidelines

Establish your brand’s guidelines and make sure your message is consistent across the board, to ensure continuity in all forms of advertising. Create a brand guideline handbook and send copies to your employees. Dean Marsden, video marketer at Koozai, a digital marketing firm, says this handbook should include the following:

  • A brand overview.
  • A logo visual guide with correct and incorrect logo usage example.
  • Brand colors for all forms of advertising.
  • A copywriting guide with tone of voice and correct brand name format.
  • A glossary of terms related to your brand.

If you use an outside ad agency, keep them updated with any changes in this handbook, so they will consistently know what the goal of your brand is. That way advertisements will reflect well on your brand and target the right consumers. Perfecting your brand’s tone of voice in its communication is vital and can only come with consistency.

Think about what makes your company stand out from the competition, and try describing your brand as a consumer, to glean insights, writes MailChimp content strategist Kate Kiefer Lee. She also suggests teams brainstorm, and use emotional responses to guide a brand’s tone.

By Peter Marino, owner of reelWebDesign.com, a complete digital marketing company in NYC.

4 Ways of Funding Your Creative Business

Crowd Funding, Small Business Marketing, Technology

Funding Your Creative Startup

Bringing a creative project to life requires hours of hard work, determination and a little luck. Great art often doesn’t require expensive supplies or resources, but sometimes the only thing holding back your creativity is cold, hard cash. Backing any business is tough, but funding your creative business can be a particular challenge. Oftentimes, creative entrepreneurs don’t have examples of successful businesses that share their models. Convincing an investor, bank or friend to gamble on you isn’t easy and the pressure that follows can stunt creative growth.

Luckily, a new wave of support for creative movements is connecting artists to willing investors. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter.com, local arts coalitions and other artists are putting money down. If you’re working on a creative project, look to creative funding sources.

Crowdfunding

The Internet is pro-entrepreneurship and pro-arts. The two come together at Kickstarter.com, a crowdfunding platform that enables aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas on a profile pages, where users can’t donate to causes. Kickstarter is one of many platforms that facilitates crowdfunding. In exchange for donations, businesses offer incentives — it could be a T-shirt, access to a behind-the-scenes blog or any other desirable perk. Crowdfunding received a vote of confidence in 2011 when congress passed a bill that made it easier for small businesses to raise money through crowdfunding, according to Inc.com.

Hundreds of creative entrepreneurs have already made their pitch on crowdfunding platforms. Put your idea out there and see who jumps on board.

Art Grants

You may be eligible for art grants, either through a local arts coalition or the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Nea.gov lists available grants in a number of disciplines, including visual arts, literature, music and design. Users can apply online for funding opportunities. Local governments often offer stipends for artists. Check with your local City of Commerce to find out about how your government supports the arts.

Credit Cards

Whether you’re opening an ice-cream shop or a dance studio, starting a business is taking a risk. In a perfect world, every entrepreneur would have the capital he or she needs to launch a business. Sometimes, though, businesses can’t scratch together the funds. That’s where credit cards come in. Credits cards can give creative entrepreneurs capital to get businesses off the ground, but it’s not without risk. Fail to pay the bill on time, and not only will you get pinned with high interest fees, your credit will take a nose dive. Credit cards have some perks, however. For example, American Express business credit cards offer cash-back bonuses for early payment, travel discounts and other business perks. Credit cards aren’t ideal, but for last-minute office supplies or client dinners, they’re an option.

Debt Loans

The most popular model for start-up funding, debt loans partner banks with business owners in long-term agreements. The two parties negotiate a loan, repayment schedule and late-payment penalties. Bank loans offer start-ups more time to build up a stable revenue than credit cards, but most banks have strict guidelines for loaning money. If you have strong credit and a practical business model, banks will be more likely to bank your start-up.

Author

By Peter Marino the owner of the Digital Marketing Company, reelWebDesign.com based in New York City. Follow me on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

An Insight into Facebook PPC Ads for Better Facebook Advertising Management

Facebook Marketing, PPC, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, , , ,

Facebook arketingWritten by our guest blogger Sarmista Aun

Facebook PPC ads are a great tool for brand promotion but Facebook advertising management is not easy. You have to be a Facebook deciphering expert to effectively utilize PPC ads.

Social media is a great place for business promotion and there is no doubt that Facebook is the best platform of them all. In fact, it’s one of the three biggest PPC players in the world. It’s true that social media analytics tools don’t provide enough data but once you examine the paid Facebook ads, you can learn a lot of valuable things.

To understand the various aspects of Facebook PPC and its analysis, I am going to use SEMrush Facebook statistics and other resources.

Domains Vs. Apps Vs. Groups – Instead of consumer products and services, advertisers like to endorse groups and apps on the world’s biggest social media. Out of 100%, 58% of ads are about domains, 39% are about groups and 3% are about apps. That means 42% of total ads don’t even let you leave Facebook. The PPC publishers consider it as a semi closed platform and prefer to give ads that have the ability to keep users inside the social media site. In fact, though the group ads are only 39%, they receive 56% of total clicks. So, if you want to provide Facebook advertising management as a service, tell your clients that they must create a fan page before starting the ad campaign.

Countries – 50% of the total pay per click ads are given by ten countries. USA, UK and Germany are ranked at number 1, 2 and 3 which is quite predictable but the surprising thing is that Indonesia and Philippines also figure in top 10.

However, according to Alexa stats, India is the second country, not UK. Other ad data experts say that UK consumes 6.1% of the total ad market and the reason is the difference between financial conditions. India may have a population of one billion but UK has a far better economy and steady growth. Therefore, more and more marketers in UK are focusing on Facebook PPC ads.

Top advertisers by domains – Some of the top advertisement agencies are Adobe AdLens and Kenshoo. On the other hand, the biggest independent advertiser is Samsung as they maintain 5.8 percent of the top 20 expenditure for ads. It’s a sensible move considering their current battle with Apple. The last member of the top advertiser list is AirBnB.

Top Advertising Apps – Facebook users are primarily Gen-Y audience and they don’t want serious content. They are mainly gamers and gamblers. That is why, you will find that the top 20 advertisement apps are games and the only exception is the app. The most popular games belong to either poker or casino segment. If US government ever decides to legalize online gambling, the social media giant will make millions of dollars every day.

How some brands accommodate PPC – Let’s take a look at some of the major retail brands. Walmart is highly active on the world’s biggest social media network and they have given more or less 6500 ads in the last 3 months.

On the other hand, Amazon doesn’t spend a single penny for FB PPC. It seems that they don’t consider the gamers and gamblers as their potential customers. Besides, the brand is so popular all over the world that they don’t need to tell people what they sell.

EBay follows a completely different strategy. Their Facebook ad management team targets India, Thailand and Russia based customers and gives ad for consumers in those countries but they seldom spend anything to attract USA customers.

The aforementioned data proves one thing. Facebook may offer Pay per Click and Pay Per View ad options but it’s not a core ad service as AdWords. It’s not a sales tool. Marketers use it for branding and general recognition but not for increasing sales.

Trends – When the world’s leading social media site launched its share in the US stock exchange, the outcome was dissatisfactory. Some investors even thought that the social media giant cheated them as the stock price hit rock bottom soon after the launch. The bad effect of share prices also affected the number of ads and mainly USA based advertisers stayed away from the social media giant.

Facebook is here to stay no matter how their share performs in the stock exchange. The company is ruling the PPC market and when it comes to brand enhancement, they have no competition.

 

Author: Sarmista Aun is a pay per click campaign specialist. She provides expert guidance on social media advertising and each metric of a PPC campaign. She is a professional blogger and has written numerous articles on internet marketing, social media and web design.