Data Protection in a Box - Business Photography Case Study
Having a commercial business photographer work with you is the same thing your service based business does for your clients. In the case of Data Protection in a box, they’re helping businesses comply with their data protection & GDPR requirements.
Their client may well try to manage GDPR & Data Protection themselves but it’s going to take them 10 times longer and they’re more likely not get it right. It’s the same with creating visual content. I’m sure you’re capable of being able to create images for your business yourself but are they going to be consistently high quality and do you really have the time to spend on taking photos and processing them for a professional brand?
A professional photographer can save you time and effort by creating consistent images that can be repurposed multiple times so you can concentrate on what you do best for your clients.
Meet Kevin, company director and GDPR compliance consultant for Data Protection in a Box based in Sidcup London Borough of Bexley. Hear in his own words, his thoughts on why he outsourced commercial photography for his business.
“I’ve been working as a data protection consultant since 2016 and last year I decided to start a new company Data protection in a box. To help companies become UK GDPR compliant without the scaremongering or upselling. Our main focus is on small to medium-sized businesses.”
What did you need commercial photography for?
“Coming from an IT background I didn’t want to follow what I see a lot in the cyber security data protection industry where you can see their pictures and you can just see they’re from the stock image websites.”
“I wanted to be different and didn’t want people just to look at the image and go everyone’s got that same image! Then after a conversation with you, I started to look at my brand and how the images all link together with the company colours.”
“It was also your idea of actually googling “Data Protection” and finding out what people expect to see and not what I thought they should see that was a big one for me and that’s the difference.”
“I also needed the headshots for LinkedIn as that’s my main presence & sales tool.”
Why did you use a professional photographer as opposed to doing it yourself?
“I understand that there’s an awful lot behind the scenes, the colouring the lighting, equipment and so on. I’ll take a picture but it will look terrible compared with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
“It seems a lot easier to use an expert rather than try and mock it up myself. it would take me a few days and it wouldn’t be as good as a professional photographer spending only a few hours.”
“I knew you through networking and looking at some of the photoshoots you’ve posted online already I thought that’s exactly what I wanted for my business so hence reaching out to you.”
Why is it important for you as a business owner to have good images?
“People buy from people so people need to see me that’s the big push for my company. It’s important that potential clients know there’s a face at the end of the line it’s not just a big corporate and you’re not going to be assigned to a random person within the team.”
“That’s a big driver for me.”
“it’s so frustrating when you go to social media or you go to a website and it’s a poor-quality image. It puts people off.”
Did you have any concerns about the session?
“yes. I found it a little bit scary to reach out, I’ve never really had a proper photoshoot before. I’ve had the corporate headshots where someone comes and you just sit there and they take about ten shots. This was in my mind a little bit.”
“But to be honest, you were great with that, running through the day with what was going to happen, how it would work, how you’d set up and constantly chatting and making jokes throughout it.”
“It’s fast-paced in the sense of I’m thinking about the pose and you’re saying right slightly or slightly left so you don’t have time to get worried, it’s just a case of doing it and going through the process. Obviously with the jokes in there to help bring out and ease the nerves. It’s something I’ve never done before and neither had the rest of the team.”
“They were nervous about it. I did a jokey point saying “oh you’re going to have some headshots for the website” so they were ready for it but weren’t expecting it until they walked in – But it was fun and they enjoyed it too.”
The Process
“From our first communication, you told me what the process was and you explained the different options, which was great so we could pick and choose what was suitable for us”
“Your suggestion that probably the office-based approach would be best, which was great and then from there we agreed on a date, which was perfect”
“You sent over a Pinterest board too. Pinterest had kind of passed me by but it was good to have a look at the types of shots that we were planning and we could add to that as well so we could have an input”
“Then on the day in line with the Pinterest board, we just ticked them off as we went which was great and a nice simple process kind of a task list which works well for me”
Results
“I’m very impressed by the photos they’re great and having both black and white and colour help because then we can use them on either side of our adverts so we have plenty of variety to choose from”
“Currently, we’ve got active campaigns at the moment, but they’re only a white background with just text. Very simple. And because we didn’t want to use stock images like everyone else in the sector we can now sit down and start redesigning new campaigns using the images and building them up over time”
“The impression I want to get across is less corporate and more casual because when you say data protection everyone clams up and my approach is much more down to earth”
So, the first job with my new headshot (without a corporate shirt and tie) was to update my Linkedin profile which was done within the hour of receiving the photographs”
Investment Vs Time
“The images are part of the branding element that you want to get across and a fundamental requirement for marketing.”
“The cost and time it would have taken me would have been maybe three days. And three days of my working time generates an income that’s 10 times more than the investment of this business photoshoot.”
“So very much worth it.”
Who would you recommend this to?
“Anyone serious about branding, serious about their image, anyone that is on social media and anyone with a website presence. Especially anyone that’s dealing with people to people.”
“I think you offer a very different type of service where it’s flexible for the sector of any business”
“It was good fun it was enjoyable and it was a professional service and we had great quality pictures at the end of it”
Final Words
Trying to create your visual content on your own is going to take you longer (taking you away from what you do best) and it might not look as professional.
An experienced commercial business photographer can work with you to help build up the ideas that’s on brand and create a structure around them. Ultimately giving you content that you need specifically for your marketing campaigns.
Why would you want to spend weeks trying to create consistent photos where you’re having to think about the shots, planing them out, set them up and light them. Then it’s more time taking the shots, editing and processing them to the high standard you need.
Whereas, with a professional shoot you have someone to help guide you through the whole process. A commercial photographer creates the photos (in a few hours rather than days) and edit them to create a ready-made library that you can utilise effectively in your ad campaigns, social media marketing or your website.
Outsourcing saves your business time & your time is so valuable
“Photography is part of the whole structure of the new business. We plan to use those photos to start an ad campaign and update the website as well as update our social media on Linkedin & Facebook”
“It’s far easier to hand over the reins to an expert than to do all this work myself.”
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