Can High-quality Photography Help Your Business?

When it comes to marketing your brand, professional, well-curated images are a necessity on all platforms.
One way to set yourself apart from your competitors is by using original photographs to build brand credibility.  Sharp, colorful, thoughtful images help your customers and prospects see your products or services more clearly (literally and figuratively).
Authentic photographs also personalize your brand and tell your story in a way that stock images cannot. Stock images may seem easier to obtain, but they are often overused and seen as inauthentic and disconnected. (How many times have you seen that handshake or the transparent whiteboad thinker?)
Here are a few examples of how accurate, original photographs can communicate company values and culture: Is your company doing a team-building activity, throwing a celebration or attending a conference? Does your brand emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion? Hiring a photographer even for a few hours can help you “tell a story” about your company. When you capture these moments, audiences feel connected to a culture of camaraderie, a positive work environment and shared values.  A good consumer example of this is Nike’s Instagram where Nike  demonstrates diversity in sports with imagery of athletes of all different abilities, races, and genders. Nike emphasizing diversity and inclusion increases sales without even highlighting a product, because customers feel connected to these values.
Most importantly, photographs make your brand and products more likely to get noticed. If hiring managers only spend six seconds on a resume, then consumers are even less willing to look at large blocks of text. In the age of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, where audiences are consuming images and information at rapid rates, studies show that social media with photos performs far better than posts that only contain text or overused graphics.
It is money well spent to build your marketing assets with a  professional photographer. In  just a few hours, you can get a plethora of fresh photos for your website, social media content and marketing collateral that perfectly align with your brand. Oh, and while you are at it, don’t forget to get a good headshot. You will be surprised how many times you need one as engagement grows from sharing well-curated images of your products, services and company.