Brand Building on Social Media

Social media used optimally is a powerful way to build your brand awareness, engagement, and to bring traffic to your brand.

So what does “used optimally” look like in 2020?

It still means getting the right messaging in the right format to the right customers at the right time. But the best way to do that continually evolves. Platforms change, audiences change, and product and service offerings change.

What doesn’t change?

Every post, follow, tweet, or like is extending your presence and telling the world something about your brand. Your brand remains the key to your success and is sometimes more important than your services or products. It informs the world at a glance, sometimes in a word, who you are and what you stand for.

Once your brand has matured and is defined to the point that you have detailed brand guidelines, you can harness social media to help your brand take flight! This means you have a logo, color palette, brand vocabulary, and standards that express your brand effectively and consistently across any platform.

(PS- If you don’t have brand guidelines, we can help you out with that. –Give a call!)

Here are 5 proven brand building strategies to help you effectively attract, engage, and build your digital audience across your social media accounts.

 

1- Picking the right platform.

Today, most companies don’t have the resources or the time to play full tilt across all social media platforms. And frankly, not all platforms are going to be right for your brand anyhow. The secret to optimizing your online presence lies in choosing the platform(s) that allow you to best express and promote your brand identity and share your brand POV.

Start with your audience.

Where do your customers hang out?

What platforms will let you most effectively engage with that target audience and best showcases our products or services?

Every channel has its own set of opportunities and challenges. Let’s start with the Big 5.

• Facebook is perfect for promoting brand awareness due to its enormous size and the heterogeneous nature of its audience. Facebook’s audience is the largest in the world and crosses all ages, with a slight skew to female. Heads up! If your product targets Gen-Z, this may not be where you want to put your time and effort. Teen usage is down, and this is not where the cool kids are. Trust me. But for any other age group, this is a great place for brand building on social media, running promotions and discounts, and engaging with your base. Facebook rocks in most spaces, with some limitations in terms of medical products.
• Instagram is becoming essential to visually focused products and services such as design, gardening, home design, or fashion and is very popular with brands and influencers. According to Statista, 35% of US teens consider Instagram their favorite social network. The Instagram live video and story features are unique and growing in popularity. Their audience of age group 13- 29 is significant, with 47% of 30- 49-year-olds using it. Usage drops off at the age 50-64-year-old group to 23%.
• Twitter has more than 336 million monthly users globally, with 22% of US adult using. Twitter lends itself to time-sensitive content and conversation and is a great place to have industry interactions, build industry contacts, and share news about your brand. Surprisingly 44% of 18-24-year-olds use Twitter.
• Pinterest is increasingly used as a visual search engine and is likely an excellent place for you to invest. Pinterest is an ideal social network for brands that rely upon visuals, and for graphics, to share information, showcase products or share inspirational content. Their audience of 300 million people spreads across the ages of 18- 64.
• LinkedIn clearly leans toward professional career content and has less frequent daily usage. LinkedIn remains relevant for B2b content and making corporate connections.
• YouTube – YouTube ranks higher than Facebook for US adult usage and now has more than 1.9 billion users. It is a great way to share your brand and engage with your audience. Video is emerging as a leading format, and YouTube is one of the most widely used video platforms. YouTube skews toward men.

Demographics are going to help you choose the best channels for your brand and how best to engage with them. For a deeper dive into demographics, including where the respective audiences live, how often they are online, gender, income, and education, check out these 2020 metrics. Recent demographics for each network that are readily available. –https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/

 

2 – Be true to your brand!

Remember, your brand guidelines are your bible and should be your final litmus test on anything your clients or potential clients will see, hear, or experience.

If communication is not in sync with your brand, don’t do it. Period.

We’ve all seen examples of the seemingly innocuous posts or memes that have taken down the best of brands. Social media is forever, guys.

Your digital presence is vital to your brand. It must be curated, brand forward, consistent, and current. Your images and your content must ooze of your brand. Your customers should be able to recognize your visual brand in your posts before reading a word.

Over time, you will develop a “brand voice” that is unmistakable. Let your tone and brand personality develop until your audience views you and hears you as an old friend.

3 – Content

Give your audience a reason to follow your social media accounts and remind them to do so at every opportunity. Make it simple for them to follow, comment, engage and share.

It all starts with content.

Your content must be valuable, engaging, or entertaining, current, and relevant to break through the plethora of content available on the web today.! Your readers don’t care about your dog’s antics.

Make your content fresh and memorable, and attractive by using compelling images.

Make your content visually appealing by creating lots of paragraph breaks and avoiding long sentences. Use headers and subheaders. Nobody wants to scale a wall of  copy.

Adding graphics and illustrations if a great way to make your content shareable.

Once your epic content is posted, remember to stay active on your platforms. Reply to any comments promptly, letting readers know that they matter.

IMPORTANT!

Each platform may have a different strategy, which is another reason to focus on the ones with the most juice for your brand.

Every platform has a different audience, and it is essential that you understand them and create a marketing persona for each platform.

Repurpose your content, so it best resonates across each specific platform. Pin down who you are talking to on each channel and adjust your messaging and voice accordingly. Recycle, repurpose, share.

 

4 – Aim for consistency on your social media accounts

The end game of social media is exposure and engagement.

Post and stay active on each social media account.

Connect continuously with your customers through your social media accounts.

 

5- Leverage influencers in your space

Find the influencers in your space and follow them, comment on their posts, and even post about their work.

Mention them or tag them on your site. The influencer will likely get a Google alert.

Email them if you mention them on your site or reference them.

Get on their radar in a respectful and way.

Your goal is to get them eventually to share a piece of your content with their followers. Working with influencers is a long game and it will take time to build a relationship, but it will happen if you’re consistent, and your content is fantastic.

 

Are you ready for your brand to take off on social media?

We manage it all from branding and graphic design, video production, content creation, web design, social media marketing, SEO copywriting, and more.

You are a real estate agent struggling with sales! How far would you go to sell that house and close that deal? Have you tried real estate videography?

The real estate market is one of the most lucrative industries today. It is also one of the most competitive. It takes a smart and creative marketing campaign to persuade potential buyers and get ahead of the competition. But what does a smart and creative real estate marketing campaign entail?

Of all the creative marketing ideas that real estate agents are applying, videography has turned out to be one of the most effective. Real estate video listings attract about 400% more inquiries than ordinary listings. They also leave a positive impression that wins clients over, which means more closed deals!

If done right, real estate videography has the potential to push your sales through the roof. But what is the right way to use videography for real estate marketing?

Let’s explore how you can use real estate videography to drive your sales through the roof!

Videography Sets You Apart

You love your home; safe, comfortable, warm, peaceful, and everything nice, ideally. Home is where everyone retreats to at the end of a long day. It is one of the biggest investments that anyone can make. To this end, buyers want to know what exactly they will be getting.

In South Florida, everyone shopping for a house or apartment wants it to be perfect.

In which part of town is their next home going to be? How is the neighborhood? Is it close to the beach? Are there palm trees, public pools, parks, and other good infrastructure?

These are just some of the questions on your potential buyers’ minds, wherever they may be.

Your clients will not simply take your word for it. Pictures of the house simply don’t cut it anymore. Many people also don’t have enough time to attend house openings. However, they will believe it if they see it on video – especially if the video is good enough for the big screens.

Trending Real Estate Videography Ideas

One of the best things about videography is that it is incredibly versatile! Your audience sees what you want them to see. You can bring your creativity to life, close more deals, make more money, and have your name at the top of the list of go-to real estate agents!

There is no limit to what you can do with real estate videography, but there are distinct styles and ideas currently trending.

Listing Videos

You may think of a listing video as a quick preview of your portfolio. It should show everything you have to offer at a glance. It essentially lays out the cards on the table for the customer to pick. Your listing video must be good, or else the customer will not bite.

So, what should your listing video show?

Answer: a little bit of everything, with a touch of a little style and glamour to entice the clients enough to pick their curiosity.

Start by introducing yourself at the start of the video – be fun and witty to gain their trust! You can also blow your horn and show off some of the houses you have sold and the happy couples living in their dream houses. The main part of your video, however, should be dedicated to showing the currently available listings. Be sure to use a persuasive marketing approach.

Live-Stream Q&A Videos

Nowadays, it seems that everyone is in a rush to get somewhere. Many people don’t have the time to attend house openings.

So, how do you sell to customers who cannot show up? Answer: live-stream Q&A sessions.

Live-streaming Q&A sessions are like virtual house opening tours. You give your audience a tour of the house in real-time. You move from room to room, filming every corner and making the same presentation you would if the customers were there with you – of which they are, but via video link. You can also take questions from your audience and interact in other ways – think of TV shows such as Cribs!

Meerkat and Periscope are two of the most popular real estate live-streaming apps. They integrate easily with Twitter, so any of your potential buyers on the platform (which is most, if not all, of them) can tune in.

Interview Videos

Information is the most valuable currency in marketing. People want answers to their questions, and they will only come if you have the right answers. Interview videos make for an excellent platform to market your listings, educate potential buyers, and help build trust between you and them.

Haven’t you always wanted to feature in an interview where you determine the course of the conversation? This is your chance!

You can base your real estate interview videos on any subject that raises questions among your potential buyers. You can interview mortgage lenders to answer all questions to do with financing. You can also interview construction company executives for the benefit of buyers interested in building from scratch of making renovations. There is no end to the types of interview videos you can make – just make sure that each one of them is informative and engaging.

Neighborhood Videos

No one can stand a bad neighborhood. In fact, when most people move, it usually is because they have found a better neighborhood. As such, it is important to give potential buyers a glimpse of the neighborhood. The best way to do so is through real estate videography.

What makes a neighborhood? Answer: the community, houses, businesses, infrastructure, and everything it takes to turn life’s wheels. As such, try to cover all these factors in your videos. For instance, try to get an interview with notable figures in the community. You should also take aerial footage of the area to get an overview of the layout and infrastructure.

Try to capture the brighter part of the neighborhood when making these videos. However, don’t do anything that will try to deceive your potential buyers, as this will eventually create mistrust. The idea is to give the buyers positive things that will compensate for any shortcomings in the neighborhood.

Get It Right!

A real estate marketing video should have a positive impression on potential buyers. However, it may have the opposite effect if the quality is poor. Poor lighting, design, production, and other aspects that go into making a video will reflect poorly on the listings, no matter how good they may be in person.

Making the perfect real estate marketing video takes more than just a camera. The competition is stiff! Everyone in real estate is turning to videography in a bid to get ahead of the competition, so you should invest in professional services if you want to stand out.

We Can Help!

C&I is an idea and advertising agency. We come up with innovative and creative videography marketing ideas for our clients. We would like to do the same for you!

How can we help?

For starters, we offer a variety of real estate videography and production services. We will develop the perfect videos for your listings, interviews, neighborhood surveys, and live Q&A sessions. Videography is our passion, and we invest in the best equipment, so you are assured of top-quality videos!

Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help!

Creating an aesthetically-pleasing website that aligns with the tone and goals of your brand is a crucial element of running a successful business in the digital world.

It is no longer enough to simply have a website; instead, your brand’s cohesive online presence needs to be created by carefully selecting colors and other elements of web design and graphic design that best represent your brand and appeal to your target audience.

Color theory goes beyond choosing colors purely for their appearance and seeks to identify ways that brands can use specific colors to shift viewers’ moods and feelings. Fresh First, South Florida Sinus & Allergy Center, Ball Cap Liner, and EDSA are four examples of companies that have effectively used C&I Studios’ web design services and techniques, particularly our color expertise, to create websites that showcase their brand’s personality.

What Is Color Theory?

Color theory is the psychological idea that certain colors and color schemes have the ability to affect our mood. When this information is used to select colors for a website or other digital content, web and graphic designers take advantage of the associations our minds make with certain colors to subconsciously alter viewers’ thoughts about the product or brand being marketed.

Color theory digs deeper into consumers’ preferences for certain colors and looks at the various emotions and personality traits that consumers tend to associate with products of specific colors. Having a solid understanding of the moods and feelings that can be associated with certain colors is an effective way for brands to select colors that subconsciously convey the feelings they would like consumers to have about certain products.

Fresh First

Fresh First is a gluten-free restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Like many specialty restaurants, the brand focuses on marketing toward a specific target audience, rather than the general population. The restaurant primarily targets individuals who enjoy searching for healthier options than the high-calorie meals that are found at average restaurants.

With this idea in mind, Fresh First designed its website to draw viewers’ attention to the bright colors of the fruits and vegetables that make up many of its menu items. Much of the website consists of colorful, natural foods that are placed on a simple gray or white background. Many nutrition experts recommend eating fruits and vegetables of a variety of colors, and this web design choice allows the foods to “pop” from the background and show off the restaurant’s nutritious options much more than they would on a colored background. The site also uses minimal green and orange accents, which blend in with the foods nicely to avoid distracting the viewer.

South Florida Sinus & Allergy Center

South Florida Sinus & Allergy Center’s website utilizes deep blue and gold accent text against a clean, white background. Like many medical practices, South Florida Sinus & Allergy Center has strategically selected colors that can help to calm their patients and reduce anxiety. Blue, a color that is typically associated with stability and safety, is a common choice among medical professionals across a variety of fields. Because it can convey a sense of safety, blue branding can also help increase patients’ trust in their medical professionals.

Using a minimal amount of color on a simple background increases the professional appearance of the site over using too much color, and the clean appearance of the white background can also help viewers feel more secure than colors that invoke strong feelings. The site also uses one simple, sans serif font, which creates a website that is neater and easier to read than using several different types of fonts.

Ball Cap Liner

Ball Cap Liner is an innovative company that provides head protection gear for baseball and softball pitchers. Although batters and umpires typically wear head, face, and mouth protection, the safety of the pitcher is often overlooked. Ball Cap Liner’s products protect pitchers from balls that may be hit directly back toward them.

Ball Cap Liner’s website features sleek, modern color choices based on color theory that support the brand’s position as a leader in new safety equipment for athletes. The site utilizes bold, red accents that grab the viewer’s attention, and many headings are typed in bold capital letters. These web design choices help to create a larger impact than pale colors and simple fonts, and they fit the intense tone that is conveyed by many other athletic brands.

The site’s moving graphic elements and dark, blurred photos of baseball and softball players in the background set a casual, yet professional, tone that is a good fit for the brand’s target audience of elite athletes. The shades of gray that are used in the background create a more modern look than using a solid white background would.

EDSA

EDSA is an architecture and landscape design company that plans buildings, amusement parks, and other properties that work well with nearby natural features. Modern buildings that are near oceans, mountains, and other elements of nature can be designed to complement the beauty of these resources, rather than work against them.

EDSA’s website makes use of the color blue in a different way than South Florida Sinus & Allergy Center’s. The site engages readers by using blue accent text, which blends well with the images of lakes and oceans that are featured. Many of the images on the site move, which is a modern web design decision that showcases more of EDSA’s creations than still photographs can. This web design choice, which is similar to our own, appeals to an audience that constantly pushes the limits to find the most modern trends in their chosen fields.

Effective web design starts with choosing the right colors. Designing your brand’s new website using colors that carry subconscious psychological benefits can be a simple way to help the members of your target audience see your brand the way you want them to. At C&I Studios, we value creating websites that capture our clients’ unique personalities. Visit our website to read more about how we integrate color theory, fonts, and other graphic design elements to match your desired tone or contact us to learn about how we can help you create a top-notch website!

3D animations open a world of marketing possibilities.

We get it; you are a business owner who wants a little shove down the success runway. But how do you do it? You’ve tried to market your products in all ways feasibly possible.

However, it feels like all you do is take L’s. Calm down. Breathe in and out. Maybe all you need is an idea hub to spark Jack Ma in you. You’re certainly on the right platform!

So you’ve heard about 3D product animation, huh? Thumbs up, you’re just about to discover the necessities that come with 3D animation.

It’s as simple as it sounds. With a 3D presentation, you can seamlessly show off your product and its features in unique ways. It also allows you to launch your products and services on different platforms at the same time. Fascinating, right?

3D animation can help inform, entertain, and captivate customers in ways that poster you smeared outside your stall can’t. This method ultimately revamps your business in alluring ways you didn’t think possible. Hold on a bit…

Here Are Some Quick Takeaway Facts:

• According to a recent study, companies which used 3D animations to promote their products were able to raise their sales by 40%
• 96% of B2B firms plan to use video in their marketing strategies in the coming years.
• 81% of people highlight 3D video animations on the brand website
• 93% of today’s advertisers use 3D product animation videos for their online communication, marketing, and sales.

We know what’s on your mind… but why 3D animations?

There are countless ways to market and showcase your products, but as competitors would be doing similar things, it wouldn’t offer you with that robust competitive advantage. Instead, a professional animation firm would be your tight-lipped secret to make a killing in the already stuffed marketplace. Wouldn’t you want to break away from clutter? The emphatic answer to such a question is YES; you need an expert videography firm to make boxes tick.

As an idea hub, C&I Studios helps businesses actualize their marketing concepts with the aid of top-notch video production and professionals. Here are our top 7 ways that 3D Animations can help you boost your marketing strategy and raise your sales.

1. Attractive Display of Products

Congratulations, you’ve just bought a new batch of products, and you can’t wait to show them off ASAP. Do you have professional videography to set you up for the job at hand?

A professional, colorful, eye-catching page having your customized 3D animations is one way to attract customers these days. Would you instead read an article detailing your product and its features, or watch an animation which shows the nuts and bolts of your product? Which sounds better, huh? Probably the second option.

You’re not alone on this one. Potential customers are four times more likely to view an animation or photos about a product than they are to skim an article about it. Therefore naturally, when you have a 3D product animation on your company website, it’s more likely to attract new customers and retain their attention.

We dare say that video is the crème del a crème of advertisement and marketing, so don’t forget to pitch it into your promotional strategy.

2. Raise Your Brand Image

It takes a lot to set the sales ball in any organization rolling. Like, you are elevating your brand image, for example.

The final appearance and feel of a 3D product animation video are simply impressive! When the design of the video is done in the right manner, it makes your product exclusively appealing, thus setting a tone of positivity to your business.

Who wouldn’t want to create a lasting impression about their products? Well, you could kick things off by utilizing one of our creative masterpieces for your next big product shoot.

3. Sell Products 24/7, 365 Days

Okay, you want to display your products attractively and raise the image of your brand. We agree with you — that’s awesome. But what could beat round-the-clock product sales? Your answer is as good as ours!

3D animations allow you to market and sell your product 24 hours a day, all year round. Once you’ve crafted your animation, it can advertise on-sale products to your customers in different time zones whenever they want to view them. That’s pretty cool folks (wink!)

With animation, you can describe your products explicitly, making it perfect for displaying their features. Convenient, right?

4. Enhance Readability

Yup, that’s true, there is an exceptional videography studio in your backyard to help you polish product readability. Now that you know one or two things about boosting your sales, here’s a bit more insight.

Concise guidance or how-to video serves as the ideal way for the customers to be introduced to the product.

You can use the 3D animation video to display the product’s helpful features, narrow down on its benefits, and show the simplicity in using it. Wouldn’t you want to captivate and retain customers who’ve already invested in your firm?

Going the extra mile and providing your clients with all useful info states better than a thousand words that you care about them genuinely. Loyalty does come with a lot of demands, but it couldn’t get any easier than sourcing for quality 3D animation content.

5. Describe Your Products Within Seconds

Are you ready to showcase your products’ features in less than a minute? We get it, product statements matter. Just take American Airlines, for example, and how its video adverts are short and precise. You can pull that off too!

One of the unique benefits of marketing products via 3D animations is that it helps you explain essential features within a blink of an eye. In this dynamic world, where time is a necessity, you must portray your motive and messages to your customers within the shortest possible period.

Customers can’t sweat to make ends meet and still struggle to view your products’ descriptions. Leave that hassle behind with state-of-the-art 3D product videography.

6. Engage Customers

What did you hear about customer engagement? But before you grumble, let’s face a few facts…

Gaps between what customers expect and what enterprises deliver are there. They’re not fiction. You should be quick-thinking about ways to bridge such gaps if you want to achieve business success. Fortunately, 3D product animation is no fluke when it comes to ultimate customer engagement.

Intuitive 3D animations help you to engage with your customers on a whole new level. An interactive 3D product animation not only lets your customers engage with the products but also helps entice prospective customers.

When you display features in 360 degrees view, you give people a chance to experience your products in real-time. A virtual presentation will teach customers one or two things about your products and elevate their experience.

Here is the cherry on the cake: you can still be in the prototype, manufacturing, or testing stages of a product offering and still present an animated explainer to get your customers revving about it. The combination of captivating voice-over and heavy visuals really drives the point home. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

7. Shareability in Multiple Social Media Platforms

Share-ability is limitless. If you really want your sales to skyrocket, a shareable product video is the best way to get started.

Did you know that 93% of brands gained new followers because of a video on social media? So why are you still reluctant? Get your idea in the public eye and watch it become a sensation. To some extent, online marketing solutions can attribute their success to the presence of a wide range of social platforms. Facebook, Snap Chat, and YouTube are indeed the best media to promote your 3D product animations.

Most businesses are fully aware of the importance of advertising their videos on social media, as 90% of their target audiences are present on such platforms. With the help of social media, you can seamlessly create your product video to look more professional and easy to understand, hence making a significant impact on your target audience. If your content is unique enough, it will amass shares and likes too, which will raise the visibility of your business. So, come equipped with unique content and let the videography experts do the magic.

Why Now Is the Most Ideal Time to Invest in 3D Product Animations

Are you ready to get started with top-of-the-line 3D product animations? We get it… your business is dear to your heart. And what superior way to boost sales and grow your entity than to reach out to your customers with captivating, memorable content?

3D animation is an easy and quick way to make enriching video content and at competitive rates too. 3D animations put life into perspective as no texts or live videos can. From automobiles to home designs to architecture, 3D animations can help you shoot your shot.

C&I produces innovative 3D animation concepts intending to make a difference in the marketing world. We’ve worked with mega-brands, like Magic Leap and GhostBed, to name a few! Check out our portfolio today, and let us help you create a game-changing idea.

Marketing for real estate is serious business: first impressions matter, and whether you want to go for opulence or excitement, you have milliseconds to make an impact.

Whether you work in traditional real estate in Miami Beach or are marketing an apartment complex or hotel, you know that seeing is believing. Much of the appeal of your Miami Beach real estate comes from viewers seeing the photographs and envisioning themselves there. They begin to believe in the luxury, relaxation, or fun of the Miami area the moment they see your photographs. However, as smartphone cameras get better and better, it has gotten harder to distinguish your business marketing from the photography assets available to all the other businesses in your area. Beating the competition at this point requires taking a new approach, and we believe that drone footage is the way to go.

Why Drone Footage Should Be Your Next Marketing Upgrade

Drone footage may be new to you as a marketer, so here are some of the reasons we see drone footage as the next big thing in real estate marketing of all kinds. It’s a key component of really sharing everything your real estate properties have to offer.

A New Perspective Draws the Eye

Even very high-resolution, crisp straight-on shots of a particular real estate property are not going to be as eye-catching on a listings website as the only photos that have an aerial angle, showing they were definitely taken by a drone. Most real estate marketers are looking for an ‘it factor’, something that distinguishes them.

As drone footage becomes more common, you don’t want to be the only one that doesn’t have this perspective on the world. Instead, be the front-runner in your market for having excellent, crisp drone-based photography.

Drones Generate a Premium and Interest

With the buzz that drones have currently among the average population, just having this footage may draw in interested buyers or other potential customers. People have seen drone racing and other drone-based news stories and want to know what the fuss is about.

They’ll want to know what it was like getting this footage and will want to know more about the process. As a marketer, you know that any point of interest that starts a conversation or gets people sharing a video or photo is great exposure for you.

Be the first in your market, for instance, with a high-quality drone footage video that makes your real estate offerings look amazing, and you’ll be surprised how much more people share and like that video on social media than they’d share a traditional real estate listing.

Drones Offer Unprecedented Videography Potential

Speaking of video, the video possibilities are so much stronger with drones.

Standard Earth-bound videography can only capture so many angles of your real estate property, while flying a compact drone both above, around, and even inside the property at eye-level can really make your viewer feel like they are actually present.

If your goal is to help your viewers go from big-picture interest to granular details, drone footage is the way to go. The angles that were previously only possible with helicopters and major-motion-picture budgets are now available to a variety of brands who want their real estate marketing to really pop.

Four Tips for Maximizing the Potential of Your Drone Footage

So you’ve opted to upgrade your marketing with drone footage? Here are some tips to get you started on the right path with your professional drone camera and video team.

1. Shoot Video and Still Shots

If you’re choosing to fly drones, absolutely make sure that video and still shots are both included. The angles you’ll get should be able to be used in still-photo listings and advertisements, but you’ll also want the clickable intrigue of a video to draw more people in over time.

2. Use a Combination of Close-Up and Distance for More Comprehensive Appeal

While drone images from afar can take in the expansive nature of your property, you want to use drones close-up too.

Drones offer excellent angles that human photographers would have to twist themselves into knots to get.

Whether you’re looking at a Miami Beach real estate property’s beachfront access or the large balconies on an apartment complex, make sure you get up close and personal and use photos that convince people that they know exactly what they’re buying into.

3. Create Valuable Context Through Neighborhood/Location Shots

One factor that many real estate marketers don’t factor in enough is the location of your property. Use high-level drone images to showcase how close your property is to important nearby areas, including popular roads and interesting nearby attractions.

Anything that puts your property in a great light should be included in your shots that establish location.

Seeing is believing, so many viewers will internalize your great location more with photos and video fly-overs than they’d get from reading a quick blurb about how well located your property is.

4. Don’t Miss a Thing, Not Even Tiny Details

Make sure that your shot list for the drone footage is comprehensive.

Cover everything, since even if you can’t use every single angle you shoot, you might discover a hidden gem that looks totally different and way better than the competition’s best photo assets.

5. Work With a Reputable Idea Agency to Craft Your Drone Footage Vision

Make sure that you take the time and invest the energy in finding a company to craft a vision for your photos and video, especially as your real estate marketing first ventures into drone footage. After all, you want to be able to stitch together these valuable assets into something cinema-worthy, not just a few slightly-better versions of your old style. Let a great idea agency use drone footage to level up your branding overall.

Especially when you want to cultivate a brand voice and persona throughout a variety of distinct properties, having someone craft your marketing into a narrative-driven advertising campaign is key.

Conclusion

Still not convinced? Drone footage, as we’ve said, is one of those things that, once you see what it does, will completely convince you.

Let us show you what drone footage can do for your marketing; contact us today.

Your website is the single most important asset in your marketing toolbox.

It serves as the face of your company. Thus, finding the right web design company is a must. When representatives of your target market look at your website they should quickly:

• Identify your brand
• Know the exact product/service you provide
• Identify the specific webpage they’re seeking
• See a call to action

Top-performing websites share the same traits which include:

• The ability to load quickly
• The ability to work on a variety of mobile devices
• Clear menus that provide easy navigation
• An aesthetically pleasing design
• Outstanding error handling
• Beautifully formatted and informative content
• Browser consistency

Considering how important your website is to your business, you can’t afford to cut corners when it comes to hiring a web design company. To ensure you get a good deal, there are several things to look for when weighing the pros and cons of each web design company you consult.

Does the Web Design Company use a Mood Board?

Mood boards are an important aspect of designing a website that a surprising number of web design companies haven’t yet incorporated into their design process. An effective web design mood board bears an uncanny resemblance to the Wall of Suspects that are often featured on police procedural shows. The difference is that instead of a bunch of photos of bad guys, the web design mood board is a collection of images and visual assets the design team feels represents your business and could potentially be incorporated into your website. The mood board serves as an early representation of the overall mood and direction the finished website takes.

A good web design team will encourage your feedback during the mood board portion of the design process. They will want to make sure that you and they agree that the images used on the board accurately reflect your brand. The more input you provide about the mood board, the happier you’ll be with the final website.

Does the Moodboard Evolve Into a Sitemap?

Once the moodboard is starting to come together, the design process should start to evolve into the creation of a sitemap. At this point, an experienced web design team takes the various aspects of the mood board uses them to start structuring your website. This part of the process goes much smoother if you already have a solid idea of the different types of pages/elements you want to be incorporated into your website.

It’s important to make sure that you’re working with a design team that knows how to create a sitemap that allows each element of your website to flow seamlessly into the next. A well-executed sitemap results in a final website that subtly directs it’s visitors to each page until they make a purchase.

Taking the Mood Board and Sitemap and Using the Information to Create a Wireframe

One of the biggest mistakes newer, inexperienced web design companies are making is trying to skip the wireframe process. These novice designers feel that creating a wireframe simply slows the design process and since they’re eager to work with as many customers as they can, they skip this vital step.

We don’t. We understand the value of a solid wireframe.

The purpose of a wireframe in website design is to define your website’s design hierarchy. The wireframe is vital for ensuring that the final web design provides a high-quality user experience.

This aids in defining the information hierarchy of your site’s design to ensure the layout is planned around the desired user experience. Benefits of a good wireframe include:

• Testing page functionality
• Confirming that the page structure works
• Identifying what content works and where it should go

The wireframe serves as a kind of outline or blueprint for the final website.

Tying It All Together With a Design Mock-Up

The next stage of a highly-effective web design process is creating mock-up PDF displays. This is another step novice web design teams try to skip because they don’t understand that the static creations provide both the design team and yourself to determine if the visual aspects of the design truly work. The elements you want to look at when presented with the mock-up of your website include:

• Is the logo presented nicely or is it overwhelming
• Does the color scheme work
• Is the content laid out in a way that it draws your eye to the important details
• Are navigational links easily spotted
• Is the font easy to use
• Does design accurately represent your brand

If the answer to any of these questions is no, the design team tweaks the project until everyone is happy.

Moving Onto the Live Preview

For many business owners, the next stage, developing the live preview of your website is when things start to get exciting. This is the stage when it finally starts to feel like you’re about to establish your online presence.

The live preview stages is when you and the design team create an active version of the website. It’s still not accessible to your customers, but you and the team are able to see how it interacts with web browsers, confirm that the various aspects are fully functional, testing the SEO optimization and meta tags, and that it includes all the necessary features and content you require. This is your last opportunity to tweak things. This is the best time to let your inner perfectionist run loose. If you’re not 100% happy with the live preview, let the design team know sot that they can tweak the design until you’re as excited about the website as they are.

2 Optional Revisions and the Launch!

Now, the only thing that is left is making some final tweaks to the responsive elements and maybe a few placement changes. Once that’s done and everyone is happy with the results your website is ready to launch. This is a big day. Throw a huge website launch party and invite all of your customers to take part.

Need a Website? Contact C&I Agency About Our Website Design and Development Services!

C & I is an agency that has a long and respectful history of creating high-performing websites. This list of clients who have been delighted with our web development and creative marketing services includes:

• Monster Energy
• CocaCola
• Montice Swim
•  American Apparel
• Nike
• And more

Learn More About Finding the Right Web Design Company

There is nothing we enjoy more than taking our experience and combining it with your ideas until we’ve created a beautiful and fully functional website that perfectly showcases your business while also attracting members of your target market. The sooner you contact us about our web design services, the sooner we can help you build your internet presence.

Nothing grabs attention like a stunning visual. It’s the very thing that many social media channels are based on. 

 

While content is king, a good photograph is timeless.

 

 

Creative photography will set you apart from your competition and get your brand noticed…and remembered.  

 

Professional photography that captures a moment in time almost as if by secret, has the ability to see through the surface, and make people laugh, cry, imagine, and create.

 

Here’s why it works and how you can start using photography to transform your business today. 

 

It Makes Your Social Media Accounts Stand Out 

 

Great visuals make your content more shareable and help your social media accounts really stand out. 

 

Social media channels, like Instagram, rely primarily on visual content. Instagram has become heavily used in businesses, and most have an Instagram account. In fact, there are more than 25 million business users. 

 

For businesses to reach consumers and other companies, good quality, engaging content is key. 

 

To stand out on social media, you’ll need to go beyond just providing snapshots. 

 

Come up with a creative strategy for your social media channels, where you outline your posts and determine the timing and the best type of content for each social media channel.

 

Buyer personas are essential here because they enable you to get to know your ideal customer, and give you the insight needed to create visuals that will get their attention. 

 

Visual content that makes an impact is more likely to get shared, meaning more people will hear about your company. This drives brand awareness and helps your company get noticed. 

 

It Makes Your Products Look Good 

 

Creative photography will showcase your products in a new light- they’ll look good and get the type of attention you want.  

 

When selling products or services online, you need to spark an emotion between your audience and whatever you’re selling. 

 

Creative photography can help you convey the mood that you’re going for, can evoke emotion between you and your audience and can help entice your prospects to make a purchase. 

 

Have you ever purchased a product that looked nothing like the photograph online? Good photography enables the customer to see the product true to life, meaning fewer chances of them being surprised after the fact.  

 

It Helps You Tell a Story 

By using photography to convey your brand and evoke emotion from your audience, you’ll be better able to tell a story. Particularly in social media, where storytelling relies more heavily on imagery rather than text, you’ll be able to connect better with your audience. 

 

For storytelling, make a connection with your audience through meaningful messages, and create ideas that spark change. For example, we used photography to explore the idea that Natural Beauty is Under Attack.

 

The beauty industry is enormous. But so is the impact of photography, which can capture the hearts and minds of entire nations as history foretells. 

 

Great Images Can Help You Improve SEO 

 

We know content is essential for SEO, but did you know that images can also help you improve your search engine rankings? 

 

Optimized photos can help you get found in a web search. The more images you use, the better your chances of getting noticed. Regularly posting on your website, blog, and social media will help your brand increase your organic ranking. 

 

To optimize your images for SEO, use an image that’s relevant to the text, add a caption, and use alt text. 

 

It Helps You Make a Good First Impression

 

Your business has a mere 7 seconds to make an impression on a potential customer. This makes creative photography crucial for your business. 

 

A lackluster photo is not likely to make an impression on your customer. This is where the buyer persona research comes into play again.

 

By knowing your target audience’s preferences, you’ll be able to come up with photos that will make an immediate impact on your target customer and get them to stick around longer on your website. 

 

Tips for Taking Better Photographs 

 

Now you know the reasons behind using great photographs in business, let’s talk about tips for creating incredible photographs that stand out for your business. 

 

Learn How to Use the Light

 

Photography is essentially painting with light. If you can learn how to manipulate the light or use the natural light you have to your advantage, then you’ll be ahead of the curve. 

 

One of the most basic photography skills to learn is the exposure triangle. This is ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. All three of these tools work together to create the perfect exposure in-camera, reducing the need for filters or other post-processing. 

 

Bad lighting will do nothing for your products and could turn potential customers off from your brand because it risks making you look like a novice.  

 

To produce perfectly exposed images, you can use your DSLR’s “auto” mode. But to get more creative control over the final product, use the basics of the exposure triangle. 

 

Pay Attention to Your Background 

To make your subject stand out, you’ll want to use uncluttered backgrounds for your images. If you’re using your desk as a backdrop, get rid of any wires, pens, or clutter and anything else that will take the attention of your main subject. 

 

You can also purchase a lightbox or make your own to use for your photoshoots. 

 

Also, avoid any busy backgrounds, and when shooting for social media, keep consistency in mind. You don’t want to have various experiences on your social media feed that will not provide a cohesive feel to your feed or website. 

 

Stay True to Your Brand 

 

Before you even start taking photos, you should know the look and feel that you want for your images. This will come from your market research as well as your buyer persona research. 

For a clean and modern look, you’ll want to stick with light backgrounds, with minimal props and natural lighting. For a more traditional look, you can go with warmer colors and more subdued lighting. 

Whatever look you choose, make sure it reflects your brand and is backed by your research. This way, there are fewer chances of having to redo your brand feel in the near future. 

 

Reaping the Benefits of Creative Photography 

 

By taking your imagery to the next level and by providing creative photography for your business, you’ll be able to set yourself apart from your competition. 

 

You’ll also establish a consistent look and feel for your brand and form deeper connections with your audience. 

 

Need help in making this a reality? Get in touch and learn how our photography and marketing services can help you take your brand to the next level. 

How Exactly Does Leveraging Professional Product Photography Increase Sales?

You’re offering an excellent product or service. Shouldn’t it speak for itself?

Not quite.

We’re visual creatures by nature, and unless we see something that piques our interest, we’ll walk right by a storefront or click our way out of a website in seconds.

This is where excellent product photography can make a world of difference.

Investing in professional, high-quality images of your products and designs significantly widens your reach and grows your brand. Plus, it could be the nudge that turns a prospect into a paying customer.

Today, we’re sharing why professional product photography is so important in the retail sphere and how you can optimize your business approach today.

Ready to learn more? Let’s get started!