Your company has hired a professional photographer to capture marketing imagery for your agricultural business, but you’re really not sure what photos you need. Or maybe you’re on the fence about hiring a professional photographer and wondering what sort of images you would have the photographer capture. Below are 3 tips to help you prepare your ag photo shoot shot list!

1. Reflect on your business goals

Every business needs to have sales goals, whether it’s a service or product-based business. At the bare minimum, goals should be SMART–Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timebound. But I encourage you to go much further beyond that with deep dives into current finances and sales numbers as well as projections that will sustain your growth.

Now what does this have to do with your photo shoot shot list? Understanding your business goals will drive your marketing strategy, thus dictating photos that will be important to capture. These photos will aid in your messaging and ultimately sell your product or service!

Before each session, I work with clients to determine a list of photos they’ll need in their content library. That way, when the day of the photo shoot arrives, I know the exact shots I need to capture to help you reach your marketing goals.

2. Plan ahead for your photo shoot

We all know agriculture is seasonal.  It’s important to not only think about the photos you’ll need today but the photos you’ll need next year.

When I was working as a marketing manager for an agriculture business, we needed to emphasize the importance of properly sampling corn plants for plant tissue analysis. Now for those of you with agronomy knowledge, when I mention the collar on a corn plant, you know exactly what I’m talking about and probably have a specific visual in mind. But here is a small sampling of what came up when I searched “corn collar” on a popular stock image site.

Do you think any of these images would have conveyed our message of the proper plant portion to sample? Not a chance! 

Knowing the specific photos you will need and when the season is right to capture them is imperative when planning your agricultural marketing shot list! We had a short window of time to capture this photo, and by knowing and understanding that need we were able to capture it in a timely fashion and use it for years afterward.

Here’s the great thing about hiring me as your agriculture photographer–you don’t need to explain things like a “corn collar” or a “tag applicator.” I know what these things are and am equipped to capture whatever your shot list throws my way!

3. Study your target demographic

You can’t effectively market your products or services if you don’t fully understand who is currently buying and who you want to buy in the future. Answer questions like:

• How old is your ideal client?
• Where do they live?
• Do they have a family?
• What are their habits?
• What do they do for fun?
• Where do they consume content?

These are just a few examples of questions that can lead you to understand your ideal client, and then use that knowledge to fine-tune your visual marketing strategy. A target client who is a 65-year-old male raising purebred Angus bulls and approaching retirement will resonate with much different imagery than a target client who is a 35-year-old farm wife in the peak of motherhood while helping out on the corn and soybean farm!

If this all feels a little overwhelming, fear not! I’ve put together a list of The 10 Marketing Photos Your Agricultural Business Needs that will help get the wheels turning.

Download this guide and tailor specific photo needs to your business’ goals, products, services, and target demographic! Then, shoot me a message! We’ll talk through your list over, and I’ll get you a gallery full of quality, authentic photos for you to use in your marketing efforts!

In need of an agricultural photographer to effectively capture your company’s brand? Schedule a discovery call here and let’s talk more!