One of the first things that we recommend to people when they build a website is to use professional photography.
Your website and digital marketing have two primary purposes for existing:
Increase your Sales/Reach
Increase your Brand/Authority
Paying for professional photography helps both your sales/reach and your brand authority. Increasing your brand authority and customer’s confidence in your brand is every business’s goal.
Professional Photography Increases Your Customer’s Confidence in Your Brand
Don’t believe us? Look at this example from As Darling Does. On the left, you will see a good picture that showcases their product. Now compare it to the picture on the right, which looks much more professional. Which picture makes you more prone to purchase a headband?
While both pictures are great and showcase the well-made products, the photograph on the right makes you feel as if you are buying from a better brand.
Perhaps you don’t sell physical goods and want customers to visit your physical location. Let’s look at the Utah State Capital as an example. Compare the professional and amateur photographs below and let us know which version makes you want to visit.
Professional Photography is Better Than Your iPhone
The iPhone (or similar) can take phenomenal photographs, but professional photography extends beyond the first snap of the camera.
Professional photographers have different tools, lenses, filters, tripods, and an endless number of other gizmos Taylor Spencer, a local Utah Photographer, often uses a drone to take angles that might be hard for you to capture with your iPhone. Look at this picture of paddle boarders caught by Taylor.
Professional photographers know how to edit photographs as well. When you pay for photography, you are paying for some time to take pictures and edit them so that they have a professional look/feel.
The iPhone is a great place to start with photography, but don’t stop there.
Stock Photography is Your Second Best Option
Sometimes it is not feasible to hire a photographer for every photography need your business has. For example, a lot of technology companies rely heavily on stock photography to show different groups of people using and interacting to portray improved productivity. Some small marketings who run a marketing blog rely heavily on stock photography; hint: take a quick look around our website!
Stock photography has some advantages over paid photography too. Stock photography can be cheaper, more diverse, and faster. Take a look at some of our favorite stock photography vendors at Stocksy.com, Adobe.stock.com, and iStockPhoto.com.
Sometimes stock photography should not be the answer for your business. We have been exploring working with a hair salon and started talking about photography. The owner of the salon insisted they can just use their iPhone to take pictures of the salon and some example hairstyles. We countered that they would increase the number of appointments by solely having a professional take 100’s of professional of their salon and hairstyles. The professional photos would be used on social media and their website.
