For Customers

Why you should avoid cheap pictures

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In case you missed the memo: it’s a waste of your time and money for your business to use cheap stock photos. A company that chooses cheap pictures is fooling no one but themselves. Cheap photography can harm both your business image and your bottom line, (which means “cheap” actually costs too much).

Here’s some proof pudding:

A study using eye-tracking technology was released yesterday by Jakob Nielsen, titled “Photos as Web Content”. Important points to note:

• Bland stock images on web sites are completely ignored by users.

• Feel-good images that are purely decorative are mostly ignored.

• Stock photos of generic people are intentionally disregarded.

• Photos of real people, (as opposed to stock pictures of models), are viewed as important information.

• Pictures of key people at a business are very important. Business portraits are always a win for the company.

Conclusion of the study: “Invest in good photo shoots: a great photographer can add a fortune to your Web site’s business value.”

Do your business a favour and call your local corporate or commercial photographer today. A professional photographer is worth much more than what they cost.

 

More useless media handouts

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For his visit to Toronto, the Dalai Lama has come and gone. Some of his events were open to the media and some others were closed to the media but open to the public and their cameras. It also appears that some closed events weren’t really closed. Organizers just forgot to include them in the media itinerary.

The organizers released almost five dozen handout pictures all at once, covering all three days of the visit, at 11 PM on Sunday, the last day of the visit.
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The four-letter F-word

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If you search the web for the most powerful words used in marketing, the most cited word, as you might guess, is the four-letter F-word, “free”. Certainly, the word free can get customer attention but is it really effective in making sales?

The F-word is so overused these days, that we almost automatically tune it out. We know that any e-mail which starts with “FREE” is spam and any web banner ad that yells “FREE!” is a waste of time. We also know that nothing is really free, there’s always a catch. Free will get attention, but it’s never taken seriously.
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Another Public Relations Failure

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Canadian company Communitech today launched its Communitech Hub in Kitchener, Ontario. From its press release:

The Hub . . . is now home to start-up companies, small-medium enterprises, and global multi-nationals all aiming to accelerate the pace of development of new ideas and products in the digital media sector.

…leading-edge facility…

…will help launch more made-in-Ontario companies…

…state-of-the-art facility for digital innovation…

…the commercialization of innovation in Waterloo Region…

…dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in Digital Media…

Sounds good so far.

So how does this company promote the opening of its new, multi-multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art facility dedicated to Canadian innovation in digital media?
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What photographers need you to know

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Many clients may already know these things but here’s some information that photographers need you to know (in no particular order):

• When a photographer doesn’t answer the phone right away or doesn’t respond immediately to your e-mail, it usually means they’re busy on a job. The photographer is not ignoring you. Some photography can run all day or longer. We devote 100% of our attention to the client and job at hand. Please leave a message. Your call really is important to us.

• Depending on your proposed photo project, it might take from 30 minutes to several days to produce a full and proper photo estimate. Photographers cannot give an off-the-cuff or ballpark price because it’s meaningless. We have to figure out every step of the proposed work before completing the estimate. This benefits you. We put everything in writing. This benefits you.
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!,.? – “…” [ (;) ]

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Yes, you guessed it. Today, Friday September 24 is National Punctuation Day in the USA. Someday, maybe Canada will realize the importance of punctuation and adopt this as a new national holiday.

Here are some official tips on how to celebrate.

Pick any two

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Remember the consumer saying: “Good, fast, cheap. Pick any two.”

A similar saying is: “High quality, low price, good customer service. Pick any two.”

Of course, we want all three. But that elusive combination doesn’t seem to exist.

When a customer tells a photographer that their photo fees are too expensive, the photographer should then ask: “Okay, I can can give you a lower price but what do you want to give up, quality or service?”

Customers who only shop price are customers that a photographer can live without. These people don’t value a photographer’s work.

Bargain hunters don’t understand that a cheaper price only guarantees them of getting less for less.

What a photography assignment might cost is always less than what it will cost from not having that photography done at all.

Many businesses don’t realize that most commercial photography doesn’t really cost anything. If $1500 worth of photography helps generate $20,000 worth of business, then there was no cost for the photography. The photography was a business investment where the company put money into itself.

 

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