You have a business that’s finally getting off the ground and you’re investing in a new website. This site will represent your business, generate leads and be a treasure trove of fresh content (right??). You’re on the cusp of launching this thing when the agency building the site asks you, “what about professional photography?”
What of it? You have some pretty sweet iPhone photos of the team and office space ready to go. That should be enough right?
Nope.
Yes, photography is more accessible now more than ever. We all have cameras on our phones, it’s cheap and we can upload these images with a click of a button. Unfortunately, this ease of use doesn’t make any schmoe with a camera (regardless of the expense) a professional.
“Photography has the ability to conjure a whole slew of thoughts and feelings with a single image.”
Instills trust
Here’s the thing: looks do actually matter. So much of the internet is powered by bots and crawlers and automated services. Your customer needs to know that your company 1.) Employs humans and 2.) the owner of said company cares enough to present these people in a professional way. Of course, you can do whatever you want with these photos: they can be playful, creative, ultra conservative, whatever suits your brand best. What’s important is that the quality is there and it’s not a crappy pixelated selfie.
Humanizes your brand
It’s next to impossible to infuse personality into a site without any supportive photography. Photography has the ability to conjure a whole slew of thoughts and feelings with a single image. There are a lot of high quality stock photography resources and there are certainly instances when this imagery is appropriate. However, if your goal is to make a personal connection with your clients, giving them a peek into your world is the perfect way to do just that.
Real world example
We have some lovely office neighbors that are currently working on a site redesign. Ryan Sorley, CEO of DoubleCheck Research, knows that custom photography is crucial to his site’s future success. His company has expanded tremendously this past year (they have a brand new office!) and Ryan is excited to showcase the team that he has worked so hard to build.
Please check out some examples from the shoot. A link to their new website is forthcoming!
