Most Photographers Just Don't Get It

The purpose of your images should always be to increase sales. They should be eye-catching, convey quality and create desire. 

Unfortunately, many professional photographers, graphic designers, creative directors and ad agencies just don't get it. They get so caught up in their desire to "be creative", win an award or copy the latest fad that they totally miss the point. They forget that the whole reason they're hired is to increase sales.

Buyers are bombarded with information, overworked and more than a little busy. They'll search for a particular product or service and they'll compare your website or brochure with your competitors. Most will quickly scan your materials and look at the photos to get a feel for the quality of your company and what you're selling. 

Because we think in pictures (think of your car - does an image come into thought or do words?), images influence perceptions. You'd better have images that convey quality, create desire and build trust. Images that are at least as good as your major competitors and preferably better.

The photos you use create powerful perceptions of your products or service. High quality professional photos provide a great return on your investment through increased sales.

Images that aren't high quality create the perception of an second rate company and cheap products. The money you think you're saving is small compared to the sales you'll lose.

Images that increase sales will return profits that far exceed their modest cost. Cheap shots  will cause you to lose sales without you even knowing it.

How much should you budget for your photography?

This is a key question that buyers need to ask themselves before hiring a photographer.

A skilled photographer may be able to create a much better image in 5 minutes than a less skilled photographer could create in an hour. Nevertheless, every image, every piece of art, is going to reflect the thought, time and energy that goes into it.

It's said that Leonardo da Vinci spent 4 years on the Mona Lisa. Now, I'm sure that that wasn't continuous effort. It probably sat in a corner for a while and he'd look at it and think "That fingernail could look better" and then change it. At the same time, he was a great sketcher. Are his sketches as good as his paintings? Of course not. He put much less thought, time and energy into them.

Likewise, with photography, I can crank out a quick snapshot or spend a day or more creating a single image between photography and Photoshop.

When my clients come to me and ask for a quote, the major question in my mind is "What is the proper amount of time that I should devote to each image?" What drives my decisions (and the buyer should also be thinking of this) is "What approach is likely to give the buyer the highest return on their investment?"

If a company's use of a photo is for internal use then they should probably take their own photos or buy cheap stock photos. They just need a "sketch".

But if a business wants images that will attract customers, enhance perceptions and increase sales then it's a whole different ball game. They should spend enough to ensure that their marketing materials and websites are effective. People compare websites and brochures to decide where to buy. Because we buy with our eyes, the importance of the photos can hardly be overstated.

However, you don't want to overspend on photography either, you want to maximize your return on investment.

You need to figure out:

How much profit is involved in an average sale?

How many times a year does an average buyer make a purchase?

How many years do we keep an average customer?

Multiply those three numbers together and you get the value of an average customer to your business.

With that number in mind, you can make a much more informed choice on what you should be spending to get new customers and how much you should spend on photography.

Think of it as buying a customer. If an average customer has a value of $2500 to you would you be wise or foolish to try and save money by hiring a cheap photographer? If the photos that they took brought in just one less customer a year, your savings would be more than wiped out - those photos would be costing you more in lost business the longer you used them.

Another way of looking at it is this - if you go with a cheaper photographer, the most you stand to gain is the difference in price from the better photographer. The amount you can lose from lost sales may be much greater. They may make your marketing ineffective. If you go with better photos, the most you could possibly lose is the difference in price from the cheaper photographer, but the potential upside from increased sales they bring is unlimited.

The better you understand what new customers are worth to you, the better you can communicate to your photographer how good the images need to be to accomplish your goals. Let him or her know what you're trying to accomplish with your photos. Then you'll get an estimate that better reflects the type of image you should be using.

What if fast food restaurants took their own photos?

Imagine that you're standing at the counter looking at a display of these photos before ordering. On the wall are large photos of all of the things you can order.

What would they look like?

How much money do you think they'd save?

How would it affect their sales?

Would it entice you to eat there?

There's a very good reason they don't do their own photography.

Next time you think you'll save some money by having an employee do your photos, think again. It's not about the camera.

The camera doesn't matter (all that much).

Camera manufacturer's would like you to believe that if you use their best cameras that your photos will look great. Because of their advertising, many foolishly believe that it's the camera that creates the image and it doesn't matter too much who's behind it.

It doesn't work that way. Cameras don't make great photos any more than Steinway pianos make great music or word processors create great writing. Great photographers bring a mastery of lighting, color, design, psychology, problem solving, pre-visualization and many other skills to the table. Like a chain, the end result will only be as good its weakest link. It's usually not the the camera that's the weak link.

Photographers abilities vary immensely. Anyone can say they're a professional photographer, just as they can say they're a great singer. Many delude themselves into thinking that they're a good photographer because they have a good digital camera and occasionally get decent shots. 

There are millions of them. I call it the American Idol effect. Just like the tens of thousands of people who go to the tryouts and get upset when their "talent" isn't recognized. They believe they're great when in fact, they're usually really bad. It just goes to show how difficult it is to judge ourselves, the true test is how others judge us. People who aren't friends or relatives. People in the business who are qualified to judge. 

If you were to contact any of those tens of thousands of people, they'd tell you they're great. Your chances of choosing an excellent one would be slim to none. It's the same with hiring a photographer who's inexperienced. 

If your images are important, make sure you hire someone with lots of experience and a great track record as a professional commercial photographer.

One way to save money on photography.

Usually I advise my clients to trim their photography costs by limiting their shot list to those images that are the most essential and strategic to their positioning. Sometimes however, clients still have a lot of images that they want to capture in one day.

The only way to do this is to spend much less time setting up each image. To accomplish this I use both my "Naturalight" technique which relies on minimal additional lighting and digital enhancement. 

Here are some sample images from a one day shoot (plus a half day of post-production).  My client had moved to new facilities and wanted images for several purposes - some to show that they are a major player in their industry (which they are) and some for internal uses such as employee recruitment. 

With the help of an assistant, slightly over twenty set-ups were shot that day. The image that took the longest was in the server room - which required lighting.

While these images are not as dramatic as ones with extensive lighting, I show them to demonstrate that it's possible to communicate a very positive image of your operations without spending hours setting up and lighting each photograph.

(Click on any of the images to see them larger.)

Do you want the best price or the best value?

If you wanted to hire someone to design your website would you choose whoever quoted the lowest price or the one that you felt would deliver the best value? Smart buyers buy on value.

Understand that you're paying for the skill, knowledge and experience of the designer. You're not really interested in just buying a website, you're really looking to buy a medium to increase sales. If you paid a designer to build you a website and that website didn't bring in new customers would you be happy with it? Of course not.

When hiring designers, writers or photographers, don't make the foolish mistake of thinking that they're all the same. Choose someone who's skilled, knowledgable, creative and has a marketing mindset. Remember, it's not creative unless it sells.

Marketing done properly will make you money; it's not an expense, it's an investment. It's the most important function of your business. It brings in new customers. It increases sales.

Transforming the ordinary

Too often, companies think that what they have to photograph is too ordinary and not worth shooting. With the right viewpoint and the right light, nothing is ordinary - everything is extraordinary.

 This image was created for a business to business ad for a manufacturer and distributer of party supplies. 

Great photos can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.  They capture attention, convey quality, build trust and create desire. And they're memorable. 

Don't think for a second that you'll save money by doing it yourself or hiring whoever is the cheapest.  If the images are part of your efforts to gain new customers it's false economy to go cheap. Shoot cheap and you'll look like a third rate operation. Don't believe me? Buy a balloon; photograph it; compare. If your image falls short, then anything else you shoot would fall short of how it could look too.

Perception is everything. Cheap photos won't attract new customers. The money you'll save that day pales in comparison with the income you'll lose by failing to attract new customers. Great photos aren't an expense, they're an investment. 

Cut costs or increase your income?

Many businesses foolishly focus on reducing expenses. Now, it's true that you need to be wise, but how much can you cut and still stay in business? Probably the most you can add to the bottom line this way and still keep your doors open is 10 or 20%. 

If you want to substantially increase your profit, you've got to increase your income, and you do that with marketing. Marketing is not an expense, it's an investment. Paper towels are an expense.

Properly done, marketing returns much more in profits than it costs. If you were at a slot machine that continually paid back $200 for every $100 dollars that you spent would you consider putting in another $100 an expense or an investment?  As long as your slot machine called marketing is paying off, you should be putting more money into it, not less. If it's not paying off then you need to fix your marketing or fix what you're selling.

By investing in marketing the potential increase in your profits is limitless.

How to save money on photography

When hiring a photographer, have in mind a realistic list of shots that you want to accomplish. Keep in mind that the more shots you cram into a session, the average quality of each image MUST go down. The quality of your images will generally be in direct proportion to the thought, energy and time and effort that goes into planning and executing them (and your photographer's ability). There is no free lunch.

Leonardo da Vinci was a great sketcher, but he's best known for the Mona Lisa. He worked on it four years.

I personally think that there are two ways to go about saving money. The first is to use a photographer that shoots royalty-free images (as I do). That way you'll be able to build your own corporate stock library. Images that will be connected by the thread of your photographer's personal style. You'll find you can use many of them for years, re-using and re-purposing them for brochures, web, trade shows, and perhaps even office decor. Because they're shot by the same photographer, they'll have a "look" that ties them together.

The second thing to consider is this: Do you really need as many images as you think you do? Think about what images you need in order to show that you're different, that show unique capabilities, that can be used in your branding, that will help your image, that humanize your company, that can build trust and desire or communicate quality. Think benefits, benefits, benefits. Your customers don't care about you - they care about what you can do for them. 

You're better off with a smaller number of high quality images than lots of images that aren't as compelling.

There's no such thing as a cheap photo

Some people fool themselves thinking they're saving money by either shooting photos themselves, hiring a cheap photographer or buying stock photos. I'll address the specific problems with each of these choices in future posts. For the purpose of this discussion though I just want you to think about this: 

Imagine a typical sale for your business. How much is that sale worth in profit? Do you usually get repeat business? What is the average lifetime value of a customer to your company?  That's how much profits are lost every time a prospect doesn't respond to your marketing and goes elsewhere. Money lost that you're not even aware of. If you have high value clients, cheap photos can cost you a fortune.

Now when you think about those "free" or "cheap" photos you'll realize how expensive they really are. Savvy marketers understand this. 

High quality images that are strategically planned and executed to convey quality, create desire and build trust are an investment that can pay big dividends. Properly used they'll pay for themselves very quickly.