Another Cheap Stock Picture Fail

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A Canadian federal election will happen in about six weeks. In its campaigning, the Conservative Party apparently likes to use cheap stock pictures in its marketing.

On at least four occasions, those stock pictures, and stock video, had nothing to do with Canada or with what the political party was trying to promote. All the photos were shot in other countries.

No one at the Conservative Party probably gave any thought to using cheap stock pictures other than “they’re cheap!” The pictures have now backfired and the party has become an even bigger punchline.

The wealthy Conservative Party could’ve hired Canadian photographers to shoot timely pictures of real Canadian subjects in Canada. The party could’ve stood behind its words by supporting Canadian small business. It could have led by example. But the Conservatives decided it wasn’t worth it.

Sadly, this is not the first time a political party has done this.

Every business should know this by now: cheap stock pictures don’t work, they do not create a unique message, they’re boring to look at. Oh wait. Maybe that is the message of the Conservative Party.

When you cut corners by using cheap stock photos, you fool no one but yourselves. Stock pictures are worthless when you’re trying to build credibility and trust.

 

Budget, budget, wherefore art thou?

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What every photographer knows, and seemingly few clients understand, is that every photo can be shot in many, many different ways and each can have a very different cost.

When looking to hire a photographer, a few clients will initially refuse to reveal the exact details of their photo project. Some other clients may not know the details or they haven’t fully decided what they want. Nevertheless, the photographer is expected to give a price for a job they know little about.

When you’re trying to figure out and price a photo job that doesn’t have complete information, the advice often given is that you should ask the client for their budget and use that as a guideline. But if you ask, “What’s your budget for this project,” the client may answer with something like:
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Game Face

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LinkedIn offers each user a personalized page of potential connections titled “People You May Know.” From a quick look today at my page of potential business connections (I’ve blacked out personal names and company names), I don’t recognize any of these people:

If any of those faces look like you, perhaps it’s time to put on your game face.

 

Experience or Just Service?

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With many photographers in your area using similar equipment, offering similar services, and having similar websites, how do you set yourself apart? After visiting a few websites, potential customers may assume all photographers are the same.

What can you do to stand out? Create a flashier website? Offer deeper discounts? Invest in trendy backdrops or lighting accessories?

None of these are long term solutions.

Instead, focus on understanding your customer more deeply. What are they really looking for when they search for a photographer? What concerns or constraints do they have when hiring one? What do they expect when working with a photographer? And how do they want to use the photos you deliver? These considerations have nothing to do with shutter speeds, pixel counts, or focal lengths.

This isn’t about customer service but rather it’s about customer experience (link to PDF). The two are not the same.

In short, customer experience is the overall impression a customer takes away from their interaction with your business. For a photographer, this experience often begins the moment a potential client visits your website. Customer service, while an important part of the experience, refers specifically to what a business does for the customer.

By improving your customer experience and gaining a deeper understanding of your clients’ needs, you can become their photographer of choice, more so than any new gear or price discount could ever achieve.

 

Choosing cheap photography

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Two examples of bad photography decisions:

• The City of Toronto’s web site has a page promoting its new Pan Am BMX course that was used in the recent 2015 Pan Am Games. The photo shows a number of female competitors lined up at the starting gate.

The problems with the photo are that the event shown is not from the Pan Am Games, the track is not the city’s new BMX course and the location isn’t even in Toronto. Oops.

Some sports web sites in South America assumed this really was a Pan Am photo and used it in their news articles about the Pan Am BMX event. To be fair, those South American web sites were probably confused since the Toronto Pan Am Games itself initially used the same handout(?) picture on its BMX pages. Oops.
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Canadian Readership Numbers

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A couple months ago, the Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank) and the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) released their Spring 2015 survey of readership numbers for its member newspapers and magazines.

If you need readership (not circulation) numbers of some Canadian newspapers and magazines to help with your photography pricing, then have a look at this list which uses 2014 data. Readership numbers are typically much higher than the corresponding print circulation numbers.

This is more for commercial photography that will appear in these publications and not so much for editorial. While many publications have “fixed” rates for editorial photography, some do have wiggle room to negotiate higher rates.

The days of pricing photography based on circulation still exist but it may be more accurate to price based on readership, especially since that’s how some publications charge their advertisers.

 

Pricing photography for social media

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In the old days, photographers priced their photography based on its type of usage. Generally speaking, editorial has the lowest price, public relations and corporate have a mid-range price and advertising has the highest price.

This worked quite well for 45 years or so. Then someone invented Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

With social media, the line between editorial, corporate and advertising can be nearly invisible. When a company publishes pictures on Facebook et al., is that editorial, public relations or advertising?

Every type of business communication is a form of marketing. At the very least, social media should be considered public relations rather than pure editorial even though it may use an editorial style of photography.
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