Five reasons pictures can help build your business

Photography is a powerful tool used by artists and media outlets to grab the public eye. As the owner or operator of a flight school business, you can do the same thing. You can use photography in your marketing plan to enhance the look and feel of your business, and lock in loyal customers who will refer to you new potential customers for years to come.

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That expression is largely true. A photograph tells a story in an instant. It can describe the weather, the participants, the geography, and any major wow-factor eye candy (like an aircraft) in the blink of an eye. It might take a writer a thousand words to convey all that information to a reader, while the person who sees a photograph catches it all quickly and records it away in his or her memory.

Every photograph is an advertisement for something. If you use photographs well, they can be advertisements for your business. Consider these five reasons to add photography to your advertising and marketing plans.

1. Photography is less expensive than you think. Fully automatic cameras abound. These are true point-and-shoot devices that can produce excellent results. Heck, you can grab a reasonable snapshot with most smartphones today. Throw in the extensive line of inexpensive high-quality cameras you can find at most discount stores, and you have a tremendous selection of hardware you can use to add photography to your marketing plan.
2. Photography has never been simpler. While a professional photographer in a studio can still get better results than most of us, if you remember simply to keep the sun at your back and avoid deep shadows, you can get perfectly acceptable photos quickly, easily, and without the need for a full crew of hair stylists, makeup professionals, lighting technicians, and various assistants.
3. Keeping and managing photos is easier than ever. Digital photography allows you to store photos for years, make infinite numbers of copies, and share your shots with people from all over the world without spending an extra dime. Both PCs and Macs can handle editing, storing, emailing, and accessing the Internet with equal ease.
4. The Internet has made the distribution of your photos a global enterprise. Rather than merely taking up space in a drawer, the digital photos you take today can be seen by customers and potential customers across the continent and around the world, in minutes—and they can remain available for years.
5. Social networking has made the task of tying your photos to your business a no-brainer. Simply upload a photo to your company’s website, link it to your Facebook page, and you have an advertisement that works. Include the company name or logo in your shots, and you’ve done in minutes what would have taken a team of ad men all day to create in the old days.

Remember to identify the people in your photos. If a student solos, or completes a long cross-country, or passes a checkride, take a picture. Load it to your website and favorite social networking sites, and you’re off. The student will be so happy about the accomplishment, he or she will be likely to send links to the picture to friends. People who clicked a link intending to see a photo of a friend doing something exciting may find themselves saying, “Hey, that looks like fun.” And before you know it, you’ve got a new potential customer. All because you took a picture and posted it.