Professional photographers, commercial photography

Can a commercial photographer be less expensive than the DIY approach?

When commissioning the creation of imagery to promote your business, product, or service, it can be tempting to go with the cheapest option and we absolutely think you should. However, as with all things in business, it’s important to define what ‘cheap’ really means.

 

Every penny saved and every penny earned go straight to the bottom line

When running a business, the ‘bottom line’ on your balance sheet and profit & loss report are the ones you pay attention to. The higher your profits and the more your business has on it’s balance sheet, the better off you are. So every decision you make which increases these values are the good decisions and those which detract from them, the expensive ones.

 

Average imagery costs you more in the long run

The key factor in commercial video and professional photography is how much attention they get when released ‘into the wild’. An image or video which commands no attention, which gets scrolled past and which inspires the utter indifference of your target market has, in reality, cost you dearly in terms of lost sales and missed opportunities. If this were measurable, it would be accounted for under the ‘losses’ section of your P&L and you’d be able to see just how expensive a ‘cheap’ photographer or the DIY approach really is.

 

Time: Yours is valuable too

As well as costing you sales, the DIY approach has an inbuilt extra tax on your business – it uses up your valuable time. You’re an expert at what you do, the time you spend doing ‘your thing’ and the expertise with which you do it, directly translates into revenue earned. Why then, would you consider taking time away from something which makes you money, to do something which (as stated above) will ultimately cost you?

You may well have a decent camera, you may well have an eye for a photo, you may even have access to image editing software, but are you able to produce something special enough to command the attention of your audience? Even if you can, does the full commercial value of the time you took to create it cost more than it would cost to engage a commercial photographer? Most likely!

 

The smart money is invested in expertise

With a commercial photographer, you’re getting the expertise of a person (or an agency) who has access to the best equipment, facilities and software to show off your business at its very best. As good as a photography enthusiast might be, they won’t have the sheer wealth of  experience possessed by their commercial counterparts, they won’t have the efficiency, or the knowledge that’s been gained from spending every day producing content which is expected to perform. Not to mention the creativity and the passion to make even the ordinary look exraordinary.

In short, photography or videography content produced by commercial photographers are assets in every sense of the word, something of value that earns you more money than you’ve spent on producing it. Therefore, by any definition, professional, commercial photographers are the cheapest photographers you could hire!

 

To discus your commercial photography needs, we’d be delighted to hear from, get in touch today.