Why contractors need professional photography
Distinguishing your brand from the rest of the competition is crucial in succeeding in our digital environment. Increased emphasis on image and video heavy social media platforms and websites has transformed how contractors communicate their services to their customers. If your word of mouth pipeline is in its beginning stages or you are trying to attract different customers or promote a different service, then you need to find creative ways to appeal to those prospects that are unfamiliar with you. That is where hiring a professional photographer and videographer comes into play. Here are some ways hiring a photographer and videographer can help contractors increase their bottom lines.
Image provided by DeRush Media
Make a memorable first impression
Image provided by DeRush Media
Photos are the first thing a customer sees when interacting with a business. Think about it this way, you’re hungry looking for a quick bite to eat. What is one of the first things you look at? Pictures of the food of course. What do you do if those food pictures look gross? You don’t go there! The same logic can be applied to contractors. Too often do I see displayed photos being of low quality off a cell phone, or just the Google street view of a work van outside the shop. Instead, appeal to your customer. Ask yourself, ‘what would I want to see if I hired my company?’ That could be a portrait of your team, before and after photos of a huge job you just completed, a short video testimonial of a satisfied customer, a drone video documenting an ongoing job, etc. People make decisions with their eyes so take control and offer the best visuals possible.
Multiple uses for photo and video assets
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As a marketer I love having multiple creative assets to work with. If you're in a field like profesisonal painting that is visually focused, then I need visuals. I can only do so much with stock photos. For example, if you do a photo shoot for a job, I can use those photos on your website in a few ways. I can use them to visually represent one of your services on a service page, I can plug them into collage to showcase your work, I can use them in an email template that a lead receives when they fill out your website form (thus leaving a lasting impression showcasing your quality work), etc. That doesn’t even touch the surface. Social media is a mecca for short form content. We can use photos and videos in reels, stories, shorts, etc. Whether you are personally a user of social media or not, your customer is and to attract new business and keep your current customer base coming back for more, we need to communicate with that customer in a format that appeals to them.
Showcase your customer experience
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One of the best ways I use photography and videography is by creating visuals that document your customer’s experience. When a customer is choosing a contractor they are making a big investment and putting a lot of trust out there. I like to use photos and videos to outline a typical customer experience so a new customer becomes informed and excited rather than confused and nervous. To quantify this, videos on a landing page can increase conversions by 144%. That is because a video showcases who you are, your professionalism and your ability to articulate your service in a visually stimulating way to your customer. All of this builds trust and we tend to go with who we trust.
Establishing Authority and SEO
Image provided by DeRush Media
Photography and videography showcase how you operate and the final result that you provide for your customers. When it comes to rising in search engine results, the businesses at the top of the SERP (search engine results page) are those that have been identified as having expertise in their field. One of the best ways to demonstrate expertise is to showcase it and showcase it well. How we demonstrate our expertise matters. For example, if a painter just finished a massive exterior job on a $30 million mansion, a few cell phone images are going to be a poor representation of the craftsmanship that’s involved in completing an expensive paint job. When it comes to establishing authority and climbing in the search results search engines are going to go with businesses that are providing the most appealing visuals. The quality of the job does not matter if it is not being displayed in a quality fashion. On a high profile job, a professional photographer can go in there and take enhanced images, a video team can fly a drone over the property to capture the scope of the project and smaller more intricate details that a cell phone would never be able to capture. To summarize, beating your customers in the search results begins with establishing yourself as an authority in your field. The best way to do that is to showcase quality visuals so that people can see you are the real deal.
Summary
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Investing in photography and videography services positively impact your bottom line because they allow you to build trust with customers by creating powerful first impressions, they allow your marketing team to create multiple creative assets that can be deployed across many different channels, and finally they allow you to leapfrog your competition in search results by showcasing that you are an authority in your field.
Need a Photographer/Videographer?
The images in this article were provided by my trusted photography and videography partner DeRush Media. Derek and Cory DeRush are two brothers based out of Grand Junction who run their own media business. After years of running their business they have expanded their photography and videography services throughout Colorado and neighboring states.
This post was written by Shane Doudy | Owner of Odyssey Marketing Group
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