When building your profile, it’s important to have high-quality content. Images and videos should be high-res and clearly showcase your products and services. Your business plan should look professional and written content should be free of grammatical errors.
Business Plan & Written Content
Much of the content on your offering page can come from a pitch deck or business plan. If you don’t have one, or want some guiding questions to think through a business plan, you can access our template here.
The most important sections include:
Founder biography
Story
Mission
Operational Strategy
Detailed, yet concise sentences help investors build trust in you and your business. Use data and clear facts wherever possible, and avoid making exaggerated claims or promissory statements.
Should you invest in professional work?
While it’s not necessary, it can help to work with a professional photographer, videographer, or agency to build your content, especially if you can repurpose content:
A well-designed business plan can easily be repurposed into a brand kit
Great photography can be used on your website and social media
Video content that introduces your business, or just high-quality b-roll, can also be used on your website and social media
If you have the budget and overarching strategy to support professional work, it can be well worth it to invest in professional photography and videography. According to Main Paige Media, a small business videographer based in Boston,
Adding video to an email can boost click-through rate by 200%-300%
64% of customers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video
59% of company decision-makers prefer watching a video to reading a blog post or article
So it can be really tempting to get professional work done for your brand. Furthermore, professional videography and photography provides you with a baseline library of content that you can repurpose over time, use on your website, and share with clients. These experts have worked with other businesses and can advise on the types of content that your audience wants to see and even help you refine your brand message.
With all of this said, it’s important to keep a few things in mind when considering an investment into professional creative:
It’s expensive! Professional creative is an investment. And while few brands will regret purchasing a videography or photography package, if you don’t have the funds to support a project, you’ll be wasting your and their time. You can often expect photography and videography to exceed $2,000 to get started, and more complex shoots will go up in price from there.
It’s a commitment. If you don’t have an overarching marketing strategy in place, you might not get the value from your spend. If you’re not going to regularly use the photography or share your video, you’ll feel like you wasted money on products that look nice but aren’t going to use.
If you’re not sure that you have the budget or strategy to support professional services, worry not. Read on for some tips on how you can create beautiful content with no more than your iPhone.
Tips on DIY content
Contrast and texture
Instead of taking a picture of one single item, see if you can introduce the elements of contrast and texture. Contrast refers to the color differential in the photo- essentially, light versus dark. Texture refers to different textures within the photo. Try putting a dark chocolate cookie on a white napkin. Style a gold necklace against a soft, neutral sweater. Show ingredients in a white bowl against a dark wood background. It can be tempting to focus the camera in on one specific item: try to avoid this by at least introducing a contrasting and textured background to make the photo more interesting.
2. Know how to use portrait mode
If you have a lovely space, it can feel welcoming to regularly share photographs of that space. Whether you’re photographing your physical location, your products, or your staff, it can help make things look polished if you blur the background and focus in on the focal point (your cute door, a set a products, a staff member) However, too much background blur can actually make your photo look dated. You can change the blur and other criteria in your settings so that your photo looks intentional and balanced.
3. Use your angles
Try taking photos from multiple angles. Some plates of food look better from above (like, pizza), or from the side (burgers), or at a 45-degree angle (drinks). Try moving around the plate and taking photos at various angles so you can pick your favorite later.
Additional Resources
Graphic Design
Canva has an amazing branding course and is a great tool for small businesses. With Canva, you can add in your brand colors and logos to easily apply your branding to existing templates for content across platforms.
Videography, Photography, and Agencies
If you’re based in the greater Boston area, we have contacts that may be able to help. Otherwise, we can ask other local businesses for references.