You Absolutely Cannot Ignore Your Website
The best way to get the full picture of a business is with…. Well, a picture.
If you’re a small business owner, you already know the value of having a website that demonstrates your services. If you’re a small business owner, you also know that two dollars well spent is better than one dollar poorly spent. Especially when it comes to marketing photography.
Stock photography has long been the budget friendly option over brand photography for small business websites. I’m here to tell you one more thing that you, as small business owner (probably) already know;
Social media has conditioned all of us to seek the legitimacy of a business online. And with social media photography, and apps changing and growing (*cough* who here’s on TikTok?!), what we look for to legitimize a business is also changing.
Gone are the days of curated, same-filtered, feeds on Instagram.
RIP to generic product photos.
We are now entering the TikTok era of person-forward, behind the scenes content. People want to see people, which is great news for you and the big-heartbeats behind your small business!*
*don’t believe me? Instagram has changed its entire algorithm to now almost exclusively promote short form video content, and released a statement that they are ‘no longer a photo sharing app.’
But, that doesn’t mean that photos don’t have value. It just means that certain photos are more valuable than others, especially if you’re looking to gain web traffic, and convert a sale.
Google <3s Good Photos
Search engines like Google have certain qualification checks that bump up your website to the top of a search page, increasing the likelihood of potential clients finding your website.
One of the most important search engine checks is ‘user experience’, which takes things like high resolution, relevant photography into account. Iphone photography, or stale corporate headshots aren’t going to cut it here.
If you’re a nerd like me, you can hear this straight from the horse’s mouth on the google developer page.
Stock Photos are Budget Friendly for a Reason
If a potential customer is browsing the web for “custom bakeshop near me” and your website is the third or fourth to feature the same ‘rolling pin and flour’ photo, you’re not differentiating yourself.
However, if after coming across the same ‘rolling pin and flour’ photo three or four times, a browser is greeted by vibrant photography of your actual staff working in your actual kitchen, congratulations! You’re now differentiated in a big, and real way; your unique services and goods are front and center to accurately and artfully tell the story of your business.
Gain Trust
One of the most refreshing trends to come out of this new social media landscape is authenticity. Think Duolingo on tiktok. It was so thrilling to see a brand act in such an authentic way (aka, in the straight up unchanged voice of young marketing manager) that the language app gained 4.5 million followers, which converted to real sales and downloads.
While it hardly makes sense for every brand to adopt this exact formula, there are valuable takeaways that every brand should!
Authenticity pays off
As a brand photographer, it is my number 1 documented goal to “...seek out the human emotions and personalities behind every brand..” and to “find the authentic element others will connect with.”
Photos of the actual people and places of your business establish a human connection to your product or service. They endear people to you and your goods, and establish trust that you are a real business who cares about the quality of work they put out- starting with the images on their website.
Let me help you help your website. Together, we can strategize which elements of your business to draw forward to help tell your unique story in a powerful way that others can connect with. I promise, it’s an investment that will pay for itself in no time.
