Professional Web Presence

There has been a popular meme bouncing around LinkedIn recently with a quote often attributed to Red Adair: “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to the do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”

It’s a popular quote for a reason. Most business people can see the value in hiring an expert who will do the job right. After all, you work hard at your business. You want to be sure that when you work with people, you are putting your business into good hands. However, clients are sometimes reluctant to pay extra for things like professional and stock photography, new logos and graphics, video ads, and more. That can often hurt the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

We totally understand — it can be a tough to purchase a marketing package like professional Chattanooga TN web design and find out you need still more services. You might wonder why a professional photographer or videographer charges as much as they do. After all, camera phones and point and click cameras have made photographers out of all of us. We’re used to snapping photos regularly, on vacation, out and about, at the dinner table. You’ve probably even taken some great shots and fun videos, or maybe even sketched out what you might like your logo or website to look like.

The difference, however, is in marrying technical talent and a sharp sense of how the tiniest details add up to support your message. For example, you might not know all the tricks to tight macro photography needed to make food look especially appetizing up close. Or how to frame shots horizontally so they fit best into a web layout. You might grab a great video on your cellphone, but aren’t used to how much the sound can be off without a professional mic. A sketch for a logo might need to be simplified or put into web colors, or the shape of the letters might not match the style of your business.

The reason to pay a little extra for professional services is to ensure your web presence is seamlessly professional. Nothing sticks out of a clean, well-designed website like poor photography, or makes it hard to put together future ads like an awkward logo. It can be next to impossible to create brochures and social media posts for a restaurant without good shots of the food that look appetizing. Even rough head shots for your team members can affect the first impression you make online to customers.

It’s like how you put yourself together each day. When you know you’re going into a business meeting, you put on a good suit or a nice dress. You aren’t going to want to show up in sweatpants or a low-cut glittery outfit like you might wear on a date—that would send the wrong message. Nor would you pair a nice Armani suit with the kind of plastic jewelry you wore when you were ten, or a baseball cap. The two would be incongruous, and would ruin the effect of the suit. It’s just the same with your web presence. Each element should work together to convey the value and style of your brand.

Done right, a marketing campaign that is as put together as you would be for a big meeting is a valuable investment and resource. Done only to 80 or 60%, you’ll never know how much revenue and good will you’re missing out on because your wares are poorly shot or because you were scowling and yellow tinted in a headshot. Like the popular LinkedIn quote explains, it’s better to spend a little extra to ensure your business comes across precisely as you want it to.

Written by Jackie Errico