You’re a smart businessperson. You’re updating your website, brochures, and other marketing materials with current information about your products, services, and company. Perhaps you’re launching an entirely new venture, or perhaps you’re just refreshing things a bit for a fresh look. Fresh is good.
As you make this smart business move, don’t decrease the return on your marketing and messaging investment. Below you’ll find two solid reasons to avoid a common misstep. Don’t miss out on the ability to best represent your company by using generic stock photography.
Stock Photography Isn’t You
If I sit down at a restaurant and discover that the photos on the menu aren’t images of that eatery’s food, how confident will I be in the quality? What’s your impression of a company without any sort of custom logo, type, or identifying branding?
How would your clients feel if they’re browsing your website or flipping through your brochure and there aren’t any photos of you or your employees? If you’re using generic images related to your industry instead of pictures of your products, what message are you sending?
Potential clients are going to wonder why you’re not advertising you.
Readers Filter Stock Images and Ignore Them
Putting aside the issue of your client wondering why you’re not using your own imagery, there’s another great reason not to use stock photos in your marketing: they get ignored. Photos for the sake of photos aren’t helpful; photos which provide insight into your business, products, and services will garner attention.
As a photographer, of course I’d love to sell you some photos. As a businessperson, you should only pay for photos that make sense: photos for your business representing your ideas and your people. If you’re ready to do that, contact me and let’s make it happen. But please don’t spend money on photos that aren’t really you and won’t be effective.
