Tag Archives: advertising

When To Do a Photoshoot

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PhotoshootIn today’s market, the driving force always starts with budget, budget, budget. And as far as budgets are concerned, photos traditionally fall into three categories; the most expensive being custom professional photography, the next being rights reserved or stock photography, and the least expensive being the DIY (do-it-yourself) category. So it seems only logical that if you have a very tight budget to naturally only consider the stock photography or DIY categories because they are less expensive. But are they always? Let’s take a look.

What to consider when choosing your photography:

  1. Start with your long-term goals. You will save money if you think ahead. Is your photo going to be used in print where a high-resolution image will be necessary? Or will it be used only on the Web? The larger the image requirements are, the more difficult to shoot and the more expensive it can be in the DIY and stock categories respectively. An image purchased FOR the Web may look great ON your Website, but most likely, will not be able to get any larger than a couple of inches wide without losing significant quality and detail. If you are going to purchase stock photography, make sure to purchase the largest size available for not only your immediate purpose, but for future uses as well.
  2. Consider your company image or brand. Is your market highly competitive? Do you really want to see your image randomly showing up anywhere? With professional photography, you own the rights to your photos and have exclusivity to your own branded look. When you purchase stock photography, you also purchase the rights to use that image, and if you’re alright with the occasional clone popping up, stock photography can be very effective and cost-efficient. However, when it comes to providing a professional quality image to portray your company, most of the dangers lie in the DIY category. It’s not as easy as it looks getting the lighting just right to avoid unwanted reflections, glare and the all too commonly overlooked background disasters. And need I mention being in focus is always a plus?
  3. Photo manipulation. Everyone by now has heard of Photoshop® and what it can do. Yes, Photoshop IS a very powerful tool. You can modify, alter or recreate almost anything into something almost unrecognizable from where you started. This is true. As an example, I once created an image of a building in Photoshop that did not even exist yet. I had an architectural drawing and some photos with pieces of other buildings, backgrounds, skies, fire escapes, etc. available to me at the time. With a bit of perspective distortion and cloning, the end result did the job of representing a building available for construction. Was it as good as having a professional photographer shoot on location? Absolutely not. But, in that particular case, it was definitely cheaper than to actually build the structure and shoot it. On the flip side, I have also spent hours and hours on DIY images, trying to improve the quality, color, alter the shape or details of images with the end result of something that could have easily been shot professionally, and in focus, with the same cost and time in the end. Was it worth it? Probably not. To make your best decision, you will need to consider all of these issues before you proceed.
  4. Lastly, consider time. Sure enough, stock photos and DIY are pretty much indeed instant gratification. You see it, you buy it – it’s yours to use. That alone can save you time and money. But if you think you will need some serious manipulation should you go with the stock or DIY route, or – if you just can’t seem to find or shoot that perfect image yourself, then a studio or on-location photo shoot may actually be quicker and more cost-effective than manipulating a photo. Not to mention, you will have the professional end results you are looking for.

Granted, stock photography is here to stay. And with so many stock photography choices out there, stock photos and the DIY routes are viable options and indeed have their place in fulfilling the needs of many. But there is still no replacement for good professional photography with all its creative resources that are available. So whichever route you choose, just make sure you think through carefully all your options to make the correct decision for your project. Thanks for listening.

Are U Ready 2 Proofread?

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Did you know?

  • Commas and periods always go inside the closing quotation mark.*
  • Semicolons and colons always go outside the closing quotation mark.*
  • Question marks and exclamation marks sometimes go inside or sometimes outside the closing quotation mark.*

When it comes to proofreading, there are so many grammar rules to follow, so many words to spell correctly, and the list goes on.

There’s no foolproof formula for perfect proofreading every time (although that’s our goal here), but these proofreading tips should help you find your errors before anyone else does.

  • Look for one type of error at a time. Read through the text several times. Concentrate on sentence structure, then spelling, and then punctuation.
  • Don’t proof on screen. Review hard copy. Print out text and review it line by line. Use a ruler under each line of text or run your finger under the text.
  • Read the text out loud. You may hear a problem that you didn’t see.
  • Use and trust a dictionary. A spellchecker is good to use as a first screening, but don’t depend on it. Spellchecker can tell you if a word is a word, but not if it’s the right word.
  • Review grammar rules if you are in doubt. There are many resources online if you don’t have a reference manual to refer to.
  • Keep a list of words that you always have to look up or mistakes you commonly make and refer to it when you are proofreading.
  • When you are all done, go back and read the text backwards to focus on the spelling of words only. You may be surprised that you find words misspelled that you didn’t catch before.
  • Be sure to go back and proof headings. They are easy to overlook when proofing text.
  • Review page numbers and footer / header material for accuracy and correct order.
  • Do the math to make sure calculations are correct. Double-check facts, figures, phone numbers and proper names. Make sure all information is accurate.
  • Take a break between writing and proofing. When you come back to it, you will be more likely to spot errors.
  • Ideally have someone else proof your text. A new set of eyes may spot errors that you have overlooked.

Remember – you are trying to find mistakes. Assume you will and look for them.
Happy proofing!

*Preferred American Style

The Internet’s Impact on Your Marketing

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To succeed in today’s fast-paced business environment, you need to aggressively transform your marketing, communications and advertising plan. You need to focus taking risks with new directions on the Internet.

If you leverage and refresh your existing strategies, the possibilities are endless to gain competitive advantage. You should incorporate new media and techniques on the Web. To be successful, your online promotional plan must be closely woven with all your marketing activities.

With great strategy, planning and focus, you will achieve the reach you want with your marketing and advertising budget. The greatest challenge is choosing the strategies that are right for your business and to integrate them with your marketing and advertising initiatives.

It’s important to think strategically about your marketing choices in order to maximize the success of your program and to select the right tactics.

What are your goals? Enhance brand awareness, improve online visibility, boost traffic to your Website, increase online sales or boost offline sales? If your main goal is to build brand awareness on the Web, focus on activities that encourage public discussion about your company, such as thought leadership activities (white papers, articles, case studies, and best practices research), public relations and social networking activities. If your key objective is to drive online sales leads, then do more direct-response activities such as e-mail marketing and paid search advertising.

The Internet has changed the dynamics of the business world. Customers are going to the Internet to start their purchasing process. In order to stay competitive, businesses need to embrace and use inbound marketing techniques to get found online.

Who are your target customers? You need to find out where your audience hangs out on the Internet. Then use those social media platforms to publish your information and collaborate with your customers on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and others.

Using only traditional outbound marketing techniques such as trade shows and print advertising is less effective nowadays, because people are better at blocking out interruption-based or pushed messages. The Internet presents quick and easy ways for customers to learn and shop to pull information when and where they want it. Instead of flying across the country, a prospect needs only to go to the Internet and research products and services.

Another important consideration for your marketing strategy is whether your company is in the business-to-business or business-to-consumer niche. What type of industry are you in? How is your market structured? All of these will affect your approach to marketing. It’s important to tailor your tactics and approach to your business environment and where your customers can be found on the Internet.

The structure of your market and industry will influence your selection of tactics. If your market is saturated, pursue innovative approaches to stand out from your competition, such as a thought-provoking video. Your video must have a news hook.

If you are in an emerging field, invest resources into educating the public through articles and white papers online.

If your product or service is very complex or difficult to understand, use tactics that enable you to conduct discussions with your audience through forums, chats, blogs and social media platforms such as FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter.