If you want to stay relevant in your consumer’s mind, consider hiring a professional photographer for your business.

You spend a lot of money promoting your business. Images help your prospective customers remember your business product and service offers. Our brain is wired to receive visual information more easily. Moreover, we retain 65% of visual information versus only 10% of written information.

You may be thinking you can save money by taking your own pictures.

DIY is fine for restoring a classic car or refinishing your bedroom furniture. But when it comes to photography for your business, it pays to go professional. Professional photography can help you capitalize on business opportunities and avoid a lot of grief.

Here are 8 reasons why it’s a good idea to hire a professional photographer for your business.

1. Gain a Competitive Edge

If your competition is using photography, you’ve got some catching up to do. If they’re not, you have an awesome opportunity to get ahead of the game.

In today’s visual world, photography for business is an absolute must. But using stock photos runs the risk of publishing the same photo as your competition. And it doesn’t allow you to personalize or customize your public image.

Professional photography gives you an opportunity to be uniquely you in the marketplace.

Great photography gives your business exposure and visibility. Here are some photo opportunities that present your business in a positive light:

• Social or company events
• Company milestones
• New product launches
• Community activism

A professional photographer can capture these moments in a way that can give your company a strong online presence and a great marketing advantage.

2. Strengthen Your Brand

Good photography is essential for business today. We live in a visual age. People prefer to get their information through visuals. And the quality of visuals you use to represent your business will say something about you.

Photography can tell your brand story and enhance your company’s reputation. Images set a tone and communicate a perception of your business.

Through visuals, your customers come to know you and learn about your company.

3. Project a Professional Image

Projecting a professional image in the marketplace requires a professional photographer. After all, you wouldn’t ask Joe in accounting to take care of your legal affairs. So why would you ask him to take your company photos?

Even if photography is his hobby, trust me, it won’t end well.

Professional photographers have technical skills that offer great value for your company. They know how to use proper lighting and staging. They know where people should be facing and how to use depth of field to get the effect they want.

Professionals use special lenses and filters for specific shots. They will shoot photos from various vantage points to get a variety of perspectives. And they will take time to understand your brand story to be consistent with your message.

As a result, you will get quality photos with consistent results. You can learn more about professional photography here.

Sometimes you get only one chance to capture an important moment. It makes sense to trust a professional with the job.

4. Ramp Up Your PR Strategy

Using professional photography services will help with your company’s public relations strategy.

Keeping a record of your business history with photos creates a wealth of resources for writing backgrounders when pitching stories to local news outlets.

Each time you launch a new product, reach new heights in productivity or plan a special event, good photos can make your story more appealing for publication.

Develop good media relations by preparing a media kit with photos telling your brand story. If you include a great press release and compelling images, you will have a good chance of getting it published. We’re talking free advertising and promotion with a wide circulation.

The publicity and visibility you get with good PR and the goodwill you create are well worth the cost of hiring a professional photographer.

5. Draw, Engage and Captivate Your Audience

Great content increases traffic to your website. And photography is effective content. Nearly 40% of marketing experts surveyed said that visual content is the most important content for business.

Professional images have the potential to create drama and elicit an emotional response.

Great photos are shared more on social media and have the potential of creating a buzz that can generate leads and referrals. Strategic placement of professional photography can greatly enhance a website user’s experience. And it can impact the purchase decision.

Images with impact engage people and keep them on your website longer. And memorable content keeps your company on the consumer’s mind longer as well.

6. Connect With Your Customers

Whether you are using social media or direct mail to connect with your customers, nothing helps you connect better than photos. Content with images gets 94% more views than content with none.

When prospective customers land on your website, you have eight seconds to get their attention. Here are some examples of images you can use to connect with your customers.

• Photos of people smiling
• People using your product
• Images that communicate impact in your industry or community
• Images that demonstrate your company’s expertise

These types of images help to establish your authority and authenticity. Showing your customers who you are will open opportunities for connecting with them.

7. Support Your Marketing Efforts

Social media is where people hang out, and usually, they are sharing photos. People share 350 million photos on Facebook every day. Great professional photos can give your company positive exposure when shared on social media.

Beyond social media, there are many other ways to market with photography. Here are just a few of them:

• Blogs
• Website articles
• Brochures
• Direct response inserts
• Calendars
• Bookmarkers
• Slide presentations
• Promotional videos
• Annual reports

Professional photography offers flexibility and value.

8. Minimize the Stress

Hiring a professional photographer will prevent you from sleepless nights worrying about pending projects that require photography.

Imagine going to press with your new brochure or getting ready to update your website and Joe in accounting didn’t get the photos you needed. Or the quality is so poor you can’t use them.

When you consider all the planning and work that goes into setting up for photos, it easy to see that letting a professional handle the job will relieve you of unwanted stress.

Hire a Professional Photographer

Investing in a professional photographer is an opportunity to increase visibility, improve marketing, and tell your brand story in a compelling way. As a result, you will be prepared to take advantage of opportunities to increase your customer base and improve your bottom line.

At PDS Learning, we specialize in professional photography services for businesses. If you would like to learn more about professional photography for your business, contact us here.