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We share about brand strategy here on the podcast pretty often, but in today’s special episode we’re talking about the importance of brand imagery and the impact it can have on how your brand is perceived online. Shay Cochrane of Social Squares joins us to discuss the barriers that small businesses face with online presence and how they can overcome those barriers with styled stock imagery.
As a commercial photographer and product stylist, Shay’s clients spanned the globe (brands like Sugarfina, Pure Fiji, Truffle bags and Simplified Planner to name a few). But powerhouse female entrepreneurs like Marie Forleo, Jenna Kutcher and thousands of others know and love her for her Social Squares Membership where she puts her years of work as a commercial stylist and photographer into a monthly styled stock subscription that supplies elevated stock images + digital marketing education for female-owned online brands. She has been married for 15 years to her fellow entrepreneur husband Graham Cochrane and they call sunny Tampa, Florida home along with their two daughters.
How Imagery Impacts Your Online Brand
Have you ever found a brand or been given a recommendation for a brand and head over the their website or Instagram only to be let down by the quality of their images? It often shows a lack of professionalism on their part and pushes you to question their trustworthiness.
Bottom line, first impressions matter. Nowadays, first impressions happen online and your brand imagery impacts with that first impression. In the eyes of a potential customer, the value of your product or service is only as good as the images you use to promote it. By not taking care of our online presence, you could be losing money.
When you do prioritize brand imagery, you’re setting your brand up for success.
Barriers that Small Businesses Overcome Online
In many small businesses, there are barriers that they need to overcome online to succeed. A few of these include:
- Small business owners will launch something but have no way of driving traffic to their site.
- Not showing up consistently online on your platforms.
- Not showing up uniquely online with your imagery.
That’s where brands like Social Squares can help you overcome these barriers. It all starts with the missing link for lead generation in driving traffic to your site. If you have some sort of content for your lead generation, you will likely need imagery for it. Your imagery will support your lead generation plan. Additionally, in a good marketing strategy, you’ll have consistency in the content you’re pushing out.
Ways You Can Use Stock Imagery
When you’re looking at how imagery is used in your brand and if stock imagery from a brand like Social Squares is right for you, let’s look at how you’re posting on social media. Imagine that you only post on one platform, like Instagram, three times a day, five days a week, that’s around 64 images per month.
Then look at platforms like Pinterest, for every piece of content that you’re driving traffic to, you need to be creating 10-30 fresh pins for that piece of content. What does that look like for you if you’re doing one piece of content per week or even three pieces of content per week?
Social Squares Curated Catalog
Now that we’ve established what impact your imagery can have on your brand and how many images you could potentially need in your marketing, let’s take a look at how you’ll source those.
Social Squares offers a curated catalog of thousands of images based on your brand colors and imagery needs. They step away from the cheesy imagery by creating different styles of brands and color palettes in mind to help create a unique collection imagery for your brand.
Try Social Squares
If you’re ready to elevate your brand imagery, you can try Social Squares for just $1.Catch the Show Notes
Get to Know Shay (4:22)
How Imagery Impacts Your Brand (10:55)
Barriers that Small Business Owners Face with Online Presence (18:26)
Ways to Use Stock Imagery (30:30)
Consistency vs. Repetition (34:27)
Encouragement (37:37)
Connect with Shay
@shaycochrane
@socialsquares
Try Social Squares for just $1 socialsquares.com/bonnie
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Review the Transcript:
Bonnie:
Hi friend, and welcome to the brand strategy podcast. A show created to equip you with the inspiration, encouragement, and clarity. You need to build a brand of your dreams. I’m your host, Bonnie Bakhtiari, brand designer, strategist and founder of the Illume Retreat from sustainable strategy to heartfelt encouragement. Each episode is designed to equip you with the tools you need to chase after your dreams, because you deserve a brand that empowers you to do what you love, connects with your dream clients and offers a deep sense of fulfillment along the way. So grab a cup of coffee and join the on this journey. Won’t you?
Bonnie:
Friends. Welcome back to the brand strategy podcast, where today we have such a fantastic conversation lined up all around how to use styled stock photography to increase sales in your service based business with the incredible Shay Cochran. Now, if you have not come across Shay and her work before you are in for such a treat, she has this incredible background as a commercial photographer and a product stylist and what you can find her doing currently, you’ll see that she is the creative genius behind the social squares membership, where she puts her years of work as both a stylist and a photographer into a monthly styled stock subscription, that supplies elevated stock images and digital marketing education for female owned online brands, full disclosure. I have been a social squares user for years, and I can 100% a test that it is exactly the kind of resource you’re looking for. If you’re wanting to have access to high quality professionally styled images that help make your marketing so much easier. Now, Shay, I’m so excited to get a chat with you. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Shay:
Thank you, Bonnie. And man, that reminds me while you’re talking that you, you are an OG supporter of my work, and that means so much to me. You believed in me as a commercial photographer in the very early days when I was trying to convince people that I had something to offer the world. So thank you. I remember the that I created for you was I think one of the most popular sets probably to this day that ever sold in what was then the se stock shop. So thank you for that very, very generous introduction. And just for being such a genuine and encouraging person of my work over the years.
Bonnie:
Oh my goodness. Absolutely. I, I laugh because you’re so right. I mean, I think that, well, of course I was following your work and I was following you long before you even started social squares. Yeah. And I remember hiring you. This was like, for those who were tuning in, if you’ve been following me for years, you might remember way back in the day. I had a signature collection of fine art, foil stamped, print, and Shay, and all of her incredible styling and photographer genius photographed my collection. And I still see some of those images. We did, we did, you know, product photography. We did some, you know, really beautiful styled flat lays. And I actually still see a few of them like making rounds on Pinterest.
Shay:
They’d still pop up on Pinterest these days.
Bonnie:
I know which like, I mean, what a Testament to the way that you were styling image in the way that you were utilizing that kind of flat lay, uh, component and the work that you were doing, gosh, what, when was that like
Shay:
1,000,001 million years ago?
Bonnie:
Precisely years. Yes.
Shay:
I was gonna say it’s such a Testament to the power of Pinterest to continue to drive traffic, but you know, we’ll get into that way, but that was what it made me think of as the power of Pinterest to dig up things years and years and years later.
Bonnie:
Yes, absolutely. Well, for those who are tuning in who, um, aren’t as familiar with you and your work, I’d love it. If you could share a little bit more about your business, the kind of work you do, and anything else that you’d like to share.
Shay:
All right, let’s see, let’s start with who I am outside of work,
Shay:
Outside of work. I am a wife of 16 years. I think you and I both share the fact that we get to be married to our best friends. And that’s pretty awesome. And I have two girls, I’m a mom to a soon to be preteen. Like she’s gonna turn 13 this year. Oh my gosh. And that is so weird. And all of a sudden I went from feeling awesome and cool to like incredibly uncool and like very much starting to feel like I don’t know any of the cool words to say, and my style feels dated. So anyway, I’m just in a, in a whole new season of, uh, motherhood over here. Uh, I live in Tampa, we just built a house. I don’t know what else is fun about us. My husband’s also a small business owner and entrepreneur. So him and I have both owned BI and grown business.
Shay:
And since the early days of our marriage, so entrepreneurship is something that’s definitely baked into our family, which is come in handy, came in handy during the recession when we all lost our jobs and had to start businesses. So, I mean, there’s like just so much to that story of kind of who we are there, but that’s of a little bit of the personal side, professional side, a million moons ago when I first graduated college, I was in, um, wedding and portrait photography. And then when I got married and starting having kids, I really wanted to do something that was a little more conducive to being home on the nights and weekends, which, you know, wedding and portrait work really isn’t. And so when I was trying to figure out what in the world I would do, I just kind of had the crazy idea that, you know, somebody had to shoot all of those images that are in catalogs and on billboards and in magazines.
Shay:
So might as well be. I felt like I could maybe try that. Uh, so a a while ago, I think we’re talking like 10 ish, 12 years now, I kind of dove head first into commercial product styling and photography. And I, over the course of the years that I did commercial work, I got to work with some really cool brands and like Sugarfina and Emily simplified planners and a handful of others. And that was just such a awesome experience because for the first time ever, I felt like I was getting to do something that I felt, um, uniquely gifted at. And I didn’t really feel that as a wedding and portrait photographer, I kind of felt like, I, I mean, I’m sure a lot of people listening can relate to this. Um, I kind of felt like at best I was always reproducing what other people were doing well, not intentionally, but just, I knew it that wasn’t like my unique contribution to the world.
Shay:
I could just kind of execute what I saw being done for my clients. And that wasn’t, that just didn’t feel very creatively fulfilling. So I think what was cool and what’s, you know, cool about the age that we live in is that you can build a business based off of anything. And I certainly benefited from the ability to build an online business in an area that I had little experience, but I did feel like I could, I had, you know, potential. So I did commercial work for a number of years. And then again, just kind of based on lifestyle and what I was interested in shooting I, and what the needs of F female business owners were at the time, which is like a lot of this is around the time that Instagram was really getting popular. I kind of pivoted from commercial work into a stock shop where you could buy individual images and then over time, and as the needs of the industry changed, I pivoted again into a membership based offering, which is what you were talking about with social squares, stock image membership for female business owners. So lots of evolution of what the work that I’ve been doing, lots of personal exploration. I think people will always ask me like, what’s your five year plan or 10 plan. And my, my five and 10 year plan is to just keep pursuing, having at what I’m doing and enjoying it. And it’s still actually serving people. So I’m kind of open handed be beyond that, to what it could look like. And that has just kind of led me on a meandering path to where I’m at right now.
Bonnie:
Mm. I love that so much because it actually reminds me of a conversation I was having with one of my former coaching students a while back around how, you know, somewhere, somewhere down the line, it’s it, you know, when we stopped having fun in our businesses, like for so many of us, we started this because it was something that we enjoyed doing, or it was a hobby, or it was an idea that, you know, we thought, wow, it would be so cool to get paid, to do this. And then as we started monetizing it, inevitably we put more pressure on it and it started to become less and less and less fun. And so I just am so inspired to hear that, you know, as you’ve gone through so many years in business and different iterations of how your service or how your product has shown up, I love that at the core of it, it’s all about having fun. And how can we continue to pursue that in a way where we’re having fun and we’re serving people and actually helping them along the way.
Shay:
Yeah. I’m still very much in pursuit of fun and I can, 100% relate to everything you’re describing about, you know, when we build a business. Yeah. Just what happens to the thing that we started doing, um, and our experience with it. I’ve definitely felt that, and I’m still daily fighting for like the fun in it and, and the challenge and the creativity and all of that. And I I’ve taught to so many different business owners that are feeling really burnt out right now for a wide variety of reasons. But yeah, that’s just a very real feeling. I I’ve been there.
Bonnie:
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Me too. And I think a lot of people who are tuning in can relate out of curiosity, you know, today we’re talking about how we can use styled stock imagery to actually impact the way that we are seeing revenue come into our businesses. And so before we dive into that in all of its wonderful details, I’m wondering what are ways, especially since you have been a part of kind this very visual space for so many years, what are some of the ways that you see images playing a role in either elevating our brands and the perception of our work, or maybe on the flip side, you know, hurting our brands and not really doing us any favors.
Shay:
Yeah. That’s such a great question. I would, was thinking about just the other day I was given a, you know, this is a situation that many of us in small business can relate to. I was given a recommendation for someone, I won’t say what kind of contractor they were, but I was given a recommendation for someone that was supposedly awesome. Gonna be like totally awesome to work with. And I did what any good business owner does when given a recommendation, you head first to their Instagram account to figure out who this person is. And a lot of times these days, you know, Instagram is what they, it is what people tend to share. You know, it’s not like, yeah, a website always anymore. It’s oftentimes Instagram feed. And so for better or for worse, I went and, and checked out this like very highly recommended contractor.
Shay:
And when I landed on their Instagram account, I was like, what is this? Like, where am I, is this even like, did I misunderstand? Is this person really gonna be legit? Like I was getting ready to hire them for something that would be kind of a sizable investment. And I’m just like, I just don’t know. And this has happened to me multiple times and I, I have a feeling it’s probably happened to you too. Mm. And you’re given a recommendation and you go check out either their site or oftentimes it’s Instagram feed, and you’re just kind, it, what you find there leaves you skeptical or scratching your head a little bit about the professionalism of this person or the trustworthiness or the, the, even just the likability of this person and whether or not they’re gonna understand you and be able to meet your needs.
Shay:
So I think the bottom line is that first impression still matter nowadays, your first impression is often happening online and not everyone of your clients or customers or potential clients or customers have the benefit of a personal recommendation to get them through. I mean, I ended up still hiring both of the people that I’m thinking of, that it was because they came with a really strong, personal recommendation that made me willing to overlook, like everything that I was seeing online, but most of our POS potential clients and customers don’t come with that kind of personal recommendation. Like they’re really checking out what you’re doing for the very first time. And I don’t think we even realize the amount of money that we lose just by not taking care of our online presence and taking care of and thinking through that first impression. So, I mean, I think that’s one way that I’ve seen it hurt.
Shay:
I think another thing is that, you know, great news, anyone can own a business, bad news, anyone can own a business. Um, so you really do, like now more than ever, you have to find a way to stand out. You have to find a way to look legit, right? There’s a lot of illegitimate businesses. Or even if they’re not illegitimate, maybe they’re just very, very brand new. Yeah. Um, you have to find a way to look professional, to look trustworthy. You have to find a way to establish no, like, and trust really quickly. And we’re talking like in a matter of seconds, really when they land on your website or on your Instagram feed, um, especially if you’re asking them to invest any sizable amount of money. So I think that is just the reality, um, that we have that opportunity, but also the necessity to have thought through that.
Shay:
And I think what goes hand in hand with that is that unfortunate fortunately, or unfortunately, and it can go either direction, depending on your imagery, in the eyes of a potential customer, the value of your product or your service is only as good as the images that you use to promote it. So oftentimes that image or set of images on your website is the only thing they have to go off of at first glance. So they don’t know, they don’t know how smart you are. They don’t know how established you are. They don’t know how many people you’ve helped. They don’t know the quality of the paper that you use for your product. They don’t know what went into building it. Like they just don’t. They have no way of knowing it first glance, the value of your product or service. All they can see is the image that you use to promote it.
Shay:
Um, so what’s great is that means for new business owners, you have a chance to, with that first impression, say like, Hey, I know what I’m doing here. Like, I’m, I’m a legitimate business. I can be trusted. I have put time and effort and attention to detail into this. And I’m gonna that same time, effort and attention to detail into the work that I do for you. So it really gives new business owners the chance to dramatically leverage their perceived value online in a way that helps them to get clients faster. And I’ve seen that all the time with social squares members who are new to the game, like they’re, maybe they’re pivoting from a service based business into an online business. And so they’re really new in the space, but because they’re using well thought out imagery and very polished and beautiful stock imagery, right.
Shay:
Outta the gate, they look like they’ve been in business for 10 years and that’s just really encouraging to see. So I think the reality is that N nothing says like, hi, I’m new here. And I may or may not know what I’m doing. Like poorly lit images, images with like cheesy propping or awkward styling. I mean, you, you know what I’m talking about, because we’ve all seen those types of images, like little bit cringy. Um, so, you know, the bottom line is there is just that you have value to offer. And if you have value to offer, then your images have to be at the same level or better than the value that you have to offer if you really want to stand up and, and we need to stand up today.
Bonnie:
Mm, absolutely. And I, as you were sharing that, a couple of things stood out to me, you know, first of all, this idea that those first impressions, even though it’s so easy for someone to come across you on Instagram or on any other social platform, or even find your website, that that first impression still matters, and it can make break whether or not someone reaches out to you to learn more about your service or they, you know, purchase your course or your digital products or anything like that. Yeah. And another thing that I heard that really stuck with me is those images that we use have such potential to communicate the value of our work and the worthiness that we have to offer as service providers, which I find such a, such an exciting opportunity of, of wow, you can convey so much through the images you’re using, and that can be such an incredibly powerful way to captivate your ideal client and to connect with them and help invite them into this journey with you. So personally, I get, I get a little excited about that because I just see a lot of possibility there. But what I wanted to ask you about is hearing about all these ways that it’s, it’s so important for us to be using, to help, to elevate our brands. What are some of the barriers or some of the obstacles that you see small business owners trying to overcome in order to sell and promote themselves online? Because we’ve been talking a lot about how imagery especially shows up in your online presence.
Shay:
Yeah, man, I mean, the statistics would say that there’s so many barriers, right? And everyone listening could probably list out their own barriers to selling and promoting online. I think that one of the things that comes to mind first is that oftentimes new business owners will, or, or small business owners will launch something, but they have no plan for how they’ll drive traffic to their site. Right. So you probably see that often as well, they might have a wonderful product product idea, like a course or a tangible, like hard copy product. And they put all this effort into launching building and launching the product, whatever it is or the service, but then they it’s like, there’s, it’s crickets. They’re not getting any traffic to their site. And that it’s because they haven’t really thought through a plan for how, like it, doesn’t just, you put it out there and you might get a little momentum the first week when you launch it.
Shay:
But then what, like, then what’s, what’s your plan. You need as much a plan for how you’re gonna continue to drive traffic as you had for building that product or service. So I think that’s a barrier, just not having a plan for driving traffic. I think showing up consistently with a limited amount of time across all the possible platforms that there are to be, to show up on. I think it’s hard for, for any small business owner, a lot of small business owners that I talk to, they also have kids or they work another job. Maybe they have a full-time job still, and they’re trying to build a business on the side. So they’re working in the evenings and they’re working early mornings or they’re working on the weekends. So they have such a finite amount of time showing up on any, any platform consistently let alone showing up across platforms is really overwhelming.
Shay:
When you talk about the role of social media, the role of email marketing, the role of blogging, the role of YouTube. I think that’s a barrier, just being able to show up consistently in a finite amount of time and then showing up across platforms because showing up across platforms means that you have to work smarter and not harder. Um, you have to know how to strategically multipurpose content across platforms, or you will literally spend your whole day in a content creation wheel that you’ll never get out of. So content creation’s incredibly important, but I think, uh, it’s hard to do it well and be the places that you need to be consistently. And then I think, you know, another one that comes to mind is just what we’ve talked about. It’s hard to look different or unique enough to capture attention. I see a lot of repeat images or repeat certain dials of images that tend to make you kind of fade into the background.
Shay:
I mean, I think you and I were both, we’ve both been around long enough to be able to kind of giggle at like pink pones and macarons and glitter and champagne bottles. Like that was a thing like, I don’t know, six years ago, it might be as longer than that. And you kind of saw it everywhere. And same thing happens in different ways where we just, especially, if people are getting images from certain stock sites that are just very easily accessible and used by the masses. So I think that’s another challenge, looking different, looking unique enough that someone will stop scrolling or someone will linger on your website. I think all of those are kind of barriers and there’s a million other practical barriers to growing up a profitable business. But you know, the lead generation one I think is really probably the biggest one.
Bonnie:
Right, right. I hear that. So how can styled stock photography? How can those images kind of come in, step into this situ and help us to overcome some of these barriers so that we can begin to sell more easily so we can see that increase in sales that matters to every business owner?
Shay:
Yeah. Well, I mean, let’s just start with the most important one, the lead generation piece. Like you need to have a lead generation plan that might mean patient content, video content, written content, and most more than likely, most likely that plan involves a need for images. Um, content across various platforms often requires images. Whether you’re talking about Instagram or Pinterest or email marketing, you, you do oftentimes need image in order to show up across platforms. So I think that images, aren’t your lead generation plan, right? So you have to have a plan. I’m gonna create this type of content. That’s gonna help establish me as a trusted resource. And I’m going to promote that content, whether it’s a podcast or a blog post, or a YouTube video or a reals video, I’m gonna promote that consistently. Right? All of these platforms, value, consistency and the algorithms favor consistency.
Shay:
So there has to, that means that like every Monday you’re putting out that piece of content or every, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you’re putting out that piece of content. So the images aren’t your lead generation plan, but images certainly is support a lead generation plan and enable you to really focus on the content itself. You know, I think when you start to, I’m not an advocate for, you need to be everywhere or that you need to be everywhere that everyone else says that you need to be. But if you even just looked at one platform, like for example, if you only posted on Instagram three D times a, a day, five days a week, and that includes like your reels, your stories, your feed, if you only showed up on only that platform three times a day, five days a week, that is around 64 images a month.
Shay:
If you’re using like reels, cover photos, feed images, you know, things like that. Um, quote graphics, things like that, that is around 64 images a month. It’s just a lot, that’s a lot of images and that doesn’t include Pinterest. And that doesn’t include, I mean, we talked about Pinterest early on. We yeah. At social squares, we love Pinterest for driving traffic to our content. Pinterest is a major driver of traffic and we’ve never given Pinterest to penny so far to drive traffic. And you know, you and I were talking about that where content will continue to show up years and years down the road. But in order for that to be true, Pinterest needs fresh pins, which means that a single piece of YouTube content or blog content that you’re trying to promote to, or Real’s content that you’re trying to promote to every so often you have to be creating 10, 20, 30 fresh pins for that singular piece of content that you’re adding to the Pinterest platform.
Shay:
So Pinterest needs images, newsletters need images, Instagram needs image. Um, and I think it’s just, it removes a barrier, right? It’s incredibly for the non photographer, even for the photographer, but for the non photographer, especially it’s, it is a barrier. If you have to create all of those images yourself, or if you have to spend endless hours searching the interwebs for an image that you need, you know, podcast, microphone, woman, podcast, microphone, woman, with a laptop pod, you know, like whatever it is that you’re looking for, the, those are precious minutes that need to be poured into making your content really quality and helping you to get it out there. So I think having access to a catalog of thousands and thousands and thousands of images that were already beautifully shot, beautifully, curated, easy to find in your brand color palette that just kind of eliminates that wall that tends to be there for creating content that you need for lead generation.
Shay:
And then, you know, I think the, the looking unique kind of aspect of it that we talked about, you have been in brand design for a very long time. So, you know, firsthand that a logo and a brand color palette can only really get you so far in communicating brand personality, right? Like color can say a little bit, but it doesn’t say the, it doesn’t give the whole story. There’s so much that’s left out and, and logo and font choice are so important, but we really do still need imagery to tell the whole story of brand personality and to build that no, like trust. And I think a fun example of how this should work at best is we had our team retreat last week and we went to a place here in Tampa called the candle pour and the candle pour, do you have any place like that near you where you make like custom candles with custom sense? Um,
Bonnie:
I don’t, but I need to like go Google this, because that sounds like such a fun activity.
Shay:
Yes. It was my first time ever going, but you go into the candle pour. And of course it’s just beautiful and very Instagramable, but they have, you know, a hundred different scents there, everything from baked bread to earth to, you know, different herbs. And it just was so fun and you smell all the candles and you end up deciding like on three or four different sense that you, that really like represent you, that you love, that you’re drawn to. And then they pull the oils for those and they help you kind of match it up and they help you to smell all of them together. So that at, at the end of the day, you have created a candle that has, that is a scent, perfectly unique to you. And it was so fun cuz every on my team there was six of us there everyone’s candle smelled wildly different, right?
Shay:
Just opposite ends of the spectrum and really captured their personality just based on like how they had pulled sense together that were meaningful to them. So imagery and, and building a brand catalog should be the same way. It’s not helpful when we all go to creative market or we all go to Unsplash and we download these same images that everyone is already using. And we say, okay, sure, that will be my brand personality. It really needs to be that you’re kind of your own mixologist with color and palette and texture and aesthetic. Yeah. There’s, there’s so much richness that can be in curating brand imagery for yourself that really does communicate personality. So it doesn’t have to be hard. You know, we, when we think of stock imagery, we think like, Ugh, cheesy, cheesy stock imagery. You know, everybody, everything looks the same. It’s inauthentic.
Shay:
It’s not real, it’s rigid, it’s stuffy. And it shouldn’t be that way. And for example, with the social squares catalog, you’ve got over 6,000 images in there. So the images that you have pulled together, you’ve paired this with this, with a touch of this, with this moodiness, with this color palette, with these types of people in the images, that is what kind of creates like a very 100% unique visual personality to show up online with. Um, so there’s no reason why anyone needs to look like anyone else, which I think is the opposite of what people think of when they think of stock photography. But I kind of, I, I love that aspect of it. Sorry to kind of just rant on and on about looking unique. But I think there’s just a lot of possibility there that, that this online small business community hasn’t quite tapped into yet, you know, to a certain extent, we’re all still kind of doing the same thing everywhere and there’s so much potential to be unique while also making it easier on yourself and still using stock imagery.
Bonnie:
I love that. I love that. And so in addition to, you know, really leveraging those stock images to help create that unique brand aesthetic and how, how can we continue to like, so let’s say once we’ve created that kind of, you know, on brand image catalog, we, we know what we want to pull and we know the kinds of photos that really align with our visual identities. What are some ways that we can practically start using stock imagery? Like, like personally, and this, I know that this is something that you’ve been a part of this industry for years. So I’m sure you’ve seen quite a few different ways that people are actually taking stock images and, and using them. So what are some of the ways that you’ve seen people use stock images that really stand out to you?
Shay:
Yeah, I think it has to do with exactly like building off of what we were just talking about when you approach stock imagery. Um, for example, the, the workflow for our members is like you join social squares membership, and first you’re gonna identify what your brand color palette is. And hopefully you’ve already worked with a designer to develop a brand color palette and maybe have some sort of a mood board that you’re using as a, as a jumping off point, you get into the social squares catalog, you can set up custom curation so that it automatically pulls images is in your color palette or according to certain keywords that are unique to you and your brand to kind of help you filter through. And then we have them begin favorite images, which really is really that first step in creating your own, um, unique brand image catalog.
Shay:
And I like the idea of doing the at on refreshing that on like a quarterly basis. So every few months you go in and you favorite like a hundred images that just really speak to you and then you view them through your favorites and you can eliminate the ones that kind of seem like outliers. And by the end of that little personal, super inspiring fun curation process, you have a set of images. Let’s say it’s 50 images that then you do, you can download or you can leave them in there and download them when you need them. But now this becomes what you use across all of the touch points of your brand. So on your website, on your Instagram, in your blog posts on your lead magnet, when they get the lead magnet, it’s in the lead magnet, when they watch your webinar, it’s you used within the, your presentation and you just kind of use, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you already have those brand images.
Shay:
And you’re just gonna kind of consistently use that every single place that you’re showing up online and, um, like one fun way to think about all those different touch points and how they should all be aligned and can be simplified with this use of the same images across those platforms is oftentimes we have all these different, you know, platforms and entrances for being introduced to our brand. But they kind of look like when, when you look at them, you look at the Instagram and then you look at their Pinterest and then you look at their website, they almost look like they’re just all different rooms, you know, totally different styles. Like am I even in the same place, is this the same person when really all those touchpoints should function as different doors that open into the same room. So when they land there versus there, it’s like, oh, okay.
Shay:
I just open in a door, an entry point, but it looks like the, it looks the same. I’m landing in the same place. I know where I am. And that again, that’s one of those things that builds trust. So I just love, I think my favorite thing is just to see a, that the, the business owner has done the work on the front end to establish a brand color palette, expand the palette, identify images. They love download that set of images and then work off of that set of images everywhere so that it’s consistent reuse those same images for the next three months. And then do it again in three months from now and establish a new brand catalog for yourself. That’s still aligned with what you’re doing before, and then use a as images consistently that also lends itself to bulk producing, you know, like bulk producing content and that kind of thing. But I think my favorite is just seeing consistency everywhere when I think of, um, brands that are consistent everywhere and the impact that that has visually, I just get really excited did about that.
Bonnie:
Mm. Yeah. I totally agree with that. Uh, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the difference between using imagery to create that kind of consistency and to create that kind of cohesive identity. How do we differentiate between consistency and like re
Shay:
Repetition, repetition?
Bonnie:
Yeah. Just use something over and over and over again until it kind of like starts to lose its impact. Yeah.
Shay:
Well, consistency can look like a color palette that’s consistently carried across. So it might not be the same exact image, but that shade of Sage green is carried across the entire brand and it’s in diff, but it’s used in different images. I also think, I, it probably also depends on the size of that brand image catalog that you’re using. I think if you’re using the same five images everywhere, it’s gonna look very, very repetitive. It’s gonna look like, you know, you, you have five images they’re using everywhere. There’s no reason why anyone should have to do that. Especially if they’re a social squares member, there’s just so many images in the catalog. And so many different color palettes represented that you should be able to go in and create a brand catalog for yourself that is at least 50 images very easily. And if you use 50 images for three months, you’re gonna be totally fine. And then I would just say refresh it every few months when it feels like it needs it.
Bonnie:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And so, you know, having that, that opportunity almost like building it into your quarterly workflow of, okay, this is like a recurring task that I’m gonna do. I’m gonna go in gonna update my images, make sure I’m pulling in fresh content in that way. And then making sure that you have enough variety so that you can create that consistency without feeling like you’re using, like you said, the same five images over and over and over again. Yeah.
Shay:
That’s where a membership is helpful compared to buying. I mean, I used to sell individual images and that was great at the time. But I think nowadays with the, again, if we’re talking about at the end of the day, everyone listening needs to make money off of their business or it’s just a hobby. Yeah. So in circling us all the way back around to like how to make money using the stock images that really comes down to lead generation and the content that you’re putting out there. And the reality is that you’re just, you’re going to need a lot of images to support that kind of content. And it is going to waste a lot of your time if your time is spent searching for or creating those images yourself. So the goal is we wanna save you time. We wanna help you create content faster. Um, and just where you see such a huge return on the, the use of your time and that investment when it allows you to, to create more content that allows for more generation, more lead generation, that gets more eyeballs on your website. And ultimately again, builds the no like trust so that they feel like I feel confident purchasing from the, this person.
Bonnie:
Mm, absolutely. Well, one question that I always like to ask on every single episode of the podcast centers down around the encouragement or the advice that you would wanna share to those who are tuning in today, who are trying to kind of grow that traction, start to see that traction with their online business on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest in a way that can help them generate more sales. So the people who are tuning in today, because they love the idea of seeing that increase in revenue, but want a little bit more advice or encouragement about how to make that happen? What comes to mind?
Shay:
So two things come to mind, encouragement, my encouragement to you as someone who’s been a small business owner now for a long time, since 2013, I believe is always be willing to rethink everything and regularly rethink everything don’t get so stuck in the a way you’ve always done it, or the way you think you should do it, or the thing you set out to do, but always be willing to regularly revisit and say, okay, if I was starting a business from the ground up today, what would I do? What would I do differently? Where would I show up? What would I sell? Um, I think that just keeps us healthy, uh, and relevant as business owners was like a great mental challenge that I still do. So that’s just like a little piece of encouragement. I mean, I think practical, like business advice is start an email list.
Shay:
You mentioned like specifically like advice for people who are trying to establish their business on online platforms like Instagram and Pinterest and I’m for that. But the end of the day, you do not own that relationship yeah. With them on Instagram or on Pinterest. So as wonderful as it may feel to build, uh, Instagram following with, to tons of different people, I mean, tons of followers and have lots of engagement. And that takes a lot of effort to do that. Now more than ever with the Instagram algorithm changes like now more than ever, it takes a lot of effort, which is why a lot of people are burning out. If all of your effort is just going into gaining followers and increasing your, but you’re not pushing them to a list where you now own that relationship. You now can contact them directly. No one else is, is inhibiting your message from getting to them.
Shay:
No one else is selecting whether or not they should see what you’re offering to them or not. Um, you really just have to think about Instagram and Pinterest, always through the lens of how can I establish a further relationship with them that I own the relationship with. And that is gonna happen through email list. So anything you put on Instagram needs to point to a lead magnet, it needs to get them on a list. Anything that you’re doing on Pinterest needs to point to a lead magnet. That’s gonna get on a list, even if it means, you know, you’re taking them to blog content that then is going to invite them to get on a list. And again, you know, for any anyone who’s like kind of just cringing a little bit, cause they’re like, I don’t know, email list. That sounds spammy. And, um, you know, I just, I don’t like that.
Shay:
I don’t want people to feel like I’m selling to them at the end of the day. If you have something of value, it is you, then you want it to get it in people’s hands. And the reality is you just don’t have control of whether or not they see it. And they even ever get to benefit from what you have to offer. If you’re only, um, pointing them to platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. So fight through it, feeling spammy, to build an email list, uh, work hard with all that time that you’re saving, not looking for or creating images, work really hard to create high value content so that it is not spammy. They are excited to open your email. They are excited about what you’re gonna send them because you just made their life so much easier by what you have to offer. Put all of your effort into adding and Bonnie are so good at this, like adding so much value wherever you’re showing up, adding so much value. So I want you to take like all the time, you would’ve wasted on images and dump that into adding value and growing your list.
Bonnie:
That’s such amazing encouragement, such practical advice and something that you said, um, really reminded me of, I can’t remember where I heard this quote, if I can find out who this came from, I will add it in the show notes so that we can give proper attribution. But, um, I think it’s something along the lines of, if you do something that is of value that has something to offer others that is of value, you were doing a, a disservice by keeping it to yourself. Absolutely. You’re doing the image service by making it impossible for them to find you and find the solution that you offer. Yeah. And you’re so right, Shay, like that idea, the, what we can do, what, what we have to offer, whether that’s through a service or a product, we have this amazing opportunity to show up and to provide transformational experiences to our clients and customers and everything we’ve been talking about today.
Bonnie:
We’ve been talking about, you know, Pinterest, Instagram, styled, stock imagery, all these different ways to focus on lead generation. And it all comes back to focusing on ways to show up and serve the people that need the transformation that your work provides. Right. And I think sometimes we, we think that like growing a successful business has to be more complicated than that, but like I’m, I’m 10 years into this business now. And every time that I take a look at what’s working and what’s not, it all has to come back to that. How do we, how do we show up and how do we invite people into this transformational experience? And I love, love, love everything that you’ve talked us through today. I think this is, um, exactly the kind of insight that I would have loved to have had way back when, when I was just getting started in my business.
Shay:
Right. Saying absolutely.
Bonnie:
And that’s why we do it, you know, that’s it, what’s the good of learning these things of, you know, gathering this information from firsthand experience. And in my case, lots and lots of trial and error, if you can’t share it and make someone else’s journey, hopefully just a little bit easier.
Shay:
Right. And it’s just, it’s important. Like the world is a rich or better place when women succeed in business. So yes. All of you listening are a part of something that’s way bigger than yourself. Right? It’s so it teaches the next generation that they can contribute to the world in meaningful, fulfilling non-traditional ways. So whether you’re making soap or you’re a health and wellness coach, what you’re doing really, really matters. And I think, you know, Bonnie and I, both our heart is just to, to see and support your growth and success as a business owner, whatever that looks like, whatever your business looks like. Um, it’s just to kind of come alongside you and say like, you can do it. And it really does matter that women succeed in business. So like let’s help each other. Let’s add value to the world. I all get off my, my soapbox before we end up here.
Bonnie:
That’s okay. I got jump. I gotta jump off. I think I was up there with you. Wait, SHA, where can people find you? I know that after this, they’re gonna wanna come follow along, get to know you, see you, the great things that are happening over with social square. So where can we send them?
Shay:
Yeah. Well, first of all, I have a little, uh, $1 trial that they can use of social squares. If you’re like, I don’t know, maybe this could really help me. Maybe this could save me a lot of time and help me elevate my brand. Um, they can come give social squares, a try for a buck less than a couple coffee, and they can do that@socialsquares.com slash Bonnie. But online, you can find us on Instagram as at social squares, and then you can take a peek at what I’m doing as like a wife and mom and you know, creative in the world at, uh, at she Cochran. And that’s pretty, you know, that’s where I am. I’m not cool enough to be on TikTok. I’m not cool enough should be on any other platform who has the time or the energy for that.
Bonnie:
So I feel that
Shay:
You can still find me on Instagram, have no not making reels, just posting to my feet and stories, probably like a dinosaur. And for the next 10 years,
Bonnie:
Girl, you gotta do you. And you know, I think that there’s something so, so, so beautiful about using social media in a way that serves you well and honors your energy and honors your interests too, because there’s nothing that can drain you faster than feeling like you have to just constantly run around that content creation hamster wheel. So I love love it. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you so much for this incredible offer for those tuning in to try out social squares for just a dollar, um, friends who are tuning in as always, I’m gonna have all of these links that, that link to this amazing, um, trial offer all of she’s social links as well. In addition into that, we’re gonna have a full transcript of this episode in the show notes. So just head on over to brand strategy, podcast.com and click on the latest episode link. And that will take you exactly where you need to go, but Shay, thank you. So, so, so much for sharing this with us, for having this conversation with me and helping to kind of break down styled stock for and imagery in a way that really helps us understand how that can impact our bottom lines.
Shay:
Oh, thanks Bonnie. I just, I always appreciate any chance to have these kinds of cool conversations that hopefully inspire other small business owners. Thank you also, just for the work that you’re doing, I’ve loved watching your business grow and evolve and change over the years. And, um, I think you and I have both kind of come into our own a bit as small business owners in the last 10 years. So it’s just really exciting to get, to even see, you know, what’s happening. And I, I just love following, following along with what you’re doing and I’m excited to see what’s to come.
Bonnie:
Thank you so much. That really, really means so much to me. And I’m just so great to have been able to, you know, walk alongside you through Instagram through over the years that, you know, we’ve been on this very wild, we small business ownership together. And again, endlessly grateful that we could have this conversation today. So, uh, friends to those who are tuning in, if you found today’s episode, encouraging practical, if you found it helpful and you know, an industry friend who could use this advice, be sure to send them this link, be sure to share this right, because the more that we can help to share message is like, Shas the more that we can help women owned small businesses and service providers create more income and have more impact in the world as a whole. And, um, that’s just, that’s just something that fires me up. And I think that if you’re here and this little corner of the internet and fires you up too, so as always thank you for tuning in and I’ll be cheering you on from Waco.
Bonnie:
Thank you so much for joining me today. Friends, before you go, I would be so grateful to receive your feedback on the brand strategy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode or the podcast and general has helped you grow your brand, really appreciate it. If you left us a review in iTunes, your positive reviews enable the brand strategy podcast to continue to grow and reach like-minded creatives, just like you thanking for all your support and encouragement as together. We pursue building brands with purpose and intention until next time and cheering you on from Waco.
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