Visual storytelling: the power of great photography for your small business

Professional photographs can act as ambassadors for your small business, allowing you to visually represent your brand in print and online, across numerous marketing channels. Every photo reveals something about your brand, and a photo collection helps to create your brand story.

Claire Gillo has been a professional photographer for 15 years and while the industry has changed massively in that time, one thing remains the same. “The famous saying: ‘a picture is worth a thousand words' really does hold up,” says Claire. “In my line of work, I photograph many different types of businesses from local and independent craft makers, to bar owners and restaurants. Whatever the business, I encourage each owner to make their product and brand about themselves, and to tell their story, as well as showcasing their products. After all, people connect far quicker to people than they do businesses.”

Creating a strong brand identity for your small business is necessary to make sure that your brand is recognisable. It also helps you to differentiate your business from others, and your competitors. Your photography is an integral part of your brand identity, playing a crucial role in communicating your brand’s personality, mission, vision, values and message. 

Fran Minifie is a photographer offering commercial and family photography in Devon. She says:“Photography for businesses is now more than just getting photos of your products and headshots of your staff in the office. It's become about showing the personality behind the brand, the ethos of the business and the people behind it, so that the audience can connect with them emotionally.” 

To allow your personality to shine, it is important to appear relaxed in front of the camera. However, this doesn’t come naturally to everyone. "A good professional photographer will make you feel at ease,” says Guy Harrop, a Devon-based, international award-winning editorial and food photographer. Guys shares this tip: “If you feel awkward and don’t know what to do with your hands, hold something.”

A Taste of the West Country is a recipe book published by We Make Media. Guy Harrop expertly captures the personalities of the chefs and producers featured in the book.

Great brand photography helps you to capture your audiences’ attention, whether they are on your website, scrolling through social media, or see your advert in a magazine. Having high-quality, professional photographs help you to stand out and create a more professional brand image.

You can also use your images to elicit an emotional response when they are viewed. Most importantly you want to elicit feelings of trust. If you cannot convince your potential customers that your brand and business is trustworthy, you will not be able to convince them to buy from you. Using low-quality, badly lit, poorly composed photographs will simply cast doubt on the perceived quality of your products or service. 

Photographs help you to tell your brand story in a way that makes potential customers want to buy. If you are selling a fun family experience, your photographs should show families having fun together and enjoying themselves. If you are selling sportswear, you want your photographs to portray images of healthy people enjoying a workout.

Good photographs help your customers make purchasing decisions. To help you do this, capture their attention, then elicit the correct emotional response.

The Ben Todd Plumbing website, designed by We Make Media, demonstrates this perfectly. A typical plumbing website shows pictures or radiators and plumbers at work. While such images are illustrative of the job, they do not illicit an emotional response. Think about why a customer wants a radiator? Is it because they want a white box on their wall, or because they want a warm home? 

First impressions are extremely important, and customers can be won or lost in the first few moments of an interaction with your brand. You want to make sure it’s a good impression that builds trust. Guy says: “Everyone is looking for that visual fix, from booking holidays to booking a restaurant. The only difference now is that everything is instant, so yes, having a good visual story says it all. You want to be there, feel like you can taste the food from the photo, enjoying that visual experience. If you haven't hooked someone with those first few photos, they're gone – it is that simple.”

Photography is an excellent tool for connecting with your audience strategically. You can do this by allowing your audience to get to you know better, by focusing on the human elements of your business, introducing the people behind the brand, sharing behind the scenes moments, showing the making process, or how to use your products or services. You want potential customers to feel like they know your business before they decide to buy from you – people buy from people.

Take them on a journey, and make them feel involved. Make sure that your photos are an authentic representation of your business and your brand. You don’t want to create a false representation that will leave customers feeling confused and mis-sold. 

Having great photos that resonate with your audience will also increase engagement. People are more likely to share your photos on their own social platforms if the photos are good quality, authentic and tell a good story. In an analysis of over 1 million articles, Buzzsumo found that articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. 

The result of using professional photography is an increase in conversion rates for your business. If you can create a consistent and recognisable identity, capture attention and emotional response, create a connection and encourage engagement, the odds are that you will successfully convert your audience into paying customers.

Good photography also helps with customer retention. If you have a strong brand identity and your images are consistent, customers should be able to recognise them when they see them.

If you haven’t yet invested in your photography, consider allocating a proportion of your marketing budget to ensure that your visual storytelling game is strong enough. Without good visuals the rest of your efforts will be undermined. 

We Make Media is a Devon-based web design company and we’ve been helping small businesses grow in the West Country since 2010. We work with professional photographers who are experts in food and drink, homes and interiors and travel and tourism. If you need imagery for your business, we can point you in the right direction. Book your free discovery call.