How Photography Can Improve Your Business

When starting a business, there are multiple things you need to know to manage it. One of those things is how to utilize photography to market your products and services making it vital for any business to flourish in their marketing plan. Here are 4 reasons on why photography is important for your business.

Four Different Marketing Tactics

By definition marketing means “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.” Based on an article from Asana called “19 types of marketing you should know about,” by Sarah Loayan, there are multiple ways to use photography through marketing: partnership, promotional, mail/E-mail and social media.

But first, we need to learn that marketing has two categories; B2C and B2B. B2C stands for “Business to Customer” which are businesses dealing directly with customers. B2B stands for “Business to Business” these are businesses dealing directly with other businesses. Most marketing tactics fall under one of these two categories, but there are some that can be categorized in both. Understanding this will help you understand the types of marketing and how photography is involved.

Partnership Marketing

Partnership marketing is B2B marketing. Basically, two companies come together to help one another with their product. For example, photos that can be shown to another company for presentation inside a board room or to be sent through email on progress of a product.

The partnership between companies can be close or long distance as long as the agreement is clear to both parties. Having high-quality photos when your partners are marketing your product is imperative to make a lasting and memorable impact on their following. For example, partnering with a local store to put up advertisements for your business. Photography is vital because images used must be good enough quality to fit on something larger than a screen and high enough quality it can be seen from miles away.

Another use of partnerships is advertising. For example, Illuminated Canvas a photography service partners with a wedding planner. The wedding planner can suggest Illuminated Canvas’ wedding photography services to their clients and Illuminated Canvas will tag and promote the wedding coordinators services through social media.

Now you're probably asking how photography can be related to this type of marketing. Photography can provide high-quality photos for your partners to use of their merchandise, advertisements, social content, etc. In turn, giving you a wider audience outside of who already follows you on that medium.

Merchandise Marketing

Another B2B marketing strategy is merchandise marketing, making products based on your business such as shirts or mugs with your logo. This can be done by hiring designers and photographers to make merchandise. Another way is by partnering with companies that can produce designs, which is more based on partner marketing. For example, partnering with a plushie company will give you access to making plushies. This can draw in a certain target audience if done correctly. Merchandise marketing works in two steps, direct then indirect.

Direct marketing is where you market and sell the merchandise online advertised in different ways through a photoshoot with a photographer or a video where people are wearing your merchandise, showing off your brand. It is critical to have a photographer who can help highlight your brand in this way because it leads into sales for indirect marketing.

Indirect marketing, like someone wearing a T-shirt with your company's logo marked on it is another form of merchandise marketing. Someone might get curious and ask about it. This will allow for someone to start a conversation about your service, planting a seed that may grow into something they are looking for or they might just buy the shirt because of the design.

Getting high-quality photographs of your products, merchandise, store/employees or even you, are one of the best investments you can have with your business. It draws consumers in to talk about you and what you are doing, encouraging them to talk about your business.

Mail & E-mail Marketing

Next, we have mail and E-mail marketing which can be B2B or B2C depending on who you are marketing to. This can be done through direct mail or E-mail and both have their own attributes.

Direct mail marketing helps with placing adverts in certain areas by using addresses. For example, your local internet company sends you an advertisement in the mail about their services or has an insert in the local paper promoting their service.

The second type of mail marketing is E-mail, is more up to the times than direct mail. It can be both types of marketing because you can send email to anyone if they have an account. But to give an idea of how photography can help with E-mail marketing, think of any piece of promotional mail you might have received over the years, like an ad from a phone company trying to persuade you to switch plans or the type of phone you have. Those types of mail usually have an image of the product or service they are providing to you.

Mail marketing and photography go hand to hand, they are both needed to ensure people have a clear understand on what is being advertised with high-quality and eye-catching photos. Whether it be a pamphlet in a mailbox or a promotion on a new product launch sent via E-mail. They both can help with informing others about your businesses and help spread the word about your services.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing can also be both B2B and B2C.

By making a social media account for your business through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. you can connect with other businesses. For example, most companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow separate pages from personal accounts allowing businesses to post and interact with other businesses directly. You can also promote your own posting to an audience outside of your followings with ads. This makes having special images for what you are trying to promote important for quality shares on outside sources.

B2C marketing through social media is drawing in people who like businesses because of their product/service, image, message or the people they represent. As you grow your audience through your website, social platforms or any other way you want to keep your audience engaged so you’re not an afterthought. Therefore, when you are marketing your product or service you know what your company stands for and in some cases against.

You could keep it simple and post your advertisements about a current product or upcoming promotion. You can also create an organic persona to market to your target market. For instance, a certain company known to have made fun of people on Twitter built its reputation of having a sassy persona. Another example is if a company made a post on why their product is superior to another company’s product, causing an argument between the accounts which would bring attention to both their brands. The gist of the idea of having an internet presence is advertising by making a persona that is based on the image of your company. So having a photographer that understands your image is important for how they approach marketing your business, having a regular photographer or hiring one to join your marketing team would be a great way to ensure they are producing the best results. 

Conclusion

Knowing how to utilize a photographer is the first step to growing and maintaining your business. In a nutshell, the reason why photography is important your business is because they relate to many forms of marketing and advertising that can help your brand look the way you want it to. You have the vision; they’ll have the results.

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