I knew Janet for a year before I was asked to make her branding business photos for her.  We met online via LinkedIn. I was always impressed by her sales tips and so I would gravitate towards her posts daily. Janet is very visible online. She posts every day and has a large business following. Her posts are always hugely informative, compelling and popular. This lady can achieve 30,000 views with a well written and controversial subject matter.

Janet however did not use professional photos online and for her social media feeds. She argued that the text posts she used were always way more popular than when she added in a photo. Given that 2/3rds of the population are visually driven in that they respond to images before they read a word of text, I was curious to discover why? When I looked further into this I discovered that the photos Janet was using were stock photos only.

Many, many businesses use stock photos. They are easy to find, cost effective and are high quality professional images. But there are issues in using stock photos. Everyone uses them, they have a certain look and feel to them and they are devoid of any emotional narrative to attract clients to you and your business.

Ever ‘Google’d’ ‘Well being’ coaches? You will discover a sea of beautiful, iconic visual metaphors from mountain tops to blue oceans but they all look the same. Stunning though they are, stock images are used by so many businesses and offer nothing to encourage better engagement, personalisation and original visual content. (Use a few on your website but website builders agree that no website should hold a greater percentage than 30% : 70% professional images for maximum impact).

I challenged Janet and she was eager to discover more.

Her business photos were made using her empty office (following social distancing regulations). I wore thin cotton gloves during the shoot. As a photographer I am constantly touching objects; moving desks, tables, chairs; tweaking angles on laptops, notebooks and coffee mugs. All to achieve a clearer office space and  a cleaner office look in client photos.

We also shot portraits on location around Enfield. Janet had previously spent a wet Saturday scouring locations, snapping away on her Iphone and sending me images to agree a shoot agenda in advance of her business photoshoot.

Because of lockdown we concluded in the local park to make some interesting outside office photos to depict ‘working from home’.

Janet on using her finished images did something completely new. She posted a natural and friendly image of herself online. She used a few simple words of text.

‘Want to know how to sell better? Contact me’. She had three sales enquiries! And here demonstrates the power of an image without heavy text that connects. Since her shoot Janet uses her professional images for posts every week. And she has already booked her next photo shoot with me for the summer of 2021.