Educating Clients: Why Should They Use Your Photography?

Two websites that use the same microstock image

What they say: “I’m not sure we actually need to hire a photographer to do our company portraits. We have a digital camera too, couldn’t we just take the pictures ourselves?”

What you’d like to say: “Yes, you could. And the next time you need a tooth pulled, you could just get a pair of pliers and do that yourself too.”

What they say: “We have a small budget for photography, we usually just use [inexpensive] stock photos for our projects.”

What you’d like to say: “That’s fine, go ahead and use the exact same photos that a thousand other companies are using to market themselves as well. You’ll really stand out with that type of shot.”

What they say: “We can’t really pay you, but we can give you photo credit and send you some copies.”

What you’d like to say: “Hey, sure, that’s great. And the next time I want to buy one of your products, you can give it to me for free, and in exchange, I’ll just tell everyone the name of the company that makes it.”

We’ve all heard these kinds of remarks before. Fortunately, most of us have filters between our brains and our mouths, and as much as we’d love to say stuff like, we know it won’t do any good. Our time is much better spent educating and negotiating with our clients.

Let’s face it, though, we have an uphill battle in front of us. Especially during the post 9/11, post recession economy. Times couldn’t be harder for photographers, which is why we ALL need to work extra hard to educate our prospective clients and show them why hiring you or using your images would be a good idea. Fortunately, we tend to have graphic designers on our side as well, which helps our case that much more.

This eduction involves making a clear case why professional imagery can benefit their company, and why it’s worth money. We need to be really good at explaining that image absolutely matters, and that the first impression that the public will have of their company are the photos that they put on their website or in their magazine ad. Do they want that image to be outstanding and original, or ordinary, run of the mill and the same kinds of shots that everyone else is using? (Here’s a very good argument against run of the mill imagery- use it to help educate your own clients.)

Most companies charge good money for their services, and often the cost of good imagery is relatively cheap compared to the overall cost of marketing and advertising. In most cases, their reluctance to spend good money on photography is mostly a matter of perception.

If a company is budgeting to produce and distribute 20,000 full-color catalogs, or buy ad space in a magazine, the difference in cost between a rights managed image and a $1-10 microstock shot is somewhat negligible compared to the ad space that it’s going to cost to actually place the ad in a magazine. Depending on the publication, this cost could be anywhere from $10,000-100,000 or more for a full page ad, and the corresponding cost of a full page rights managed image is usually about 2-5% of this figure.

With that kind of ad money at stake, does it make sense for them to use a low quality imagery? No. Do they realize this? Maybe? Do they care? Maybe not, but it’s up to you to try and make them care. You may not succeed, but every time you talk to a client, you educate them a little bit more and plant another seed that might someday grow into a willingness to spend more money on photography. It may not be you who gets that future work, but for the good of the cause, do it anyway. You may end up benefitting from someone else’s education down the road.

It takes a very diplomatic tongue and a good attitude to counter statements like these and shift the closely held perceptions that some clients have. It takes time, and sometimes your efforts will fall on deaf ears. There are some clients that you just won’t be able to convince, but as the economy starts to pick back up, there may be hope to pick up a few more who, a few years ago, might not have been willing to pay for quality imagery.

Read Part Two of this article, where I recount an actual conversation with a photo buyer.

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Dan Bailey is a professional adventure, outdoor and travel photographer based in Anchorage, Alaska. Follow his own blog at danbaileyphoto.com/blog and see his daily updates at facebook.com/danbaileyphoto.

Tagged as: Freelance, Photographer, Photography, photography industry