As a company, you have a logo which identifies your brand and you have a website and other marketing collateral that describes your products and services and all of these are closely related to the image of your company and are part of the brand awareness you’re creating for your business. If you think about the images, the actual photos, used to depict your products and services, do they fit the type of customer you’re trying to attract? Are you allowing prospective buyers to see themselves using your product or service? Do you project through realistic photos and images the ways in which your products fits into the various lifestyles of your buyers?

Having photos that correspond with the lifestyles of your target audience is critical to projecting your brand’s best image. If your target demographic is a baby boomer entering retirement, you probably don’t want twenty-somethings as the models in photos showing your product. If the “average” housewife or working mom is who you are trying to reach, showing a neatly kept house with everything in it’s place is not likely to be a realistic image that your audience is going to relate to (unless you are marketing a cleaning service!).

Before you start snapping photos and grabbing the next closest employee to model for your photo shoot, really think about the lifestyles of your target audience. If you take photos that capture a setting or action that your prospective buyer can picture themselves in, you’ll be more likely to make the sale. And if your target audience is diverse, make an effort with your photos to show how your products or services apply to as many lifestyles as you’re trying to appeal to.

We spend a lot of time working on the words that go into our websites and marketing materials and often the photos that accompany the words are an afterthought. Photos are an opportunity to underscore the message you are sending and you don’t want to send mixed messages by not investing in the right kind of photos. Sure, a picture is worth a thousand words, but if the picture doesn’t show your target buyer in a setting they can relate to, it’s like your picture is speaking a foreign language.

Post from: Chesapeake ProCon