Creating Pictures that Sell and how to Differentiate from Competitors (Interview with Vadim Petrov)

Speaker 2: Amazing.

Speaker 1: Right yeah I actually met Vadim at a conference in Europe I don’t know maybe you have seen him already and I think it’s an amazing hack what he’s using, he is basically playing music in his zebra costume  I will try to put in the video that I made recently at a conference so yeah welcome to the show and I think that’s definitely a very very interesting start.

Speaker 2: Yeah well thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:And we’ve never had a zebra on the show for sure. So yeah, Vadim, tell us a bit about yourself.

Speaker 2: Well my name is Vadim and I help Amazon sellers to increase sales by creating images to tell their product story and we do it’s like I have my own agency as on zonphoto com and I also sell on Amazon myself, been doing for 2 and half years. I am also doing these zebra things from time to time just to give myself break.

Speaker 1: Nice so let’s talk about your Amazon selling tell me like you said started off years 2 years ago how did you actually and I’ll find this topic why did you decide to start?

Speaker 2: Well I was kind of being always looking for different ways to  And it’s always just being. You know open to different ideas. At the time I think it was one of the YouTube videos I found it was. I don’t remember. His name but make. Something they can he had a video where he was kind of in his room it seems very genuine video and he was just saying how he. You know turned his life around since he started their innings she wasn’t big bets and then suddenly everything came together arms that’s either kind of grabbed my attention and then I went researching used to bending one mile and I was already.  Seriously considering to invest into course season you know actually in Western to the product I was very serious about yeah.

Speaker 1: Did you actually end up buying some course or did you learn it yourself?

Speaker 2: I think I learned the most from YouTube to be honest and I think by course but it’s I didn’t really like in the end so I think the most help I got was from the people that I met I met in the course and I still I’m good friends with them and we often chats about how how the business is going. Right yet leave very useful to have connections.

Speaker 1: So tell me liked it are you’re still selling your first product?

Speaker 2: Yes it says I mean it’s still yes yeah the same product that they started and they were like launch product and then stop selling it so yeah it was a successful launch and we expanded needed like different variations of the same and then expanded to Canada and to and healthcare’s later I’m now selling my business. Nice yeah it’s a good screwed successful story I guess and I hope it’s gonna help me to know even scales further.  When you know I get this be cash coming in and then I can just you know launch more products at the same time so.

Speaker 1: Awesome okay I think that’s a very motivating story in the brain and then sell it let’s dig into it a little bit so tell me like one was your likeidea when you were picking the product?

Speaker 2: Yeah right so at the time I was with my wife and you know we just got married and obviously I wanted to build a base for our life and so I started business. : And yeah like logically was to you know basic base the product choice around our life when I thought well we probably can you know.  I try for a baby so maybe baby brother so. Yeah we started we open the branding niche and I found the products we use using jungle scout and I really did kill it’s a free search and you know so too many suppliers yeah like.  Like normal stuff yeah. 

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 1: I’m like did you decide to go deep into the brand thing from the beginning or was it like one of many ideas?

Speaker 2: I think one of the.  Yeah I think straight away from the beginning I was thinking about as a brand as a whole brand and I was really putting a lot of their efforts into packaging design and you know inserts manual I straight away did the video it was five minutes long be down how to use the product so I really put a lot of time for a change branding itself and the logo and you know. So it looks professional and that’s the work I think it’s also one of them thinks things at the moment as well if you can not just launch a product let’s build a brand strikes away from the beginning and have this idea that you know you build the brands and you build it the way that you know you can add more products later on. It’s very important.

Speaker 1: So so you would like you would do it the same way if you start over right with the brand.

Speaker 2: Yeah I think definitely yes the same approach I think what I did was successful like we were selling is up reviews and big contribution here as well you know good product images.  When I changed my main image was one months and half later on after I allow launched my sales doubled.

Speaker 1: Well.

Speaker 2: I did almost every member in debt in the group and yeah it was it kept going it’s it’s really doubles and then back moments was when I realized how powerful images can be. 

Speaker 1: Cool.

Speaker 2: Alerts yeah. 

Speaker 1: I think that is bringing like we hear that a lot of is actually very important if you will especially if you want to sell the business someday because like brands hello way better than like products that are don’t  have an identity so to say right.

Speaker 1: Private label products without any U. S. B.  you can sell them as well but if so if you guys are visiting to sell their business then goal for Brenda think it’s definitely a good approach but tell me what else did you do for branding rather than like professional logo and pictures and stuff so like their Shopify pager or Facebook or?

Speaker 2: So so yeah what they recommend too many people is to make it personal. And for our brand so one of the tricks you can do in branding you can create a brand persona right so is its persona who’s talking to the customer who is you know and brands to it either they do it themselves you know I’m the guy like. I don’t know like chip as an excuse to guy keep it to the house okay it’s not like you unless you yeah like that unless he’s the brand face it’s very good for example or if you’re not strong yourself if you don’t want to be for example are you don’t have I think many sellers have you just you know everyone has a story why they started the brand and I think you could use that and if you don’t it has to be another person basically. Yeah what we did we came up with his imaginary person we call her Stacy okay and she’s a single mom. Well maybe not single but now she’s not single so.  He’s not single but yeah like we never see the husband there but she’s always arts she’s got. Roms on business going and she’s got that children at home and so it’s baby product and she kind of created that she went through the pain herself she created this product to help other moms dads. And that we see that in email follow up like when she does she does like a mop Hey it’s been super busy week was children you know but I just wanted to let you know this and that you know and let me ask for reviews as well you know we talk like a mom talking to mom and that only works because we are getting lots of emails back like talking to us like you know he’s X. season do you know like it’s so cute so you’re so nice you know things like that so people really respond to that brand persona I need not repeat persona in commercials we used. I’m kind of and was sober artist it’s a very nice pleasant voice when it’s ways of Stacy.

Speaker 1: Okay. 

Speaker 2: Hi I am Stacy you know and so people going through the experience of receiving the product I’m going through the installation videos and email follow-ups they really get the idea of this brand persona I think you personal not just you know you got products and there is nothing else I think it’s this is one of the things that I would recommend to other brands.

Speaker 1: Last well actually I find it very interesting I’ve heard about a trick to use the girl’s name in the follow-up emails because like a lot to get more rich. Replace right but I think that’s a totally different approach new kind of took it took it to the next level right with the persona and I’ll tell me like how did you make those videos.

Speaker 1: One of those like product videos or all like animations or?

Speaker 2: I yes so. So to make it look professional so I. At the beginning so we had the local and we card someone on Fiverr to do logo animation so it appears very nicely and then a straight away I use the stock media I think I ate like fifteen dollars for it if a baby crawling through on white backgrounds looking at and then going further. Yeah I mean just the first seconds already give that great you know impression about the brands and the music is calm and nice. And the very pleasant friendly voice you know Stacey saying hi. Welcome to installation guides so nice you know things like that.  Before I like to use the same video for all listings.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 2: So what did the film do? 

Speaker 2: With my wife we went through in the film there are a lot of our kind of shot ourselves I wrote the script myself and then we just okay this is the sentence this is not to build to that send your news spent few hours filming and then I just put it all together. But yeah it’s really the music and voiceover makes this very nice feel. I am yes I am I’ve been musician I come from music background. So deal is like a very important aspect where I.

Speaker 1: Yeah sure.

Speaker 2: So.

Speaker 1: Tell me like still did you do anything outside of Amazon for branding like Instagram or something all? 

Speaker 2: So yeah we tried doing Instagram and we tried to do Facebook is my particular brands I think because we don’t really. But people who buy our products they don’t come back to buy another one they only bite once. Any state by twice it’s to either get more or get the same for grandparents. But because of that like we thought it’s we need to expand our product line have more products that customers can purchase and then do social media yeah so from one customer from one lady could get more. The old. Lifetime value.

Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2: So that was kind of a long term plan B. we tried doing it it didn’t work very well for us or maybe you know I’m not expert in that field as well maybe you had someone who really understands Facebook. 

Speaker 1: Okay all right that’s fair let’s talk about your second project on photo right. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. 

Speaker 1: Well your basically you’re making pictures helping sellers make better pictures? 

Speaker 1: That’s right.

Speaker 2: Yeah that’s right so yeah when I was kind of doing my own business so it’s very handy when you know Photoshop and stuff so you can really you know you could change your images every week if you want. More. I’m very handy like you call the base coming at titles and stuff so I kind of that ended up helping my friends and from helping friends it went into further likability for Landon scalping extra arms and sellers and now I have expanded that have my own team and will be running agency. And he really took it to that like I was this service in mind I had you know I just ask myself what’s the best way I can serve the customer like if I could do everything for the customer doesn’t matter the price like what would be my best to do that I can give and this is basically what’s the backbone up don’t put the that you really care about that sellers set and being a seller myself I really understand sellers need to.

Speaker 1: Okay let’s talk about that like what’s important I got when I was setting myself. Most of the pictures I made myself with my phone or by my camera but I kind of what can the white background it’s Coleman I tried to pick the light in a good way but still.

Speaker 2: Basically.

Speaker 1: I didn’t put too much effort into the forest and just I know you make sure they look okay. And that’s it so well tell me again guess that maybe wasn’t the perfect strategy but tell me like what makes a good photo. 

Speaker 2: What makes a good photo I think yeah it’s like they think that many sellers forget as well it’s not just about photos it’s about what photo is telling you and just so important thing is what. So good photo is the one that we’re traits is the message that you want to say if you want to say it’s durable then it should be image that in two seconds you look at dates and it’s clear what’s they match what damages a box without even reading text then when you read the text and it gives you a second confirmation of what you already thinking.  And then this double confirmation like he’s is very important like you just reassurance you to make this purchase. It’s trust. US I think it’s very important is the story of image and not just damage it’s because it’s a listing there are many images so you need to build the story like you need to think how one image follows are they means we’re well this to me just to get that is it gonna be clear like or are they gonna mess up with each other like you may have the background. Or something like that so you need to think about your listing is a blog post something like that where you start that story and you go through to the end yeah.

Speaker 1: So tell me like how important are good images I mean of course if you have a bad image and Amazon probably won’t convert but if you have a decent image like I did it’s decent that’s has a wide background lighting is okay but I guess that’s it there’s no more. 

Speaker 2: Yeah well basically yeah I used to work with clients we did photo from the phone as well and then you know did photoshoots I could show some examples but I do know he’s there but yeah basically you can use your phone photos as well like I had a client who did all the photos from his phone and he go to the best seller badge. After so it depends on the work so I don’t think it’s it that much matters you know how many pixels you have. 

Speaker 1: Okay but I mean like you have reached seems a given approach you know the story suppose haven’t just to start listing just made some pictures right they’re decent right so what can I expect to see if we upgrade the pictures make the really really nice like can you give us a number a no this double the sales tripled sales or what have you seen and so from my experience I’ve been working you know for some time. 

Speaker 1: And. This approach you can kind of say it’s a self-proclaimed way. Of Cali making me Jeez but I can say that it works because of those testimonials of clients that you get and many of them say that it has been that some had to double sales after letting me choose the case study that they share on my website the conversion went I think from thirteen percent to thirty percent well and it’s doubled from thirty to sixty. So it’s s really and like I said in the before like when I updated my name is sherry member like my sales doubled so I think you can definitely.  It depends on how good your images now at the moment.

Speaker 1: I guess as well it did very good.  And you I don’t know if there is you know so it’s. How much you can what’s the difference before and after.

Speaker 1: Yep warm.

Speaker 0: Yeah you can definitely expect increasing sales. Yeah I think it’s it’s would be it would then be a lie to say that you. Can definitely have an impact.

Speaker 1: Let some can you like maybe we can find an example can you guys just for an example I don’t know garlic presses off instantly yeah the. Popular example but maybe we can take a jump rope or some like this. In the like tell me well how would you. Go on about the pictures yeah.

Speaker 0: Okay.

Speaker 1: Or maybe some other product that just pick whatever.

Speaker 0: Yeah. So the first thing it doesn’t matter which product do you have but. Also many photographers for the photographers many hired them what they don’t do and it’s very important to do is the same one you do product research or when you ride bullet points you go through your competitor listings and you look what they are writing what they are doing so the same way you need to approach with images so before even like thinking about what kind of images you gonna make you have to look at the market you have to know what others are doing because the market has been there for some time you know some markets are more saturated so image quality straight the way higher. So you need to realize where you’re going and what kind of market you’re going. So after looking through competitors.

Speaker 1: Are you need to.

Speaker 0: See what kind of images that make what kind of things they say well why they’re better because it competes with them you’re gonna make a listing and on their listing they will say well we are the best our material is the thickest our. What they worry they can come up with and you need to say something against you need to have your selling points. So after looking through the market the next thing you need to really look at your product features and think.  What features are gonna sell your products you need to think as a market where you’re not there anymore you know talking to supplier you gonna talk to customer now you can’t say well.  We’re aware and. You know you can make an image and say well you know our food functionalities this and that and this and that these statements based on the size this. Like talking to a supplier in use now talking to customer and you need to think how you gonna sell the feature like if it’s sick thanks how you gonna say maybe you can say. I don’t know like me where like. For example. Example iPad case. And has an iPad case competitors and say.  One of the features they say it’s saying.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 0: Everyone has thank you so we look through the market everyone has image which says it’s saying but the just a little tweak you can say in their.  So our listing gonna say thing there how this. s gonna. So just a little tweak like that you need to think how you gonna market this feature are you gonna. Make you better and. Very often clients come to me. I ask him so what’s special about your product and they say well nothing special it’s kind of the same like everyone else. But so we can discuss. So this is the true story in yeah they came and they had this bottle and they said well it’s just about you know everyone else is selling similar we just need nice pictures. But I really took it to the next level to the thing that they took every single feature that they had that these bulkheads for example you know C. R. I. less thirty like you see the true colors it’s not distorted it’s. You know two thousand seven hundred lumens all these things all these boring features out there that do selling points so every single image was saying either had comparison. It’s gonna save you more money by they send this percent no no just saying that its energy-saving but it’s really selling the feature second thing is if your money and on every single image you can really turn each feature to the selling point.

Speaker 0: So this is how I would approach any further so if I sell this one here, for example, this book though you need to think that I’m gonna have love become gonna sell this to you.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 0: You see I can just show it to you yeah from this angle this angle I can show lifestyle feature I’m taking. 

Speaker 1: What are we doing this yet but.

Speaker 0: It doesn’t tell you much you just looking at me and it’s kinda weird I’m just holding it you see if this angle and that’s it but now I’m careless yeah I’m talking and I’m saying Hey bloody I’m so thirsty and this helps me every. God like I just jumped off the bike and these both so just always handy in my book it’s so easy to care. You know and I start talking to you and the same way you consult ceramic Jeez you can talk to people you can tell them the story about this product you can say whites after so it’s good if I show you this angle but if I show you this angle in that in that point with my finger here look at this amazing brands I know nice shiny things.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 0: You gonna pay attention to it rather than just showing it like that then you trying to guess what the dates.

Speaker 1: Right nice. 

Speaker 0: Making customer by hands and just staking came through the products each feature. Building a story about why this is amazing that’s that’s what’s gonna sell your product it’s not just that nicely shows image it’s about the story it’s about how you sell.

Speaker 1: Your products yeah interesting so well you almost sold of the model three. The thing. Click can bike is a good example you like describing the feelings and stuff right and or a pointing like bacon the picture from by horrible mountains or whatever that so that’s nice yeah.

Speaker 0: I’m done I’m so like I say it’s but yeah I always have to look at competitors first what they doing and then you need to do something different so for each feature and Sam iPad case what I just mentioned.Speaker 0: You know it was a case that you can have.

 Ipads find a flying down like good for I think it’s an insect Rangel where you can have it’s like standing up so you can earn wages and stuff and everyone was just saying well you have double. 

Speaker 1: But there are like.

Speaker 0: Double standards like from. So it doesn’t tell me much but then what do you say you can do feelings so what I did I took frozen at a screenshot from frozen and I put it in the movies and instead of saying the double double thing I said you can watch movies and type emails.

Speaker 0: Lets you know on the screen that you can type email so like not just years.

Speaker 1: Aha yeah.

Speaker 0: But really showing in it. Getting these feelings out as well because everyone was Rosen everyone has some kind of feeling about throws.

Speaker 1: You love it.

Speaker 0: good good. 

Speaker 1: Thanks so tell me I I find it very interesting by the way we’ve never had. So much concerned about the picture so I think that so and and it’s very important topic obviously so tell me one more thing like what do you think about the enhanced brand content how much does it help to sell and like how do you go about that. 

Speaker 0: CNN’s brand content is obviously I think you should use anything that you can of course the farms and is giving you the space to doing has to do it and yet so basically it gives you so it’s a great space where you can. Sure is there talk about your brand further show your products and really build this. Customized.  Kind of are. Designed in a way because there you can you know in PPC  you can upload images and you can kind of create their own kind there is and Banderas in a way that you can make it look like anything so it’s very customizable so yeah it definitely adds to that adds to the brand and you can also increase your sales there please send like media I think it’s the package together. When people look at your listing it just has to work in that in them as the compliments your at.

Speaker 1: Sounds good tell me like. I def I would definitely just sold at least your service to myself tell me like how do you work with clients that somebody. Yes more well.

Speaker 0: I so yeah like I said the so it’s that it’s this way of working that I think brings success to the sellers. It’s not just making images it’s really looking at the markets so we do a lack in that very you know we look at all the listings on page one.  Sometimes stage two and if you sell in Germany we would also look at US market because the quality of Jesus often. Hire their. 

Speaker 0: So this is really really important to do competitor research and then do a strategy so after doing competitive research I then getting to know your clients your products really you know. If you tell us. It’s durable then we ask you why it’s durable so. We like kind of an interview that you do at the beginning or research face the two different plans. 

Speaker 0: Yes so this is kind of you can call it the research phase where we gather information from the market and from you as a client about their product well then we see well this is your mother a product and this is the markets and you say well you need to put this product into this market and what’s the best way and now we think about each feature each year thing about your products and we see what competitors doing and we can really do something different and that’s great when we start building photo list so we build a strategy would tell you well these are the seven pictures that we think you should have run here are ten more alternative images used to determine how we can smoke and fly around depending because you know your brother the best what’s gonna work. 

Speaker 1: What if you wanna shout.

Speaker 0: And it’s very important like communication with the clients so through all the process we always discuss things what you gonna do we have open Facebook chats where we communicate constantly.

Speaker 0: With clients during the process as well during the photo shoot we always say what you gonna do I mean I always add value to their customers like when I was remember when I did product photography for my products you know I could you know they sh did like hundred pictures and they told me well you can choose eight you want ten you can pay more so what we do not do such. 

Speaker 0: So like from my experience now if you go to.Where you’ll be going to give you all a hundred pictures. 

Speaker 0: Okay this is. No use for us for it. You know we.

Speaker 0: You.  Will. And we get you. We give you everything from that.

Speaker 1: Sure yeah. 

Speaker 1: So and then you do like the. Basically I guess you need to receive the sample rate or two from the clan the need to the photos and. And you also do the photoshopping and.  Some things like I know how all those cold when you see a product in a in a scene sort of straight right in the kitchen or whatever so those you can do as well.

Speaker 0: Yes so yeah there are many sellers you know call them there’s info graphics.

Speaker 1: So that.

Speaker 0: As they say I need some infographics and some lifestyle images.

Speaker 0: And that in fact we have a list of photos. All possible photos that you can make a note of that. Find the photo that is not in our list we always added to our list. And then we can.  It’s kind of a structure like okay we wanna build trust so maybe we could add review image to your listing.  All.  Three different types of preview images. Where you. Choose okay maybe this one will be more suitable for your brand. Then dial like competitor likes and then destruction destroying in this.  Room you.

Speaker 0: Comparing yourself like competitor charts it could be why us in three points it could be our product against other you could be focusing on one feature if it’s really something about your product one specific feature that these different and should sell your products you definitely need an image where it says our stance and just describing this feature is durable that that that that because of this others after some time they break this and they.

Speaker 0: Yeah it’s so we always like try to think how to tell a story but also destroy your competitors in LA association you’re very strong.

Speaker 1: In the markets nice.  I think I’ll think so much that I learned a lot then the thing that saw a lot of value for for our listeners tell me like where can people find you.

Speaker 0: Yes sure so I’m eight you can find me on Facebook I guess that is my profile running petrol and I post I tried to post daily like different valuable information about the images but I also you can. You can visit our website is on zonphoto dot com.

Speaker 0: And you can email us at your zonphoto Gmail com

Speaker 0: Yeah and I’m always happy like to talk to clients just to discuss as well you know like we discussed now we could go through your listing.

Speaker 1: And.

Speaker 0: Understand what can be done what can we do if we can help.

Speaker 1: So so to speak yeah perfect so we’ve put all the links in the description so make sure you check them out guys and thanks so much for coming Vadim it was nice having you here thank you very much in play here bye bye yeah you can’t.

Speaker 1: Thanks so much for watching I hope you liked it please let us know what you think, your feedback so comment this video down below also if you have any specific ideas who should invite or if you wanna be a guest yourself then I’ll make sure to contact us or comment,  press like button press the subscribe button and see you soon.  Stay tuned, bye bye!