We get it. You have a fast-paced auto repair business to take care of. You only have the camera on your phone to work with. It’s hard to take nice exterior photos of your shop in the winter. You don’t think you have the best looking shop. Conditions don’t always allow you to take perfect pictures on your own.

In situations like these, stock photos can be a fairly simple option for your website that provide a clean, higher quality solution than a blurry, poorly lit original photo. But stock photos have their own pitfalls. To help your website truly stand above the rest, hiring a professional photographer can make all the difference.

Stock photos look fake.

Viewers can tell if a photo isn’t genuine (cheesy thumbs up poses are a dead giveaway), and studies have found that customers tend to ignore this type of fluff content.

With a limited supply of automotive related stock photos, there is a good chance that other shops are using the same stock photos as you, or at least photos with the exact same models. Your website will be more authentic and unique if you use custom photography, which can make a tremendous difference in how your customers perceive your business.

Your customers want to connect.

When a new customer visits your website they immediately start deciding if you’re someone they want to do business with. According to Susan Weinschenk, a behavioral psychologist who has studied design and the user experience since 1985, people react to faces on web pages faster than anything else, but that doesn’t always mean that they pay attention to it or absorb the information. Make your website more personable by including actual photos of you and your awesome team! Give your business a familiar face online and show your customers that you are a real local shop so they can see who will be working on their car.

Trust is a large part of the auto repair business, and you only have a few seconds to grab the viewers attention and trust before they leave your website. Great photos of your team and your building can convey a friendly and inviting atmosphere and make your customers establish an emotional connection with you.

Professional photographers show you at your best.

The inside of your garage may be a bit dark. Combine this with the highly reflective cars and bright light coming in from the bay windows, and it can be difficult to take a well balanced photograph on your own. The pros know everything there is to know about lighting conditions, poses and composition, and they have the equipment to make it all happen. A good photographer can also make their subjects feel at ease, so you can be sure that you will receive photos that look natural and capture the spirit of your shop.

Great photos help create great designs.

Large, full width images are very popular in web design right now. A large banner image has the potential to create a powerful first impression when visitors land on your website. Photos throughout the site also help break up content and give viewers an incentive to scroll and to keep learning about your automotive business.

While you may be hesitant to spend money on a photographer, there are many affordable options out there, and it is really an investment into your business that can be expected to provide a return. These professional photos can be reused across many channels, from your website, to direct mail, to social media, and more. They also create a professional, attractive and cohesive brand image.

How do I find a good professional photographer to hire?

An easy way to get started and find a quality professional photographer in your area is by checking out Google Business View. Here you can browse through a free list of Trusted Photographers and connect with local photographers in your area who are trained and certified by Google. Not only can these photographers provide you with great photos, personal photos to use for your website and other marketing materials, but if you want they can also create a 360-degree tour of the inside of your shop that can appear directly from your Google Maps listing!

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