When trying to decide just how best to promote your home business, the question may come up about whether or not to use photos in your promotional materials–either photos of yourself, your family or other images that might help tell people who you are and what your business is about. If you’re trying to decide if photo images should be part of your marketing and promotional materials, here are some things you might want to consider…
If you take a look in your local newspaper or yellow pages, you’ll notice that using photos is definitely one of the ways small businesses promote themselves. Individuals who are in real estate, as well as those who sell insurance ALWAYS use their photo as their “brand” and include it in all their marketing and promotional materials. BUT, there are other businesses and/or other instances where using a photo might work–if you want to put a personal face on your business or create the image of a family-oriented small business, a photo of an actual person or family is a good way to do that. Some people choose to use photos of themselves with their pets, or in front of their homes for the same reasons–it helps you to put yourself across as a down-to-earth, approachable person–not a big, faceless corporation.
If you decide to use a photo, however, you’ll want to put some thought into just what exactly you want to convey–how glamorous, earthy, young, old or “whatever” do you want to seem? If you are going to use a photo of your family, how posed, professional or family-next-door do you want to look? Regardless, you’ll want to use a professional photographer to make sure that you get images that look professional and are in the appropriate format for you to use in a variety of situations (web, print advertising, marketing materials, etc.). Chances are, a digital photo taken by your neighbor probably won’t do the trick.
Finally, keep in mind that photos can look dated. With the changes in hair and clothing styles, and technology, if you decide to go the photo-route, you’ll need to make sure you look over your images periodically to see if they need to be replaced with updated images.
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