Maybe you’re stellar with words. You’ve been writing on your company blog for a while. But you’re not seeing much return for your time.

Your store is well organized and slick. Your ads speak volumes. And yet you’re selling few items.

What gives? What are you missing?

If you’re on your cell phone right now, pick it up. Turn it over. Is there a camera lens there?

That’s what you’re missing.

When a relevant image is attached to information, people will retain 65% of the information as opposed to the 10% they’d retain otherwise. That’s a 650% increase!

Wouldn’t you like to get that kind of engagement? I figured so. Here’s why you need photography in your marketing strategy.

1. You Can Put a Face to Your Brand

Who is the face of the United States? The President. Who is the face of Tesla? Elon Musk.

How do you know this? Images.

People don’t want to interact with a machine. They want to encounter real people. This means a face and a personality.

A face is real. And I mean that ironically. You have a life and behind your brand are people doing real things.

Give people a look behind the scenes. If you don’t have Instagram already, get an account. Instagram is the most effective way to give your customers a behind the scenes journey.

Instagram is the Best Tool

There are three tools you can use on Instagram. Stories, posts, and video.

Yes, video falls under photography. It’s a set of moving pictures, after all!

Stories are snapshots of your day. They expire after 24 hours and they feel more intimate than an Instagram post. You can either post video or photos on your stories.

Posts will garner followers. Don’t forget to use hashtags! These posts are something you should curate. Spend time writing these (Instagram uses a Google-like algorithm so written content is important here).

Recently IG Video came online. These videos post to your regular Instagram, but users must click or tap to watch more than a few seconds of the video. This could be used as a top of the funnel scheme for marketing!

2. Educate Through Entertainment

Art should always elicit emotion. Let’s say you hire a photographer for eCommerce fashion. What kind of emotion are you hoping the photographer elicits from your customers?

Desire.

You want your customers to want what they see. “I need to be that model,” they think.

This is exactly what product photography and marketing photography should do. It should elicit the correct emotions for your product or service.

Get That Conversion

You want that 650% increase in engagement, right? What’s holding you back?

If you say equipment, that’s an excuse. While smartphones will never outclass a high-quality mirrorless camera, your iPhone takes incredible photos. Remember, most people will interact with your photography from a mobile device and you don’t need a billion pixels to get a pretty picture.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and shoot some things.