You’re about to launch a new business or a new product line, and your budget is tight. When it’s time to choose between investing in professional photography or other startup costs, how do you decide?
After all, you’ve got a smartphone in every employee’s pocket, ready to snap a few shots of your new office, your staff and your product line. Those commercials for iPhone and Galaxy sure make it look easy. Maybe you can make it work without investing money. There may be more to consider:
The Importance of Visual Content: You can write a page of text, trying to describe your company’s values, culture and brand messaging. But one picture of your employees laughing together outside as they work on a project wraps it all up in a glance. That’s why you need visual content; it’s memorable, it’s engaging and it helps capture your brand in a way that text never can.
There’s also value in visual content when it comes to your search engine rankings. Search engines prefer websites with images and those with images that are regularly updated. Even better, they prefer high-quality images that meet size and clarity standards.
But Do I Need a Professional? Sure, you can take a few shots with a smartphone and come up with a few images to put on your website or blog posts. But if you’re a strategic business owner, your considerations go deeper than that. Here are a few reasons to invest in professional photography:
- It’s a competitive differentiator. You can tell the difference between professional shots and smartphone images and your potential customers can, too. When they see you’ve invested in high quality, it tells them something about how you feel about your brand and your company.
- It has a high payoff. A professional not only has the equipment to create a technically excellent photo. One with experience in marketing also understands how to capture your brand message in an image, one that communicates who you are at a glance.
- The quality is superior. Never mind what the commercials tell you; a smartphone simply doesn’t have the same technology as a DSLR, a mirrorless model or a medium format camera.
There’s Still a Place for Smartphone Shots: There is absolutely a role for those smartphone shots. You may want your employees to post a few funny snaps from a recent team-building event on your social media platforms. Smartphones can also be a good place to start for companies that want to try video. These ideas help build authenticity into your marketing and are a different part of your strategy than where you will use professional photography.
Want to know more? Reach out to SJC Marketing, where our in-house photographer is ready to answer your questions and help you launch your website giving your best first impression, every time.