Stock photography and your website

When it comes to building or updating a website, it is crucial to use only components that will have a positive impact. A great website is easy to use and has relevant text, but the single most important aspect is the images.

The use of stock pictures is always a false economy. As a full time professional commercial and editorial photographer, I will admit that the initial cost of custom photography will be higher than that of stock pictures. I will however guarantee that the return on investment (ROI) for bespoke images will be hugely more significant.

Value Cars Group - Executive Connection

There are many reasons why custom images are preferred over stock images; below are my top 5 reasons why custom photography is the better choice.

1. Your views "a picture is worth a thousand words"

No matter how professional the stock photo may be, it will always belong to someone else’s interpretation of the idea, concept, emotion, etc. After all the saying is, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” When it comes to your website, why would you want those words to be someone else’s?

When it comes to custom images created solely for your business YOU have control over what thoughts and emotions those images convey, and from a marketing perspective that is HUGE for your business!

To put the above into perspective, think of the emotions, experiences and memories you gain when you look back at past holiday pictures. Would you feel the same way looking at someone else's holiday photos? The answer is no (at least it should be), this is because it is not personal, it is someone else's view.

When it comes to evoking the required emotion from all potential clients who visit your website, custom images created just for your business will hands down beat stock photography.

Total Foot Health

2. Classic original versus same-old.

The greatest benefit to you and your business that comes with custom images is that it presents you with the opportunity to show your potential clients something they have never seen before and make a lasting impression.

When potential clients visit your website for the first time, their immediate reaction should be "OH WOW!” As a business owner you are wanting to grab the attention of your visitor and get them to explore your website further.  The way to do just that is with original photography that immediately shows them something they have never seen before. Showing them custom images, you are already going a long way to helping establish your own unique identity and promote the image of your company that you want to stick in your visitors mind. This is simply not achievable with stock photography, because stock photos are used over and over again on multiple websites.

Lascar

3. Short-term cost or long-term investment

As I stated earlier in this post, hiring a professional photographer will have larger initial cost than using stock photos, but the benefits will far out way the costs. Having images of yourself, and your staff, provide visitors with a view of who they are talking to when they call. This makes it easier to have that initial chat and start to build a relationship.

There can also be many indirect costs associated with stock photos that go beyond the licensing fee. These additional costs can be quite high depending on the quality of the image, how often you wish to use it,and what you want to use it for. You also have the added cost in time of scouring through hundreds, or potentially thousands of photos to find the “perfect photo” for your website.

Professional custom photography, allows you to build a library of images that you own completely and can use in perpetuity.

The Body Lounge

4. Be GREAT, don't settle for GOOD enough.

Before you begin to think about images and photography, before you even start thinking about your vision for your new website, you have (or should have) done research to identity the goals/objectives for your website. What message it is you want give across to your potential viewers and potential clients? What actions do you want the website visitors to take when on your website.

Where custom photography is concerned, you are assured of having the images that are perfect for your business website and that the message you want to deliver is clear. When it comes to your business only the best should be considered good enough.

Richard Griffiths and Co

5. Direct customer connection takes on “Yeah right, pal”

You will find that every website you ever click on will have a ‘Contact us’ or ‘Customer service’ section. This should be a standard page for your site, but it should also be a personal one. For example, you go to a website and there is an image of a sales agent on the contact us page… now look again, does it genuinely look like a happy employee who legitimately works for that company or have you seen it before on someone else’s website?

Professional photos of your team will let visitors know that your website is personal, and directed at the one visitor who made the click. Those companies using stock images will look like everyone else.

The Car Network

When building your new website, remember that small cash savings now could very well have a much greater cost down the road.  Using stock images over custom photography is one of those areas.  If you want to learn more about how John Rose Photography can help you increase engagement and trust, call us on 01722 320500 we will be more than happy to assist.

 

 

WHAT?

So we've been through my WHY!

I want to create images for businesses that help them engage with clients. I want to show their clients how good they are, how good and trustworthy they are, I want to work with forward thinking businesses that value the time, effort and passion I put into every image I create. That is my WHY!

Proterra Limited

And my HOW!

As a professional commercial photographer I have a four step approach to creating amazing images for my clients. The listening stage and the research stage being my how!

Richard Griffiths and Co

So now to my WHAT!

I have listened and researched, and have clarity on the message that is required, so we now move onto the creative stage.

Vita Skin Spa

The creative stage is exactly what it says on the tin, it's where I look at putting the ideas I have gathered in all the previous stages and turn them into an image design. The results of this stage depend on where and how the images will be used, and of course my clients budget. In creating the images I have to ensure I balance the cost of producing them, to the investment (ROI) my client will be making. There is absolutely no point in having an amazing campaign if it costs more to produce than they can make in bottom line profits.

Trethowans LLP

I have listened, researched, created, and now I have moved to the final stage, which is the production stage. This is where the idea becomes reality, and I produce the image(s) to give the desired outcome. The outcome can of course be a myriad of things from engagement, sales, social interaction, bums on seats if they are having a conference, the list is endless. At the end of this stage the client will have an image, or images that they will be able to use freely and without further license, for as long as they are able to give the message they want them to give.

So that's it, my, WHY! HOW! WHAT! used to power John Rose Photography's client care.

MG Cannon

I hope you have enjoyed reading this short series of posts. Now that you know a little more about John Rose Photography Limited. Please do leave a comment, I am very interested to know what you feel about this series.

Holiday Inn - Stonehenge

If you have a question post it in the comments and I will answer it personally. If you would like to talk to me about how I can create an image to help you and your business grow, please do get in touch by clicking here or telephoning 01722 320500.

Salisbury Plain Military Wives Choir

I am very passionate about what I do, and the results I present to my clients. If you know someone that would benefit from a no obligation chat with me then please do forward my details and I will be pleased to talk to them.

State of Play

HOW?

Okay, so last week I posted my WHY, so this week I will tell you about my HOW.

Also known as a businesses Unique Selling Point (USP), Differential Value Proposition or Proprietary Process your HOW is what you can do that no one else can do, or do as well.

So what it my HOW? Or maybe it should be what is JRP's HOW.

Either way I guess the same answer will apply as it is about ethics and professionalism and how our aim is to help businesses grow, engage, and ultimately gain more of the right clients for them.

So HOW do we do it.

We have a four step approach to creating amazing images for our clients. The listening stage, the research stage, the creative stage, and finally the production stage. The first two are without doubt our HOW, the final two being our WHAT. So for this post we will be concentrating on the listening and researching stages.

I guess the biggest, most important part of the whole process we go through with our clients is the 'listening' stage. This is where we pull all of the details about what message you want to give when a someone sees the images. It is not just enough to create an image, it has to be an image that sends the correct message. An image that makes the viewer think a particular thing, that thing being what you want them to think about your business or product. Once we have gained an insight into the message you want the image to give, we can move onto the research stage.

The research stage is where we look for inspiration, or if we already have an array of ideas, the clarity and reassurance that the ideas we have are going to deliver the message in an easily understandable way. This stage may require a further meeting or discussion with you, to discuss our ideas.

A much shorter post this time, but I hope this insight into my, or JRPs HOW have helped to clarify HOW we create the perfect image for your company. If you've watched the full Simon Sinek talk in my post about our WHY, you have probably worked out the last in this series of posts will be WHAT we do.

Thank you for reading the second of my rambles. Please do leave a comment, I am very interested to know what you feel about HOW we do what we do. If you have a question post it in the comments and I will answer it. If you would like to talk to me about how I can create an image to help you and your business grow, please do get in touch by clicking here or telephoning 01722 320500.

WHY?

It is said that people buy your 'why' not your ‘what’ or ‘how’. Now if you haven't heard this before you're probably thinking “what the hell is he on about, surely they buy what you sell?”. I used to think that too, until I watched this video.

I've watched this a few times now and to be honest, I just couldn’t find my WHY. I came up with things like:

  • I love doing what I do

  • To make money

  • People say I'm good at it

  • I like people's reaction when they see their images

  • Now these are all good reasons for doing it, but why would anyone care about any of them; apart from, I'm good at it I guess, but they don't know that until after I've done it.

Over the last few months it has been playing on my mind that I didn't know WHY I'm a photographer. I've attended quite a few seminars and this 'WHY' seemed to keep coming up, but I didn't know WHY. I spoke to trainers and mentors about it, and they all said that although my reasons above were good ones, none of them are going to compel clients to want to engage me.

I looked at each of the genres of photography that I undertake and listed why I thought I did them, and each time I came up with the same answers. Then one day while watching training videos (I watch lots of videos by top photographers trying to improve my techniques), I realised what my WHY was.

I want to create! Now I know that's sounds obvious for someone who's in a creative business, but I want to help businesses 'Develop their image' (my new tag line by the way).  That is my WHY! I want to create images for businesses that help them engage with clients. I want to show their clients how good they are, I want to work with forward thinking businesses that value the time, effort and passion I put into every image I create.

People have always described me as a commercial photographer. I don't know why as I used to do more social photography than anything, but I now know why. I think they have been seeing my WHY when I couldn't. They have seen my passion for commercial photography and helping businesses, when I couldn't. You see I thought I was a social photographer, and don't get me wrong I love doing weddings and portraits, and I give the same care and attention to their shoots as I do to all my clients, but my passion really is commercial. OK I'm starting to ramble a bit now, but that is because every time I start to talk about finally finding my WHY I get so very excited.

Since finding my WHY and starting to relax with it, I have found a new lease of life. I will still continue to do weddings and portraits if asked, but I will limit those to couples I connect with, and who really do want ME to do it. I have limited my wedding commitments to a maximum of 10 full day weddings over the last couple of years and will reduce this further over the next couple of years to 5, but I can assure anyone engaging me to shoot their wedding that it will be an amazing experience for us all.

So to the future. I have already explained WHY but not what it means for John Rose Photography.

Well, I have already created a new commercial website, johnrose.photography which showcases some of the commercial photography I have been doing. In the next few months I will be moving premises. It's still at old Sarum and has free parking but I will now have a unit to myself. This will give me much more room as I will have the whole of the ground floor as studio space, which in turn will allow me to be more creative with how and what I shoot. It also has direct ground floor studio access which will allow for larger projects.

So the future for John Rose Photography is in the commercial world, with an occasional dip into the wedding and portrait markets. We will still shoot charity and commercial events but these will, in the main, be all inclusive pre-paid events with the images being supplied to the event organiser, or printed for guests on the night.

Our current school photography will be separated to become its own entity, although in the early days it is quite possible I will be doing a lot of the photography. As this part of the business grows I will bring in other photographers who have been trained by me to undertake the work in the same manner I always have.

Thank you for reading my ramble. Please do leave a comment, I am very interested to know what you feel about the proposed changes. If you have a question please post it in the comments and I will answer. If you would like to talk to me about how I can help you and your business create your message in images, please do get in touch.

Click image to visit new commercial website