We’ve been looking for an extensive 2011 digital marketing report that would summarize, in a more comprehensive fashion, the state of digital currently and to provide an outlook for the future for brands and retailers in particular. 

And we’ve found it.  Below is a report from Engauge based in Atlanta.  Interestingly, Scott Hildebrand, who is featured in the presentation, is now the Chief Consumer Relationship Officer at Engauge as of August 2010.  Scott used to work at Capital One here in Richmond and then had his own agency based out of Charlottesville called BoldMouth Inc.

Here is what Engauge says about their 2011 Digital Marketing Outlook report:

A comprehensive report on emerging technologies and best practices for brands. CMOs and brand leaders will find creative digital strategies to drive growth in the year ahead.

Technologies and platforms include mobile and location-based marketing, owned-media channels, online coupons, interactive TV, apps, virtual goods, gaming, augmented reality, social analytics and measurement.

Best practices and market insights include the foundations of digital success, defined brand behaviors within social channels, creativity in the era of co-creation, brand storytelling, crowdsourcing, retail convergence, consumer narcissism, privacy regulations, social coding of sophisticated teens and behavioral marketing.

Read exclusive interviews with some of the tech community’s most-watched start-ups: Figment, PlacePunch, GetGlue, Crimson Hexagon and BlueCava.

We hope you take the time to read and experience this report thoroughly and use it to brief your staff and brainstorm ideas and stategic marketing plans within your organization, whether it be large or small.  We feel it justly summarizes consumer trends, how marketers are often lagging and resistant to change, and how digital technology and related marketing are changing for the future.

Please note that this presentation is copy heavy so you’ll want to view it in the full screen mode.  Just click the “menu” button on the left-hand side below the presentation and it will give you an option to view in full screen mode for much easier reading.

At Traction Group, we work with several types of small businesses including franchise owners, product dealers and stand-alone businesses who may be members of a governing trade association. In the age of new media including online marketing and social networking, it is essential for all types of small businesses to hire a photographer and build a portfolio of images which will be reflective of their own brand.

Granted, stock photos work well for certain purposes and we highly encourage their use to make a visual point when needed. We even use photos from FreeFoto.com on our site, just to add some interest. 

Home Instead Senior Care provides franchise owners with a photo bank of seniors and caregivers.

Franchise owners often have the benefit of using videos and images that their corporate home office makes available to them, although not all franchise owners use those to the fullest extent. Dealers have the ability to use manufacturer product photos, images, videos and design drawings which come in handy when they’re promoting or explaining a specific product to a prospect. And a stand-alone business might be able to utilize similar images from a trade association for which they may be members. 

Using imagery of any kind these days is critical to a small business success as consumers have an increasing desire to interact and engage in various ways. But photographs and images like these can only serve small business needs to a point. For a franchise not to localize its business, or a dealer to count only on the manufacturer’s brand, or for a small business to rely on the laurels of its association membership, is just absurd from a business branding standpoint. And that’s particularly true since we find ourselves thrown in to this new social media world with photo tools like Flickr, Picasa, and the many online photo album services including the one available on your Facebook Fan page. 

So why should a small business prioritize hiring a photographer and not rely on stock photos or other images from their franchise corporate office or their manufacturer? 

Here are Traction Group’s top 10 reasons why a local small business should hire a photographer:

1. Business owners need terrific profile shots. Social media profiles like those on LinkedIn, Twitter or your WordPress blog require profile headshots that tell people that you’re both professional and approachable. The business owner’s photo helps people to remember you and connect with you and the photographs can be used for your company business cards, sell sheets or brochures. If you have a business development director, the same goes for that person as well, as they are often the face of the company.
2. Prospects often research your company online. Often your customers or prospects are checking out your business online before they even call, or connecting with those who answer the phone and they don’t always know or talk to the business owner. Having photos of your office team that your prospects or customers can find on your website or on your Facebook Fan page is important so that they can put a face with a name, or that they can see that your business is both serious and credible.
3. Accurately depict the size of your company. Recently, one of our clients almost didn’t get called about a project because the prospect found some outdated data online that said his company had 2-4 employees. While my client did have 4 employees a few years ago, his company now employs nearly 20. Having updated photos of your company and your team every couple of years is important so that prospects can easily see that you have a business that is big enough to service their needs.
4. Keep your content fresh. In the age of social media and online content development, adding photos and images to your blog posts, your website and your Facebook Fan page keeps your content fresh and engaging. There is nothing more important in the world of online marketing than to continually keep your customers and prospects engaged with you and your brand. Yes, I said your brand. Not the brand of your franchise and not the brand of your manufacturer or association.
5. Developing your unique brand. Hiring a photographer to shoot photos of you, your building, your signage, your team, your work – or anything that defines your company – is part of building your business’s unique brand and sets you apart from other local or national competition. And if you’re a franchise owner, it helps to localize your business and sets you apart from similar franchises that may be in your area. And photo selections can easily be turned into slide shows and videos, even cool online banner ads, that can further define your brand in the online media space.
   

   Marshall Mechanical, Richmond VA, recently invested in creating their own photo bank.

6. Starting a photography bank. I can guarantee you that few small business owners realize the importance of creating a bank of approved photography that can be used for both online and offline marketing efforts. But it must be part of their overall marketing budget. With the economy the way it is, you can get a good photographer to get you started with as little as $500 to get some basic shots and the costs range to a few thousand for a couple of days of shooting. Be sure to negotiate that the photographer will do some minor retouching (especially for the profile shots) and give you all the images on a CD so that you have a permanent copy and can load on multiple computers for accessing and storage. Also, be sure to negotiate the fact that you have all photography ownership rights.
7. Photos for Case Studies. Many small business owners perform work that is visible and should be showcased as a case study on their website or in presentations for business development purposes or industry presentations. And if you’re working on a large job that takes weeks to perform, you might require photographs in the various stages of development such as the early stage, the work-in-progress stage and the finished job. Certainly many business owners who are in the construction or related business might want before and after shots, whether they are installing a geothermal heating system or a dedicated home theater, or whether they are performing a makeover or creating a memorable event. We can’t stress how important it is to write up a simple case study on the more intriguing projects that your company has performed. At a future point, we’ll add a blog post with instructions of how to write a case study but it is imperative to capture high quality pictures while the job is progressing and to make notes about the job before you move on to another one.
8. Using both primary and secondary shots. When we work with a photographer on behalf of our small business clients, we help them develop a shot list so that the photographer can properly estimate the job (they may be able to group some together) and so that we all agree on what shots we expect to get from booking of their time. Within our shot list, we specify the number of staff members, extra locations or backgrounds, wardrobe changes and various things that are unique to each business and their situation. In addition to those primary shots, we also will ask the photographer to shoot some secondary or stylistic shots that might be close-ups, shots at different angles or views, or of just cool aspects of a project that are unique which may not ordinarily get any attention. Asking the photographer to take those extra shots on location and during the main shoot is much less expensive than scheduling more time. And those secondary shots can be so interesting for use in social media – especially in blogging and how those blog posts appear on your blog and on your Facebook Fan page for example.
   

   Google's Local Business Center allows small business owners to add photos and videos.

9. Local Business Directory Listings. Most small businesses forget to take the time to update their online local directory listings on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Yet, it is one of the more powerful search engine optimization tactics to use for a local business. Many listings are free and then there are some that charge a small monthly, annual or one-time fee. Most of these listings will allow you to add a logo and additional photos or even videos to make your listing more interesting. Using well-branded photographs that are unique to your business, especially if you have a storefront, will help people to find you and recognize your business. And this is one of the many reasons why we suggest that you have a photographer take pictures of your signage and your building.
10. You can’t be effective at social media marketing without photos. One of the very first questions we ask our new clients is “what photos do you have for us to work with?” Often we have to refer them to a photographer right away as they have very few photos for us to work with or the photos they have are outdated or out of focus. So if you plan to invest both time and money to increase your social media marketing, then take a serious inventory of your company’s photographs. And if someone tells you that you don’t need photos to be effective at social media, think again. Without a decent start of a photo bank, you’ll end up with nothing but boring content. And boring content will make your readers run away faster than you can say “flapjack.”

If you need help with how to maximize your social media and marketing efforts through photography or otherwise, then give Traction Group a call at 804.777.9940.

Check back for our next blog post:  How one small business used photography to elevate its brand image.