This is the third and final part of "Photography: The Most Visible Reflection of Your Company's Brand." This whitepaper by Brian Balduf, founder of VHT, Inc., explains to brokers why, in the age of iPads and Pinterest, they are missing the boat if they are using MLS photos on their websites, instead of original, high-quality photography. Read Part One and Part Two here.

Managing Your Visual Assets

File sizes

If you want to display your images in "Full Screen" to really make an impact, you need to save your images in large file sizes. Nothing wrecks a photograph more than trying to expand it. You can always shrink an image but never, ever blow it up, especially one that's previously been shrunk/compressed, i.e. MLS photos.

Originals

The most impactful change any brokerage could make regarding its visual assets is to STOP using copies from the MLS. Your agents have the originals--give them a simple solution for getting them to you. That way you have the largest size and the flexibility to use the image as needed. MLSs compress, crop and watermark images. That's fine for other agents to see, but you shouldn't have to use that garbage in your consumer-focused marketing.

Optimization

Even though digital photography has made it easier than ever to snap a photo, all it's really done is make it easier to shoot more bad photos. It's almost unthinkable to have photos go straight from the camera to your marketing/website without any type of quality controls. With all of the different challenges a photographer has to deal with on site, in particular all the different types of lighting, it's best to have an image specialist correct, optimize and/or enhance every image that goes on anything with your name/brand on it. This will help create a consistent look across your inventory, or at least create some consistency from room to room on a particular property. This avoids the kitchen looking bluish, the bathroom looking yellowish, the bedroom looking too dark and the living room looking overly bright.

Getting the Most ROI from Your Visual Assets

SEO

When you have the original images, you have an asset that no one else has. Every other site has the same listing data and the same MLS version of the photographs, but you have a unique piece of content. That is search-engine gold. This tells the search engines that you are the authoritative source of that photo, you are the original author and that is what they look for in #1 rankings.

Take advantage of that fact. Name all of your images. Tag all of your images. And when you distribute to other sites, don't share those advantages with them. If they want the SEO benefits of your images let them name and tag them themselves. Set up a site map of all your images and where possible, create a page for each image. If a picture is worth a thousand words, you've just increased your search engine presence a thousand fold.

Video

Video is a very popular marketing tool. Full-motion video (i.e. walkthroughs) tends to be expensive and the quality suffers due to all the changing lighting conditions. A well-produced motion capture slideshow video is many times superior to a full-motion video. The image quality is better and the flow of the video is much more natural. There are tons of automatically-created videos, and those are great for search engines. But for consumer marketing, nothing beats a professionally produced visual tour of a property. Great photos provide a solid foundation for a visual tour.

There are several key factors to consider in producing a professional-looking tour: First, the transitions and motion effects should accentuate the scenes--they shouldn't be repetitive or focus on odd parts of the image. Second, the music should be appropriate to the scenes and not just randomly applied. Third, be sure to provide an overlay with contact information and property details. Fourth, consider adding voiceover narration. And whatever you do, avoid the temptation to create the next Titanic. Most homes can have a pretty compelling story shown in less than 60 seconds. A tour that runs longer than a minute will probably be hitting diminishing returns again.

Timing

We know from experience that agents are anxious to get new listings on the market. But, everyone knows that first week is critical. Why not take the time and effort and get the photos right? If an agent sacrifices quality in racing to get photographs in so the listing can go live the day after signing the listing agreement, it's not doing anyone any favors, least of all your brand. It's better to say 'photos coming' and create some anticipation, than it is to put out a less than stellar presentation.

Copyrights

Being the most valuable listing asset you have, you need to protect your photos. U.S. law says that whoever created the work automatically owns the copyright. Whether photos are taken by your agents or professional photographers, make sure you get rights to use those photos. Copyright infringement carries unbelievably high penalties and is pretty easy to prove in court.

Conclusion

Your company's visual assets have significant marketing and SEO value and they deserve some thought. Photographs can be a very powerful competitive advantage if used correctly. Or, they can drag your brand way down, if not.

It's pretty simple to lay out rules and guidelines for your organization that will make your property photos a secret weapon in the battle for buyers. Like everything else, you just have to do it. You would never put unflattering or amateur-looking photos of yourself or your agents on your Web site because it wouldn't reflect well on your brand. This is even more true when it comes to photos of your listings. In consumers' eyes, property photos are the most important visuals on your site, so why not make them great?

• Part 1: Photography: The Most Visible Reflection of Your Company's Brand
• Part 2: Displaying Great Photographs

About the Author
Brian Balduf is an industry veteran who has worked with hundreds of brokerage firms in the last fifteen years. Brian co-founded VHT Studios 15 years ago and has looked at tens of thousands of real estate photos since then. Brian is an experienced marketer and technologist who was involved in the early days of wireless data and Internet marketing. Today, the founder of VHT spends most of his time helping leading brokerages understand and take advantage of online marketing and other digital technologies.

Visit VHT.com to learn more.