Not a Peep Out of You!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Peep, possibly the most perfect food known to humankind.

And by perfect, I mean 100 percent pure and completely untainted by any nutritional value and meeting exactly zero valuable dietary requirements. The Peep's RDA panel is a wonderfully harmonious column of zeroes, all the way from fat to fiber, from cholesterol to protein.

The singular exception is of course in the realm of added sugars, which is where the Peep truly shines. It takes just three of these candied bombs to fufill half of your daily suggested intake of sugar. Such an achievement could only be attained by something that is puffed sugar dipped in sugar.

When I think of Peeps, I of course think of stock photography. Because, like Peeps, stock is quite often lacking in any nutritional value to a business. Yes, stock can get you through a rough patch when there is nothing else to fill a hungry hole on your website, when you have to get that email out and there is nothing in your personal photo larder.

But stock, like a Peep, shouts loudly to visiting clients and prospects that there is a vapid emptiness here, that there is little that sets this business apart from the coffee shop or insurance down the street that both happen to be using the same photos: “multicultural group smiling and being social” or "young woman with headset on smiling and laughing with invisible client."

And stock photography does shout – very loudly in fact. Our brains are excellent at recognizing authentic interactions, real people, and we reward originality and authenticity, while we devalue that which is sugar-coated and manufactured, like Peeps.

• Studies have shown that viewers tend to ignore stock images and devalue the websites they appear on.
• Similarly, real images have been shown to have click-thru rates 30-40% higher than stock.
• Content with real photos receives more traffic, engagement, and time-on-page.
• In a recent, unscientific survey, I could get exactly no one to eat the leftover Peeps from the silly shoot above ("Three Peeps meet at a coffee shop," or "Psychotic Peep prepares to drown two rivals in steaming French Roast.").

So take a moment and evaluate your website, and your email marketing, and consider beefing up your bank of in-house images, captured through the StoryWorkz on Call program.

With this unique service, you pay a set monthly fee and we visit your business multiple times through the year, working with you to capture and deliver useful, topical, bespoke images that apply specifically to your business, your clientele, your goods and services.

No Peeps allowed.