5 Hospitality Photography Tips

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Photography can make or break a customer’s decision to purchase anything from your business. The same holds true to those in the business of hospitality. So what can you do in order to take the best possible photos for your marketing campaigns? Here are 5 tips to take outstanding photos of your lodge:

1) Stage Your Property

To make your property looks its best, people often times, will have their property professionally staged. If this is something that you can not have done, here are some guidelines as to what to do to make your property as photogenic as possible:

  • Blinds should me lowered all the way to the bottom of the window with slats at a 45-degree angle upwards. This will brighten the ceiling which then will reflect the light down into the room giving the room nice even lighting.
  • Turn on all lights and gas fireplaces.
  • Turn lampshade seam away from the camera.
  • Watch for your reflection in windows, TVs, mirrors and other reflective surfaces.
  • Shower curtains should be partially open to show off tile work and fixtures.
  • Make sure bedding, chairs, pillows, and other furniture are arranged neatly.
  • Remove anything from your photo that can detract from capturing aesthetically pleasing photos. This includes: cleaning products, trashcans, bath mats, remote controls, clothing, etc.

2) HDR Imaging

High Dynamic Range photos are one of the best ways to showcase your property. HDR allows you to expose all aspects of your shot. While you are able to take a well enough single shot of your lodge, bracketing your shots for HDR will open new opportunities to showcase specific features that otherwise might be difficult to capture. For instance, let’s say you have a room with a spectacular view that you want to show from inside the room. Digital cameras can’t expose for bright outside light while correctly exposing for interior light. We overcome this challenge by taking several different exposures of the same shot and combining them into one HDR image. The end result will show the beautiful outside view from the room while still correctly exposing the rest of the room.

3) Camera Settings

Assuming that you are shooting with a DSLR, here are some basic camera settings that will help you capture stunning photos:

  • Mode: Aperture Priority
  • Bracketing set at 5 exposures
  • Aperture at F8 or higher
  • ISO: 800 or lower
  • White Balance set to Auto

Using these settings will help you ensure that everything is in focus and you images have little to no noise visible.

4) Rule of Thirds

While knowing the right camera settings will greatly improve your photos, composition is ultimately what will make your shots more appealing to your audience. The rule of thirds helps us determining how to set up your shots. Imagine that your image has 2 verticle lines and 2 horizontal lines that cut your image into 9 pieces. These are your thirds. When taking shots of landscapes, determine what is more interesting, the sky or the land. Let’s say that your sky is more interesting in this shot, you will want to place the horizon on the bottom of those two lines to compose your shot for your landscape. From there, take your main subject (Trees, people, lodge, etc.) and place it on the left or right vertical line. As a guideline, if your subject is facing left, place your subject on the right line or the opposite if your subject is facing right.

5) Golden hour is the best time for photos

Photographers know that sunrise and sunset are the best times to take photos, but let’s take a look at why. When the sun is low in the horizon, it casts very soft light that adds dimension to your shot. The low sun causes objects in your photo to cast long shadows which help the subjects to “pop” out of your photos. This technique helps photographers separate their subject from what would otherwise be a busy and distracting background. The soft light also helps when you are photographing people. With the sun at a low angle, your subjects can be well front lit without causing them to squint or look away from the light.

3 Marketing Story Types To Help Sell Your Product

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Story has been one of the most efficient ways for humans to communicate for centuries. Everything we do online is telling a story. It’s the story people hear from you that tells them what your product is and what it’s like to use your product. A great story means a great experience for your customer. And they are more likely to:

  • Share that experience with their peers.
  • Remember that experience.
  • Have a desire to repeat that experience.

We are going to look at 3 marketing story types that can help you sell your product.

In its simplest form a story has 7 main parts, Exposition, Problem, Rising Action, Crisis, Climax, Falling Action, End.

Concept Stories

Concept stories help people get excited about your product. It highlights how customers think about your product. A great concept story tries to answer the following questions:

  1. Who is the product for?
  2. What is the product?
  3. What does this product need to do?
  4. What is the straightforward solution to the problem?

Let’s imagine we have an amazing product called “MAKE IT FLOAT”. Breaking down a concept story into our seven parts (Exposition, Problem, Rising Action, Crisis, Climax, Falling Action, End)  might look like this

marketing story types concept story

Origin Stories

Origin stories are a little different. This type of story is not about the product directly but more about how a customer first became a believer in your product. On the surface concept and origin stories look very similar.  A concept story is big picture and origin stories start to get into the finer detail of why and how a customer first uses a product.

A MAKE IT FLOAT origin story might look something like this:

marketing story types origin story

Usage Stories

Usage stories are based around using your product step by step. They are even more tactical than origin stories. Often these are created by staff showing the product in the field.

In our MAKE IT FLOAT example our usage story looks like this:

marketing story types use story

Marketing story types as storytelling

Everything you do to market your business is another paragraph, page, or chapter in the story people hear from you. And the story people hear is the one they act (or don’t act) on, and repeat (or don’t repeat) to others. Using storytelling in marketing can be an extremely effective way to deliver messaging about your products to your customers.

If you’d like to learn how Sage Lion Media can help you get started with an effective content marketing strategy, contact us today or click the button below to learn more.

LEARN ABOUT CONTENT MARKETING

3 Twitter Video Ideas Outdoor Marketers Should Be Creating

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The explosive growth of online video continues to dominate social media. We are starting to see interesting statistics on the effectiveness of video as a marketing platform.

  • 100 million hours of video are watched every day on Facebook. (Source: HubSpot)
  • Videos on Facebook are shared 7 times more frequently than links.
  • YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of all people on the Internet. (Source: HubSpot)
  • 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers.  (Source: HubSpot)

The numbers are staggering. So what can we do to take advantage of these stats?

Twitter Video Ideas people actually want.

Adweek created a compelling infographic that highlights how impactful video can be on Twitter. The infographic is packed full of great statistics to help outdoor marketers become power users on the Twitter app. While all of these numbers should be studied carefully, the one that stuck out to me was the type of content users wanted from a video.

twitter video ideas

Based on these stats we put together a video that highlights 3 video ideas for twitter.

Unboxing: Our Latest Backcountry Drone, The Mavic Pro

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We’ve been eagerly anticipating the arrival of our new Mavic Pro and it finally arrived early in 2017. While we’ve been busy flying this thing around take a look at some of our initial impressions during our unboxing video.

 


Engage New Customers With These 4 Email Types

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Being able to engage new customers with remarkable content is an excellent way to welcome them into your tribe. Once we understand where your new customer came from and who they are, we can begin nurturing them. The first purchase by a customer is an important time in your developing relationship because loyal customers can become valuable customers. Up to 15% of a business’s most loyal customers account for 55-70% of the company’s total sales. It’s imperative that you get off to a strong start. Let’s look at 4 email types to welcome new customers.

1. Follow Up Surveys

engage new customers through thank you email

The usefulness of ‘Survey’ emails is two-fold. First, like the triggered ‘Thank You’ email, it allows for additional website discovery upon completion of the survey. Second, it affords an opportunity for future email marketing materials showcasing your company’s aptitude at listening to customer concerns and acting to alleviate those concerns.

Furthermore, linked surveys such as this example can segment satisfied and unsatisfied customer data for future email marketing materials. Segmented email contact lists and personalized email campaign messaging are the most effective tactics for 51% and 50% of marketing influencers, respectively (Acsend2, 2016).

2. Cross Sell Emails

engage customers through cross-sell emails

‘Cross Sell’ emails target new customers per customer browsing history thanks to the use of website cookies. Website cookies can then be data mined for targeted email engagement. Targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue from returning customers (The Direct Marketing Association, 2015) and are an effective way of maintaining customer engagement throughout 2017.

In the example above, a customer has previously made a purchase. Per the historical browsing history data of that individual customer as well as the browsing history data of other previous customers also purchasing that product provided by your website’s cookies, the products showcased in this ‘Cross Sell’ example have been targeted specifically for that customer.

3. Special Events Based On Purchases

Another type of email

One of the best ways to increase customer engagement is to meet them face to face. Holding an event that is catered just for them is an excellent opportunity to tell your story directly to a new customer.

Ideally, if you had the opportunity to combine the purchase history of your clients to the event you could really set yourself up for success.

A few quick examples:

  • If you sold several rods of the same model, have a casting demo.
  • If you sold a bunch of tying gear, host a trying night.
  • Did you sell trips, host a demo night for that specific trip.

Just make sure you deliver the right message to the right people through segmentation.

4. Thank you and welcome emails

engage new customers through welcome emails

‘Thank You’ emails are effective tools for gauging customer loyalty. In fact, emails with ‘thank you’ in the title observe 53% above-average engagement levels (Adestra, 2015). An automated ‘Thank You’ email also provides additional opportunities for new customers to visit the website via embedded links. New customers are 152% more likely to open an automated ‘Thank You’ email than other types of email communication (Adestra, 2014).

After an initial sign-up, popular clothier Banana Republic utilizes an automated ‘Thank You’ email that is simple, yet gives the new customer a sense of belonging. The naturalistic desire to belong drives the motivation of many customers, both new and returning.

Engage new customers can be a long term solution

Building trust with new customers can take time. But reaching out to them in the first few months with a personalized message can go a long way to welcoming them to your brand.

See how Sage Lion Media can help you get started with an effective lead nurture strategy in our latest blog post.

Engaging New Holiday Customers Starts By Understanding Who They Are

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Google Analytics is one of the best tools you can use to begin engaging new holiday customers. Before we start reaching out, we need to segment our audience based on these new users so that we can begin to analyze the data and look for patterns and trends.

We also want to make sure we are only looking at new customers for the period beginning around the same time your black Friday campaigns kicked off.

Begin engaging new holiday customers by filtering your Google Analytics

engaging new holiday customers using google analytics

Step 1

Click on the All Users from the sessions filter.

Step 2

Scroll until you find New Users.

Step 3

Select the dates you started marketing for the holidays and click Apply.

Understanding the demographics of the new users

discover the demographics of your new holiday customers

Our first stop is the demographics section. We love this page because it breaks down your sales based on important age groups. This gives us a clear understanding of which groups from the new users are most important. You want to compare these numbers with your personas to make sure the new customers you are collecting are still aligning with your core audience. If it’s not, it might be time to rethink your personas.

Step 1

From the Audience Section select the Demographics > Age.

Step 2

Analyze the Revenue per Age range. Does this jive with what your research says is your core audience.

What did they buy?

new customers what did they buy

It’s a good idea to get a sense of what they bought. This report will help you understand what your customers were interested in this past holiday season. This will be valuable information when following up with specific product recommendations. For example, if you sold 15 fly reels, you’ll probably want to follow up with an email about adding a new fly line. Or if your customers bought new fly vises a follow-up email on new fly patterns would be a good idea.

Step 1

Select the conversions section.

Step 2

From the drop-down pick the eCommerce and Product Performance.

Where did they come from?

new holiday customers referral source

Next, we want to figure out where these new customers came from. This is a great opportunity to check in on the efficiency of your holiday marketing campaigns.

You can drill down into each section and reveal more details on each specific referral source if you need to.

Step 1

Select the Acquisitions from the sidebar.

Step 2

Click on All Traffic > Channels

new holiday customers geography

Where do they live

Next, we want to figure out where these new customers came from. This is a great opportunity to check in on the efficiency of your holiday marketing campaigns.

You can drill down into each section and reveal more details on each specific referral source if you need to.

Step 1

Select the Audience filter from the sidebar.

Step 2

Select the Geo > Location Dropdown.

How To Survive A Denver Trade Show At The Merchandise Mart

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We’ve been going to the Fly Fishing Show for years. In that time we’ve learned a thing or two about how to make sure the time there is fun and productive. We shared our knowledge with our clients through this infographic.

As the outdoor industry continues to face threats from land sales and public auctions, events like these become more and more important for our industry. They are opportunities to open up new collaborations and stay engaged with others in the industry.

If you’d like to learn how Sage Lion Media can help you get started with an effective inbound marketing strategy, contact us today.

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2017 Fly Fishing Trade Show Impressions From Denver

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We’ve been going to the Denver Fly fishing trade show for many years now. It’s one of the highlights of the new year. On a side note it’s pretty much guaranteed to snow or be really freaking cold that day here in Denver. This year was no exception. But while it may have been cold outside the large crowds and good vibes inside kept the cold at bay.

2017 feels different

There was something very different in the air at this show. Everyone I talked to seemed really excited about the coming year. There was a ton of new product on display and overall the manufacturers were pumped to get it in front of consumers. Booths seemed fuller, reps seemed more engaged, and the feeling of 2017 is going to be great seemed to be everywhere.

Rubbing elbows with leaders in the industry

After the holidays have beat us all down it’s nice to beat back the cold of winter by surrounding yourself with fly fishing. One of the things I love about these trade shows is the opportunity to meet the owners and big players in the industry. In almost all cases you can shake hands with a major player for a significant brand right here in Denver. I love that about the show. It takes the culture of a fly shop and extends it through to the manufacturer’s. How often do you get to share fishing stories with the people who designed the rod and reel you caught the fish of a lifetime on?

A full fly fishing trade show

As usual Saturday was packed. Big crowds and tough parking are the name of the game on Saturday. Luckily (for the out of towners) the Broncos didn’t make the playoffs this year. That meant big crowds on Sunday too.

Great Catching Up With Old Friends

We’ve been in the industry long enough to have developed some great friendships with several of the manufacturers in the business. It’s always great to share a beer with your clients and look ahead to 2017. If the Fly Fishing show is any sign of things to come this year is going to be different.

 

An Active Role For Helping The Outdoor Industry

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I don’t think there’s anything about the new year that isn’t exciting. I love being able to reassess, relaunch and redesign. 2017 isn’t any different. We’re moving full speed ahead on a lot of new initiatives that should be a huge asset to our friends in the outdoor industry.

New Outdoor Industry Focused Website

Late last year we begin rebuilding our own website using the foundation of growth driven design. It was way past time to expand beyond our one pager we had for years. The first things we added was an outdoor marketing blog.

Our content is going to be focused on helping outdoor businesses and non-profits achieve their goals using data in 2017. We will be focusing on the tools we are using to help our clients excel in the online marketing world.

Sage Lion Media Homepage

We also finally added a portfolio that shows off some of the work we’ve done over the last few years. We’ve been fortunate to work with some of the biggest players in the outdoor industry and we’re excited to show off some of our work!

Hubspot Agency

At the end of 2016 we made a big investment in ourselves and started our journey to a hubspot agency partner. It’s been an amazing transition full of ups and downs, really hard insights into what we at Sage Lion Media were failing at, and lots of incremental wins.

There’s no doubt that inbound marketing can move your needle and we can’t wait to show off the ideas we’ve been learning and executing on.

Newsletter

We’re also stoked to launch our first newsletter at the end of January. This monthly outdoor focused newsletter will feature a new video every month, current hot topics in the industry, and resources for downloadable content.

Tips, Tricks and in-depth content

As we get further in the year we will continue producing quality ebooks that are meant to help you get ahead. We just launched our latest ebook, A Post Holiday New Customer Engagement Plan. This resource will help you identify your new customers, classify them, and deliver curated content around their interests.

Delivering A Client Thank You This Holiday Season

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It’s been a rollercoaster of a year here at Sage Lion Media. But what year isn’t full of highs and lows when you’re running a small business. One thing that has remained steady is our collection of amazing clients. I’ve been racking my brains for a way to tell a client thank you.

The usual Holiday card is always a nice touch and probably something will still do this year. But I thought of an even easier way for thanking your clients this holiday season. I’m going to leave a LinkedIn referral or thank you on as many of my client’s profiles as I can.

Here are three places to give a client thank you today

Facebook

client thank you facebook

Leaving a review on a Facebook page is very easy. More importantly, rating stars help the company’s EdgeRank (think Google Page Rank but for Facebook). The more stars a company has, the better ranking, it will receive on Facebook.

Google Maps

client thank you google

Another great spot to leave a review is on Google Maps. A solid review here will help your clients business look respectable. Just head to Google Maps, search for the company, and find the review box on the lower left.

LinkedIn

client thank you linkedin

It’s easy to think of my clients as part of a larger organization. They work for X company so shouldn’t I leave a review for the business? Yes, you can do that if you leave an authentic review. But it’s the people who make up the company that really make it great. These people are your clients and you can leave them a recommendation in their LinkedIn Profile. This recommendation adds a personal touch to show your respect for a customer as a person. A well crafted statement helps give them credibility when working with others in their industry and can have an impact on their career. If I woke up tomorrow with 5 new LinkedIn recommendations I’d be ecstatic.

If you don’t feel like leaving a full review in LinkedIn Endorse the skills of a client. It’s super easy, but really not as awesome as writing a full recommendation.

Be Truthful

The key to leaving a review or recommendation is to make sure it’s authentic. The old adage, if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything applies here. Don’t make up stuff just to leave a review. It ultimately makes you look bad and diminishes the actual reviews for your client.