Using Before and After Photos in Your Marketing Strategy to Attract Customers to Your Decorative Concrete Business

Many industries feature before and after photos showing dramatic transformations. You've seen them in weight loss, decorating, celebrities, and more.

Why do companies use pictures like these?

Because they work.

Today, I will teach you how to use before and after photos in your marketing strategy to attract customers to your decorative concrete business.

We'll start with why before and after photos work and suggest how to incorporate them into your decorative concrete marketing.

As a bonus, I'll share a few before and after fails so you can keep from making these same rookie mistakes.

What do I mean when I say "before and after photos?"

I'm talking about taking photos at a job site from multiple angles before you resurface their concrete and then taking photos from the same angles AFTER you beautify their concrete. 

Why do these types of photos work in all industries, including decorative concrete?

As a decorative concrete professional, you wear many hats. One essential hat is that of a salesperson. And ask any good salesperson if you want someone to buy from you; you need a product that delivers results.

To take it a step further, your customers want to hire someone who can deliver THEM results.

So, the first reason before and after photos work is because they show your customer you can deliver the results they are looking for.

Another reason before and after photos work is because they create connection.

When potential customers see a "before" photo, they may say, "That looks just like my pool deck."

OR, they may think, "My patio doesn't look as bad as that."

Either way, your potential customer is connecting with your work and beginning to build a narrative in their minds that if you can help others, you can help them.

Finally, people don't know how good something is until they first know how bad it was.

Decorative concrete offers dramatic transformations time and time again.  Before and after photos feature how great the transformation is by highlighting how bad it was.

How should you use before and after photos in your decorative concrete marketing?

The most cost-effective marketing you can invest in is social media marketing. We primarily use Facebook, but this is true for Instagram or Pinterest platforms as well.

Decorative concrete is such a visual product. You really don't have to do much more than show the before and after shots and have a call to action.

Keep it simple.

For example, this is a pool deck we did. And this is the Facebook post about it.

Before shots. After shots. And a quick note with a call to action — in this case, we want them to call the office to schedule their free estimate.

Your call to action can be to:

• call to schedule an estimate
• use an online scheduling solution like Bookings from Microsoft or Calendly to schedule an estimate
• email to schedule an estimate
• text to schedule an estimate

Do you see a trend here? You want to schedule face-to-face estimates.

That is your call to action.

Your steady stream of work results in before and after shots for each job. The result is your social media stream has a steady flow of before and after shots. This means a constant stream of images calls potential customers to action.

You're basically saying, "You, too, can have results like these, and I'm the decorate concrete professional that can offer them to you."

Bonus: Before and after photo fails you can avoid

The first fail to avoid: Not getting the "after" shot from the same angle as the "before" shot.

The most compelling images are from the same angle. There's so much trickery in media. Side-by-side images from the same angle prove it's legit and gives an apples-to-apples comparison.

Another before and after photo fail to avoid: Your shadow in the shot.

A minor shift can keep you out of the shot. It's not a deal breaker, but it can be a little distracting and easy to avoid when looking for it.

One final fail to avoid: Junk or tools in the background.

Some houses are junkier than others. Get creative in your angles to avoid showcasing the customer's junk. And pick up all of your tools and clean up before taking the final "after" shot.

So there you have it.

We've offered three reasons why before and after photos work in your decorative concrete marketing, a simple formula to incorporate them in your marketing strategy, and a few photo fails we've made along the way that you can avoid.

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