5 reasons why you should invest in a photographer for your blog
We think good photography, and we usually immediately think it's unaffordable or not worth the money. However, we know that good photography can really take your content to the next level. If you want to grow and have clients really see the value of what you’re creating, here are 5 reasons why a photographer is a good investment.
@kyrzayda_ by denisse benitez
1. You need to spend money to make money.
This is true for all things in business, and if you’re trying to make money your blog a source of monetary income then it’s a business. Welcome thriving entrepreneur. You’re a business owner now.The point is self-explanatory, but I’ll break it down for you penny pinchers. Say you want Mansur Gavriel to sponsor you. You’re pitching your feature. All is good and dandy. You get the luxury bag and you take a phone photo of yourself outside. Nice! You look fantastic. But you can’t really see the full quality of what you’re trying to sell. Don’t get me wrong, the way phones shoot these days. Might as well just hire a professional iPhone photographer (JUST KIDDING!) but if you want your work to be crisp, clean, and professional looking, you need to spend money on a pro photographer.
@cocobassey by denisse benitez
2. Professional images circulate the web faster.
If your image is bomb, professional and high quality, it’ll more likely get reposted by other users, brands, and blogs. And that is a return on your investment. Most of my photography clients say that their following and partnership opportunities grew after hiring me for their campaigns.I can’t tell you how many times I’ll get a text or email from someone who says “OMG! I’m working on a project and the company has some of your previous work for them on the inspo board.” Memorable. That’s what you want to be. You want to produce work that sets you apart, elevates your delivery, and quite frankly makes you look damn good.
3. Aesthetics are everything.
We briefly touched on this above, but let’s elaborate a bit. Think of your favorite blogger right now. What do you love about them the most? Their style? Their images? Bingo! Most of the time when I ask this question, the answer is images. People like visually pleasing images. There are people who I follow just because their images are so gorgeous.You want someone to look at your photo and say, “UGH! Look at that shot! Yassss!” This will more than likely attract viewers to come back for more. That pretty feed and those perfect photos your fav blogger have are either attached to investment or an Instagram bae. Probably number one.
@melrwhite by denisse benitez
4. You can’t pitch a Mercedes G Wagon and deliver a Toyota Prius.
You shoot your shot and pitch a campaign. Congratulations babe! You did it. PS, I know pitching is brutal sometimes but I made an e-book for that. Grab it HERE. Moving on. You give them your rates and so the company views your media kit or your blog site and feels that your ask is a bit high for the quality of content you’re producing. They say no. Ouch. That’s okay. Let’s fix it! But first, let’s break it down.You place an ad for a car your selling. It’s a well taken care of Toyota Prius. A few dings and spots but you’ve done your best. You list your car for $227k. That’s an entire house but let’s not even begin to go there. You invite a few people you know are on the market to come and view your vehicle. You are selling the coins out of this car. “It has a magnificent steering wheel. The radio sounds amazing and the interior is spotless. Did I mention the shine?! It’s basically a luxury vehicle.” Your prospective buyer goes out to check the car and instead of finding a G Wagon Squared which retails at two hundred twenty-seven thousand dollars, you find a Toyota Prius that retails at about $24k. Womp.
The buyer is now trying to figure out how on this sort of green earth you can justify asking for all of that money and deliver something way out of that price range. That’s what it’s like when you slide into someone’s inbox and ask for a grand monetary compensation in exchange for DIY work. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes the work you can produce yourself is BOMB, but other times you need to invest in a professional. Especially when asking a company to pay you.If you see yourself as this gorgeous G Wagon, think about the maintenance that goes into that car. The price for gas is insane. An oil change probably costs as much as my mortgage and if something breaks just burn the whole car because I can’t afford to fix it. But you can’t see yourself as this luxury car and carry this “$15 for gas” mentality. If you want to be that G Wagon then you need to invest in order to do so.
@be_ezie by denisse benitez
5. You will have more time to produce content if you’re not doing it all.
When outsourcing your work, you will find that not having to do it all really saves you time. Think about it for a second. You don’t have to spend forever asking a friend, your very reluctant boo, or the tripod to take these images of you. None of these three are professional photographers. Therefore none of them can get it done ask quickly and efficiently as one would hope.A photographer will take the images, edit them and deliver. Saving you the time of having to do all of that post-production work. And you know what more time means? More time to work on other campaigns or naps or tv binges. It also gives you more time to fully invest yourself in your projects. You can be present, sharp and you can deliver A-1 content if you’re focused and not overwhelmed by all of the tasks that come with DIY photography.So yes, while you make try to convince yourself that DIY is best, remember that oftentimes hiring a professional is the best idea. Your passions and your dreams deserve the best. Your images should be the highest quality and they should represent you well. And well, if I can be blunt, if you don’t invest in yourself, how do you expect others to invest in you?Xo