I have to admit I am guilty of overstocking. That’s why I want to help you overcome it. I know it’s not easy. When you have quality photos and video clips at your fingertips, of course you select that beautifully lit photo and demographically correct image to help sell your product or service.
But I want you to reconsider, and invest in your brand with personalized imagery and video. And, shameless plug, of course we do our own video and photography in-house.
So many of us in the service business position ourselves on our personalized service. Then why would we have images on our website, social feeds and videos of other people? Why would we show stock photos of people shaking hands or meeting in a conference room? Can’t we shake hands ourselves or have our own staff meetings?
It’s time to take the road less traveled and showcase ourselves, again.
It’s all about planning.
A good photo shoot when well-planned and scheduled can fulfill your photo needs for six months to a year. You schedule a photographer to come out and set up in your office and take all new professional headshots. Then you have them take candid shots of your people. And of course you had given your people plenty of preparation to be groomed and manicured, and you suggested they bring multiple outfits. You then have some clients visit, or even better yet you go to them with your photographer to capture some images with them.
It doesn’t have to cost a month’s rent.
With advances in technology, professional photography is not limited to a select few. We have utilized plenty of photographers over the years, and there’s no substitute for high-end creativity and experience. But we’re not looking to hang our images in galleries. No, we want nice personalized photos for our websites and social feeds. You can find a really good photographer, right out of any of the many local art schools, who would love to show you how creative and professional they are. I can attest to this fact.
It’s just a matter of doing.
Look, I know it’s far easier to take that stock photo off of one of the many online stock image galleries. And I’m glad you’re no longer just ripping off photos from the Internet anymore; there is software out there that scans websites for copyrighted images. And it’s not like there’s never a place for stock images. But if they can take it, so can you. So, go through your website and start making a list of all the stock photos you have in place of your current staff. It’s just time to get it done, and not wait any longer.
Your brand is too important.