Congratulations to Bob Faucher for winning the recent Photographic Portals Assignment with the image, Broken Arch View. Taken in Arches National Park in Utah, Faucher describes the image: “The sandstone fins of the Fiery Furnace are seen in the distance, approximately 1.2 miles away, as viewed through Broken Arch. The approach to Broken Arch from the Sandstone fins to the SW is across a broad flat plain.” Canon EOS 5D, Canon EF 16-35mm @ 16mm, Gitzo tripod, RRS BH-55. Exposure: RAW capture, f/20 @ 1/8 sec, +1.67 EV, ISO 100, Auto exposure, Partial metering, Manual WB. See more of Bob Faucher's photography at www.faucherphotography.com. The post Photographic Portals Assignment Winner Bob Faucher appeared first on Outdoor Photographer.
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Want to leverage the power of word of mouth? Here are 5 easy ways to transform your best customers into brand ambassadors who love to share their experiences.Word of mouth is a huge driver of consumer purchase decisions. According to Nielsen, 84% of customers say they are either completely or somewhat influenced by recommendations from their family, friends, and coworkers. As many as 74% of consumers see word of mouth as a major influence in their purchase decision. There's so much value in customers who talk about your product and service. The hard part, for most brands, is figuring out how to get their customers talking. Small businesses don't have the same marketing budgets or brand power of globally-recognized companies. Inspiring customers to become ambassadors might seem difficult when you have little to no budget. Thankfully, it doesn't have to cost much more than time in most cases. Here are 5 tactics you can use to get your best customers talking about your business and sharing their experiences. Inspire Them to ShareEncouraging customers to leave reviews is a great start. But, don't feel like reviews are the only method for customers to share their experiences. When customers love what you do, they're happy to share their experience. So, show them how they can do that. Locate the customers who are talking about your brand, products, or services online and feature those mentions. You can do this by:
When your best customers see featured or shared content from happy customers they'll be inspired to share their own successes and positive experiences. This creates a feedback loop that continually produces user generated content to help reinforce your brand authority and consumer trust. Take a cue from some of the top brands on social media and how they engage their customers to inspire sharing. Manually monitoring for these kinds of posts can be time consuming. Instead, set up alerts for your products and brand using Google Alerts. You'll get a notification anytime one of your trigger words is mentioned (your brand name, product name, or even competitors) so you can respond appropriately. Ask Customers to Share Their ExperiencesYou know who your best customers are, and you know they love you. Inspiring word-of-mouth sometimes means nudging customers and asking them to share their experiences. According to a consumer survey from BrightLocal, 70% of customers will leave a review if you ask. But don't just ask for a star rating. Be sure to guide and educate them on the best way to leave a review for your business. The survey from BrightLocal revealed that while some 58% of consumers look to the star rating first, they also take into account the sentiment of reviews, recency, quantity, review detail and if businesses have responded to reviews. When you ask customers to share their experience tell them what would be the most beneficial or helpful. This could include:
Keep in mind there's no bad time to ask a customer. Ask them to share their experiences right after the sale, in a follow up call, via your monthly newsletter or a follow up email, or through social media as a general call to action. Create a Community Around Your BrandThis is more about creating a sense of community over creating a physical place for your customers to gather. Social media offers a great place to grow and nurture a community. If you can inspire a sense of community among your customers you can foster that growth. As the community grows, customers will be inspired to share their experiences, help one another, welcome new members into the community, and make one another feel welcome. Not only will this encourage the sharing of experiences on a broader scale, it can reinforce brand loyalty while lifting the lifetime value of your customers. Harley Davidson is a solid example of how a community (Harley Owners Group) has grown around a brand and its products. That kind of community can be nurtured around products, interests, and your brand with the right approach. In a post for Infusionsoft Sujan Patel, co-founder of WebProfits, offers a 5-step guide to crafting and building a community around your brand.
Make Easily-Shareable, Awesome ContentWhen customers are happy word-of-mouth isn't limited to sharing positive experiences. They'll share your content, posts, and insights but only if there's value. The content you create needs to echo their beliefs and remind them of why you're so great. Create content that equates to an enjoyable experience, whether that's an unboxing video, montage of behind the scenes clips, pictures and video of community involvement, content featuring success stories or employee spotlights and more. You don't need fancy equipment, or a huge budget, to create easily-shareable awesome content they'll want to spread around. Lean sharply toward visual content whenever possible; 4x as many consumers prefer to watch video over reading about products and brands. Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement, and tweets with images receive 150% more retweets. Your best customers are your most loyal brand ambassadors, and entertaining, educational, high value content will be far more likely to trigger a share and get them talking about you. Surprise Your Customers to Get Them TalkingFew things get your customers raving faster than delighting them when they least expect. This is why one of the best moves for doubling revenue, according to Neil Patel, is to take a customer-centric approach to business. If everything you do is focused on exceeding the expectations of your customer, you're guaranteed to “wow” them more often than not. In an increasingly competitive world, you can't afford not to make your customers happy. Most businesses think they excel at customer service and keeping consumers happy, but an American Express survey found that only about 7% of consumers feel like companies exceed their expectations. That's a sizable gap easily corrected when you aim to delight your customers at every turn. Not only will they be far more likely to share their positive experiences, you'll improve your bottom line while reducing marketing spends - because it costs upwards of 7x more to attract new customers compares to the cost to retain the ones you have. Surprise them, make them happy, get them talking, and keep them coming back. ConclusionThese ideas may seem targeted toward consumer products, but they can work for any small business owner whether its service related, food, or retail. You can learn a great deal by asking your customers “what do you find most valuable about doing business with us?” Use that information to improve your business, and don't be afraid to ask them to share their experience online and with others. Guide your top customers and let them know the best way they can help. With a little trial and error you'll find the perfect formula to get them talking. Top image via Lucky Business. The post How to Get Your Best Customers to Share Their Experience appeared first on The Shutterstock Blog. On Thursday Fujifilm launched their new flagship X-Series camera, the X-H1, and to put it simply this is more than just the new kid on the block. This camera has some serious feature and usability improvements over the previous X-Series cameras that will no doubt make the Fujifilm ecosystem even more attractive to both photographers AND videographers. We were invited out to LA for the Fujifilm X-H1 launch event, and as a part of the evening we were able to get our hands on the X-H1 for some initial impressions before we get our actual review unit sometime in the next week or two.
AMOR – the different types of love illustrated by Joan Alturo.Joan Alturo is an editorial illustrator from Barcelona, Spain. In his creative work he captures a concept and then he develops the idea. Everything is expressed through his metaphorical visual language, always with a critical, provocative, and fun touch. Joan Alturo's series “AMOR” illustrates different types of love in 12 conceptual artworks. The illustrations share a uniform style and color scheme. This is what he says about his work: “Few words, so small, enclose such a big concept. Few words, so tiny, have been used so much for such a constant use, sincere or false, safe or uncertain, perennial or fleeting. Few words with so few letters have filled so many writings, so many books, so many letters. Few hearts have not experienced the warmth of their name, the color of their appearance or the smell of their fragrance. Few have enjoyed it in its fullness. But all of us, however, run blindly behind its elusive shadow, trying to awaken the sleeping echo of a smoking fire.” Below you can find a selection of illustrations. The full series can be seen on his website. By the way, the series is being exhibited this month at El Diluvio Universal Gallery in Barcelona. All images © by Joan Alturo. Do not hesitate to check out our Illustration category to find more inspiring work. The post AMOR Illustration Series by Joan Alturo appeared first on WE AND THE COLOR. I'm sure every photographer strives to avoid making boring photos. But what is boring? There are numerous ways we could define that word, but unfortunately, there are times when the concept of minimalism is misconstrued as a synonym for boring. Of course, a photo that employs minimalism can be boring, but if the photo lacks interest it is a result of choices made by the photographer, not because of an inherent stylistic flaw. Minimalism works because it provides the viewer with a relaxing visual experience. It's not that minimalism is better than other styles, it's just different - easily absorbed, intentionally uncomplicated. You will have to put forth some effort to create good minimalistic photos, however. Here are 5 tips to get you going. Search Out Simple ScenesSounds obvious, doesn't it? Don't make things harder on yourself by trying to extract minimalism from decidedly busy scenery (though it can be done with some clever composing). Small hills and lone trees. Open fields and blue skies. A solid background and a single prop. These are just a few of the scenarios that lend themselves to minimalistic photography. Find A Strong Focal PointMinimalist photos aren't visually barren - they don't leave the eye to wander aimlessly around. Every good minimalist image includes a focal point to the draw in the eye and put the rest of the scene in proper context. This can be a person or an animal, a building or a rock formation. A minimalist photo works best when it includes a main subject. Incorporate Negative SpaceEmpty space in a photo doesn't necessarily equate to wasted space. Used properly, this empty space around a subject - or negative space - helps further define and emphasize the subject. It is visual breathing room. Walls, the ground and the sky are three basic examples of things might be used to create negative space. The source of your negative space doesn't matter nearly as much as how you frame your subject within that space. Add A Splash Of ColorMinimalism rests heavily on uniformity. You'll often find that a single color dominates the frame - a clear blue sky, a rolling green hill, a snow-covered field. This is indeed in line with minimalist philosophy, but it doesn't mean you can't inject more color to liven up the shot. The easiest way to accomplish this will probably be to use a colorful prop or a human subject wearing colorful clothing so you position it/them wherever you need to within the scene. Compose For Maximum ImpactSimplicity may be the ultimate goal, but you can't toss composition aside as if it doesn't matter. In fact, a well thought out composition will only enhance the strength of your minimalistic work. You can incorporate any compositional style into your photo but, not surprisingly, you may find that two of the simplest are most effective: using the rule of thirds can help maximize the effectiveness of negative space while leading lines can serve to add depth and symmetry. Final Thoughts On Getting Started With Minimalism In PhotographyCreating more visual impact with fewer elements isn't as easy as it sounds, so take all the ideas above and experiment with them. The underlying message is that, even though your goal is to strip things to a bare minimum, you can't sacrifice creativity in the process. It is, however, a fun process that will ultimately be an invaluable addition to your craft. The post 5 Tips To Help You Create Better Minimalist Photos appeared first on Light Stalking. |