Beyond the Cool Factor: How to Prove ROI on Corporate Photography

23 May Beyond the Cool Factor: How to Prove ROI on Corporate Photography

There are two universal truths to working at Coyle Studios:

1. If you suggest an idea, be prepared to own it.
2. If you’ve decided to own said idea, you better have some metrics.

When you have an owner (cough Mary Lou cough) who has a degree in business with a concentration in marketing, you learn to expect questions about data. Time is money in small business, and new projects and ideas are never approved because they are “cool.” You need to know your production time, cost of materials, and projected return on investment (ROI). Some concepts are easier to prove than others. Others–especially abstract ideas like photography–may require a little more effort before you receive management approval.

Some of our clients already have executive buy-in for new corporate photography; in fact, their bosses are the ones driving the photo shoot. This makes things a little easier for marketers because they’ve cleared the first–and maybe only–major hurdle for a new photography project. However, others aren’t as lucky. Their bosses want to know the cost, the time commitment, and the benefits for custom photography. They want to know why they should invest in this idea other than it will look cool.

So what do you do when you’re in this situation? How do you prove ROI on corporate photography? You need to start by identifying your “why.”

Why Do You Need New Corporate Photos?

There are a few reasons that could drive your why:

Strengthen Brand Recognition and Build Trust

This is important for new, old, small, and large businesses. Everyone needs authentic images that inspire trust in audiences. Imagine using stock photos for a restaurant, but the food doesn’t look anything like the photos (in a bad way). No one would come back for seconds. Instead, focus on creating images that feature real people and real services in your real environment. You won’t have to run a gimmick to get people to try you; it will happen naturally.

Increase Audience Engagement

People get excited when they see new images. Whether it is on social media, email, web, or print, your audience will see that you’re putting in the marketing effort and engage with it. Your goal may involve updating your image style or adding to your internal photo library. Whatever your reason, you need to understand your audience and evaluate their expectations of your company and your services or products.

Create Versatile Images

This is one of our favorite goals. We want our clients to have corporate photography they can use for campaigns or individual marketing components such as their website, social media, print pieces, advertisements, and more. There are some photos that are a one-time-use-only situation. However, with a little planning, most quality photos can last for years. One thing we’ve learned in this business is that you will get tired of your photos before your audience, so don’t be afraid to plan for repetition.

Evaluate Competitive Research

This is a time-consuming but important part of creating your why. What does the competition look like? If your images are not as good as the competition, then you have a problem. Take a look at your competitors’ websites, social media, and any other marketing items you can find. Evaluate their imagery, and use that information to help guide your own photo project. Maybe your photos need to look better than they currently do, or maybe you look like everyone else. How can you use your photos to differentiate your company?

What is Your Strategy?

This is Mary Lou’s second favorite question after asking about data: what is the strategy? An idea can have good foundational metrics, but it means nothing without a plan of action and timeline. For your strategy, you need to include:

• Identify your wants and needs. Know which photos you want to have versus the ones you need to do your job effectively.
• Have a budget. This is crucial to every project, especially photography. Don’t start planning a photo shoot without a budget.
• Develop a shot list. Work with your team and your photographer to develop a schedule that is efficient and prioritizes your needs list. If you have extra time, you can capture a few images from your wants list.
• Create goals and KPIs. You need to know how you will measure success. Your goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) will help you place value on your images and determine results.
• Establish a timeline. You need a production timeline and a results timeline. How long will it take for to create the images? How long will it take to have the final images in hand? How long will it take to gather metrics and share the results?

How to Measure Your Results?

This is your fun challenge: prove ROI on corporate photography. It is not easy, and we can’t offer a one-size-fits-all approach. Measuring results is business specific; it will depend on your service, product, audience, and other factors. Content Marketing Institute offers a few suggestions on measuring content that could work for photography. Here are a few starting points:

• Brand recognition: web traffic, page views, downloads, etc.
• Engagement: time spent on page, email open rates and clicks, heatmaps, shares, and comments.
• Conversions & Traffic: changes in landing pages, email, social, and web.
• Image Versatility: multiple uses for brochures, web pages, proposals, promotional pieces, portfolios, social media, office art, campaigns, award submissions, and more.

These are all quantitative metrics with hard numbers behind them. You need these metrics to show success. Yet, there are also qualitative metrics, and these can be just as powerful as numbers. Qualitative metrics are the intangible results from your campaign that are hard to quantify. Examples include customer stories and comments, success outside of a campaign, examples of visual brand awareness, and examples of surprising image versatility. A great example of this is unpaid influencer sharing. I see this all of the time in Ari Murray’s Go-to-Millions newsletter. In this newsletter, she shares product marketing examples and tips that inspire her, and she almost always includes a spot for product photography. If your photos were shared in the wild like this, then that would make a great qualitative metric.

Another qualitative metric example comes from our photo restoration side of the business. In 2019, we shared a holiday gift guide that departed from our traditional postcard. We featured photos of the work we do in photo restorations, custom framing, painting repair and restoration, slide and negative transfers, and photo books. Almost everyone who came in from October to at least February told us that they loved the guide and had no idea we offered one of those services. We talk about our services when we meet with clients, and we have examples of our work in our studio. We write about our projects on our website. However, it was the gift guide with specific photos that helped people recognize the full breadth of our services. That is the power of a photo.

Once you have your why, strategy, and plan for metrics, you can sit down with your boss and propose your new photoshoot idea–just be prepared to own it.

Need a few ideas to help prove ROI on corporate photography? Check out some samples in our portfolio.