5 Reasons Photography Is Completely Unimportant

Want to know a secret we pros in the marketing industry have been keeping from you? It’s a big one that we really shouldn’t reveal, and doing so is probably going to upset a lot of people, like business owners, marketing directors, social media managers, and—most especially—photographers.

Ready for the secret? Here it is:

Good, high-quality photography does not matter when it comes to your marketing.

That’s right. Your photography doesn’t matter. Like, at all. Don’t believe us?! Well, it’s definitely true. Just look at any commercial website, flyer, postcard, billboard, digital ad, social media post, or any other visual piece of marketing material. What do most, if not all, of the effective ones have in common? If you said, “quality photography,” you’d be wrong, because we JUST said that photography doesn’t matter.

If you’re still doubting us, then here are five reasons why you should rethink using photography in your future marketing:

Reason #1: Photos Have No Impact on a Person’s First Impression of Your Business

When a potential customer first discovers your company, the LAST thing they look at or care about is how you present yourself. If you’re using high-quality photos to improve how your target audiences view you, you’re wasting your time and money because people simply do not rely on visuals to form their first impressions.

Reason #2: Photos Force You to Blend in With Your Competition

If you use marketing photography and your competitors use photography for marketing, too, will your shared audience really be able to tell you apart? When people see photography from two similar businesses, they tend to think to themselves, “Great, now I have no idea who is who! How can I tell which company to go with? They’re both using photography!” It forces you to blend in, which is maddening for your customers and really bad for your bottom line.

Reason #3: Photography Creates Mistrust

How many times have you ordered a burger from your favorite fast-food joint only to open the wrapper and say, “This isn’t how it looked in the picture”? Or what about the time you saw an ad for another delicious-looking dish somewhere else and visited that restaurant to try it–only, when the server placed it on the table, you realized what you were seeing on your plate was slightly different from the image you initially saw advertised? Photography lies and creates mistrust among your audiences.

Reason #4: A Picture Isn’t Actually Worth a Thousand Words

Have you ever actually tried to get 1,000 words from a single picture? Probably not, because that would take forever. And you’d likely have to make up half the words, anyway, because how can a single image have 1,000 things to say to the person looking at it? That just sounds wrong and way too pointless and time-consuming to fact-check.

Reason #5: Marketing Is Totally Doable Without Photography

Our 5^th and final reason why photography is completely unimportant is because you don’t have to incorporate photography into your marketing efforts for your business. Your website can be imageless, no problem. Your social media ads and posts can all be text-based. Your print pieces and other marketing collateral can definitely have a text-only design to communicate your messages to your audience.

In conclusion, photography, schmotography. Who needs it? Not you!

APRIL FOOLS!

We’re absolutely kidding about photography not being a big deal. Your photography is actually a huge deal and is one of the most essential elements in your marketing. To make up for the five jokes we just told you, here are five actual facts about why photography matters so much for your company:

True Fact #1: Your Photography Will Determine How Your Audience Sees and Responds to You

Let’s start this point off with a few facts:

• Sight is the most dominant sense for processing and decision-making.
• For a person with the ability to see, more than 90% of the information their brain receives is visual.
• The brain processes an image 60,000 times faster than it processes text.

The brain relies on the eyes the most and uses the information it processes to make any necessary decisions. That means when your customers come across any of your visual-based marketing (website, digital ads, social media posts, print pieces, etc.), what they see is going to influence their decision to either use your company or pursue your competition.

Plus, a picture really is worth a thousand words. The brain can process the “words” of an image in a matter of seconds, while it takes minutes to read through and process 1,000 written words. (We’re at just under 800 words at this point in the article. Have you tracked how long it’s taken you to reach this sentence?)

What does this mean for you? It means that high-quality, visually compelling photography can significantly improve how well you convey your messages, how you make your first impressions, and how your target audience will respond to you.

True Fact #2: Quality, Company-Specific Photography Separates You From Your Competition

When you use high-quality photos that are unique to your company and centered around your products and services, you immediately separate yourself from your competition. While stock images are useful in certain instances, it’s highly effective to have and use your own photography, whether it’s of your team, your location, your products, or anything else that makes your company yours. Your photography should tell audiences, “This is who we are, and this is what we offer.”

With clean, clear, professional photography, your images can easily convey your company’s:

• Professionalism
• Quality
• Value
• Reliability

So, not only can your photography make or break your audience’s perception of your company, but it can also determine how you stack up to your competitors and can help drive users toward your solutions.

True Fact #3: Quality Photography Instills Trust Among Your Audience

In your personal searches for a service or product, have you ever come across a company’s website that had terrible, low-quality images displayed on each page, or maybe even no images at all? In most instances, customers are less likely to do business with a company that uses low-quality photos or no photos because it leaves people with a sense of uneasiness or mistrust of the company. It doesn’t instill confidence in the company or the solutions it provides.

On the other hand, good, quality photography helps establish trust among audiences:

• It clearly promotes your company, products, and services.
• It shows your customers that you care enough about their experience with you to provide them with something good to look at.
• It reinforces the message that what the customer will receive from you is a quality solution.

True Fact #4: Photography Is One of the Fastest Ways to Convey a Message

When you want to show what your company can do for your customers, you can certainly describe your offerings through text. It’s just that your biggest questions to ask would be: a.) Will anyone actually read my descriptions? And b.) Will they fully understand what they just read?

Let’s say you own and operate a shoe store for men, women, and children. You could list your products online and use only text to describe each item. For instance, you could have an item listed with no photography that says, “Red canvas high-top sneaker with white laces and a white rubber outsole.”

However, you already know that would be highly ineffective. No one wants to parse through the text to get an idea of what one of your shoes might look like. No, customers want to see a picture of the shoe (ideally a series of clear, clean images of the shoe), showing it from multiple angles so they can have an exact idea of what to expect.

A picture really is worth a thousand words that all hit the viewer at once and allow them to process your message much faster and more effectively than text-only messages.

True Fact #5: Successful Marketing Is Not Doable Without Good Photography

If you want to omit photography from your marketing efforts, you definitely can. But you shouldn’t expect your efforts to be too successful. Photography and high-quality visuals are crucial elements to just about everything, including your:

• Website
• Print pieces
• Print and digital ads
• Social media pages
• Product or service catalogs
• Anything that’s not a radio ad

If it can be seen, it can benefit from high-quality photography. As we’ve mentioned, people rely on visuals in marketing much more than they do any other form of messaging, and using quality photography is a perfect way to maximize your marketing and capture more of your target audience.

It might be April Fools’ Day, but we aren’t joking when we say we can help you boost your company’s marketing with exceptional photography services. From company headshots to photography of your products, services, location, and more, M&R Marketing has the right solutions for you.

Reach out to speak with one of our sales team members and learn about all that we can offer!

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• The Power of Photo & Video – Part 1: Understanding the Process
• The Power of Photo & Video – Part 2: 4 Ways Photo & Video Improves Your Marketing Strategy
• The Power of Photo & Video: Part 3 – 10 Ideas to Get You Started
• The Power of Photo & Video – Part 4: Case Studies