Ross Simmonds of rosssimmonds.com is a marketing consultant, digital strategist and author with a strong focus on content marketing. For all three of his businesses, content has been the backbone of his strategy. In this interview, Ross shares how photographers should use content, social media and storytelling to achieve sales and business goals.
It's exciting to welcome someone from outside the photography industry to the podcast. It's highly likely if you implement what Ross shares in this interview, you'll be using strategies other local photographers aren't – you'll be that step ahead of the curve and getting noticed.
I'll be surprised if you come away from this interview without your head bursting with ideas on how to improve what you're doing with your content and distribution… ready to listen… and have your mind blown.
Here’s some of what we cover:
What’s on Offer for Premium Members
If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear lots more content and we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for and include:
If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interview with Ross Simmonds, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.
The email is still one of the most valuable assets that you can acquire from someone – Ross Simonds
Plus, access to a members only Secret Facebook group where you'll connect with other members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take what you hear in each episode and put it into action. You will not find cooler, more motivated and caring photographers online.
50% OFF Promo codes from Ross Simmonds!
At the end of the interview, Ross generously offered a promo code to earn you 50% off his best resource – Stand Out – the guide to content marketing.
Use the code “photobizx” to download the content marketing guide for 50% off.
In addition, Ross mentioned you might like these 100 Tips For Going Freelance which can be applied to any service industry and certainly portrait and wedding photographers ~ also 50% off with the promocode: photobizx .
What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview, I’d love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you’d like to implement or learnt from what was shared? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.
The best thing about being in the photography business is that you live in a world of content – Ross Simonds
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Ross or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.
Competition Time with Bittersweet Design Boutique
This is the second and final week to go onto the draw to win a $100 gift voucher from Rose and Thomas over at Bittersweet Design Boutique.
To go in the draw, leave a comment below. Let me know what you'd purchase with your $100 voucher from the store at: http://designbybittersweet.com/shop/
That's not all! If you're not the winner (to be announced in next weeks show), Thomas and Rose have made a special promo code available to all PhotoBizX listeners for a cool 30% off everything!
Use the code “spring30” until the April 30th.
Get hold of Ask Gary Vee – the Audio Book
Gary Vaynerchuk recently released his book “Ask Gary Vee” based on his successful you tube channel where he answers viewers questions. In the book, he's collated the best and most useful questions and answered them all in one place.
If you're unfamiliar with Gary Vaynerchuk, he's an inspiring and unconventional entrepreneur who introduced the concept of crush it—knows how to get things done, have fun and be massively successful. He is a marketing genius with a unique take on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat to reach an untapped audience that continues to grow.
The beauty of the audio book is it's more up to date, Gary adds his spin on the fly to his answers in the book and it's just fun to listen to. The other big plus is you can leave it and come back anytime and you're not lost and confused but back in the learning zone.
Here's the link to the book in Audible.com: Ask Gary Vee – One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness
Shout out to Ett Venter who was interviewed in episode 137 of PhotoBizX for recommending the book.
The typical type of content that you would share is content that educates you, engages you or entertains you – Ross Simmonds
Midi Controller for Lightroom
If you're looking for an elegant solution to deal with a large number of images to edit in LightRoom, James Lloyd in the UK has found a cheap but good quality USB Midi controller to help speed up your workflow.
James writes, “VSCO Keys was an elegant solution, albeit expensive, that mapped keys to Lightroom’s many sliders and controls. It worked well, until late 2015 when VSCO mysteriously pulled the product and support – including future compatibility with OSX El Capitan.”
He goes onto say, “For the price of a couple of memory cards, at around $70-$100 the Korg NanoKontrol2 is an absolute bargain and will certainly speed up editing in Lightroom.”
You can read about it here: http://www.jameslloyd.co.uk/2016/04/midi-controller-lightroom/
iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs
Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!
Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners means more interviews and ultimately a better show.
If you have left a review in the past, thank you!
If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL and your name.
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Ross Simmonds on Snapchat – coolestcool
Ross Simmonds Slideshare Presentations
How to Generate Your First 20,000 Followers on Instagram (Slideshare)
Stand Out: The Content Marketing Guide
The Hustle Manifesto: Escape The 9 to 5 In Six Months or Less
100 Tips To Make Your Firsts $100k Freelancing
Lightroom Midi Controller Blog Post by James Lloyd
Lightroom controller from Palette Gear
Ask Gary Vee – One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness
Thank you!
Thanks again for listening to the show and thanks to Ross for coming on and blowing my mind (hopefully yours too) with some marketing strategies the big boys are using that small photography business operators can jump on and start using right now.
The distribution of the content can be just as important as the actual creation of it – Ross Simmonds
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!
That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
Thanks and speak soon
Andrew
Great timing regarding the topic of this podcast as I’ve been mulling over how I present myself on social media, and what my ‘voice’ really is. I’m in the process of culling my followers across different platforms, and I’ll be rebuilding and refocussing in the coming months. Loads of tips and tricks to think about in this podcast. 🙂
Awesome! Thanks Barry and so good to read you’re takeaways.
Great podcast – lots of great advice and explanations, many thanks Ross & Andrew!
Also excited to hear about the Design by Bitter Sweet competition – LOVE their ‘Venice – Wedding Photography Marketing Magazine’ http://designbybittersweet.com/shop/branding/wedding-photography-marketing-magazine-venice/) – I’ve been wanting to create a magazine to give to my clients as a welcome gift, this would be just perfect 🙂 Thanks again & have a great week.
Thanks for adding your comments Caroline – glad to read you enjoyed the interview.
And you’re in the Design by Bittersweet draw for next Monday. 🙂
Hey! I’ve had a look at design by bittersweet’s products before and love them! I would love the one that’s designed in collaboration with Seaside Creative, the: “New Client Studio Welcome Packet – Wedding Magazine Template” Thanks!
Hey Jenna – consider yourself in the draw for next Monday!
Well the comp got me to the website for the first time in a long time 🙂 looks good Andrew, Alex has done a great job. I think I need his help!
And yes you were right, heaps of take aways. My favourite tip was the forming of small marketing groups… I already have a few ladies in mind that own complementary businesses that I think will get on board with that so thank you Ross. Really great podcast overall to be honest.
My bittersweet pick? Branding and magazine set in Cambria
Thx 🙂
Haha, good to see you here Amanda 🙂
Gotta love a little arm twisting to get you here.
I loved the FB Group idea too! My advice is to start small (one or two only) and build the group slowly.
I started a group in my area and it’s too many people too early – I’m doing more training on how to use FB than actually benefiting from the group so far.
And yes, you’re in the draw for next Monday. Good luck!
Andrew, Thanks for bringing us another fantastic interview with lots more tips to think about!
My Bittersweet choice would be the Wedding Photography Branding | Venice Marketing Set. This looks nice and clean and I may even change my branding to suit the set.
PS – I have no idea what the options below are going to post so here goes…..
Hey Russell, thanks for adding your comments and great to hear you enjoyed the interview!
I’ve added you to the Bittersweet Designs draw for next Monday.
DUDE! LOVE the photo of the kelpie… It’s cracker.
Did you get the “Why I love this image” idea from the Kevin Mullins interview a while back?
Great interview that had me taking notes while driving, again. Will listen to this one again at home. Couple questions for Ross:
some shooters save an image as a high quality image to FB album and then use it in a post with a link to the blog post or web site so FB does not ruin the photograph’s quality vs. link to blog post and let the image load from their web page – any insights on one method better than another?
I don’t remember exactly why now – something about how it displayed some info at the time, but my biz page is a People: Photographer page vs. a true FB Business Page – am I hurting myself with one over another?
Any best practices to share on best workflow for FB posting to be able to tag relevant people, places, etc. I get frustrated with posting on my page then sharing it to my personal account to be able to do some of the tagging.
Thanks in advance,
Rollin
Thanks Rollin… Love reading about listeners having to take notes… Be careful doing while driving though!
I’ll let Ross now about your questions.
My 2c… I believe it’s better to get people visitors from FB to your website wherever possible. You want their attention as much as possible and on your “real estate.” To do that, I’d post an image and some text for a FB post with a link to the blog post on my site. I’ve never seen too much quality loss in FB and never enough to think I’m never posting there. Remember, people scrolling through their feed just need something to grab their attention, it doesn’t need to be gallery quality.
I save my social media files at 2048 pixels wide and run them through JPG Mini before uploading to FB and don’t have complaints.
Taking visitors from FB to your website is going to cost you though. FB want to keep people inside FB. You’ll most likely have to pay to get the reach you want with these posts.
I don’t think there’s any difference between a People: Photographer page vs. a true FB Business Page in regard to reach and engagement. A personal profile (not page) will get better organic reach but business have to pay to get good reach in most cases.
In regard to tagging people from your business page, here’s a link to a strategy that’s working for me: Tagging Friends From Your FB Page
Hope some of this is a help.
Andrew
This interview was incredibly helpful! Ross did an amazing job explaining content marketing in a way that was really easy to understand. My brain is bursting with great information. Thanks Ross and Andrew!
I love a “bursting brain” 🙂
So good to read you took so much from what Ross had to share. I think it was obvious during the interview – I felt exactly the same!
Thanks for adding your comments Sam.
Some great stuff here Andrew and Ross. I want to make a new more useful PDF for my site that details the best locations for family portraits. It’ll be a great showcase for my work and I plan to show finished portraits on the wall as well. Facebook group isn’t bad either but may be a time sucker! We’ll see.
Cheers!