If I had $1 for every mediation website that features stock photos of people sitting around a table or shaking hands, I’d be hanging out in my seaside cottage in Scotland with a wee dram of single malt in my hand right now (I know, Lenski doesn’t suggest Scottish, but my mum was a MacDonald).
I have, no doubt, wounded a few of you with this opening sentence. Sorry for the pain, but not sorry for getting your attention and breaking the news: Stock photos used in a stock-y kind of way scream "vanilla" to your site’s visitors. They convey lack of distinction.
This isn’t what you want to suggest with your site and the photos in it. Your website marketing should convey how you’re unique, and that you’re professional and approachable.
You also want to convey that you work with the kinds of clients you’re trying to target with your site. One ADR website I visited recently claimed to focus on construction mediation and all the photos were of people in pinstriped suits with briefcases in their hands. Sure, builders wear pinstripes and own briefcases. And I’m guessing that some builders wear other kinds of professionally appropriate garb, probably with a little more frequency than pinstripes. Now, if this site was only targeting construction company owners who wear a suit to work everyday, maybe this would work. But nothing else about the site suggested this was the case.
What to do?
- Get a professionally done ditigal headshot, not from a passport-photo kind of place but from a portrait photographer who will help you figure out how to have your uniqueness come out in photo form. It’s worth the small investment because you can use the photo on your site, in your print literature and in press releases.
- Think about how to convey the emotion of successful dispute resolution more than the canned image of hand-shaking. What other kinds of photos would convey that emotion?
- As I say often, think carefully about your target market and the way people in that market dress, look and convey themselves. If you want photos that show people doing something, make sure those photos look like the people in your target market.
Copyright © 2006 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.
Hey Tammy, my Mum is a Macdonald (that’s m.a.c. small d)from the Mull of Kyntyre and Glencoe and we hate them Cambells.
Geoff Sharp
Geoff, my mum was from Fife. I visited Glencoe with my sister a few years ago, as many MacDonalds eventually do…it’s a haunted and haunting place.
On this rainy day, a wee dram of single malt sounds great. ‘Tis a bit too early right now, however.
Doing some genealogical research a few years ago, I discovered my ancestors include a number of Scottish kings. Malcolms and Duncans leading down to Henry, Prince of Scotland, eventually down to the Lowther clan.
I may have to pull out the single malt later today…perhaps a little Dalwhinnie will be in order.
William, “a wee dram” was a common offer when I was in Scotland! I never fully appreciated a good whiskey ’til then, Dalwhinnie among them.
There are a lot of we Scots around, aren’t there. A prolific bunch. I hail from much humbler roots — flax mill workers and shipbuilders and riveters, mostly — but feel a pride every time I see a photo of the Forth Rail bridge, for which my great grandfather was a supervising riveter in the construction.
Thanks for stopping by for a chat!