Is your marketing department in the photography business? I bet they are. Here are 5 questions to ask them.

You might breeze past this article as it almost sounds ridiculous. Marketing is marketing and photography is photography, right? But does your staff realize that? Have you recently taken a survey of the amount of time your team spends working on photography and related projects? If not, here are some questions to ask them:

1. How much time do you spend planning out the photos needed for marketing?

   This is what we in the industry call “pre-production” and it can include a multitude of tasks: refining a vision, researching a location, scouting out models or stylists, and creating a schedule for the day of shoot. Worst case scenario, this process drags on for weeks and leaves you with more questions than answers. A professional photographer has years of experience to understand your marketing goals and connections in the industry to make sure every person involved is up to par.

2. How much time do you spend taking photos for marketing projects?

   So, your boss sends you out to a remote site with your smartphone and tells you to get some good pictures. Does this use your time and experience to your fullest potential? And are phone images practical for most of your marketing goals? These small files are barely sufficient for social media or your website given the current size of the computer monitors -but using them for trade shows or printed pieces can only make matters worse with distortion and pixilation problems. Delegating to a photographer can free up your time to fulfill your job description and ensure that the end product truly fits your needs.

3. How much time do you spend manipulating photos?

   Let’s say you do take your own images. How much effort do you have to put in after the fact to make them usable? One is blindingly bright, another isn’t level, another is out of focus, and they all have a few unwanted pedestrians. It can be a lot of work cropping, making color corrections, or cleaning up each and every image you need for the end project. Any photographer who is worth their salt will provide this service or else hire someone who is trained in all the right software to make your images perfect.

4. How much time do you spend indexing or looking for photos?

   If you are like most companies, you probably have no system for organizing your digital photos. If the person who had your job last did a similar project their images are most likely lost. If you took some photos 10 years ago, those might be on an outdated computer somewhere. Creating your own system now is time consuming and is not central to your role as a marketing professional. Photographers are set up to do this very thing and do it efficiently for every client—it is after all their business.

5. How much time do you spend searching for stock photos?

   Think you’re saving time by avoiding in-house photography in favor of stock images? When you don’t take your own photos, you spend hours searching for that one perfect image you see in your head. The problem is, that picture probably doesn’t exist or worse yet your competitor is using it. You could spend hours upon hours looking for it and come up empty-handed—or else settle for “just okay”. You have a unique vision and purpose behind every marketing decision you make, so why shouldn’t the photography be just as unique?

Do you think you’re asking too much of your team? Are you not getting the results you were hoping for? Simplify your marketing photography and give the professionals a try. Contact us at newbusiness@studio13online.com or call (317) 923-1122 to start a conversation or get a quote today!