It’s no secret you need a website to promote your business in this day and age.
Unfortunately, not all business owners understand the power of utilizing professional photography services on their sites. Some people think photographers are just for headshots, and others don’t even contact a professional for that!The truth of the matter is this: professional photos can take your brand to the next level. From digital campaigns to print media, custom images are a crucial part of any marketing strategy. Not convinced? Keep reading to discover 10 reasons why you need to invest in professional photography services.
1. Say Goodbye to Stock Photos
Let’s get one thing straight – stock images are a thing of the past. Sure, you can still find download them from the internet. But, you likely also come across the same ones over and over, especially the ones made for specific industries. Customers are catching on to who uses stock images and who makes the effort to invest in professional photography services. The latter is sure to win them over much better than a generic image would. This is because stock images aren’t unique. They are something anyone can access, and not many people are impressed by anymore.
2. Express Who You Really Are
When you swap out stock for custom-made visual content, you’re showing your audience a new side of your business. You are expressing who you really are. Maybe you do a photo shoot that focuses only on your office/warehouse space and products. Maybe you leave those items aside and use professional photography services to take pictures of team retreats or other company events. Whatever the images capture, they are an extension of your company. You could get an album of products, settings, services, employees, and/or customers. What you are really getting, though, is a chance to show your audience what you do, the values you hold, and more. How can one image, or a set of them, do so much? Because a picture can say a thousand words. It’s not a cliche; it’s the power of combining professional photos with compelling copywriting as you build new marketing initiatives.
3. Unite Your Team
To tell your audience a powerful story through any marketing efforts, you have to first unite the characters. Professional photography services help you achieve this by creating a consistent look across all employee headshots and team photos. When you set up a team photography day, you can plan and execute everything to be exactly as you imagine it. This is much more consistent than asking everyone for their headshots – which will have a range of backgrounds, colors, lighting, and overall quality. Decide all of these details and more for yourself with the help of a photographer. This person can find the best backdrop and lighting opportunities in your business’ space. They will have a system for taking everyone’s pictures that is organized and non-disruptive to the workday. As a result, you get beautiful images of your staff as a whole and new headshots for each person as well. Encourage your team to use these images on their professional digital accounts (LinkedIn, email systems, etc). Take the headshots of your top executives and managers and place them on your website’s “About Us” or “Meet the Team” page, too.
4. Better Promote the Business
Custom images are a crucial part of any marketing strategy.
Headshots are an introduction of each employee. But, the right professional photos have the potential to gain more exposure for the business as a whole. Try to get a mix of team pictures, product images, and photos of the space in which you operate in. This creates ample digital and print opportunities. The same pictures your team uses as their profile images can easily translate on a business card. The still shots you want for a virtual tour of your office can be blown up as posters or printed for flyers and brochures. More so, these are great to keep on hand in the event of a press release or an interview with some sort of media team. You can offer these as supporting material to make reporters’ jobs easier and take full advantage of such unexpected exposure.
5. Improve Your Website’s Load Times
It’s not every day you will need professional photos for news features or company updates. But, you do have new and potential customers visiting your website every day. These are people who are curious about you. They want to know the kind of products you offer, how to contact you, and maybe even your brick and mortar’s hours of operation. But, they need this information quickly. Internet studies have shown your landing pages should load in 3 seconds or less. Outdated, low-quality images will slow the loading process down. Or, if they do load quickly, you risk having pixilated, blurry visuals come up. Present everything in a fast, crystal clear manner with the help of professional photography services. This team will not only give you eye-catching content, they will make sure it is the right resolution and quality for your needs.
6. Rank Higher on SEO Results
Load times play a significant role in lowering bounce rates and keeping online users engaged. But, they aren’t the only thing affecting your SEO performance. High-quality images have other ways of improving SERP rankings. You can name your new images with a targeted keyword. Better yet, you can add the same keyword, or a related one, in the caption photos on your website. Don’t forget to write SEO-friendly alt text. This helps your strategy in the event that a user’s browser doesn’t properly load your image(s). A sitemap for your images boosts your performance too, if you want to get that serious about the backend details.
7. Diversify Your Content
Once you’ve upgraded your website with new photos and taken all the optimization measures you can, there are still more opportunities to make use of. Think of the albums you get from professional photography services as evergreen content opportunities. The same pictures you sprinkle on your landing pages can be used in social media campaigns, email blasts, and blog posts. Don’t be afraid to recycle them from time to time either. If you are using the same picture over and over, you have a problem. But, if you pull up something you posted on Instagram a few months ago and use it on your company’s Facebook or monthly newsletter, you’ve got a good thing going.
8. Create a Consistent Brand
One of the reasons periodically recycling content works is because it creates consistency for your brand. Truly, though, the best way to build a consistent identity is to work on it day to day. Professional photography services are a key part of this process. Using the same team every time you need new pictures helps ensure everything looks on-brand. This is a group who will come to know the right lighting, resolution, and edits or filters you use. They will have a working knowledge of your past photos, which will come in handy to create fresh images. You can trust the results will be true to the presence you’ve worked hard to create in your industry. New images will feel familiar to consumers as they keep moving people along the buying stages.
9. Take Your Photos off the Screen
No matter how effective your digital strategies are, it’s worth putting some photos to use in print strategies, too. Print media includes any of the following:
- business cards
- brochures
- billboards
- company apparel
- magazines/newspapers
- vehicle wraps
There are many other ways to use print, like with custom promotional items at trade shows or signs at events you sponsor. Wherever you place your photos, though, you have to use the best of the best. There is no room for error when it comes to the kind of file or the pixel count in print. If your photos aren’t correct, you risk having an order of blurry results that you can’t use. Or, you may have a print order rejected altogether because you don’t have the right photo format. Thankfully, a company stock of professional photos keeps this from happening.
10. Make Stronger Connections
At the end of the day, professional photography services help you tell a story. Captivating visuals are all about sharing your company with the world. From digital marketing strategies to business cards and promotional opportunities, your photos are a form of introducing yourself. Photos help you stay relevant in the mind of current consumers. They help get the attention of potential new customers as well. In fact, humans are better at remembering visual information than written or spoken. Keep this tip in mind as you strive to build your connections and foster new ones.
Postcreatives: The Best Professional Photography Services for You
Stop reading about what professional images can do for your business and start seeing the results for yourself. Begin by setting up your company’s first professional photo shoot. That is where we come in. Postcreatives is here to create the ultimate visual experience. From photography to video, our team of experts can capture the essence of your brand. Contact us today to get started.
