Professional photography for your business can seem like an avoidable expense, but it’s WELL worth every penny. It can be an incredibly cost-effective solution that underpins every aspect of your marketing communication and saves precious time down the track.
People respond positively to imagery that feels personal and authentic. Professional photography will elevate your brand and make it unique, rather than using the same selection of stock photos as everyone else. Stock photos can be useful, but there’s a time and a place. Use them sparingly!
Here’s 5 reasons to consider professional photography for your business.
1. Engage your audience
Visual storytelling through photography helps you engage with your target audience and drives sales. We live in an increasingly visual world – your audience doesn’t want to see walls of text. Quality photography is a vital element of your visual identity and makes content much more impactful. Amateurish photography, on the other hand, reflects poorly on your business.
2. Convey your brand’s unique identity
Professional photography will represent the unique tone, style and personality of your brand, distinguishing you from your competitors. It will capture unique attributes of your brand that couldn’t possibly be shown in stock photos – whether it’s your service offering, product or team members.
Having control over the brief will reassure you that the photos are exactly what you’re looking for. We all know how much of a pain it can be trawling stock libraries for hours and not being able to find the image that’s “quite right”. It’s common to see the same stock image in use by multiple businesses. The lack of originality can reduce credibility and come across a bit cheesy.
3. Give your business a competitive edge
Great photography sets the tone by creating a strong first impression and indicates a high-quality service or product. It adds value, demonstrates your capability, and backs up your reputation.
The fact that you’ve spent the time, money, and effort to get professional photos shows that you are committed. It demonstrates that you take your business seriously, so your customers will too. Unique photos boost your brand image by improving customers’ perceptions, making them more likely to choose you over a competitor.
4. Demonstrate authenticity
Showcasing your product or service in action demonstrates that you are who you say you are, and your service/product is credible and trustworthy. A picture is worth a thousand words, “show, don’t tell”. Photography is much more persuasive than words alone.
If you’re selling a product, detailed product shots are a must. Product photography has a huge influence over customer behaviour and could be the determining factor for a purchase. Consumers want to know exactly what they’re purchasing, and high-quality photos provide an extra layer of transparency. For example, check out this photo shoot for our client Postiche. The beautifully styled product photos power every aspect of the marketing and business operations.
Office or team shots make your business seem approachable. They allow customers to form a connection before they’ve even met you. People like to put real faces to the names, so it establishes trust and makes potential customers more likely to reach out.
5. Gain a wealth of consistent, high-quality content
Professional photography can be used across a variety of communications like your website, advertising, brochures, and social channels. It’s ideal for driving engagement on image-driven social media platforms.
Tailored imagery that has been created just for you also fosters consistency. It can be tricky to maintain a consistent look and feel when using stock photos.
Don’t know where to start?
With all these points in mind, sometimes a mixed approach can be effective. Use your own professional photos and use stock images to fill in the blanks or demonstrate generic concepts.
Either way, it’s best to have a definitive set of brand guidelines in place that will inform the photography brief. There may be certain colours, textures and themes that will best align with your visual identity.
We work with preferred suppliers to tailor an approach that works best for your business. Professional photography is powerful, and we’d love to make it happen for you. Get in touch for a chat.
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