Lately, we’ve been helping several customers with their visual marketing campaigns. One of our major objectives in marketing is to communicate the experience that our clients are selling – the sensory experience – through visual marketing. Throughout these projects, we’ve been reminded of the necessity of great photography to a successful brand image and visual marketing campaign.
In journalism school, my professor used to repeatedly say that the key to a great story was "show don’t tell." You can promise quality, service and reliability all day long. But your customers and prospects won’t believe it until they experience the difference firsthand.
How can you show your unique experience in a unique sensory way? How can you share the experience and prove its worth prior to the customer setting foot on your property? With photography.
But not just any photography will do, though. Poor, amateurish photography will communicate a sloppy or less than premier customer experience. Great professional level photography, however, conveys the texture, emotion, details… the real "feeling" of an experience – all using a combination of subject, context, light, and perspective to create a masterpiece for marketing. And what does great photography cost you?
Only a little time with a photographer and a few hundred dollars. The outcome will be a CD of photos that will serve as the backbone for a marketing campaign (web, print, instore signage, etc.) for months to come.
This photography will provide a return on investment when properly implemented like no other marketing investment you can make – because it is the tool that MAKES the media work. The photography becomes the message you send out via various media – a message that speaks louder than words.
Last week, Andy had the opportunity to supervise a photo shoot where we had freelance photographer Cathy Waugh do some lightbox photography for Lovie’s Tea Bar & Gift Boutique. The outcome made me want to reach out and take a tasty bite. Kathy is the best to work with, and she is a true pro – Andy grabbed this cool shot of Cathy in action…
Next week, the new Taste of Gourmet catalog will be distributed nationwide featuring the photography of Warren Husband, a former Belhaven College classmate of mine. This is the shot that made the cover of the catalog fabulous. Warren did a fantastic job capturing the flavors of the Taste of Gourmet product line for their catalog – part of a total re-branding project that we’ve been working on since June. The photos truly are selling the product on the web site, the blog, email marketing, print catalog, print advertisements and more… Talk about getting lots of miles out of a photo shoot. These photos truly fulfill the "show don’t tell" rule.
Small Business Marketing Tip: Invest in marketing where it will really have an impact – make sure you’re message is worth sending out – sell your experience through photography. Show don’t tell.
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