Stock images rule in Australian business. Laughing young professionals, sparkling board rooms and smart executives consulting in sun-drenched cafes are creating the illusion of a perfect business world.
Yet stock images are failing Australian SMEs on multiple fronts. Cue, professional commercial photography. It’s time to reassess the images you use to promote your business, and realign them with your brand.
1. Wake up your website
Why not spring-clean your website and flush out a few of those grating stock images?
The same generic shots are popping up on web pages across the globe, creating the kind of bland wallpaper that customers don’t really notice anymore. It’s the visual equivalent of ‘white noise’, which sends customers into a slumber rather than engaging their attention.
Invigorate potential customers with vibrant professional images of your real staff members, products, services and premises – rather than lulling them to sleep with an overdose of blandness.
2. Take back your brand
Show the world how unique your business really is by portraying the heart and soul of your organisation in a series of carefully crafted professional images.
You want customers to identify with you as real, hard-working, friendly and knowledgeable people. This forms the core of your company culture and business brand. Commercial photographers understand this, knowing exactly how to identify your unique attributes and show them to the world.
After all, real people are far more appealing to others than mystical creations. Let your customers see how cool your workers really are!
3. Choose authentic commercial photography
Real, smartly framed images of your company and people can rejuvenate your brand. Yet the market is saturated with sleek and glossy images from stock libraries, creating several problems:
Your main competitors may choose the identical image to promote their firm.
Your customers may then get you confused with your competitors.
Your customers may think they people in the images actually work for you.
Your products may look nothing like those featured in the stock images.
You therefore mislead your customers by suggesting a level of sophistication or other-worldly perfection it’s impossible for any company to live up to. Hardly surprising, then, if customers are disappointed to discover you are not quite as glamorous as your images suggest!
4. Balance your stock images
Fortunately, there can be a happy ending. It’s all a question of balance. Stock images can be very useful to fill gaps, pad out a blog or headline a mail-out.
They can be brand-poison, however, when used to convey the culture and trademarks of your business. This task requires careful use of commercial photography to showcase the essence of who you are – and what you really want your customers to know and see.
A new year awaits your business. Why not consider a portfolio of professional photographs to refresh your image in 2020?