Photos should be important parts of your marketing. The photos are useful

- to document your offers

- to achieve positive acceptance of what you are displaying

- to function as eye catchers

- to bring the buyers in a general positive mood

- to create identification with the use of your product.

In such a way photographic pictures have other functions than creative art and illustrations that aren't photographic pictures.

At the same time it is important to acknowledge, that pictures are not selling your offers isolated. It is your copy that sells your service or goods.

In many cases you will need professional looking photos of your products. If possible go for a professional photographer. These photos will enhance your product much better than your own photos.

If you have to do your own photography, use a good digital camera and take plenty of pictures with a simple background. White or blue is often the best background with smaller items. Only use the very best photo of each item, and keep a unifying style of photos displayed at the same webpage.

In between these options you might know a friend or a young person who is much occupied with photography. Such a person might be able to do the job for you with a better result than yourself and at a much lesser expense than the professional photographer.

If you can get good looking models to show the use of your product, include such photos. If you can't get such persons avoid such pictures.

Your marketing will often benefit from other photos than the product photos, too.

In some cases the so-called free clip art will do the work for you. Especially with small print runs and local distribution of your advertisement. But in larger professional work you should definitely go for stock photos from pro picture agencies and photo libraries.

There are many advantages of the photo libraries: - The pictures in a photo library are not used by 'every' business, so the money spend on each photo give your work some image of exclusivity. - You will have access to huge quantities of high quality photos. - You will have professional support for your requests and ideas of the images in mind. - You will have the possibility to contact specialist picture agencies when an expertise in the field of your products is needed.

Nowadays many stock agencies have online picture galleries. Some offer licensed stock photos, other offer royalty-free photos, and some stock photo agencies offer both.

Be aware of that the typical picture agency only has a limited selection of the pictures online accessible for your search. So supplement your picture research by asking the picture editors of the photo agency to help expand your choices.

In conclusion, be critical aware of the function of your copy, your product photos and the other photos at your website and try to make the best interaction between these tools in your marketing arsenal.