In our previous post, we shared a couple of reasons why you should avoid using photos that you found on google for your business or personal use. Today, let us dive in deeper to take a look at what it means to use stock photos in your business.
Stock photos are supplies of photographs found on the web, which are created for substantial commercial and personal usage.
Some stock photos are free for usage whereas others would require you to pay before being granted the rights of usage. Stock photos are usually affordable and are often a highly sought option for most people – as compared to engaging professional photographers to create a photo based on their needs.
So what are the implications that come along with using stock photos that are easily googled from the web? Stock photos, being easily and readily available implies that you will not be the only person out in the market using it to sell your business.
There will definitely be more than one business owner, looking at the same image as you are for their own agenda. Imagine your competitors using the exact same photo as yours for their marketing and website. Would you be able to stand out from them? Would your unique selling point be communicated to your audience? You will lose your unique selling point and fade into the sea of competitors.
Moving on, we will analyse and compare the typical mind-set of (1) a stock photographer and (2) users of stock photo.
As a stock photographer, your main goal is to have as many people using your photos as possible. If there are more than thousands of people using one particular stock photo of yours, it would imply that the one stock photo is bringing out more revenue. On the contrary, users of stock photos wouldn’t want your competitors to use the same photos as you. You wouldn’t want any other business to use the same photos as you so that your target audience would recognise your business and company once they see a photo.
The above shows a mis-match in mind-set between a stock photographer and users of stock photo. This is a point to consider if you are looking at using stock photos for marketing or your website.
According to an article published by MDG Advertising (2018), 67% of online shoppers rated high quality images as “very important” to their purchasing decision, comparing to “product specific information”, “long descriptions”, and “reviews & ratings”.
With such a high percentage of users (67%) relying on photos for their purchasing decisions, would you invest on a good set of images (which would help increase the overall image of your company) or would you value your cost and work with images that are not uniquely yours and can be found amongst your competitors?
Our advice? We would think that it is essential to have a good balance of carefully crafted image and stock photos. (Check out the list of stock image sites that we have collated.)
Some people may not see the value in investing in photos taken by professional commercial photographer as it may be costly. Having 100% of your photos taken by a commercial photographer would definitely set you back. This is why you need to figure out which images are critical and ensure that those images which you have invested in turns out well and is able to properly communicate your messages across to your audiences.
If you have any questions or difficulty figuring out which image is critical, contact us and we will work with you on your requirements to optimise your image assets.
Photo by Ken Suarez on Unsplash