When a company decides to dip its business toes into corporate photography, the first photo project is usually either business portraits or pictures of the office. This is all well and good but it may help to have an overall plan for the photography well before a camera shutter button is clicked. Corporate photography should do more than just fill empty spaces on a page.
Sure, the easy marketing plan is, “we want more customers to buy more stuff.” But that’s too vague to be of any help. If you work things backward and break it down to specific steps, you can get it to work:
How do you get more customers to buy more stuff?
They have to know that your company exists and they have to trust you. Your company has to be the credible expert on whatever you sell or do.
How can you build trust and how can you get more attention?
Build trust by using authentic photography to give information to your potential customers. Pictures are worth a thousand words but only if they “speak” to the viewer. Or to reverse it, stock pictures and advertising images have no emotional appeal and actually push customers away.
What information?
Who are the people in your company? What does your company do? How do you do it? Do you understand what customers need? Are you fair and honest? What are other people saying about your company?
These are not literal questions for which you might provide two-sentence answers for people to read. Instead, customers want to see the answers for themselves. This is where photography shows its strength. Show don’t tell.
How do you get more attention?
Include photography with media handouts and press releases. Always.
Being mentioned by the news media (in a good way, of course) gives your company the “media blessing” which leads to more attention and makes you a credible expert.
Use only authentic photography on your web site. People will spend time looking at interesting and informative pictures. The photos will draw people into the text on the page.
What pictures do you need for press releases?
Photos of your key employees which could include both business portraits and environmental or editorial portraits. Pictures of whatever is new or news at your company. New processing capability? New environmental policy? Expanded service? New product? Involved with a community project?
A corporate photographer with a journalism background knows what the news media want and need in a photo. This photographer knows how to find the news angle in your story and can work with your public relations people.
A company should build a list of photography projects they need to market their business. This list should be more than business headshots, a photo of the office lobby and a group shot of the sales department.
Any photograph can fill the empty space on a page. The purpose of (good) corporate photography is to enhance the perceived value of your company.
