Photo Shoot Your Way to Sales Growth

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The way you visually represent your company can affect your sales growth. We look at how using original photography makes a big difference in your bottom line.

If you want to differentiate your business from your competition, then look no further than the images on your company website. Stock photography litters the Internet, and often the same generic models-as-business-people smile out from competing businesses.

In theory, saving money on stock photography seems logical, especially for cash-strapped SMBs. And while studies show that websites with photos of happy people can do wonders for a company’s bad reputation, stock photography is a short-term fix that doesn’t yield any ROI.

According to an article by Joe Taylor at Small Business Computing, investing in high-quality, professional photographs—of staff and of products—can drive business, boost sales conversions and help you stand out in a competitive field. These tips show you how.

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Authentic Images Build Trust and Rapport

Web-usability expert Jakob Nielsen and professional photographer Alina Vincent agree. People respond better to pictures of real employees on websites. People tend to ignore website images that don’t ring true, and instead will spend about 10 percent more time looking at company photos of real employees.

It’s not surprising that a photographer would recommend a professional photo shoot, but Vincent posits that photos of your real employees will help you build a stronger rapport with potential customers. Go beyond the staid headshot; include a variety of images and settings that you can use on websites, catalogs, ads, billboards and brochures.

Pro Shots Drive Business

Perhaps your business deals more with products than with services. If so, high-quality product shots are essential if you want to increase sales conversions. Karen Lee, an expert on Etsy, says the quality of your product shots can mean the difference between business success and failure. She recommends shooting with indirect light and taking the time to consider each shot—including appropriate backdrops and props. The goal is to reveal the story behind each item and help it evoke a desired lifestyle.

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Composition Helps Converts Sales

Everything, from how you use color to how you position the images on your website, can influence your customers’ buying decisions. For example, the Four Seasons website doesn’t use red in its marketing photography. Instead, the design team reserves the color red only for call-to-action buttons, thus making them more noticeable and compelling.

If you really want to encourage people to click on a button, let photos make the subtle suggestion for you; position an image of a person on the webpage so that the subject’s eyes are looking at the button. Studies show that positioning the human gaze in this way increases clicks and conversions.

Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of Small Business Computing. Follow Lauren on Twitter.

Adapted from Boost Sales Conversions with Original Photograph, by Joe Taylor at Small Business Computing. Follow Small Business Computing on Twitter.