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Think ‘Pictures’

Olympic Diver Pulls a funny face

 

If there’s one golden rule for success in the press it is this: Always think in pictures.

 

 

It was the best bit of advice I was ever given while working as a national newspaper journalist.

Good photography is key to obtaining good coverage.

Spend as much money as you can on good images, if you can afford it then you really should consider using a stylist as well because good photography pays dividends many times over.

Editors want their pages to look a great as they possibly can do so good images will be used again and again.

It’s a sad fact, but a lesser story with a great photo will often trump a good story with no photo. And stories with images are 87%* more likely to be used than those without.

This is true in tabloids and broadsheet news as much as it is in the review pages of men’s and women’s lifestyle magazines.

Say for example you make jewellery, you’re launching a new range. It’s better than your competitors in every way – make, quality, price.

You have a contact on Fabulous, the Sun on Sunday magazine, so you carefully write a press release and take some digital shots of the product with your camera and send it in having spoken to your contact who seemed keen – and they are doing a spread on summer jewellery

The you open the issue to see… Your competitor where you should be. What’s happened? You ring up to find out. “Sorry,” says your contact. “They had better pics.” And you have to confess they have, because they are nicely styled, well-lit shots.

And that’s that. It’s that simple.

Spend a little thought and a bit of cash on getting your images right and not only can you increase the chances of making it to publication, you can also…

1. Show the product in the best possible light – the way you want it t be seen.
2. Show off your brand persona – if you’re an activity company don’t have your press shot being you outside the office – have it abseiling down a cliff face or up in a hot air balloon.
3. Use them on your website – pro shots look a lot more appealing.
4. Use them in literature, brochures and business cards.
5. Add them on social media – pinterest, Facebook or twitter.

Making your products look good will only help you to look good.

*completely fabricated, plucked-out-of-the-air statistic. But I bet it’s not far off.

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