“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”
-Ansel Adams
Scrolling through Instagram, it is quite easy to tell the difference between a professional photograph and one taken on the newest iPhone. Even with the newest portrait mode, there is truly no comparison to a professional photographer . Hiring a professional photographer can benefit your business in several ways.
As the saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words” and having a professional photographer can clearly relay the truth of who your brand is. With the professionalism of the photographs your brand can become immediately desirable. According to MDG Advertising, 67% of online shoppers rated high quality images as being “very important” to their purchase decision, which was slightly more than “product specific information”, “long descriptions”, and “reviews & ratings”. In addition, As Small Business BC mentions, having a professional photographer tells potential clients that you are operating with a level of professionalism and dedication to quality. Your professional message through photography can make your brand that much more appealing!
The correlation between images and social media has been examined and posts with photos have clearly higher levels of social engagement than other types of posts. In this way having professional photos can help spread your brand’s message. As the infographic explains above, total online views are directly related to the number of multimedia elements within; therefore, having a cache of professionally taken photos can create free publicity for your business and have the added benefit of building effective brand recognition.
So when you are choosing between using stock images, doing it yourself, or hiring the real pros, go with the pros. In comparison to stock photos when Marketing Experiments tested a real photo of their client against their top performing stock photo, they found that nearly 35% of visitors would be more likely to sign up when they saw the real deal. Although the outright cost of hiring a professional photographer may seem daunting, the benefits are certainly worth more than the price!
