Episode 177: Secret to Product Photos That Sell w/ Lyrik Fryer
Are your product photos failing to convert casual scrollers into paying customers? In this episode, product photography expert Lyrik Fryer reveals must-know techniques for capturing attention, building brand trust, and showcasing your product’s value. Learn how to create high-converting product images that boost eCommerce sales, increase engagement, and drive conversions. Don’t miss these expert tips to make your eCommerce product photography work for you and turn views into revenue!
Snap, Sell, Repeat: Fun & Easy Product Photography Tips to Boost Sales and Build Trust:
Position your products to highlight key features and benefits
Create consistent visual branding that builds consumer trust
Use lighting techniques that make your products stand out
Capture attention-grabbing images that stop the scroll
Optimize product photos for various platforms and devices
With these game-changing photography hacks, your product images become your 24/7 sales team—convincing shoppers to buy even while you sleep! 📸✨ Killer eCommerce photos build trust, stop the scroll, and make hitting that "buy" button irresistible. 🚀🔥
Product Businesses! Download my free HOW TO GET INTO A GIFT GUIDE/PRODUCT ROUND UP roadmap for free HERE to get more sales and traffic to your site this season.
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Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
Learn more about Lyrik Fryer & WorkPlay Branding:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyrikfryer/
Website: https://workplaybranding.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lyrik.fryer/
Additional Resources:
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Transcript
00:00:00 Gloria: Hey, small business heroes, welcome back to Small Business PR, where we make marketing and PR super accessible for the everyday underdog. Now, if you have a physical product, you know because you've listened to this podcast and all the journalists from all the top tier outlets always say product photos are so, so, so important. So if you make a physical product, maybe you have photos, we're going to talk to the expert here. We're going to dive into different types of photos, why a branding shoot is different than a visual campaign, and the do's and don'ts for founders. So welcome to the show, Lyrik.
00:00:29 Lyrik: I am so excited to be here. Thank you so much, Gloria, for having me on.
00:00:33 Gloria: Yeah. So you create a WorkPlay Branding, which is disrupting the photography industry. I know that you do branding photo shoots around the world. Tell me a little bit about what you offer and a little backstory for our people. You actually gave me my own branding photo shoot when we met in DC and I was so excited to see the assets, y'all. You're going to see this. There's a photo of me humping a disco mushroom because you know, I love my psychedelics, but we won't get into that now, but tell us a little bit about all the fun you're having at WorkPlay.
00:01:00 Lyrik: Totally, and your shoot with us was so much fun, by the way. So WorkPlay Branding started roughly in the 2017 era, before 2020. We really evolved organically into what the market was wanting and where the gap in the market was when it came to visuals for product companies and just all over businesses across the world. So as a company, we have really evolved to be very much like customer forward focus to make sure that we're filling that missing piece in their marketing strategies and in their, you know, just their marketing workflows on a quarterly basis.
00:01:43 Gloria: I love--
00:01:45 Lyrik: What we do is we look at the brand from a year's bird's eye view, essentially. And we break that into quarters. Every single quarter, we want to plan, create, and then launch visual content that is attached to a marketing goal in the business. This allows the visuals to actually optimize what your strategy is for marketing and bring in leads and sales. And we do it in a very specific and creative way so that we know that we're getting an ROI from the brand visuals that we're creating and not just doing maybe one or two photo shoots a year.
00:02:24 Lyrik: I've heard horror stories of only doing one every six years, which is crazy. And so we're actually looking at visuals from a different perspective than maybe what you're typically looking at from a strategy standpoint.
00:02:39 Gloria: Yeah, I love that you focus on the evolution of the business because same thing with PR, right? It's not one and done. The most successful companies have it as a system in their business. And you have different pitches for different seasons. Why would you not have different photos for different seasons? So let's talk about the difference because I don't have a physical product. I want to know the difference between a branding photo shoot, right? So I imagine taking a photo of a product and a visual marketing campaign.
00:03:04 Lyrik: Totally. So a brand photo shoot, and we like to say this is the traditional way of creating visuals for your business, is to book a brand photographer, maybe it's a local photographer in your area, and just say, hey, I need some content. Unfortunately, that local brand photographer doesn't really understand the business from the business side of things. And so they are just creating content that maybe looks good, but is not strategic.
00:03:30 Lyrik: And so when you are booking a brand shoot, you might be just getting base content, maybe content for your website you're not really sure. Maybe you're like, maybe I pull in some products here, products there, and you get what you get on that day. And to be honest, most people aren't doing full day campaign shoots like we do in WorkPlay. They're doing like maybe one to three hours cramming it all in there and being like, ah, I've got 30 usable pieces of content. And to be honest, like in this day and age in business, it's just especially for product companies, it's just not feasible to have like rotating the same content over and over and over again.
00:04:10 Lyrik: And so in Workplay Branding, we create what are called visual marketing campaigns. So we look at what you're doing in your business in the next quarter, the next three months of your business, and we craft very specific visuals and creative direction for that piece of marketing that you're doing. So this could mean maybe you're focused on an email launch or something like that. We want to create themed visuals for that email launch to then go out to your people that are within the brand guidelines of the brand and the company, but are different.
00:04:45 Lyrik: They're appealing. They're shocking even to the audience and so it gets their attention. I think we're in a huge market. Can we capture and can we get attention these days? And the visual is the first thing people see even before they read. And so we wanna make sure in the campaign that the campaign assets, the photo or the video that we're creating is geared towards that type of element of content so that when it is used in your marketing is actually going to bring you an ROI because it is designed to, if that makes sense.
00:05:21 Gloria: Yeah, I mean, like I said, I interview journalists all the time and I actually have them come into my program and they all want to see visuals because especially if they're going to show it on like a Good Morning America Today show, like the visuals have to be on point. So you've definitely sold me on the visuals. I like how you said you need to freshen up. It's not like, you know, you don't want to go out on a date and like we're the same thing over and over with the amount of volume of content we just we need new photos.
00:05:42 Gloria: So let's say if I am a bootstrapping entrepreneur, I don't have a lot of budget to all the time and I know you have pretty affordable services, but what are some of the top dos and don'ts and the mistakes that you are seeing when it comes to brand photo shoots? Because they are allocating budget to brand photo shoots, but not all of them are hitting the mark. So what are they doing wrong? And how can they optimize their spend so that with the budget that they're doing, they're getting like best ROI.
00:06:05 Lyrik: Totally. So first thing first, you want to create visuals for the very specific thing that you are marketing. So what are the big revenue projects in your business year? What are we working on? I would say pick four so that you can really evenly spread out your time and make sure every little piece of content is geared towards one of those four. So now you have usable content. You don't just have base content, you have usable marketable content. So pick four revenue driving projects.
00:06:39 Lyrik: I see this all the time. People do not attach visuals to revenue. And so they just go in blind to the shoe. They're like, we just need to create pretty content. It's not about pretty content. Yes, the standard, the bare minimum is pretty aesthetic, good looking content, high quality. But then how are we being strategic about it? So that's number one mistake: you don't know what type of content you are going to be creating for what type of marketing project. That's first and foremost, we have to have that as our North Star.
00:07:13 Lyrik: The second thing that I would say is we need to have a themed campaign or themed collection of assets for each of those marketing projects that we are creating content for. It's not enough just to be like, oh, let's just create generic content of you know, the products on a desk. No, we need to tell a story with the visuals that have the product in it. Unfortunately, the local brand photographer sometimes doesn't understand that. So if they don't understand that, you have to come in and be the creative director.
00:07:48 Lyrik: And you have to understand that this brand shoot is has to tell a story with the theme that is based on the marketing project that we are creating the visual for. So that's very, very important. We have to pick a theme or aesthetic because that collection of assets is then going to be used on different channels and we want people to recognize them.
00:08:09 Gloria: So are you talking about sticking out like not just a candle on a white background on a marble table? Are you saying that they need to have a full personality and like really take a stand with their marketing?
00:08:19 Lyrik: 100%. So we need to tell a story about the type of person that would buy the candle. What would they want their environment to look like where that candle is sitting? Because I mean, you could go in so many different avenues in terms of your client avatar with that candle. I don't know what brand of candle that we're thinking of. But if we're doing a campaign for a candle, where maybe it's more of like organic textures or organic, you know, like colors where it's just more like muted tones, we're not going to put that candle in a room for that visual campaign with a ton of color or a ton of just a different vibe than that brand aesthetic.
00:09:02 Lyrik: And so we have to tell a story for that client avatar that's going to be looking at this content and they have to be attracted to it. They want to live that lifestyle of the candle in the brand. So we have to create that lifestyle in the content that we're creating for the marketing.
00:09:20 Gloria: And does that change season to season? Because you have one main ethos, like for example, for me, it's really like the rebel ethos. But then what about the seasons? So am I only staying in that lane or do I do something more wintery if it's like a wintertime situation?
00:09:35 Lyrik: Totally. I would say this totally depends on the brand. For products, you're going to see this a lot more where it's way more seasonal. So when Christmas rolls around, we need to be doing Christmas campaigns. What those aesthetics and themes of the Christmas campaigns can change from year to year. And I would advise that that should happen so people don't get bored of the same Christmas campaign that you do over and over and over again. So we can't really reuse that campaign, or at least we don't want to in the spring, it might be something different for a planner product company, your big year is probably Q4 and Q1. And how we showcase that planner is going to be very specific than maybe how we're showcasing it in the summer.
00:10:19 Lyrik: We have to show people in the summer using.., still using the planner in different summer activities because that's going to resonate with the audience more. So yes, the theme campaigns and seasonal campaigns within that theme are going to be very, very important. And again, if you are not working with a creative partner that understands this, then you have to come in with this insight so that you can direct the shoot because so often I see people like, oh, the photographers got it.
00:10508 Lyrik: The photographer is not a creative director. Sometimes they can be both, but a lot of times they're just a photographer. So you have to play that creative director role in your visual campaigns that you create.
00:11:03 Gloria: Got it. So do you recommend that people have already done the work of knowing their brand voice, knowing their average heart, their values before coming to, let's say, work with someone like you who's actually taking the photos?
00:11:14 Lyrik: Totally. I think it's funny because visuals are so they're so potent, so, so potent. And so sometimes people learn who that person is over time as they start taking action. So I would say action first and foremost, because you need to test all of this creative. You need to see if it's landing. Sometimes what you think is landing is not landing visually with your avatar. And so maybe we have to tweak. Maybe something is really, really landing and you're realizing something completely different about your avatar. And so I would say, yes, that's important.
00:11:54 Lyrik: But what's more important is taking action through that, creating creative and testing as you go because every single year is different. Every single market is different. And so if you sit maybe behind the computer without like, you know, the actual creation, and figuring out this is who I… this is who I need to be, or this is who I need to serve. Sometimes that can actually delay what the inevitable is, which is maybe you have to take a complete left turn halfway through the year, which is why it's important to continue to create these visual campaigns because everything is evolving.
00:12:29 Lyrik: Your brand is never staying stagnant. Your audience is never staying stagnant. And so you can do all of the work you want at the forefront. But in six months, the market might change, the economy might change, something might happen. And you have to flip on a dime to be able to almost optimize from that new cultural shift. And I'm sure that's very prevalent in PR as well.
00:12:50 Gloria: Yeah, it has to be relevant to the times because people buy products that's relevant to them that season, right? It's really all about timing. And so when you're talking about testing, before we move on to number three, how do we test? Like, how do we know if something's working or not? Is it the way we set out an Instagram poll? Do we like how do we test this?
00:13:07 Lyrik: Totally. So it's all about the reaction and really the engagement that people are having to this visual content. You will know when something visual is working because it's the first thing people see. Are people watching it for longer? Are you getting feedback from your audience saying, whoa, this is so cool or this is so amazing. That engagement is going to tell you right away how well that visual campaign is working. And so you want to be on the lookout for things like increased engagement. You wanna be on the lookout for even just increase in sales after the campaign has happened.
00:13:46 Lyrik: It does seem so simple, but it is so true. We've had members come through the process, create a campaign for the same products, but different visuals, and they have their biggest launch ever with this one campaign. So really leads and sales and conversions can tell you right away, but some of the underlying ones are more like engagement, feedback from your community.
00:14:10 Gloria: So what's the third thing that product owners need to be aware of when they are, you know, doing a brand photo shoot?
00:14:16 Lyrik: The third thing that people need to be aware of is what emotion is coming through the visual. So, so much of how we buy things, how we communicate things, has to be done through emotion. And it skyrockets campaigns when you can trigger a nerve. Doesn't mean you're triggering people, but it means like you're evoking some sort of emotion in them. And so we need a theme, we need an aesthetic, we need a season, and we need an emotion attached to it. And it needs to be very clear.
00:14:48 Lyrik: So, whoever is in this shoots with the product, if it's a model, if it's you, you have to be evoking that very clear emotion and that has to be connected to the end result that that product is going to give your consumer. And so we want to make that tie very clear. So we have a storyline and it has to evoke an emotion in the visual. And so when we think about these things, sometimes product companies, you guys don't have models inside of your visuals. It's just the product. So what is the overall storyline of why that product is in this environment that we're taking the photo of with the product inside?
00:15:33 Lyrik: It's got to evoke that emotion. We can do certain things like different editing styles, different themes to evoke a certain, like even nostalgic emotion. We would edit that maybe in a more vintage-y tone, grainier. All of these things can kind of hit nerves that might be cultural, it might be nostalgic for people, and we can generate that emotion on the end of things after we've created the visual. But again, you have to work with a partner that is going to be custom to that if you're doing it in that way. If you're like, hey, I'm on a tight budget, I gotta just work with what I have, bring in a model to evoke that emotion as well.
00:16:14 Lyrik: So I would say that third and last final thing is can you attach an emotion inside of the visual that is connected to the end result that you want your consumer to experience after buying that product?
00:16:27 Gloria: Yeah, totally. I mean, it's really trying to get people to experience the product when they can't, right, until they buy. So that's really the point of this whole thing. I love that you gave three main points. So many things are changing. And it's I feel like the access is getting easier and easier where people can just even take an iPhone to do it. But I want to know, because you've taken so many different shoots for different things, what are some of the cool trends or cool aesthetics that you've been playing around with that's really enticing customers right now?
00:16:55 Lyrik: Totally. So there are so many different verticals that you can go in. I would say a big one right now is motion. How can we involve motion into the visual by adding elements of blur that's been huge with workplace clients right now. How can we make this a creative motion in action photo where it feels like we're already there? I would also say is any type of international shoot is doing really well. So can the product be in a different country in a different environment? Because I don't know what it is right now, but so many people are traveling.
00:17:37 Lyrik: So many people are going to Europe. It's just become so mainstream and doing an international shoots with some of these European elements are very hot right now. That can really elevate something. I would also say like any 1960s retro making a comeback, anything that is timely. So like the '70s, the '60s, if you can theme it in that, people love that. People love that nostalgic feeling of a certain time period.
00:18:09 Lyrik: In terms of themes, I mean, this kind of ties in with the international shoots, but people are loving this Dolce Vita lifestyle right now. Can we bring in the Amalfi Coast, Italy vibes, even if you're not doing your shoot, there cannot be seemed in people are loving almost like that. How do I say it? It's almost like a like bows and like this more preppy theme and aesthetic, especially with products in our company going through our company right now.
00:18:43 Lyrik: And so it's just interesting. There's so many different verticals of themes that are happening that are hot right now that you can go in. And that's something that again, working with a creative partner. You're able to identify it. But if you don't have the budget for a creative partner, look on Instagram, what is fashion doing right now? They are typically the leaders of these trends, of these cultural movements. Where are the clothing styles coming from?
00:19:11 Lyrik: And using that as a theme, you're gonna get a lot of attention from that because if people are embodying that in their clothing, they're gonna embody that in their lifestyle, in their lives. And so the fashion industry actually moves a lot of these themes and trends forward. So go on Instagram, take a look at your favorite brands. What are they doing? That will give you a really clear indication of what's really hot right now in terms of themes.
00:19:39 Gloria: Yes, but make it your own, right? Because we want to be.
00:19:42 Lyrik: Yes, please make it your own. But it does give you a good direction of like, oh, if I, you know, even if my model is wearing something like this, that's going to land better for the candle company, if that makes sense.
00:19:56 Gloria: Yeah. I love me some Amalfi Coast. As you know, I got married in Italy this year, so I'm all about it. It's funny, I do see that there's this contrast and there's nothing in the middle anymore, right? It's either minimalist or like crazy maximalist. And so I think people are just on the fringes because there's so much noise out there and they're trying to stand out. And that's really kind of overall what I see in marketing too, where it's like no one wants to be in the middle when it's just you're drowning out you're just like anyone else. How can you take a really radical approach and even push it a little bit further?
00:20:25 Gloria: So I love what you said about that. You've given us so much to think about. This is exciting. It's probably like one of the most fun things that, you know, product makers get to do is to take photos. You've given us a lot to think about. Before we sign off, I want to hear from you. What are kind of like the red flags when working with a branding photographer?
00:20:42 Lyrik: First thing you need to look out for, how much content are you going to be getting? If it's under 200 pieces of imagery or video content, we can't do it as business owners because we need so much content to fuel what we're doing in our marketing that we need to make sure we're getting more than, definitely more than 30. I've seen things like you do a two hour shoot, you only get 10 images, even less.
00:21:09 Lyrik: Sometimes we have to make sure we are getting everything that was shot. We also have to make sure that the shooting style of the photographer is on par with the themes and the campaign that you're building for the products. If it is not, it's not going to work. So you have to make sure that their portfolio, their style is going to match something that you have envisioned in your head that is so, so important because you cannot fit, you know, a circle into a square. It's not going to work.
00:21:47 Lyrik: I would also say any one who has not worked in a business industry before, if they are working with families, if they're working with like senior photography, that's not going to work. I would say you can venture into wedding photographers because they are so creative and a lot of times are working with a lot of different types of people in aesthetics, but I would not venture into any kind of lifestyle photographer, any kind of family photographer, any kind of portrait photographer because they don't understand how to make a product look good.
00:22:26 Lyrik: On the flip side of that, sometimes if you go too niche with the photographer, like hiring a product photographer, they are so ingrained in how to shoot a product that all of their products are going to look the same. Therefore, yours will look the same as every other product that they've shot and every other product on the market. So we have to find a balance and a creative partner that has done a lot of range in their work because you don't want to look like everyone else, but you also don't want it to miss the mark.
00:23:00 Gloria:Awesome. Ooh, so good. Thank you so much. How can people find you and get into your world?
00:23:05 Lyrik: Totally. I love connecting with all of you guys. We're over at Work Play branding on Instagram and workplaybranding.com super easy. And if you want to implement the strategies that we've talked about, we also have a free work workbook. So if you go to theworkplaymethod.com/workbook, it is a 175 page workbook that will walk you through the exact strategies we take every WorkPlay member through in our creative direction phase. So if you're on a budget, this is gonna be perfect for making sure you're going to craft the perfect visual campaign for your product.
00:23:46 Gloria:Thank you so much.
00:23:47 Lyrik: You're so welcome. Thank you for having me.
00:23:52 Gloria: Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar, and so many more, even if you're not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert.
00:24:20 Gloria: Now, if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig or just reach out to that very intimidating editor, this class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at GloriaChouPR.com/Masterclass. That's GloriaChou, C-H-O-U-P-R.com/Masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.