Today, we’re talking about .… winning budget to replace your photo assets.
NB: This is an article from Tambourine
You’ve got to make a compelling business case to ownership. That means you’ve got to find a way to tie revenue to photography. You know, the same way you tie revenue to the tried-and-true digital marketing efforts you pay for every single day, like Google Pay Per Click advertising.
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A compelling business case starts with communicating that great photography is fundamental. It has the power to impact and shape the success of almost every other marketing effort.
Great photography has the power to improve conversion rates.
Yes, conversion rates. Think about it. The images you leverage on the OTAs matter. One great thumbnail image helps you stand out and win that click, but one bad image gets you skipped by travelers scanning OTA search results every single time.
The same can be said for the images you leverage in paid advertising. Here you are spending all that money on paid ads, yet you might be leveraging images that simply aren’t compelling. The result? Below average click-through rates and higher than the average cost per clicks. What if you could simultaneously increase click through rates and decrease cost per clicks across your entire digital marketing ecosystem? How would that increase in ad performance compare to a small investment in photography?
Great photography increases entrances into the booking engine.
It’s no great secret that when great photography and great website design come together, conversion rates into the booking engine are positively impacted. But it’s worth mentioning that one great header photo on the website can also shape the guest’s entire perception of the property. Struggling to push ADR for a great hotel product that’s underrepresented by lackluster photography? How does a small investment in photography compare to even a minor increase in ADR?
And then, of course, there’s social media.
When it comes to Instagram or Facebook, imagery isn’t just important, it’s quite literally everything. The photography on your hotel’s social media channels is sometimes all a potential guest uses to judge the entire guest experience. Think about the photo content that’s on your hotel’s Instagram feed right now. Does that imagery help sell your hotel experience? Or are younger, experiential guests dismissing your hotel as an option when they see your hotel’s Instagram feed is filled with irrelevant or outdated photography? What if better photography on your social channels could help seal the deal on just 1% of those undecided travelers? How big of a revenue impact would that be?
And finally…
Images can be your sales team’s greatest weapon in closing a deal. One fantastic image of your wedding venue, complete with a glowing couple in love, could be all your sales team needs to make winning over customers easier and close more deals. What if you could improve sales conversion rates here by just 1 percent? What kind of increase in revenue would that mean for your hotel?
In order to tie revenue back to photography, we need to look at the data points most impacted, then tie those data points back to potential revenue wins. A small improvement in any one of the categories we listed above could mean big revenue. Weigh that revenue against the cost of additional budget and you’ve got yourself a business case.
