When it comes to promoting your product or service good strong imagery can take a back seat in the grand scheme of marketing. Budgets are tight, and it can seem frivolous to spend the money on your own photographs when you can just click and buy something ‘that will do’ for the time being.
Although stock images have come a long way in the past few years thanks to the revolution of smartphones and apps, they’re still increasingly over-used, and banded about the internet like a bad smell!
It’s easy to spot a great stock image because it starts to pop up everywhere no matter the industry, and the truth is it simply makes the company look unimaginative, lazy and a little careless to say the least.
Stock images certainly have their place, but as the default for businesses rushing their marketing it can have serious consequences to the overall image of the company.
Visual content now dominates our world and if you’re not delivering your branding with the power of unique imagery, you’re simply blending in amongst the crowd rather than standing out against your competitors. Your imagery is what drives your customers to your website, to your social media and to pick up the phone. By investing in photography you’re conveying your brands personality, and enabling your customers to relate to your business on a more personal level. It’s been proven in a recent study by Convince & Convert that images with people, outperforms static imagery that doesn’t contain a person. Photographs are becoming an increasing factor in how a business is judged. Customers want to see the people that work there, the environment and their ideals. A photograph does this far better than a stale stock image.
As the old saying goes, a single image can say more than a thousand words.
The core values of your business should be depicted in a photograph, so if your friendly and approachable convey this spirit of your brands personality and you’ll enhance your marketing and capture your customer’s attention.
We all know that images engage people more than streams of text, and as you only get one chance at making a first impression, it’s essential that you capture your audience’s attention and avoid the dreaded office bin.
Set a brief
Good photographers are never cheap, so get the most for your money by setting a brief that will give you the best outcome after a long day of shooting.
Collaborating with your team about what they think should be in the images and how they should be set-up, can mean that for a day fee you could end up with hundreds of images that you’re then able to post on your social sites as well as on multiple marketing platforms.
Think outside the box
As well as the usual stock styled images of cheery groups of people, try to incorporate some alternative images that could show your companies humour, or even the products in some more creative ways. Capture your customers imagination and make them want to see what you’re all about!
Be consistent
Once you’ve invested heavily in your photographs don’t be afraid to use them.
Brand them with your logo and use them at every opportunity possible; on your website, social sites, brochures and marketing material. Director of USB4Photographers Richard LeCount comments that, “Branding photography is becoming a bigger selling point than brochures themselves. We find many businesses are adding their commercial images separately from their brochure, as it’s what their customers will look at first and set off the good impression before they even open the brochure”.
By being creative with your image use you will find your customers feel more comfortable contacting you or even commenting on your social status’s as they can put a face to a name.
Don’t lose customers by using poor quality imagery, as the investment will ultimately help increase your leads.
By David Walker, Director, DW Consultants.
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