New clients frequently end up on our doorstep after using stock photography for their marketing, frustrated and trying to figure out why the images aren’t working for them. At the time, it seemed they found a good deal on what they needed at prices they wanted! But then complaints come in from customers, like how the food styling on their restaurant’s website doesn’t match their food presentation, and now they’re losing business to bad reviews.
So we ask them to sit down for a conversation, in which we always find the same issue: no matter how convenient, these picture-perfect scenes don’t capture businesses’s unique differentiators that lead to new clients.
Convenience isn’t customized
The first reason people typically turn to stock photos is pretty obvious: because it’s easy! Websites like Shutterstock make finding something a straightforward process, as long as you figure out a few basic keywords to drive your search. At the end of 2019, Stock Photo Secrets compiled a cross-platform report on the most downloaded photos. Its list included one image in particular that many in healthcare and other corporate agencies may find familiar: an older man and woman being informed by a person with a clipboard in the foreground. Tags included, “professional,” “happy,” “talking,” “people.”
Hundreds of entities used this language to communicate who they are and what they do last year. If you were one of them, then chances are that the convenient photo you found is popping up in digital and print collateral for other companies. At best, it’s by a person in a completely unrelated industry. At worst, it’s a competitor and they’re using it to greater success. Anyone can license the same stock photo, and everyone needs a photo of people on their professional teams talking and looking happy in the workplace.
Whatever the case is for your competitor, you’ve missed out on the opportunity to create custom content that reflects your value. And all it took to get started was a conversation with us about your ideas and issues.
Perfection isn’t relatable
Speaking of conversations, stock photos don’t typically start them. People often rely on stock photos to fill a gap or set a general tone; not to draw them into the company mission or provide more information. But every photo is an opportunity to grab someone’s attention, which won’t be done with a generic image of workers talking at a table.
What will catch someone’s eye as they scroll through your website, though, is a photo of people on your team working on a project together. This gives potential clients a chance to connect with those they know about what’s going on, as well as become familiar with faces and spaces they’ll encounter around your office.
One law firm we worked with took this concept a step further by inviting their actual clients to participate in our branding session. Hours were spent capturing chats between these lawyers and the people they serve, which in turn served them with photos that created a wider reach while deepening relationships.
Uniqueness isn’t celebrated
Everything about your business is unique; from its people to their processes and the products created from them. Celebrating these aspects in your photography differentiates you from competition, builds trust with potential clients, and creates informed interest about what you do.
But is there such a thing as being too unique? The short answer is no, because that’s what commercial product photographers like us are for!
We just received a call from a woman that makes hair conditioning wraps, who is finding that there’s nothing out there for her when it comes to stock photography. She’s passionate and knows what she does is valuable, because it fills a specific need for people in her community. But everything she’s found online so far of smiling people with beautiful hair feels too generic.
Successful product photography considers many things, like quality and the cost per images. But we at Kelly Ann Photography take it a step further by digging deeper into how elements like your personality, location, equipment, team, and customers all influence your success. Our process allows us to become personally familiar with where you’re coming from, so we can help create a vision for where you want to go in commercial and corporate industries.
So the next time you go to grab a convenient, perfect photo that doesn’t quite capture your unique value, check out our chart below to decide if it’s time for you to step beyond stock:
You’ve read the article, you’ve followed the flow chart, now contact us today to design your custom photo session: kellyannphotos@mac.com | 937-602-3626
