The Power of Authentic Imagery in B2B Content Strategy

Foreign. That's good. And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Marketing Brew. And I'm your host, Brett Dice.

Here you can please subscribe to this podcast, all your favorite podcasting apps leave A five star review really does help with the rankings. And let me know how I am doing this week. We're gonna be talking mostly about content and photography and all that other fun stuff that we all gotta at least know a little bit to take our iPhone videos or pictures with because sometimes that's all we got. But with me is Mark and he is a photographer and owner of his own studio in Littleton.

And Mark spent several years as an in house photographer for FLIR Systems, traveling coast to shoot everything from molten steel mills to remote gas fields, often in extreme condition. Today, Mark partners with manufacturing industrial brands to craft high impact imagery that's at the heart of any successful content marketing strategy. So welcome to the show, Mark. Thanks Brett.

Great to be here. Appreciate it. Yes. And the first question is all my guest is, are you a coffee or tea drinker?

I'm definitely a coffee drinker, Big coffee drinker. I like coffee in the morning and in the afternoon if I have the time. Like a good Cuban coffee which I don't know if you've ever had, but they're creamy and delicious. So if you've never had one, I highly recommend.

No, I haven't had the opportunity. I have had more like Spanish ones like the cortado, which is basically like a six ounce cup with half of actually truly half of it espresso and half of it melt. Yes. This is a little more like an espresso, but sweet and foamy basically.

Yeah. So it's almost like a cappuccino in some ways, but not exactly like a cappuccino. Like the foam part of it. Yeah, except there's no milk in it.

Ah. So you just take some sugar and you put in a few drops of the espresso and you just whip it up and it becomes a foam, but it's not actually milk. Nice. So it's really all coffee based?

It is very coffee based, yes, for sure. And very sweet, but very delicious. Nice. Okay, I gave brief some of your expertise.

Can you give our listeners a little bit more about what you do? Yeah. So I'm a commercial photographer. I'm based here in Littleton, Massachusetts and I work with industrial and manufacturing clients mostly to get them the product or product lifestyle photos that they need for their content marketing.

And that could be anything from hero product shots to go on the website or Catalogs or what have you, or E Commerce to on site facility shots showcasing their facilities, their people, their machines, all these things that they've invested so much money and time into. And it really helps to lend credibility to them with the customer. Nice. And so with your background in film and digital photography, how do these two mediums uniquely contribute to crafting compelling visual stories for industrial brands in B2B marketing?

Yeah, I used to work in the film industry back in the day and I learned a lot about lighting and composition. And when I left that industry, I transitioned into graphic design. But little did I know the company that I started working for had a nascent digital studio back when digital photography, this was about 2000, back when digital photography was just figuring its way around. And I took that over, made it my own.

The company was acquired. I ended up with a big studio up in Nashua, New Hampshire. And over time, they just started sending me all over the country to capture all kinds of scenes of their product, which was thermal imaging cameras, their products in use all over the country. So it really was an exciting and interesting time.

And. But yeah, definitely the background in film lighting helped a lot in that arena. And now I'm on my own for the past eight years with Mark Mendoza Photography, basically parlaying what I learned over at FLIR to my current client list. Got you.

And so usually industrial brands have a lot of complex and technical products. How to use photography to make these subjects visually appealing and relatable to potential clients. Yeah, it's so important to get the right imagery. A lot of manufacturing clients rely on trust and precision.

So it's important to show your product in use your machinery, your facilities, your people. There is a place for stock imagery, but you can't rely solely on stock imagery. You need authentic custom images to engender trust in your brand. And so that's what I do for customers.

And I don't know if that answers your question or if I miss anything there. No, you're good. It was just basically, how do you figure out how to create the images with all the technical stuff that goes in with industrial brands? Because a lot of times B2B have, like, very technical things that they have to get across.

So how do you do that? Right. Those types of like, hero shots where it's, oh, I get it now. Because a lot of people are like, I'm looking at something, I have no idea what this is.

Yeah, exactly. We do a lot of macro photography to show really up close some of the parts that a manufacturer may produce. They like to show samples of what they can do. And sometimes that involves a lot of detail shots using macro lenses.

There can be a lot of reflections because it tends to be shiny parts with a lot of reflections. And so we specialized softboxes get very soft, precise lighting to really showcase so people understand what it is exactly that this manufacturer has done and what their capabilities are. And so in your experience, what are some of the common mistakes industrial brands make when incorporating visual content into their marketing? And how can professional photography help avoid these pitfalls?

So much of it comes down to planning. If we're going to do a photo shoot as the customer. I know you have so many things to do and you want to unload this project onto a photographer, but you're still going to have to do your homework. You're still going to have to let the photographer know exactly what it is you're looking for.

And that usually means coming up with a shot list, even if it's a general idea of a shot list and how the day is going to go. Here are the top machines that we want to show. They're brand new 5 axis machines and we really want the client to understand that this is something that we have. So that would be an example.

Give me a list in terms of priority so that we can just go down the list and if we happen to not get to the very last one because we run out of time, it's not as big a deal. Pre production and planning really makes all the difference. And if we've both done our homework, then I just come onto the scene and it's just execution and we get it all done for them. And B2B marketing often prioritizes data over atheistic.

How do you convince industrial clients of the RAO that high quality imagery can bring to their content strategies? Yeah, I can point to other clients like before and after images of their website and they will tell me their sales have gone up, their SEO has taken a big boost. Because that's another thing. When you upload to your site new images, Google loves that.

New custom images. Not stock images, custom images. Google takes note of that. And that's the boost for your.

So that right there is a great return on investment. But I recently did a job for a company called Accutronics over in Chelmsford and we showcased every one of their services. They produce boards. What do you call the board?

Little boards, Micro boards. That's not the right term, but anyway. And we captured every aspect of the services that they offer as well as samples of their products. So the Potential customer really gets insight into what they can expect.

So I often will send potential customers samples of some of the new websites that my clients have done. And it really gives them a sense of the power of visual content marketing. And with the rise of AI, how do you ensure that you still stay relevant and assure your clients that you are still the best option? Even though people could create their own AI model to craft or try to craft B2B?

I don't think B2B is there yet with AI, but I feel like it's encroaching a little bit each time. Yeah, we certainly hear about it every day, but at the end of the day, your facilities are your facilities. They're one of a kind. Your products are your products, and they are one of a kind.

And you need to have them properly photographed. There are other things that are more generic that may lend themselves to being produced by AI. There could be situations if I'm shooting a product and you need a particular background, let's say it's not the manufacturing floor. At some other background, we could create an AI image background that the client is happy with, that they approve, and then we'll go ahead and in the studio, we'll take a picture of whatever the foreground happens to be a person, a piece of equipment, whatever it is, and combine those two.

So AI actually really helps me in my day to day, and it hasn't replaced me so far. And so what role do you think authenticity plays in B2B imagery, especially for industrial sectors? And how do you achieve that through your work? Like, again, authenticity plays a big role.

It engenders trust in what you do. People can look at it and see that you're for real, that you're not a fly by night. What you offer is something genuine and that is of great value. Google agrees with that.

Google will reward authentic imagery over stock imagery every time. And you will get a boost in your SEO. I just try to capture authentic scenes. There's no fakery.

We go on site, we bring lighting and anything we need, and we direct the employees, do this, do that, look this way, look that way, and the end result is 100% authentic. And that's what the clients really come to me for. So looking at emerging trends, how do you see photography evolving in the B2B space? You know, we talked a little bit about AI, but what other evolving things like what tools do you use specifically to.

To help create that authentic image that you may not be able to do? What trends do you see and what tools do you like to use? Yeah, it's definitely AI. A lot of what we might have done in the past, you've heard of the process of green screen.

AI kicks that up a notch. So as long as you understand what it is you're looking for, you can create these kind of virtual worlds into which you can put whatever object it is. And again, it's usually a two step process of getting that background the way you want it and then compositing that with an in studio shot of the product of the person of whatever it is. That's really the very neat thing that's happening right now.

And again, I don't see AI replacing me as much as I see it being a very useful tool in a lot of instances. So do you see like the virtual green screens getting better? Cause I've tried a few of them and they still don't do as good of a job with the human. If you move to around like the head, they miss it.

And you can see that it's a virtual green screen. Or do you still use traditional, like actual green screen? No, I can use a quote unquote green screen, which is actually something they use in video. But it's similar in photography.

But no, I haven't had any issues with it. A composite's a composite. The key to it is you can't just grab any. Like in the past you would go and you would look through stock photography, say, oh, I like this piece of stock.

Let me try to combine it now with this foreground. Now you don't even have to do that. You can create anything that you can imagine. You can create an AI and then you can place your subject right into that scene seamlessly.

And that is the very impressive thing that's happening right now. And I definitely let clients know about it. Because you can't always go to whatever location you want. It's not available, It's a lot of money.

It's this. And that's a really great tool to help the client get what they need. And for industrial marketers listening who might not have a big budget for photography, what are some practical tips for starting points to leverage imagery effectively in their content? Here's the thing.

If you hire me or any photographer to come to your site and to shoot all day, sometimes I see clients kind of looking at what's right in front of them. Like for instance, I have a trade show coming up and I need trade show graphics. Okay, that's great. But if I come and spend the day with you, I can get you content that's gonna last you a long time.

Not just for your trade show, but for your website, for social media. You're gonna use these shots over and over again and there's gonna be a wide variety of them. So you wanna create an image bank that's going to last you a while. So if you break it down that way and you're getting content for a year or whatever it is.

I've seen clients use content for years. It's really a bargain actually. It's something that you can use over and over again. Different variations across different platforms.

And so it really is a bargain when you think about it that way. You kind of have to think a little bit bigger picture when it comes to your content marketing. So what I think I'm hearing is that look for the evergreen instead of the in the moment type of a thing. Because the evergreen will last you longer than the basically right in the moment type of things.

Those are great for one offs, but evergreen is the better one. Absolutely. I think you should make the most of our time together as you can. And that goes back now to the pre planning and the pre production.

Think about all the uses you're going to have for the next year or two years or three years and let's see how much of that we can capture in this one day of shooting. And you'll be a hero in your marketing department. If you can pull that off and come away with all this content, then. How do some marketers pre plan for this?

Cause maybe a lot of them don't know how to do like photography shoots or to figure that part out. How would they start that process? Yeah, I think it's not just me. Obviously they're gonna be taking pictures with their iPhones in certain situations and stuff and that's fine.

Other instances where you might have to use stock imagery and that's fine. So you do have to combine and use all your resources out there. My point is simply that you do need to look at the bigger picture when it comes to hiring a photographer and realizing that you're gonna get much more out of it than perhaps you initially thought. So just bigger picture thinking.

I think we'll get you far. Nice. And people listening this episode, they're wondering where can they find you online? To learn more about you, I'm available.

Available at Mark Mendoza, photo.com. you can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn quite a bit.

All right, Any final thoughts for our listeners? No, just everyone have a great day. It was great talking to you and everybody work on your image content and if you need help, give me a ring. Happy to help.

All right. Thank you Mark for joining Digital Coffee Marketing Brewing, sharing your knowledge on photography. All right, Brett, thank you very much. Appreciate it and thank you for listening.

As always, please subscribe to this podcast on all your favorite podcasting apps. Leave a five star review. Really just help with the rankings and let me know how I'm doing. But join me next week as I talk to another great thought leader in the PR and marketing industry.

All right guys, stay safe. Get to understanding what visuals are photography you actually need. Figure out the evergreen parts about it and see you next week Later.