Top Video Tips for Each Social Media Platform

by Crystal Hollman | Dec 22, 2021 | Marketing, YouTube

Top Video Tips for Each Social Media Platform

This week, let’s talk about the different platforms that are hosting video as their major form of content and what type of content is going to be best to use on each of these platforms.

Instagram

We all know that Instagram has shifted very heavily into video, but they are also making themselves “shop-friendly.” How do you find the right balance for what type of content is going to work best on instagram? Believe me when I tell you that I’ve tested it in many different ways, different formats, different times, etc. I’ve found that short content is best for Reels. That usually means that you want to have a video that is somewhere between 8 – 15 seconds long. Beyond that, you’ll begin to lose people, due to attention span and the need to continue to move-on, swipe up, and see what’s next. Short form video content will allow you to hold your audience’s attention and allow you to use a larger variety of audio clips (many audio clips were created before Reels were changed to allow up to 1 minute of video content). If you’re hoping to borrow and use some of the trending audio clips that are available, you’ll want to keep your video content shorter.

Instagram is also a great place to share information about your business, tips & tricks, and behind the scenes content. These types of video, along with hyperlapse videos of you performing business tasks, boxing, unboxing, mixing, making, cutting, etc., all tend to perform well on Instagram. By keeping these video clips short, you can capture your audience’s attention, engage with them, highlight specific elements of your business, and draw their attention back to your posts and account.

Pinterest has introduced video pins, idea pins, and a Reels-like format where you can watch all of those idea pins, row-after-row. The type of content that tends to perform well on Pinterest at the moment is informational content in the form of graphics. For example, posting 5 helpful tips and including 5 individual graphics, each highlighting a specific tip. Pinterest has set up idea pins to work similarly to stories, where you click through each graphic to engage with specific content. Pinterest is a great place for interactive information, tips, and how-to’s, and users are looking for this information in a visually appealing format. While video is working well on Pinterest, it’s beneficial to focus your video content on informational graphics, tips, tricks, and how-to’s when using Pinterest. What’s key in making sure that Pinterest starts to convert for you is utilizing the fact that it lets you tag your products and it allows you to add other stickers that let you link back to other products and affiliates.

TikTok

TikTok is still primarily an entertainment platform, but this just means that you can use it for your business, you will just need to use it differently than the way you use other platforms. With TikTok, everything needs to be short and focused around the quick how-to’s, the quick ootd’s of the day, what you’re wearing, where you got your outfit from, etc. As TikTok continues to evolve, they are adding features that are going to allow you to promote your products, tag your products, and other product-friendly features. If you’re a product-based business, planning to start implementing TikTok, jump in, but make sure you jump all the way in by creating content that has value and is going to grow on TikTok. If TikTok is something you want to pursue, it can be helpful to create a separate strategy, specifically for your TikTok content.

Facebook

Last, but not least, let’s talk about Facebook. Okay, you may be wondering, what about Facebook? Or, Facebook is changing to The Metaverse, so what does that mean for my strategy? We don’t entirely know what these Facebook changes might look like. We are getting bits and pieces of information, but we don’t yet have the full picture. As it stands right now, stories are still popping up on Facebook, but when it comes to video content on Facebook, long-form content tends to perform best. So, if you’re doing how-to’s, Lives, behind the scenes, etc. Currently, Facebook is the least video-friendly platform, but if you choose to repurpose YouTube videos, or work with long-form video content, it can be a good platform to consider.

If you have any questions about content, or would like any further information about video content, let me know! I’m always happy to share additional tips and information to help you make your business successful.

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3 Popular Ways To Market Your Products

When was the last time you purchased something from a store or online shop that had:

When was the last time you purchased something from a store or online shop that had: a poorly designed website, minimal text or nondescript copy, sub-par graphics or blurry photos, or a poor user experience, making it difficult to navigate and find options and information about the product or service.

The lack of quality content and your poor experience interacting with that content probably deterred you from purchasing products or services from that business, right? The truth is, quality matters across all areas of your marketing! To drive sales, expand your reach, and cultivate a loyal customer base, you need to provide high-quality, cohesive content that your audience can easily engage with.

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When was the last time you purchased something from a store or online shop that had:

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When was the last time you purchased something from a store or online shop that had:

About Crystal

Crystal is the Creative Director, Photo Stylist, and Commercial Photographer behind Crystal Clear Creative Studios. From increased sales, visibility, and trends to conversions and full production, Crystal and her team, experts on the subject matter, provide clients with confidence to take your photography and videography needs off your plate. We support you in your growth with the creation and implementation of transformative ideas.

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How To Keep Up Your Marketing Momentum – After The Holidays

by Crystal Hollman | Dec 20, 2021 | Marketing, YouTube

How To Keep Up Your Marketing Momentum – After The Holidays

This week, let’s talk about a few things you can do to keep up your momentum after the holiday season. It’s the time of year when we all spend a great deal of time going through the holiday rush, from Black Friday deals, to Cyber Monday specials and beyond! And yes, following the holiday rush, most of us are ready to take a deep breath and rest. But, it’s important not to lose momentum.

You put a lot of time and a lot of effort into building an audience, preparing your audience for your major sales, and continuing to expand your audience. There are a few important things you can do to help you keep up your momentum following the holiday season.

Add Customers Into a Nurture Sequence

Generally, most of us have shops set up and that shop is set up to say thanks for purchasing, here’s your product, here’s your shipping information, etc. But, following the initial message, or even the message confirming that the product was shipped/received, there may be no further communication. You may not have any more BIG sales until the new year or even the spring. Without communication during this time, you may lose the customers you had worked so hard to gain. To avoid this loss, I would recommend setting up an easy funnel that you can put customers into, to nurture them, get to know them, introduce them to your brand, talk to them about the products they purchased, and any other types of communication that will help keep your shop front of mind. This doesn’t mean that you need to send an email everyday, but having a few emails that can go out weekly can help keep your audience engaged with your brand. When you’re ready to run your next sale, you’ll have a better chance of seeing the same kind of success you saw during the holiday season.

Keep Up With Your Social Media Plan

Taking time to rest is important, but you don’t want to completely neglect your social presence and marketing efforts. You don’t need to be as active as you would be during your busy season, but you will want to continue to post to social media, share reels and videos, engage with your audience, and maintain relevance. It’s okay to scale back following the holidays, but it’s important to make sure you still show up for your audience/customers during this time.

Don’t Feel Like You Have To Do It All, But Don’t Drop Everything

Sometimes as business owners it’s easy to get freaked out when sales slow down. You may feel like you need to let everyone go, or cancel certain services/people that are helping you run your business. It’s okay to slow down a bit and scale back, but you don’t want to let go of all your team members and drop all of your marketing efforts. During this time, you can scale back, but make sure you keep team members who can help you clean things up, stay organized, and help you prepare for the new year. December is a great time to start planning for the new year. If you decide to scale back on your marketing efforts during December, you may want to work with your marketing manager or business manager to help you prepare for the new year.

Don’t lose the momentum and all of the hard work you’ve put into your business this year! If you have any questions on how you can stay focused in your business and how you can continue to stay engaged with your marketing efforts, please reach out.

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When was the last time you purchased something from a store or online shop that had:

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When was the last time you purchased something from a store or online shop that had:

Quality Matters in All Areas of Your Marketing!

When was the last time you purchased something from a store or online shop that had:

About Crystal

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Launching a New Product? Here’s 3 Types of Photos You Need!

by Crystal Hollman | Dec 22, 2020 | Business Ownership, Podcast

Launching a New Product? Here’s 3 Types of Photos You Need!

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify

Welcome to the Crystal Clear Podcast where we strive to empower the everyday creative boss to elevate and grow a business that matches your creativity and passion for creating products.

Things mentioned in this podcast episode:

Launching a business is tough but taking your business from in-store to online with a small audience can be even tougher. Where do you start, how do you market but most importantly what images would you need to get going? On today’s episode I dove in to 3 types of images that you want to consider for your product if you’re planning to launch anything new here in 2021!

Continued…

Here are the 3 types of photos your product business needs:

Catalog On White Background

This serves a double purpose: Not only do they create a clean look on your storefront, but they also are becoming a requirement for almost all wholesalers (even companies like Amazon). Depending on where you plan to aim your initial marketing efforts these images are key to starting your business.

Lifestyle with Models

These styles of photos have taken off this year. Having a model is a must have to take your business to new heights and to compete in what has become a HUGE market (thanks to Covid). Lifestyle Models provide the opportunity to reflect the diversity in your business. In addition to this, models allow for the chance to tie emotion to your ads that help your ICA connect to the transformation your product provides.

Texture & Ingredients

This is my FAV! Another amazing trend from the last 6 months has been detailing the product texture and product ingredients. With more and more brands leaning on organic and natural ingredients they want to show it off too. Embellishing on the texture helps connect the “feeling” factor to the product; presenting the ingredients as things they can recognize establishes trust in the product.

Fight off the overwhelm with direction! A Creative Director, like myself, focuses on helping map out your photoshoot to achieve your desired images, brand recognition and most importantly impact on your ideal client. Ready to invest in product photography? Let’s chat! I offer, in fact, I insist on a free consult call to discuss your brand, what images you may need and design photoshoot options that works best for your business.

Like this episode?

Comment, share on Pinterest, or even snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram! I’d love to hear what you think about props for product photography.

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← 4 Business Mistakes To Avoid for Quicker Growth 2020 Recap, Lessons Learned →

About Crystal

Corporate America had me at hello for 10 years. And just when I thought I was where I was supposed to be, God changed the narrative and helped me find more time for my husband and two beautiful girls through my own photography business. Now, I live for all things styled photography and serving the business community exclusively through styled imagery and personal brand photography.

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4 Business Mistakes To Avoid for Quicker Growth

by Crystal Hollman | Dec 17, 2020 | Business Ownership, Podcast

4 Business Mistakes To Avoid for Quicker Growth

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify

Welcome to the Crystal Clear Podcast where we strive to empower the everyday creative boss to elevate and grow a business that matches your creativity and passion for creating products.

Things mentioned in this podcast episode:

We all make mistakes, and (hopefully) learn from them. Sometimes these mistakes can be avoided if we take the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others! This is the reason it was so important to mastermind inside the Creative Boss Society. It gives you a moment to be vulnerable about potential mistakes, get feedback and insight on how we all run our business AND hear from other experts so we can recover quickly!

Continued…

Here are four common mistakes to avoid in your business:

You’re doing “all the things,” but none of them well. As the old adage goes,”A Jack of All Trades is a Master of None.” Instead of spreading yourself thin, find your focal point.
You’re not marketing enough times to get your audience to buy in and pay attention. Unfortunately, in this day and age, people tend to have shorter attention spans – but by making your product, and business, more visible in your marketing, you increase the opportunity to obtain their attention.
Chasing the “next best thing” – in other words, trying to provide an additional service or build a membership instead of honing in and perfecting your current service and offer(s). Instead, take in customer and professional feedback, elaborate on your current offer(s) and find a way to make a better package. Don’t split time trying to create something else; focus first on your initial product.
Becoming paralyzed and lost in your sense of direction. Lack of goals or clarity around your offer(s) and product can cause this.Take the time to brainstorm and really solidify your intent with your product.

Check out the Freebies Vault! Inside are 4 key guides and step by step strategies you can use to aid in solving and learning more about having a success business. Bonus! They are key in avoiding these business mistakes mentioned in todays episode:

90 Day Goals
Time Management to get back control of Productivity
Develop your Creative Sales Rhythm
Offer That Sells – going back to the drawing board to fine-tune things and recenter with the core of what you want to do

Like this episode?

Comment, share on Pinterest, or even snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram! I’d love to hear what you think about props for product photography.

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Recent Episodes

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Search the Podcast

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2 Reasons Your Products Need a Professional Photographer

by Crystal Hollman | Dec 1, 2020 | Content Creation, Podcast

2 Reasons Your Products Need a Professional Photographer

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify

Welcome to the Crystal Clear Podcast where we strive to empower the everyday creative boss to elevate and grow a business that matches your creativity and passion for creating products.

Things mentioned in this podcast episode:

Not sure when the right time to hire a professional photographer for your products might be? Confused about why it might be time to outsource to a photographer? Today I am diving into this headfirst on the podcast. I am sharing my top two (& most important) reasons your products need a professional photographer. My first reason for hiring a professional photographer for your product photography is when you are ramping up sales and getting ready to market your products. Seems simple but it can often be overlooked by many growing businesses. You have the marketing strategy in place. You have perfected the product, the label and your branding. Maybe you even have a website and some images ready for that. But now you need to ACTUALLY market the product and drive intentional marketing dollars toward getting your ideal client from a cold lead to a buying customer.

Continued…

In order to implement a good marketing strategy you need GOOD images to go along with it and often times you need A LOT of images so that you are able to try different tactics on different platforms. Investing in a professional photographer to asset in your market strategy by providing the images you get a professional touch and eye to help make the strategy be as successful as possible. A professional photographer can help you to bring out the emotion you are wanting your ideal customer to feel when they see or interact with your product online.

Bonus tip: Your business is going to get busier as those market strategies start to convert therefore you are going to have less time on your hands to perfect the images you need to continue marketing at a high level. Let a photographer take that piece off of your hands allowing you to focus more on nurturing all of the new leads you have brought in.

Hiring someone to help you with your marketing strategies and aesthetics allows you to have a proactive eye on your business instead of a reactive eye.

The second reason is product photography for a product launch. Hiring someone to help you with the photography for a new products allows you to get the detailed and special images you need that will allow your new product to stand out and become the center piece of your business. This will help you to have the images you need to get your new product on your website, implemented into your marketing strategies, sent to influencers to help with promotion etc. Hiring someone to come in for a product launch, especially when you’ve had someone help you professionally previously, allows for you to blend your new product into your current products while also allowing the new product to stand out and draw in new customers.

Speaking from experience, having someone on your team that is your go-to product photographer allows you to create a cohesive and smooth brand image across the board. Your photographer will be able to help you get the images, videos, and re-freshes you need with confidence. This is something that I specialize in – helping you coordinate the visuals you need for to create a successful marketing strategy to use on repeat. Head over to Instagram and shoot me a DM. I’d love to chat with you about all the ways a professional photographer can help you in your business.

Like this episode?

Comment, share on Pinterest, or even snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram! I’d love to hear what you think about props for product photography.