The Importance of Stellar Product Photography (& Why You CAN Totally DIY)

Unless you are selling your products in person, 24/7, 365 days a year, your product photography impacts your bottom line every single day.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and it's true!

It doesn't matter how great your copy is or how creative your product names are, if the photos suck, you aren't reaching the majority of your customers. (They have to click on your product listing before you can sell them with the copy!) The number one recommendation I make to long-term mentoring clients is upping their photography game.

Why does photography even matter?

Stellar product photography is one of the best investments you can make in your biz, it's essential to bring your products to the masses.

If you sell online, the product image can make or break the sale. Customers can't try your body lotion, or smell your soap, or hold it in their hands when they hit up your website or Etsy storefront. Customers absolutely rely on your product photos to experience the product without smell-o-vision. (Can't they invent that already?!) If you have ever shopped online, you know this from experience!

Wouldn't it be great to share a photo of a product, and instantly have customer clamoring over it? Great product photography does that. I know, I've sold hundreds of bars of soap by just sharing a photo on social media or through my newsletters. No marketing copy, no price tag, just a photo - voilà, sales.

If you are shooting for great press, and want to hit up your favorite magazines, you have to pitch your work. Editors receive thousands of product pitches year round, what's the fastest way to stand out from the crowd? A pitch with a drop dead gorgeous photo backing it up.

Looking to up your wholesale game? Retailers are customers, too. Until they get your products in their hands, they need to get a well-rounded picture of your line to lure them in. The minute you make your marketing materials, wholesale line sheets, and catalogs pop with great product photos, it turns the "Well, I don't know..." into "My customers NEED this. It will fly off my shelves, it's so gorgeous!"

It's no secret that great photos SELL

Amazing product photography makes biz building easier than baking a box cake. Great product photography focuses on the product, not the background, not the props.

It represents your products neatly, professionally, and honestly, and gives the closest thing to a try before you buy that you can give without handing out free product.

Professional photography is über expensive, and I highly encourage investing in it. (Yup, I said that.) Does that mean you should put your product photos on the back-burner until you can swing the price tag? Wait, you want to make sales to save up that money, right? Then heck, no!

Just like DIYing your headshot until you can hook up with a professional photographer, you can DIY the heck out of your product photography, too. You know your products and brand better than anyone. You know how you have that good side you lean towards when you take a selfie? You know your product's good sides, too.

Plus, in the bath and body industry, we mostly make small-scale products, which are the easiest to learn how to photograph. Voila, anywhere photo studio without an enormous investment in commercial equipment to accommodate it.

You absolutely can DIY your product photography!

No matter if you can't take good shots or edit them now, or if you can only rock the house on shooting or editing, but not both. Like anything, practice makes perfect.

With product photography, you need to start with the basics with lighting, angles, and composition, and THEN get more creative by adding in props and backgrounds. After you master shooting, it's time to put the frosting on the cake with editing.

(Which by the way, unless you are a Photoshop guru, there's no way getting around that first step.)

It takes most entrepreneurs months or even years to finally get their product photography right, so if you are still shooting and re-shooting, keep at it. You'll get there - either by dropping that bag of cash on a professional photographer, or by rocking it yourself. You CAN do this.

Want to turn those months or years into a much shorter time period?

The latest Suds & Success Workshop,  The Money Shot, will walk you through everything you need to know to shine the light on your products and make the rest of your biz building a cakewalk. The Money Shot is two hours of practical and easy to follow information to take your product photography to the next level.

Have you upped your product photography game? What kind of impact did that have your biz?

Want to know if you need to up your game? Check out the common photography mistakes that hurt sales.