In this blog post, we're going to learn the three steps to creating story telling photography that sells.

As a quick note to you, When I came up with this Training Series I had 3 goals in mind.

1. The training helped you sell more of your stuff.

2. The lessons were easy to execute.

…and

3. The simplicity reduced your procrastination to zero.

If you aren't caught up on the first lesson in the series, you can get caught up right here.

Let's get started shall we?

FACT: As of APR 2019 Marvel Cinematic Universe Grossed $7.6 BILLION worldwide.

SOURCE: https://www.statista.com/statistics/188510/most-successful-movie-franchises-in-north-america/

Why?

Marvel comics create iconic stories that connect with every conceivable person that watches or reads them.

Stories have been proven over thousands of years to be the world’s greatest communication tool.

So if this works so well.

Why not use this model for our businesses?

…and then I saw this and something clicked… I needed to share this with you…

There are 166 million women in America as of 2018. That's a lot of people that probably go online to shop.

So how do you compete for that attention?

Yup. You guessed it.

Story telling photography!

Sounds like a lot of work....right?

STOP!

Quit telling yourself all of those excuses as to why you don't need this....

because I have the solution for you...

Get your FREE COPY of our Storyboarding Worksheet.

How to Use the Bridgetown Pictures Story Sessions Storyboard Worksheet

(If you have marketing staff, you can refer them to this article and give them this worksheet)

START HERE: What do you want your audience to learn about you or your business?

This is your objective.

Keep it simple, for instance...

You could say, "We want to highlight our employee's experience and skill to convey high quality and care."

or "We want to tell people about our proud heritage"

or finally, "we want to show people how we treat our customers"

STEP 1: WRITE DOWN YOUR IDEAS - THESE ARE PLOT POINTS IN THE STORY

Ok, so if you're not creating a long story, this section isn't really "plot points".

It's even more precise.

You might write down something like, "Store Front, Delivery Truck, Team/Employees, Products"

(I know this seems obvious, but there's a reason for it all)

STEP 2: CREATE THE STORY STRUCTURE

SET THE STAGE

What is your audience going to learn that will change their life or their business?

But let's say you are creating a robust campaign or a campaign that's going to span several weeks.

You might describe this by saying, "our audience will be re-exposed to the problems and frustrations of gardening and how our thing will make their garden green."

or "our audience will be reminded of the pain of procrastination and that our process puts them at peak productivity."

DEVELOP THE PLOT

List the 3 plot twists that are the most impactful or important to the story arc.

What story are you telling that helps your teaching point?

This should take your audience through a range of emotions.

Birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, sporting events, places where people experience life are excellent ways to catch candid photography.

(I talk about candid photography in the following trainings)

But within these events, you're audience will get to experience the ups and downs of the problems they're trying to solve.

CLOSE THE LOOP

Restate or clearly state the moral of the story.

Tell your audience how to buy the solution to the problem.

For example, you might say, "you'll never have to waste food again. All you have to do is buy this refrigerator"

That's really all it is.

But that seems too simple doesn't it?

It really is!

If you’re struggling, this is because you have a values conflict somewhere that says something like....

I’ve only seen success from long complicated things, so if it’s not long and complicated it can’t be true.

Because my values of hard work and success are conflicting with each other.

STEP 3: Finalize The Storyboard Photography

Now that you’ve created a storyboard, you’re ready to plan out each image so that you can tell a continuous story across all of your marketing channels.

Effectively, this is going to be your shoot list.

Note how this essentially is what you’ve described in STEP 2, but in picture format.

In this final step, you will either sketch, use the internet to paste images or write a full description of the story.

SET THE STAGE

What people, places or things do you need to show in these images to properly set the stage?

Maybe some ideas could be a storefront, the perspective of your dishwasher or cook, the building that the end product gets delivered.

Or even sketches or notepads with ideas on them.

The goal here is to lay the groundwork for a genuine story to be told.

DEVELOP THE PLOT

What people, places or things do you need to create an emotional connection with the audience?

When you’re shooting these shots, we’re not looking for acting.

No we’re looking for quite the opposite.

We want a genuine reaction in a common situation.

The plot twists should always lead to the resolution of any problems our main characters are going through.

CLOSE THE LOOP

What people, places or things do you need to communicate the main point of your story and to conclude or close the open loops?

Showing satisfaction and happiness is the direction I would take this. Not to mention that the photo session is also a lot more fun too.

Turn some music on...

Set the tone....

I digress, some examples of this might be the results of your product or service.

Take pictures of the joy and happiness of achieving goals and use your products in fun environments if possible.

...Or show your customers how easy to use it is.

I KNOW THAT'S A LOT OF WORK...

and I know that you might not always want to do a full storyboard for a small campaign.

...but the photography still has to get done.

ON TOP of the planning.

We realized that this was a problem...

We can teach you all of these strategies and tactics, but it's worthless unless you can execute on it.

That's why we knew we had to help.

We created a product called Bridgetown Story Sessions that focuses on telling stories through genuine, candid photography.

This is perfect for Personal Brand Photography.

If you're selling a cookbook or a food blogger we'd love to work with you!

Or if you have a process or history you want to share with your audience, Bridgetown Story Sessions is ideal for that.

But we know that executing on the photography can be a challenge to do it yourself.

The time spent learning how to operate a camera alone is a commitment.

And then there's the curating, editing, resizing.

Shooting for negative space for marketing creatives...

I think you get the point...

Still think you're ready to storyboard on your own?

Then don't forget your FREE Download :)

Click to DOWNLOAD Your FREE Storyboard Worksheet

Tomorrow, we'll be learn how to:

Choose the Highest Converting Photography Style for Your First Three Story Branding Photography Sessions

Let me know in the comments below what you thought about this article.

The good, the bad, the ugly. I can take it. (maybe)

LOL.

But let me know so I can give you more of what you want.

Take care,

Mark Gubuan

Studio Manager and Director of Funk