Why do businesses need good photography?
If you are a manufacturer or a construction company, or indeed any b2b company there are a number of reasons why it is worth investing in some high quality photography. This doesn’t need to cost thousands of pounds, but simply booking a commercial photographer with expertise in your area for even just half a day can make a huge difference ... and here’s why.
It increases your media coverage
Without a doubt, good quality photography is worth its weight in media coverage. PR Photographers are skilled in providing images to the right size and with the right composition to attract the news or business pages. If a poor quality or low resolution photograph is supplied with, say, a business investment or acquisition story, there is a chance that story will not receive the coverage it deserves. Sent to journalists with a professional pic attached significantly increases the chances of that story achieving either a front page in the business section, or being extended into a larger feature article. It is never false economy to spend money on a photographer for a ‘big’ story and here at Dragonfly PR we have excellent relationships with industrial and commercial photographers, so can recommend someone, whilst offering well negotiated rates.
It gives you a more professional image
All too often these days, the photography budget is cut and companies risk not being able to convey a professional image. The best websites are usually the ones where a company has invested in some great photography and this really brings these sites alive, boosting their credibility. With the agreement of the photographer, these images can usually be used with your press releases, product literature, thought leadership features, blogs and on social media. For a relatively small investment, your company is then able to get across its professional image through striking, impactful imagery – something that is worth every penny.
It enhances the relationship with the media
A pet hate of journalists is people sending them poor quality photography, which they quickly disregard as unusable. If we are able to consistently supply high quality photography with our PR stories for clients then it enhances the relationship between our clients and the media. This means they are far more likely to run their stories and to ask them for industry comment or to provide thought leadership material or online content. As a PR agency, it’s our job to make our clients look good and this can often start with a good bank of pics!
A photographer can achieve things which we cannot do alone!
On occasion one of our clients will say ‘we’ve got a really enthusiastic person in our team whose an amateur photographer, he takes photos at weddings in his spare time, so we think he’d be great at doing some PR shots’. This kind of statement can strike fear into any PR person as the chances are the photos will not be of the required quality for the media. A good photographer has an eye for detail and can set up an arrangement of people, products or both to ensure it is not over-branded and has the right composition to get across exactly what the story is about in a quirky and interesting way. Photographers can be quite forceful with what they want to achieve, but an experienced photographer knows what the media will run and can get the best out of the people involved – that’s what we pay them for and that’s why they are worth paying for!
Good quality photography can last a lifetime
For many of our manufacturing, rail and business to business clients, we have worked with them for almost 15 years and in some cases, photos are still being used from over a decade ago. A good photograph can last a lifetime and can be used by many trade, consumer and regional media. As a PR agency, we have nothing to gain financially from recommending use of a commercial photographer and are happy to pass on contacts directly, wherever possible. The reason we advise clients to invest in photography is that, ultimately it makes them look good, it helps them to achieve their PR and marketing objectives and it ensures that they secure a higher level of media coverage.
If you would like to discuss how to maximise your PR coverage in the trade media, business to business press or regional or national papers, why not contact our PR team on 01709 300130 or email hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.