Website Photography & Design: How Custom Imagery Elevates Your Site Content
KEEPING THE END GOAL IN MIND
We all know the importance of having a professional, fully-functional website for your company or organization. Your site is the digital hub for all that encompasses your brand. Most importantly, it’s the foundation of your digital marketing strategy and a framework for building a successful business. In today’s digital landscape, using eye-catching imagery and professional website photography that complements compelling copywriting and site design is essential to stand out among competitors.
People take the most pivotal steps of the customer journey on your website. It’s where they come to learn more information about your company, preview products and services, fill out forms, make purchases, among other things.
WEBSITE PHOTOGRAPHY IS VISUAL STORYTELLING
Whether it be illustrations or photographs, imagery adds an extra layer of interpretation to your website content. A layer of context that may not be fully appreciated or understood without it.
When potential customers land upon your website, they want to see something that will “wow” them, not something they have seen before. While there is a plethora of creative commons licensed stock website photography available online, it will always be someone else’s vision, and interpretation of the ideas, concepts, and emotions you are trying to convey. Is that really the best approach for your business?
Regardless of the purchase-intent, emotions and feelings have an impact on decision-making, even if it is a small one. With custom website photography, you control the narrative your site conveys. This creates an opportunity to appropriately illustrate your story, evoking the right thoughts and emotions at the right time and to the right audience.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN RELATION TO YOUR BRAND
When it comes to content strategy and creation for websites, including original website photography into your site design has long-term benefits for your business. It helps establish your own unique identity and share the vision of your company that you want in people’s minds.
As mentioned above, your website is the digital headquarters for your company, where people come to make informed decisions on whether or not they trust you with their money. The presentation of your site and its content work in tandem to create an optimal user experience and bring visitors closer to the physical reality behind the brand.
OBJECTIVE-ORIENTED WEB PHOTOGRAPHY
To be successful in today’s digital environment, you need professional-quality website images to illustrate your brand messaging. The intended use is different for each industry, which is why proper planning, research, and collaboration with your web developer are imperative for a successful photo shoot.
There is no denying the impact of powerful imagery. Coupling a photoshoot with the objectives of your greater marketing campaigns is a surefire strategy to ensure each shot is deliberate with intention.
If you think about it, setting the expectations of the photoshoot beforehand just makes sense! And that’s exactly what we do at GTMA.
When you build a website with our expert WordPress web design and development team, you have the advantage of a full-service, award-winning creative agency. Plus, we have GTMA-trained website photographers ready to capture the assets you need wherever you are located.
MANSION CREEK CELLARS
Mansion Creek Cellars was a unique opportunity to tell a web-centric story that had previously only ever been told in physical locations or with physical objects. Those places and objects themselves were integral to the overall visual narrative, and a website that didn’t reflect the reality of the brand would have felt hollow and incomplete. At the heart of this brand’s story is its tasting room location, and no stock imagery could ever have substituted the real deal.
With sweeping aerial shots, close-up images of the wine in context, and textural imagery of the character that surrounds all of this, our creative team set to work pulling out the most distinctive style that could never have been substituted with generic photography.
The Website Photography Process:
1. Making a plan
All creative work begins with getting to know our clients, their story, and their unique needs. After this, our production and design teams begin discussing the scope of the project and literally mapping out the photography that we aim to capture. We’re visual people, so this often means the rubber hits the road with sketches and drawings.
2. Wireframing for the website
These sketches are a visual guide to the story that we want to tell, but their ultimate destination is the website. This means our visual storytelling needs to be a part of a broader strategy of narrative building and the web photography needs to be staged for specific web-centric placement.
3. Objective-oriented photoshoot
After creating a strategic outline and a clear plan in the first two steps, our skilled GTMA photographers have everything they need for a successful photo shoot. As mentioned before, GTMA is a full-service digital agency with passionate in-house design and web development teams working collectively to take your projects to the next level.
Are you looking for a new expertly-engineered, professionally designed website? You’re in luck! Fill out the form below and let’s talk about your web design needs!