Why should I consider hiring a professional photographer to maximise the benefits of the Trading Online Voucher?
Thanks to the LEO Trading Online Voucher scheme, many businesses have been helped adapt their businesses and update their online presence to sell online. Many companies have started websites and began trading online for the first time, and others are realising their business website is not as modern and attractive as it should be. If you’re taking advantage of the Local Enterprise Office’s trading online voucher, make the most of your new and improved website by investing in some high-quality professional images to show off your property or products. A professional photographer is invaluable. Your chosen photographer should be experienced in staging, managing, and capturing the atmosphere of a property, making sure potential clients are interested and excited about your business products and services!
Your New Website
If you’re planning a new website, where do you begin? Some of the key elements of your new website include easy & user-friendly navigation, recognisable company branding, excellent written content and information that is easy to understand and use. You’ll also need to decide on a high-quality aesthetic and the overall feeling you want your website will give a potential customer. The best way to do this is to invest in new imagery of your product, showing off the very best of your brand and helping you stand out from the crowd. Low resolution, poor quality pictures won’t make your website feel unique; investing in your imagery will enhance your brand reputation from the very beginning of your buyer’s journey.
Your Brand
Before you launch, make sure your company has a strong and unique brand that will resonate with customers and make you stand out in an already crowded marketplace. Define your target audience, your business goals, your company persona, and the key message that you want your website to convey. Decide what you want the ‘feel’ of your website to be (in line with your persona and audience) and make sure to convey this to your photographer so they can work to make the images align. For example, if your business is aimed at families, your photography should feel comfortable and inviting. For a corporate client, your images will look more polished, clean and professional.
Your Product
What makes your product stand out from the crowd? What makes you better than your competitive set? No matter if your USP is your amazing bed linen or your state-of-the-art spa facilities, your website images need to show that your USP is head and shoulders above the rest. Make a list of what makes you special and a list of images you’d like featured on your website. Giving this to your photographer on the day of a shoot means their focus is exactly where you want it. A shot list is very important too, making you have enough pictures of each product or location as you’re hoping for. Don’t be afraid to ask for my professional advice, I have been producing excellent results for many years and am happy to help.
Marketing through Images
When you trade online, you often don’t use the more traditional marketing tools, like print or merchandising, but your ‘shop’ is still open 24 hours a day on your website. Your online photography is your shop window and it helps you to connect with your customers. 90% of all information that we absorb comes to our brains in visual form. Images help to attract attention and an eye-catching image will resonate with your audience long after they have left your website. Images, much like smells and sounds, draw a potential customer in on an emotional level, helping them to visualise themselves enjoying your product or service.
Types Of Website Images
Depending on the aesthetic of your website, there are many different types of images you may want to feature. We specialise in commercial photography and have experience in many different styles, including:
- Theme photos – such as weddings, restaurants, lobby area, outdoors, golfing etc.
- Demonstration Photos – showing you how to complete a task.
- Photos of Products – if you have an e-commerce website, showing pictures of your product or service and its use can help create a visual memory in the mind of a potential customer.
- Staff Headshots – professional pictures of staff, ideal for LinkedIn profiles and brochures. These are also important to give your company a friendly face.
- Candid Photos – to show images of your staff during their everyday working life, doing their jobs, like a friendly face serving a coffee to a customer.
Once our final editing is complete and you are happy with the result, your high-resolution images are yours to use as you please. They can be used as full website images, thumbnails for blog posts, banner pictures or for printing in brochures or media. Contact Tadhg Nathan today to see how professional images on your website will help your company.
