Hey, Tampa. Let's chat about marketing.. Everyone loves free marketing, and one way to get it is with a press release. Sounds easy enough, but how do you make your press release stand out amongst the flood of press releases editors and journalists get every day? Professional headshots or product photography can make your press release get shared 3 times as much, according to Mashable.com
Here are 3 reasons professional photography helps you be press ready.
Professional images make press releases stand out
“Including images along with your release can make a big difference in coverage. PRESSfeed’s data shows that 80% of journalists and bloggers are more likely to cover news that includes an image.” - Mashable.com
When someone opens a press release email or finds yours online and sees an engaging high resolution photo, they take notice. It hits their mind before the text and tells them the news is going to be worth their time. Let's imagine you are sending a press release about opening a new financial center. Without a photo, your email can look like daunting blocks of text, but imagine how much more interesting it looks with a visual to go along with it. Just imagine if the newspapers or magazines you read had no photos. The photo helps tell a more complete story and puts faces on the story.
Professional Photos Make Editor’s Jobs Easier
Let’s be honest for a minute. We all love when we find shortcuts or tools that allow us to do our jobs a little quicker or save us money. Publication editors are no different. If you have a variety of great images they can plug right in, your press release moves up the list. It means they don’t have to use a subpar image or hire or send a photographer to get a good image of you, which means you are ahead of those without professional press ready images. Be sure to choose both landscape and portrait orientation photos when selecting the images you want so you will have options that will fit into the publication. Sometimes, the editors choose what to run with or include based on a certain amount of space they have left that needs to be filled.
Great Images Get More Attention on Social Media Shares
If you’re marketing through news and press releases, press outlets aren’t the only places you’re sending your releases. They should be posted on your site, on your social media and to sites like Reddit. Having high quality professional head shots, real estate photos, business photography or product photography as your featured image means the image will copy over to Social Media. Or, on some sites like Facebook, posts with photos take higher priority than other posts and show up in more news feeds. Engaging photos also give press outlets good images to share online.
Hiring a professional photographer means they will ensure your photos are the correct resolution and color format for online and print publications. When you send the press release, you’ll want to include photography credits with your contact information. For example, a simple line: Photo Credit: Photo by Vadim Davydov This tells the publication they have permission to use the photo but need to credit the photographer since they are not paying their own photographer and do not own the rights to the image. Wednesday, I'll elaborate more on press release photography for artists, freelancers, sole proprietors, and service providers - people who are the product they are selling or central to the service they provide.
