Sifting through mediocre, lackluster photos got you down? Unsurprisingly, posting those photos has that same effect on your audience.
Visual content doesn’t just serve to complement text; readers spend more time looking at relevant photos than looking at the text on the page. That means that, no matter how touching or informative your narrative may be, related photos are the key to heightened impact.
Our storytelling capabilities alone won’t cut it in the age of social media and digital marketing. Hiring a professional photographer or training your staff to seek out and collect high-quality content is equally as important as the narrative you share. This isn’t just in written content, but also in verbal presentations since people retain 55% more information if a relevant image is paired with the story you are telling. There’s a reason the cliche “a picture is worth a thousand words” hasn’t been laid to rest, and it’s because photos convey a story and insert donors into the narrative in a way that words can’t.
Photographers are worth the investment:
- Specialized Photography
- You can find a professionals whose specialities align with your organization. This means you’ll be able to preview their portfolio of similar-style shoots and know what style of photos you’ll be getting.
- Knowing what works
- Most take a LOT of photos but most will refine and filter out photos, selecting only the best of the bunch. Now all the photos you have to work with are usable. No more scrolling through dull duplicates!
- Processing Photos
- Photos might not always be perfect when the shutter clicks, but a photographer’s software savvy can banish the blemish, or soften the background so your photos more acutely convey your messaging.
- Innovative Ideas to Offer
- Whether it’s a technique or ideas for content, a professional can offer up effective innovations that they have been previously exposed to through training or other clients.
Hesitant to hire a professional photographer? Here are helpful hints to step up your content.
- Take a diversity of photos
- This will vary based on the issues/circumstances you are working in, but try to switch up backgrounds, and take photos from different perspectives and of different subjects to help keep your content fresh.
- Take more pictures than you think you’ll need
- How often do you take a picture and one of the subjects is blinking at that exact moment? If I had a nickel… Take a ton of pictures; the short time it takes to sort through them later is nothing compared to the disappointment of being one second off from having that perfect shot
- Use a digital camera
- Your smartphone is an amazingly powerful device that serves many purposes, but print-ready high-res content is not its main function. Digital cameras offer more.
Photography is an important tool in conveying the message of your organization and deserves as much of your attention and time as the words you write.