Why business owners needs lifestyle photos: And business people great headshots.

If you weren’t using simple on-page search engine optimisation 20 years ago for business – you missed out.
If you weren’t using pay per click for your business 15 years ago – you missed out.
If you weren’t using social media 10 years ago – again; you missed out.
If you weren’t blogging five years ago; can you guess? Yes; you missed out.
If you aren’t using professional images and videos for your business stories right now, you’re missing out again.

Your business story may be one of success: You may have business coming through the door but – how much are you leaving on the table today, because you’re failing to pick up on the biggest benefits your business marketing can action? Research over the last few years from a number of institutes show nearly 70% of people are visual learners. That means they respond better to visual media than say, audible or text based messages. Hear a piece of information and you’ll only recall 10% of it three days later. That rises to 65% when there is a visual stimulus. Text is good (around half as effective as images) as it’s visual – but it’s a code we have to decipher and then interpret. People are hard wired to respond to visual input. It’s a visceral, primordial system that keeps us out of danger, helps us find food as well as identify a good mate. We’ve perfected it over 200,000 years, so no wonder its our prime sensory input.

In essence, photos and videos are our stand-in for real time visual stimulus. On a subconscious level we cannot distinguish between a 2D representation and real life; we exhibit the same emotional responses to both. Which is why in the modern, social media driven world all platforms benefit from using visual content in your posts. For example, Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. (source: Buffer) Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. (source: Buzzsumo.com) and Social Media Examiner published these findings: 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business, with blogging in second (27%).

To reiterate: If you aren’t using professional images and videos, for reinforcing your business stories right now, you’re going to miss out. So; how can you change this? You could produce the content yourself but an iPhone on a selfie stick won’t cut it anymore (Gary Vaynerchuk already did that; now it’s so 2009). To be seen as as professional, you’ll need cameras, editing software, lighting, and for video you’ll need sound equipment, as well as some idea of how it all works together. Or you could buy stock. It’s available for stills and video, mostly without expensive price tags. Generally, for this cheap content you’ll be sharing it with other businesses – possibly competitors – which dilutes the effectiveness of where a person saw your visual content; confusing them as to where to return to find out more despite having that 65% recall after three days. You can buy exclusive stock content from high end providers, however it is much more expensive and you’ll only have these exclusive rights for a period of time.

Professional photographers and videographers offer you exclusive, on message, high quality content that you can use over and over again. By setting the brief for a professional to follow, you also decide on what it is you want to highlight. If your business is mainly service lead, get shots of your staff interacting with customers, or with each other or simply on the phone. Show people in a professional setting, looking smart and focussed on their tasks. If you sell products, you could simply have shots of your wares. Better, is showing products in use. The more specialised your work, the better photos and video are at explaining how customers benefit.

Costs for both services vary according to the professionals experience so check to see if they have examples of the work you require and talk with them about how best to need your needs. Here’s a tip though: You can turn photos into video simply with a few techniques.