After a bustling holiday season, most businesses have returned to devising marketing strategies for 2016. We start the discussion about enjoying the highest return on your website development investment by going back to Black Friday and the onset of the holiday shopping season.
Did you save the holiday cards that you received via snail mail? Well, break out the reminders of the 2015 holiday season and look closely at the images presented on the front and back of the cards. With websites such as Snapfish, Tinyprints, and Shutterfly making the creation of photo holiday cards a cinch, everyone seems to have morphed into a professional photographer.
Or, have they?
We bet that most, if not all of the holiday cards you received presented fuzzy, low-resolution images shot from smartphones. The cards that really stand out are the ones that appear shot by professional photographers. The photo holiday cards still clinging to your refrigerator door are the ones that taken by professional photographers.
Professional Photography: It Makes All the Difference
Now, apply the same principle to your business website. If you land on a website and the first thing you see is a full-screen slideshow featuring mediocre smartphone pictures, chances are you won’t take the company too seriously. Conversely, potential customers that find your website replete with amateurish photos flee to other websites presenting professionally taken photographs that effectively sell products and services.
You want your small business website to include professionally shot photos, such as the one below:
Our Minneapolis web design company helps clients upload professional website photography.
Professional Pictures of Your Business, Products, or Services
If your business has a storefront, and you take care of customers at your location, then you need a current picture of your storefront on the “Location and Directions” page of your website. Customers need to know exactly how to find you, and a professionally shot image of your storefront leaves an indelible visual impression that makes customers feel more familiar with your business.
Think of the photographs that you greet online customers as virtual welcome mats. You want online shoppers to feel welcome at a business that places a high value on its products and services.
Professional Head Shots
The “Meet Our Team” page on your website should encourage people to call your business for more information. Outdated staff pictures, photos of folks at their messy desks with coffee cups, and mismatched sizes for your staff can cause a person to hit the “Back” button faster than the roadrunner flees from Wile E. Coyote. Make sure that your employees look their best with professional, consistent headshots on your website. (They’ll even thank you when you send them a digital copy to use on their personal Facebook pages!)
Product Photography
Nearly 40% of customers take action, whenever the see professional photography on a business website. Professional looking photos account for 93% of the engaging posts on Facebook, which should already be an extension of your organic business website. Professional photographs receive 84% more link click throughs than the link click throughs prompted by text.
A Few Professional Website Photography Tips
Our Minneapolis website design firm walks clients through a process that ensures they upload the highest quality photographs. We offer a sampling of tips to get you started on your way.
Compress Photograph Files
Many small businesses think that large photograph files guarantee high-resolution images that attract customers and prompt them to take action. Yet, smaller photograph file sizes do not create low-resolution images. In fact, professional photographers know how to compress files and retain high quality images. Smaller photo files produce faster loading times, which keep customers coming back to your website.
You Don’t Have to Caption Everything
Sure, adding a product name caption helps customers make informed buying decisions. However, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousands words. Let some of your products do the selling for you by presenting professional images that capture the beauty of your products. This principle is especially relevant for businesses that offer high-end products, such as jewelry and luxury vehicles.
Don’t Cut Corners by Using Stock Photography
Yes, you can find professional looking photographs in online stock inventories. Your small business saves a little money, but you run the risk of violating copyrights. Do the right thing and invest in a local professional photographer to take headshots and high-resolution photographs of a few of your most popular products.
Free Professional Photography with New Development
Because we feel that professional website photography is so important to beautiful responsive website design, we are offering a free, one-hour photography session with a local photographer (local to Minneapolis, MN) for all new website development projects starting January 15 and running until March 31. This includes six professionally edited images for your website.
Contact us online or by phone to learn more about how your small business can increase sales by presenting professionally shot website photographs.
Note: Our website development company has offices in Anoka and Minneapolis, Minnesota. As such, we are partnering with local photographers on this offer. Free photography session is limited to customers within a 20 mile radius of either Anoka or Minneapolis, Minnesota. Contact us for complete details, or with questions.
