Improve your marketing success by using better photography
Many people know by now that using a photo is useful, even critical to include in social media posts, but what impression are you forming with that photo, are you making the most of the opportunity? Here’s what research says about photos in your marketing efforts online:
– Posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts.
– People form a first impression in a mere 50 milliseconds.
Source: https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/visual-content-marketing-16-eye-popping-statistics-you-need-to-know.html
If the people you are trying to reach are forming their impression within 50 milliseconds, when you need photography for your marketing efforts or online activity (social media posts, ads or Web site), work with a photographer who can help you capture and present your subject in the most favorable light! This is particularly true now that so many people carry a decent camera in their smart phones. Bland or over-processed photos, or glaring errors such as unlevel horizons, only waste your time and marketing budget. Many organizations try to use low cost photos these days or even get them for free, but how much does “free” actually cost?
Multiple Photo Posts Increased Clicks 1290% – Facebook Case Study
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-tools/multiple-photo-posts-increased-clicks-1290-facebook-case-study/
The publisher, Boutique Editions, liked forwarded samples of Jeff’s work so much, they selected the Bodie image above for the cover of Location International 2015! The magazine is launched each year at the Festival de Cannes in May. The publicity enjoyed by Mono County continued from there:
“The magazine is distributed to 15,000 movie professionals worldwide, and is also available at Locations Trade Show in LA; Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity; Berlinale; MIPTV and MIPCOM; Sundance Film Festival, Utah and at AFM in Los Angeles.”
The popularity of photo sharing and social media sites in recent years had given him excellent opportunities to showcase his work. Participating on Flickr since 2006, he is one of the most-followed photographers on this site popular with serious photographers, with over 45,000 contacts and an average of about 10,000 views per day.
Posting his images on the new Google+ social media site in 2011 as he worked on his guidebook earned him a Top 100 ranking on the site in the site’s first two years, amassing nearly 2 million contacts. At least one of the common beliefs about social media post success id true: competent photos really do give social media posts a huge boost! This helped Jeff succeed with his photography workshop business, since a post’s reception on Google+ has been determined by Internet marketing consultants to be the #1 factor in helping a site achieving favorable placement in Google searches.*
* It’s puzzling that many organizations invest in maintaining social media activity, but don’t pay more attention to the quality of the photography in their posts! That’s like entering an auto race at Laguna Seca Racetrack in a Honda Accord. Unless you drive a track-ready Porsche, your family car has no business running with race cars. Similarly, investing in online marketing activity but using consumer-quality photography will cause your investment in marketing on the Internet to under-perform against the competition as well. If you’re going to compete with the best in the world at anything, including getting your social media posts noticed with the lowest possible investment of time, put your best foot forward and don’t skimp on high quality, eye-catching images!
Mono County and Boutique Editions weren’t the only organizations noticing Jeff’s work in 2015. A travel company in the U.K. noticed his work and named him a “Top 100 Travel Photographer in the World 2015“. Upon his book release in late 2015 he took a celebration lap of the Western U.S. and Canada, and one of his photos from Yellowstone National Park won an Outdoor Photographer Magazine “iPhone and Instagram” contest.
To see Jeff’s work from 2015, both new images and reworked images from past years, see his blog: “Top 10 Favorite Travel and Landscape Images From 2015“.
| Late Fall Colors on Conway Summit |
| Sunset Rainbow at Topaz Lake |
| Rainbow Over Bodie’s Standard Mill |
Don’t settle for simply “filling the space” where a photograph is needed. Understand the value of better photography, and work with a professional photographer to get it done right!
www.JeffSullivanPhotography.com
#marketing #advertising #tourism #travel #photography
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View Comments
Beautiful photo.
That's awesome +Jeff Sullivan. Congratulations. Thanks for the good tips as well.
+Kirk Johnson Thanks!
Like many of todays images I find this one overprocessed. A common error imo, illustrated here is oversaturation.
Great info, thanks!
+Steven Peterson I remember fondly the time when I had the idle entitlement to do whatever I wanted with a photograph, and not worry about the direct effect on my income!
I produced the HDR version because the single exposure failed to convey the drama of the moment, while it also had under-exposed shadows and over-exposed highlights. I uploaded both version to Flickr, where the single exposure received roughly 1/3 as many comments as the HDR. Remember, the context here is marketing. If a marketing campaign gets 3X the response, is that an "error"?
Are you advocating that photographers dictate which versions of a photo their customers choose, or that they pass on licensing revenue opportunities for philosophical purposes?
If you scroll down my feed, blatantly over-processed images are probably 5% of what I share, and I consider them to be failures if the processing distracts from the subject. I'm reworking a lot of those old images with newer tools (especially Photomatix 6) and greatly improving many of them.
But that may be to the detriment of my commercial licensing and sponsorship opportunities. My work is generally so under-processed in relation to the most popular work on sites like Instagram and 500px, I'm considering doing a survey of tools to completely revamp my workflow. It's not my first choice, but it may be imperative in today's market.
flickr.com - Sunset Over Bodie's Green Truck
buy that car...
Smart😁