How to Get the Right Photos for Your Small Business

In our digital era, where brands connect by sharing online and social media images, it’s more important than ever for businesses and startups to have a great portfolio showcasing their products and services. These photographs will create the first impression potential clients have of your company, which will no doubt impact on your sales and the perception of your brand.

Great images help tell the story of your brand, and by having professional photographs to establish your online presence helps you tell your business’ story in a more appealing way to the consumer. This drives more attention and ultimately more interest towards your product or service.

Professional photography services can provide customers with an accurate representation of what the product or service entails:

• To help customers visualize themselves using your product or service. 
• To make your product or service more appealing to potential consumers. 
• To tell the story of your brand in a way that sets you apart from your competitors.

Using stock photos may seem like a quick and cheap solution, but it can actually harm your brand. Stock photos are often generic and lack authenticity.

Original images help consumers connect with a brand by going beyond a simple portrait and allowing them to know the story and people behind the lens. This helps users trust you and sets you apart within your niche. 

Ultimately, custom-made professional photos can encourage or dissuade a customer from choosing your products amongst any other similar ones found in the market.

‍

While the importance of having professional photos of your business is a well-accepted reality amongst today’s small business owners, it can become confusing as to how to get the best images to represent your business. Here are my six best tips to achieve this:

1. Hire a Professional Photographer

By hiring a photography business you will obtain custom-made professional images that showcase your products, services, story, and employees in the best possible way. A professional photographer will be able to create a product photo that captures the essence of your brand and showcases your personality while providing you with images with the right technical requirements (resolution, lighting, photo editing, etc.). 

If you want to know more about why you should hire a professional photographer, keep reading!

2. Document Your Business’ Story

Don’t be shy or afraid to tell your story if you’re a business owner. The more personable you and your brand are, the more confidence you will instill in consumers. Knowing why you started your company, where you currently are, and where you are headed is a great way to connect with the consumer and persuade them to use your services or purchase your products. 

Product photos are necessary, but for business owners and entrepreneurs letting the clients know how you started and what you’re all about makes your company more approachable, and instill more confidence in your potential clients. 

Hiring a photography business to tell this story for you will allow the consumer to know you better. I recommend you consider adding the following images to your image bank as part of your business story:

• Your team at work 
• Your company and facilities 
• Your business interacting with customers
• Headshots of your team
• Product images that showcase the features and benefits of your products
  
  

3. Decide on the Type of Business Photography You Need

This will depend on the nature of your business, but it will boil down to either product or lifestyle photography.

The best option will depend on what your business is about. For a commodity-based brand or an e-commerce site, you will likely just need product images. Generally, I recommend neutral or single-color backgrounds to display your product without any distractions. 

On the other hand, if you’re selling a service or want to showcase what the product you offer can do for the consumer, lifestyle photography should be your first choice. The focus in this type of image isn't so much on the product or service as in the need it fulfills. This helps the customer visualize what they can use your product for.

4. Take Multiple Angles of the Same Product

Think about it: if you were to buy a product in person, you would want to have a good look at it before making the purchase. Consumers usually prefer looking at products from every possible angle before buying them, to know what to expect. 

For example, if you’re selling furniture, customers will want to know how a sofa looks from every direction. If you’re selling clothing, they’ll  want to see how it looks from the front, back, and side before committing to buy. Equally if you’re selling a service, you won’t need product shots from every angle but you should rather aim to showcase your personal brand.

5.  Choose the Best Setting Option

The technical aspects of an image are important but often neglected in the sale of products and services. Each online platform and type of print requires different specifications to display a product in the highest and sharpest quality possible. 

The difference between a low-quality or low-resolution image vs. a high-quality and high-resolution one can ultimately mean more or fewer sales, as they will impact consumer confidence. If you’re unlikely to buy a product based on a pixelated image, chances are your target market will feel the same way. Putting out high-quality images with the best possible setting will help guarantee a positive perception from customers and help your startup take off.

6. Optimize the Images for Your Commercial Social Media

Much as choosing the right setting for any digital platform, high-quality product photography needs to be appropriately optimized in editing software such as photoshop, for search engines, websites, and all other sales channels. This means loading images at the right resolution for a better online presence, but also adding SEO-friendly alt-text to the images, for better ranking of your product during Google or online searches.

‍

While it might sound overwhelming or too expensive for a small business, there is a right fit and a balance that can be found for everyone. High-quality product photography is sure to present a great return on investment, so the benefits of having good photos associated with your brand could benefit you exponentially.

If you’d like to have the best possible images to represent your brand, get in touch with me today!