Mike Turner Photography: Make your brand stand out
If you don’t already understand how important Content marketing is for the future success of big and small brands online then, you will inevitably discover soon enough, as your social and search results start to suffer.
According to Cisco, by 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic. So if you aren’t yet creating video content, you should, at the very least be making moves in that direction.
Video is fast becoming the preferred means for people to consume content, both for entertainment and information gathering purposes.
You can fight this trend all you like, but while you do so, your competitors will be serving your “potential” audience with the very content they want, the way they want it.
Video content is an investment, it is your future lead generator. Providing upfront value through the provision of content, helps to build trust and liking in your brand, two things that are essential if you’re to gain traction online.
Branding your videos, whether hosting them publicly on Youtube or Wistia and embedding in your website, or listing privately, it is essentially important to gain strong brand recognition, to that end we are providing an incredibly cost effective service for professional quality video logo animations.
For just £20 each, you can add that extra perception of professionalism to your video content, and ensure you brand is noticed. Check some examples out below.
We’ll advise you for the best look and format for your logo. All we need is a high quality source file of your logo. We can even redraw it for you, but this would be an additional charge.
Make no mistake, video is the future, jump on board now before you start losing ground to your competitors. Drop me an email to discuss.
But just to outline how it works:
#1 You choose the design you like from the video below
#2 You send me your logo design file
#3 You drop me an email and we arrange payment via Paypal, Debit or Credit card
#4 We create your custom animated logo, using the colours in your logo etc
#5 We email the logo to you in mp4 format, all done
Content is king, or so the saying goes. But in the current internet landscape, content marketing is the BUZZWORD. The way search engines are configured today is designed to boost websites with highly valuable content. Content that is high quality, highly targeted, relevant, engaging and useful. That means the if you want to get your website listed at the top of Google search, you’re going to have to put in the effort of creating content.
Adding value
By providing value via relevant help, advice, information and background knowledge for your prospective customers and website visitors, you are allowing them to get to know more about you, your competency and expertise as well as giving them an opportunity to get to know, like and trust you.
You will be able to interact with your audience, ask them questions about their wants and needs, give them the opportunity to ask you for information, and advice, and build up a relationship with them. Doing so builds trust (transparent and authentic), allows you to prove you know what you’re talking about by demonstrating your competency and expertise. Don’t pretend to be some kind of guru if you’re not, be honest and open with them at all times. It also allows you to know what your customers want and expect from you, remember valuable content answers reader’s questions and is unique to you.
If you’re going to sell anything you have to be known, liked and trusted and creating content is one of the most effective ways to do this over the long term. However you’re not going to see results overnight. It’s a long term strategy that goes on in the background of your overall marketing strategy.
A helping hand from us
Some businesses and bloggers have difficulty producing content particularly, photography and video, but If you’re interested in using our facilities and equipment for your photography, video content creation, get in touch to discuss. We can provide somewhere for you to come and get creative, away from the distractions of your daily environment. We hire the studio out hourly, half and full days to clients.
Types of content
Figure out what’s the best medium to tell your stories on, either video, audio (podcasts), written (blog), graphics, or photography (Instagram). Here are some ideas for content..
List pages
Check lists
Resource lists
Lists of lists
News lists
Demonstration
Series
Infographics
How-to guides
Researched statistics
Timelines
Did you know
Flow charts
Whitepapers
Research
Trends
Topical guides
Beginner overviews
Downloadable guides
Live Blogging
Event coverage
Covering fast changing situations
Live Q&A’s
Round ups
News round-ups
From around the web
Summing up events
Q&A’s
Q&A for interviews
Q&A FAQ
Informal Q&A
Opinion pieces
Controversial posts
High level breakdown
Forecasting trends
Deep dive
New angle
Interviews
Industry leaders
Innovative companies
Topical expert
Content formats
How to’s
Content curation
Case studies
Charts/graphs
Ebooks
Email Newsletters/Autoresponders
Cartoons/illustrations
Book Summaries
Tool Reviews
Giveaways
FAQ’s
Q&A session
Webinar
Guides
Dictionary
“Day in the life of” Post
Infographics
Interview
Lists
Mind Maps
Meme
Online Game
Helpful Application/Tool
Opinion Post
White Papers
Vlog
Videos – screencasts, talking heads, illustrations, graphics, film roll
Podcasts
Templates
Surveys
Slideshares
Resources
Quotes
Polls
Podcasts
Pinboards
Photo Collage
Original Research
Press releases
Photos
Predictions
User Generated Content
Company News
Announcements
Timelines
Making content interesting
Whatever medium you decide to use, and you shouldn’t just stick to one, make your content interesting, something you are passionate about, excited to learn more about (this is a must for longevity). If it’s not interesting it’s because it’s …
The wrong topic,
The wrong medium,
Pitching to the wrong audience,
Or all of the above
Make your content:
Informative
Inspirational
Interactive
Content should be made up of a combination of:
Opinion
Expertise
Information
Insight
Access
Passion
6 tips for content marketing
Fulfil a need
Consistency
Talk like a human being
Cannot be vanilla – take a point of view
Your goal – to be the best in your niche
More tips
Your content is your sales person but the close should happen all by itself
Story ideas – get as many as possible to make them interesting
10 different pieces of content form one story via each of your marketing channels, Planning upfront will make it easier
How to know if your content is hitting the mark?
The best way to check how effective your content is, is by measuring engagement, such as the number of comments on your articles (if you allow comments), the number of emails asking questions, how many times your content is shared, and how long people stay on your site.
Ask people to comment on posts. Encourage comments by asking questions or asking for further comment, the original article should be considered the start of a discussion
Personally reply to comments and emails to encourage interaction and discussion, and try to respond to everyone
Put link on Facebook saying ‘ check out how many comments my latest post has got, great discussion going on here’
Illicit feedback open loops at the end of blogposts, and include surveys
Create – unique content of your own
Provide unique material about a topic, niche, industry, that isn’t being provided anywhere else. Write good content to build relationships and tell a story and make it unique. People like stories. Give it your voice, your perspective, using video, podcasts, infographics, photography and the written word.
Be different to your competitors, use your USP. Be personable, transparent, share the wealth of personal experience, and provide it in a convenient medium, such as a podcast for people on the go.
It’s okay to be controversial – give it your viewpoint and don’t be scared to express your unique opinion, as long as you don’t come over to the audience as a jerk. If you highlight a problem, provide a constructive alternative.
Document – your journey
When writing content put yourself in the shoes of someone just behind you and write what you have just learned
Chart your own progress
Your journey to build your business – moving your business online
Your progress in a new job
Learning a new skill – learning SEO, PPC
Put sale techniques into practice
Sell something different every day testing your sales skills
Be as YOU as you can be, and be unapologetic about it
Facilitate
Provide access, curate, provide insight about current niche trends
Current trends/techniques within your niche or industry
Software trends, that are relevant to your niche
Explore the topic more freely and in-depth
Content curation and content aggregation, where you filter good quality content for your readers, this adds value for them and saves them having to troll through low quality content
Do interviews with influential people in your field
See what others in your niche are doing, and make a decided effort to do something different
Write for your peers so that your content will be shared, talk about your struggles and solutions
Cover local issues
Real estate – local amenities, history of area – reasons why it’s good living here
Local relevant events
Getting creative – coming up with ideas
Write your ideas down when you have them, good ideas often come when you least expect them, so be prepared.
Find a balance between what you are interested in and what can make money. Take inventory of your personal goals and see where that overlaps commercial potential
Check PPC and popular searches to workout the latest article topics, also look at industry specific magazines, books, Facebook groups, discussing boards and see what are HOT topics.
Looking after your audience
Treat your audience as customers, make sure you provide value to them, and look after them. Don’t do it with the express goal of making them into customers, trust that doing the right thing will have positive consequences later down the line.
Always reply to comments or messages
Say thanks
Use names and tag people
Share things – if you come across something you like share it
Make navigation around the site easy for your audience, people have little patience to stick around a difficult-to-navigate website
Decrease page load times w3 total cache and CDN content delivery network
Get rid of annoyances on site such as pop-ups and distracting ads
Surprise audience – give something for free
Include transcript with podcasts or video speechpad.com
Use high quality audio and video
Heil PR40 microphone
DSLR camera
We provide studio and equipment hire, so drop me an email for more information 🙂
Invite participation – reader challenge, ask for opinion, calls to action – get people involved
Get personal – infuse your personality and life to get deeper connection
Provide unique content such as provide case studios, experiments, income reports etc
Proof read content before you post it (do as I say, not as I do).
Remember who you are and who you’re serving
Always over deliver
Summary
So there it is, content is so important for any business, big or small, in the modern day internet. Start creating, and producing content that helps your audience get to know, like and trust you. Build relationships that start remotely and progress to lasting value exchanges. Build your Brand in your prospects mind, by engaging over and over with them. Without this interaction, you’re nothing but a commodity with no discernible value that can’t be taken from any of your competitors.
Drop me an email if you would like find out more information about our studio, equipment hire. Ideal for businesses, and bloggers alike. We have lighting, high quality DSLR camera equipment for photography and video, backgrounds and studio space. Ideal to fuel your creative juices. Please share this article with anyone you think will benefit from it. Also you can find out more about it here.
Kenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner Photography
Recently enjoyed a lovely summer’s day out at Kenyon Hall Farm with Hazel and friends.
Kenyon Hall farm is a great venue for the family if you’re looking for somewhere good to go. It was rather busy when we arrived around lunch time and was something of a struggle getting into the place from the A49 Kenyon Lane, but once in, we managed to park reasonably easily, although one or two other vehicles struggled a bit.
Kenyon Hall farm seems to have invested heavily in making it a family destination. With the chance to pick fruit like strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, tayberries, and broad beens amongst others. There is also a cafe and shop, and a play area for kids. On a nice day it’s a real country day out. Kenyon lane is also close to junction 22 of the M6, so really easy to get to.
Just a little bit of background about the farm, over 75 years ago my dad at the age of 9 years, used to work on the farm to earn some extra pocket money, he told me local kids were recruited to do potato picking, or spud picking as he calls it, as part of their duties, he used to pinch a few to take home to the family. Remember this was around the time of the second world war, so food supplies were being rationed, and every little bit extra helped the family. He said it was one of the hardest jobs he has ever had to do, “back-breaking” as he describes it. All the kids got time off from school for a couple of weeks to do it, so he didn’t mind. I’m not sure if the present owners are descendants of the family that owned the farm at the time or not, but they might well be. So you can see Kenyon Hall farm has a long history in the local community.
On this particular occasion I took the opportunity to take my new DSLR camera with me for a bit of a play, while Hazel and my friends got stuck into their picking duties, here are some of the shots I took on the day.
Kenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner PhotographyKenyon Hall Farm in Lowton, Mike Turner Photography
The great thing about DSLR cameras is the ability to control depth of field. I love using a shallow depth of field to direct the viewers eye to where I want it to go in a photograph. I got low down to the ground to get some of the shots and used the plants in front of the subject to create a 3 dimensional effect, keeping them out of focus along with the background, and the subject in sharp focus. The viewers eye will always be drawn to the focused part of the image. Shooting with a wide open aperture on a longer focal length zoom will help with getting a shallow depth of field. The aperture here is (f4)
When it comes to deciding what to wear for your photoshoot, it’s best to keep it simple and plain. Try to avoid busy patterns and bright colours. Aim for neutral complementary colours where possible, unless bright and patterned is more representative of who you are.
It’s also a good idea to think about where you’re going to be displaying your images in your home and what will look good in that setting.
If you’re participating in group photos, think about matching styles and colours so that they go together. I always recommend neutral colours that don’t distract the viewers eye.
For instance if most participants are wearing dark clothing and one is wearing white, this will make the white outfit stand out and distract attention. This will make it difficult to place that person in group shots without making the photo look unbalanced, unless the person is placed in the centre of the photograph. This will greatly limit the amount of posing variations during the photoshoot.
Patterned outfits have the same distraction element, drawing the attention of the viewers eye, with the added complication of making the photo look busy and noisy.
It is very important that you feel comfortable in whatever you wear and it be in keeping with the style of portraiture you are wanting. Formal shots look best wearing formal clothing. casual style images look best, yes you got it, in casual clothing.
If you’re particularly uncomfortable with showing your arms or legs, wear clothing that helps cover these up.
If you’re wearing a strapless top, please consider wearing a strapless bra, at least if you’re female. This helps prevent straps showing up in the final photographs.
The main thing to remember is to feel comfortable in whatever you wear. Make sure your clothing is representative of who you are, after all it’s a portrait of you.
If you’re unsure, please feel free to bring a selection of clothing options and we can help you choose the best options at the studio
Become a better photographer by using the get results triangle
When it comes to learning something new, developing a skill, or achieving a GOAL, such as becoming a better photographer, there are three things you need to consider, these are:
Acquiring the relevant KNOWLEDGE
Finding the appropriate level of MOTIVATION
and moving forward in a PRODUCTIVE manner
Motivation
The WHY is the most important aspect of your journey. This is what drives you forward. When you come across obstacles it’s THE WHY that will help you to overcome them. Make sure you’re doing what you’re doing or about to do what you’re about to do, for the right reasons. Don’t do it for other people, do it because you passionately want to do it yourself.
I’ve put Motivation at the bottom of the pyramid, in the illustration above, for the simple reason that it’s the basis for any progress forward, without it you just aren’t going to follow-through.
As well as finding the drive to move forward, there is a force that is actively working against you. This force is FEAR, fear of failure, fear or moving outside your comfort zone, even fear of success. Carefully look into your psyche and examine what is stopping you biting the bullet and taking the next important step towards your goal, you’ll inevitably find some form of fear is the culprit.
Knowledge
The HOW is next for us to take a look at. Acquiring the relevant knowledge is our next consideration in the process. Knowledge acquisition is twofold,
finding reliable sources and
obtain accurate information from them
When it comes to finding reliable sources of information, the best advice I can give you, is to find someone who has achieved whatever you’re aiming to achieve. If you want to learn about photography for instance, then who better to take advice from, than a professional photographer? Someone who makes a living from the very thing you want to learn about.
Consider finding a mentor who is willing to devote some of their time to helping you out, also consider mastermind teams or role models as sources of information. On the subject of learning photography, I have lots of free information on this site to help you do just that. Alternatively check out my one to one photography tutorials which are designed to hold your hand through the learning process.
So in summary, finding someone who offers advice and knows what they’re talking about, is the takeaway from this section of the article.
Productivity
Last but not least is, the WHAT and WHEN. These are the fundamentals of productivity. Productivity is not about being efficient, it’s about being effective, and there is a big difference between the two. It’s about getting the most important things boxed off. Find the one, most important thing that can be done to get maximum impact and do it. Ask yourself, “What’s the one thing I can do now such by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary.” The difficulty is often identifying what your priorities should be, what’s important and what’s not. Again our one to one photography tutorials will get you over this problem and set you up on the right path.
What’s the one thing…: Mike Turner Photography
So there you have it, stick to the Get Results model outlined above and that is exactly what you’ll get, RESULTS. Check out the get results model here for more information, well worth a look, and never forget to enjoy the journey. Life is not a destination.
