We live in a visual world, and with competition for customers more fierce than ever before, it’s not an exaggeration to say that outstanding corporate photography can make all the difference in your quest to make sales.
After all, in this day and age, prospective customers are unlikely to read through walls of text to find out what’s great about your products and services. They need those visual cues to tell them that you’re a business worthy of their time.
In this post, we’re going to run through the ins and outs of the importance of corporate photography. And remember, if you’re looking for a professional photographer Brisbane businesses can rely on, don’t hesitate to get in touch to learn how we can help bring your brand to life.
Introduction to Corporate Photography
Corporate photography has a pretty broad definition. It refers to any photographic materials that a corporation uses in its internal and external communications. For example, corporate photography may include:
- Website photos
- Product photos
- Employee recruitment photos
- Corporate event photos
And the list goes on. Ultimately, if you need to express a visual message that encapsulates the ethos of your brand, it’s corporate photography that makes it possible.
Of course, not all corporate photography is created equal. A low-quality image is unlikely to impress customers, investors, and employees. To make a positive, lasting impression, businesses should utilise high-quality images that truly reflect all that’s good about their brand.
It can provide a pathway towards success. In a visually stimulating world, customers and other parties are often overwhelmed by the volume of imagery they see. Great corporate photography increases the likelihood that the people you want to pay attention to your brand do so.
The Role of Corporate Photography in Branding
Your brand has a story, and your target audience is much more likely to become customers if they know what it is. While professional photos can’t do all of the work of expressing your brand — words play a role too — they are an influential factor. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
In most cases, brands have a matter of seconds to showcase their identity to customers. By investing in corporate photography services, businesses can ensure that potential customers receive a message that’s in line with what the brand represents. It makes it much more likely that the target audience will engage with the brand.
And quality corporate photography doesn’t just help to get potential customers on the hook. It serves as an ongoing medium with which the business can communicate its message. Over time, this type of photography becomes a method to build trust with all stakeholders, including employees and customers.
Enhancing Corporate Communications
All businesses have something to say — and it’s corporate photography that ensures the message is received. You’ll find corporate photography used in all aspects of business communication, including both internal and external communications.
From an external perspective, it’s corporate photography that will instantly tell potential customers whether they want to engage with your brand or move on. In the vast majority of cases, imagery is the first point of contact between the customer and the brand.
Corporate photography plays an ongoing role in helping to keep customers engaged, too. For example, a non-profit may send well-timed emails including photographs of all the good work they’re doing to encourage donors to give more.
From an internal perspective, corporate photography can strengthen employee brand engagement, offering a visual representation of what the business stands for. Studies have repeatedly shown that businesses with strong internal branding outperform those that do not.
It’s worth keeping in mind that branding only works when it’s consistent. A customer will struggle to recognise the brand if photography themes and styles jump all over the place. Having thematically in-sync imagery across all platforms, including brochures, social media posts, and website pages, is essential to getting the full benefits of having robust branding.
Influence on Stakeholder Perceptions
It’s one thing for investors, clients, and employees to engage with a business. It’s another thing to ensure that it stays that way. Corporate photography can be used to convey trust, reliability, success, and a forward-thinking approach. While corporate photography can’t do everything on its own, it plays a key role in ensuring that stakeholders develop — and retain — a positive view of the business.
To illustrate this point, let’s think about how some of the world’s biggest businesses have successfully used photography to their benefit.
Nike’s use of corporate photography has been instrumental in its success. Much more than just images of the products it sells, Nike’s brand photos depict the core values of the Oregon company; viewers don’t see tennis shoes — they see determination, success, and physical superiority. Airbnb can also credit a large chunk of its success to its use of corporate photography. While similar online services already existed, it was AirBnb’s glossy imagery that made an impact on web users. One study found that hosts who used AirBnb’s photography service saw a significant increase in the number of bookings.
Choosing the Right Corporate Photographer
We’ve seen how corporate photography can nudge a business towards success, but keep in mind that not all photographs are capable of generating such results. To get the most impact from your efforts, it’s important to work with a photographer who takes the time to understand your business objectives.
Ideally, the right photographer would also have an understanding of the local market and have experience capturing a wide range of business environments and messages.
Conclusion and Call to Action
There may once have been a time when businesses could get away with not investing in corporate photography, but that’s not today. In a visually rich world, brands simply have to invest in their photographic imagery — or run the risk of being left behind.
At Leah Desborough Photography, we’ve become the corporate photographer Brisbane businesses can trust will deliver outstanding results. If you think it’s time to update your visual strategy, then don’t hesitate to get in contact to see what we can do for you. You can reach us by calling +61 (0) 416 814 214 or by sending an email to info@leahdesborough.com.
