Should Your Dental Practice Use Stock Photos?

It can be tough trying to figure out whether or not you should take advantage of stock photography when you build your website. To most people, stock photography seems like a no-brainer. Royalty-free, no cost (or very little cost) pictures that can be plugged in and forgotten about. Dust your hands off because things are in the bag, right?

Well, not so fast.

There are some distinct advantages and disadvantages to working with stock photography, especially when it comes to dental websites, and it can be important to keep them in mind before you make your decision.

ADVANTAGES

True, stock photos are typically free, with none of the entanglements that come from having to license a photo from somewhere else. And the cost of hiring an actual photographer might not be feasible if your practice is a smaller one.

In fact, a good portion of the people who make use of stock photos are individuals who are just starting out.

Or, maybe your practice isn't quite as photogenic as you would like. Maybe you would like to remodel the front of your building, replace the worn carpet in the waiting room, or do a few odds and ends around the place before you put it up on your site. In that case, stock photos might be the way to go until your practice is presentable.

Going with stock photos gives you a great amount of versatility when it comes to modifying pictures to suit your website. Need to crop a photo? Go for it! Make it black and white? Do it! Add lots of sparkly unicorns and magical elves? Well... maybe you should rethink that one. The point is, you can add to or adjust stock photos to make them work best for you.

And, there is a great diversity to the images out there for free. You can find hundreds of sites that offer giant catalogues of available images. One of the best sites for stock photos (www.istockphoto.com), however, does cost some money, but the quality of these pictures seems to be somewhat better than if you just did a Google image search. You can do a quick search for "dentist" or "nature" to find some suitable photos for your site.

DISADVANTAGES

Of course, finding stock photos is easy. Finding the right stock photos can be hard. Stock photography is a big business, and when you start to look at the wealth of options available, the choices can start to seem overwhelming (and that might be putting it mildly). You may find that sorting through hundreds of thousands of images can be more of a hassle than anything else.

Quality can be an issue, too. You may find that quality images can be hard to come by. A lot of the images on stock sites are done by amateur photographers. That's not to say that people without a lifetime of experience cannot take a good shot, but getting one that is both well-done and suitable for your site? You might have to slog through quite a few pictures.

One of the best ways to really spark your potential clients' interest is to be honest with them. You want them to be able to see your practice for what it is and what it has to offer. Many patients also want to see photos of yourself and your staff to put them more at ease. Making your website more personal with professional photographs of you and your office can make a world of difference.

Let me show you an example of how using stock photography could end up backfiring.

Let's say a potential patient is in need of a root canal and is going to survey her city's local dental websites. She comes to your website first and sees an attractive site, but no photos of your practice, none of your equipment, and none of the staff. Instead she sees generic pictures of people smiling, a close-up of a set of perfect pearly whites, and a medium shot of a man happily brushing his teeth.

Next the potential patient visits your competitor's site. The site is not as attractive as yours, but there are actual pictures of the practice, action shots featuring staff members and several of your competitor pictured with happy patients. The potential patient has a greater chance of going with your competitor because she can actually see what's she's walking into and who will be greeting her there.You might have a better office building, better staff, better technology, better everything compared to your competitor, but the potential patient doesn't know that because you've used stock photos instead.

William Bassman - Partner of Engage Dental - http://www.engagedental.com

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