Picture Your Profit

How a Visual Story Can Elevate a Brand and a Team

Pam Reid

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781642790207
• eBook ISBN: 9781631950384
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Advertising

Picture Your Profit helps managers catapult their business forward in ways they have never thought possible.

Picture Your Profit shows managers how to create and increase awareness about their company's products and services using photography in a strategic marketing plan. Using her years of photography and marketing experience, Pam Reid uses Picture Your Profit to teach any media, marketing, and communications manager:

• The principles that make visual storytelling impactful
• How to "capture" a message that leaves an unforgettable impression
• How to tell their company's story through still photography and illustrations
• How to make what they do and what they offer stand out in their market
• The most effective way to establish the foundation for a great visual story
• The many, surprising benefits that result from a visual story told well

Principles

Chapter 4:

Less Is More

I don’t trust words. I trust pictures.

—GILLES PERESS

Only God knew that when Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the phrase “less is more” in 1947, it would become one of my favorite quotes at home and in business. I always tell my kids that less is more. I used it quite a bit during their early teen years when the use of perfume and cologne seemed more popular than the use of soap and deodorant. When it comes to visual storytelling, a minimalist approach to the use of words is much more effective. And just to share a bit of trivia, Mies van der Rohe was not actually the originator of the phrase. It was such, however, that the phrase became inextricably linked to him.

How do you suggest that less is more when people love to talk? Shoot, I love to talk. I remember when during a Bible study lesson, I happened upon this scripture in Proverbs 10:19: “When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” I love the Good News Translation: “The more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you are wise, you will keep quiet.” How about the New Living Translation version? “Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.” Well, can the message become any clearer than that? Less is certainly more, and the same holds true for visual storytelling.

Today, the battle for customer attention continues and is more competitive than ever. Technology has made the ability to create stunning visual content easier and quicker to produce. The pressure to deliver meaningful, impactful, and memorable content is compounded by our always-on digital, social, and mobile world. I can tell you first-hand that images have made all the difference in my content marketing approach. Images are incredibly powerful in helping to capture your audience’s attention, and to reach deeper into their hearts and minds. There’s such an overload of information today that it’s no wonder people have such short attention spans and are overly distracted. As we use this book to focus on the impact visual storytelling can have on brands and individuals alike, let’s remain open to the fact that the more authentic and genuine you are to your craft, the more likely you are to capture and keep your audience’s attention. When your story can evoke emotion, tantalize the senses, demonstrate relevancy, inspire, teach, and can ultimately ensue some type of call to action, you have the beginnings of something truly memorable and shareable.

When using photography to tell a great story or to convey a message simply, quickly, and accurately, we have to first get rid of the words … well, not all of them. Consider Instagram, one of the world’s leading social media platforms. It’s all about the quality photo feed and the stories it tells. However, I’m sure you’ve noticed that the amount of photos far exceed the words. As well, the impact of photos far exceeds that of words. Visuals are easy to understand, and as studies show, we understand images quicker than words. It’s amazing how glued we can become to a beautifully engaging photo or video feed. A photo is just one of the tools of visual storytelling, and to use a photo effectively, you should never lose sight of the audience. You can, however, lose the abundance of words.

Over 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Studies show that when it comes to visual content, the retention of information is much greater than what a person might hear or read. On the business side, especially during business meetings and conferences, information is usually transferred by way of presentation and written content in the form of brochures and booklets. Even when visual content is included in these mediums, it is not usually as engaging and memorable as content that is primarily visually focused. It is true, however, that if verbal language is accompanied by powerful, real-life/real-time visuals, the effect of the presentation can increase significantly.

Whenever you feel compelled to add words and captions or a written narrative to your story, just remember the facts about attracting and retaining your audience’s attention, and, of course, never lose sight of your objective in telling the story in the first place. When I announced the launch of this book, I gave a great deal of thought to the type of photo(s) I would use to communicate the unveiling of my new project. I really didn’t want to use much in the way of text, if any at all. I finally settled on a photo that had great composition and included everything that would reveal the nature of what I wanted to convey. Yes, there were books, and yes, the photo gave perspective that would cause the viewer to ask the question—not the “What is going on here?” question, but the “Oh, my goodness, what exciting thing is happening with Pam now that she’s an author?” question. The photo was visually appealing and had the “cool” factor. It was perfect. My photo announcement was well-received with lots of congratulatory sentiments and requests for autographed copies … a home run indeed.

In this principle, “less is more” is about verbal and textual content only, and the very opposite is true when it comes to the amount of time you can and should expect to spend in your efforts to tell an amazing, engaging, and memorable story, and to include making the connections necessary for your story to build a community and brand loyalty. It’s important to have a clear understanding of the connection between your efforts and the success of your company’s story being told well. The very opposite is also true when it comes to the consistency in which you engage and encourage your team in this process. Being consistent and concise about what exactly your vision and message is will be the best way to begin, and become part of your formula for success. Recognize early in the planning and strategizing for your story, that a story told well will have others doing all the talking, sharing and writing about it … with a consistent message. Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips.” In order for this to happen, you have to do and/or create something praise-worthy. You may not knock it out the park during the first pass, but the project can certainly be a good foundational piece to build upon, if done well.

Try not to overthink, overdo, or overcomplicate things … another “less is more” approach. You may be surprised at some of your own natural instincts. Listen to them and have the courage to take risks. You wouldn’t be in the position you are in if you didn’t come with a set of skills and abilities, gifts, and talents. Hold tight to your confidence and try to stay grounded enough in your belief in what you’re doing so that fear doesn’t take root. Engage in FLOW: Feel Love Over Worry. Anyone working with you on this project will appreciate your ability to keep things simple and your ability to remain calm and focused in the midst of challenges and deadlines. This will always keep the channels for creativity and inspiration open. Less stress and less fear leads to more opportunity for success and the makings for an enjoyable experience for everyone.

We all have our natural ways of dealing with things, and then we have our adaptive ways of dealing with things. The adaptive style comes into action when we are under stress. It would be ideal if we could always stay in our natural style, but oftentimes stress is unavoidable so our adaptive style kicks into gear when the stress levels are high. What do you want your staff and your colleagues to experience most when collaborating with you? I don’t know your natural or adaptive style, but I’d like to believe that anyone’s natural and genuine style is always better. When things begin to get stressful, that may be a sign that it’s time to simplify things—to get back to basics and re-focus on the objective. It’s not easy to remain sure of yourself and your strategy when a host of ideas, opinions, and even resistance are constantly being thrown your way. If you do your due diligence and cast a clear vision, you will find the project more manageable and the people more amenable.

When it comes to DISC, which is a behavior assessment tool based on the DISC theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston, which centers on four different personality traits currently identified as Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Compliance (C), I am a high D and S. This suggests that I am high on the spectrum for dominance (how I respond to problems and challenges) and steadiness (how I respond to the pace of an environment) behavioral styles, and some would question why I easily express love and compassion having these behavioral styles. Well, first it has much to do with my intimate relationship with God, and second, the DISC assessment doesn’t factor in my love language. My primary love language is “time” and my secondary language is “words of affirmation.” I strongly believe our love languages play a part in how we engage with others. By the way, if you ever decide to take a DISC assessment, some key points that should be taken into account when interpreting the instrument is: (1) There is no good or bad profile; (2) We are what we are; (3) We each have particular strengths and weaknesses and; (4) Truly successful people are ones who: (a) know and understand themselves; (b) know their own strengths and weaknesses and; (c) develop the ability to study the situations and adjust their behavior. So, what is your style? Be true to yourself, keep things simple, and keep in mind that in most cases “less is more.”

Chapter 5:

Content Is Critical

I began to realize that the camera sees the world differently than the human eye and that sometimes those differences can make a photograph more powerful than what you actually observed.

—GALEN ROWELL

“What’s all the excitement about?”

I walked into the conference room where several of my colleagues were huddled and talking excitedly about something. They turned to face me when I asked the question. They had copies of the photos I had taken during a recent company event. People always enjoy seeing themselves in videos and photos, and this group of committed professionals was no different. The photos were candid shots and the team seemed to be impressed that I caught each of them, as well as some others who were not going to be in the meeting we had come together for, completely unaware and during times they wouldn’t think anyone would consider important. They each made compliments about the photos and asked if they could have a copy of the photo taken of them.

Before I agreed to share any photos, I was curious to know exactly what it was about the photos that was so impressive to them. The obvious qualities of a good photo were the things they shared first… clarity, color, composition, and contrast. The next had everything to do with the emotion that was captured in their respective photo. When the photos were considered as a collection, everyone said that together they told a story. I wanted them to tell me the story, and so they did. It was wonderful to hear the story unfold and their interpretations of it. The consistent theme was that of a group of specialized, passionate, and dedicated teammates. Our discussion was interrupted by the managing partner, who sped in with an apology for being late. I thanked my colleagues for the kind and complimentary words and politely told them that I would gladly share the photos after they were used for what I intended them for … to tell our department’s story. Our meeting began, and we shared the photos with our esteemed boss.

Please know that I was nervous. I was stepping out of my lane with this idea; not my comfort zone … my lane. I love taking photos but I was not part of the marketing department. I had placed those photos in the conference room the day before the meeting, right at the close of business when I knew no one would likely use the space. I gently tossed the glossy 8 x 10 copies of the photos on the conference room table so that they would spread apart in a way that someone would have to straighten and move them out of our way before the meeting. I knew that once the team saw themselves, the fun would begin. My intention was for my colleagues and the managing partner to see them before I got there. Their initial reaction would be the most genuine, plus I wanted them to discuss the photos amongst themselves. I wanted to hear what I knew in my heart they would say. This would be confirmation about everything I knew and felt in my heart… that for our department to have more of an impact on the company’s efforts and bottom line, we needed to tell our story. Aside from the managing partner’s late arrival, everything unfolded as I had hoped, including being given the go-ahead to create a marketing brochure for our department; a piece of marketing collateral that would be printed, as well as viewable and downloadable on our website. Telling our department’s story with photography was the beginning of a wonderful journey into visual storytelling. The experience itself led to our department doubling in size. That’s what happens when people get connected to those who can address and solve their specific problem or need.

When I have the opportunity, I prefer to leave a Marco Polo message to individuals and groups instead of a text message. So much easily gets lost in translation with text messages and you can’t always control the tone of a message. Sorry, but exclamation points and capitalization fail miserably in establishing tone. The same way our family, friends, and colleagues make assumptions when viewing content, you can bet the public does as well. At least our family, friends, and colleagues have the advantage of knowing us on some intimate, familial, or business level. Choosing what to say is even more critical than how you say it because once you say what you say, you can’t take it back. Thinking carefully about the context of your message is critical to the assumption audiences will make.

Back some years ago, I had the privilege of gracing the cover of one of my county’s local magazines—a magazine with a distribution of 8,000 monthly. I remember when I was being interviewed. I was asked a ton of questions and I gave a very detailed answer for each of them. It wasn’t until after the interview that I fretted about my answers. “Did I say too much?” The magazine couldn’t possibly print everything I said. They would certainly have to pick and choose. “But what would they choose, and what aspects of the story specifically would they choose to highlight or leave out?” If not chosen well, the story could very well leave readers with wrong impressions. I wasn’t asked by the writer which experiences were the most important to me. I also wasn’t asked whether there was something I would prefer the magazine not share. I guess if what was going to be printed was a concern for me, I shouldn’t have shared anything I didn’t want to be repeated. In any event, I slept very little during the weeks leading up to the magazine’s debut of my cover story. The writer had a very good reputation and I had read some of her work. The photoshoot had gone well and I was pleased with my wardrobe and makeup. I probably could have put an end to all that concern by just reaching out and asking for a proof, but I didn’t. You’re probably thinking I’m going to tell you that when the magazine hit the stands, my fear had become a reality, but no, it had not. I was incredibly relieved to read a very accurate and well-told story.

When we spend time gathering the facts, the history, the relevance to the market audience, and whatever other details that will make the story complete, it is critical to develop some key moment concepts. Ideally, the context of the photo or image would be aligned with the narrative, but it’s not entirely necessary as long as the narrative is conveyed accurately and correctly. I find storyboarding to be an incredibly helpful method when putting the context of a story together. It helps to plan out an entire sequence of events before I ever pick up my camera. The visuals used in the storyboard can convey your vision in a timely, organized, and cost-effective way. Storyboards also provide opportunities for the company’s leadership to buy into the approach and strategy being taken before too much effort and resources are put into moving in the wrong direction. The messaging in the story absolutely has to be aligned with the company’s strategic direction. This makes for good stewardship and is always appreciated. If you’re not familiar with a storyboard, consider it as an organizer, but instead of text, you would use illustrations or images to capture and ex...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Backdrop
• Principles
• Camera Ready
• Acknowledgments
• Thank You
• About the Author