How to Maximize the Return on Your Photography Budget

Good Food Marketing with The Virginia Foodie

Photography can make or break a food brand. Your photos set customer expectations and help create appetite appeal when you aren’t there to sell your brand or offer someone a sample to try.
Photography can be an expensive investment, yet powerful images are vital for your brand’s message. When you finally decide to invest in new images, ensuring that these photos will serve you for several seasons and reasons is also a must.
Understanding how and where you will use your images beyond the immediate project can help you maximize your return.
Creative freedom and terms of use are on the pricier end of the spectrum. But there are affordable services you may use in the market, too. Hence, the emphasis on careful planning when allotting a chunk of your budget to marketing materials.
In this episode, I cover 3 sources of food photography, give a range of cost expectations, and provide tips to consider how, where, and why to spend on each type of imagery. From online services for catalog photos to hiring a studio photographer or collaborating with food bloggers, I got you covered!
Virginia Foodie Essentials:

• Evergreen content is anything you create that can live beyond a single use. - Georgiana Dearing
• When planning your budget and deciding how to invest in your marketing assets, be sure to consider the life of the content. - Georgiana Dearing
• People love to support craft beverage brands by making work-in trade. What you need to remember is that nothing is really free. - Georgiana Dearing
• A pro photographer should be the person you turn to when trying to capture lifestyle imagery and very specific brand messaging. - Georgiana Dearing

Key Points From This Episode:

• You control content in these 5 places:
  • Your Website
  • Your Packaging
  • Your Sell Sheets and Catalogs
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media Streams
• Evergreen content is a way to make your marketing budget stretch further. Evergreen content is anything you create that lives longer than a single campaign.
• The opposite of evergreen content is trending content or anything with a limited lifespan in your communication channels.
• Planning photography beforehand ensures you can get the most use out of the photos you purchase. Plan your photoshoots before you seek quotes.
• Catalog photography is necessary for eCommerce and your sell sheets and catalogs.
• Catalog photography can also be used in social media and email marketing, especially if you are able to change the background to a more exciting, topical style.
• Professional photographers are your most significant investment, giving you the broadest creative control.
• Hire Professional photographers for lifestyle photography and photos that convey a brand message.
• Food Bloggers are another resource for photography, but they give you limited creative control.
• Use stock photography and copyright-free images thoughtfully and with caution.
• Read the fine print of your contracts and licensing agreements.
• Hiring a photographer can be complicated and expensive, but you can get the most potential out of your product.

Follow The Virginia Foodie here:

• VA Foodie website
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• VA Foodie Instagram
• VA Foodie on Twitter
• Work with George Dearing
• Marketing Made Easy

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