We all know the expression, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, it is...sort of. While it is true that pictures are higher impact than the written or spoken word, it is also true that if you leave the same picture up in the same place for an extended period of time, it will soon have no impact at all. Therefore, along with this article’s tips on using images to enhance your business comes one caveat: Your pictures must be fresh, interesting, and changed regularly. Follow some of the tips on this page with this in mind, and your bottom line will look healthier than ever.
Posters
Tennis manufacturing companies are only too happy to give you free posters. Our suggestion is to get “slip-in” poster frames that you can easily change on a regular basis. And, for example, when you put in a new poster like Agassi and Head or Roddick and Reebok, then consider offering a promotion for that month on those products.
Photos of players
The internet is full of player photos. But keep in mind, it is illegal to simply copy a photo off the internet and redistribute it without permission, unless it is a ³royalty-free² photo (and the chances of finding specific tennis photos royalty-free are rather slim).
To get free photos of pros that you can use for your own promotions, check with tennis equipment manufacturers to see what they may be able to send to you. And make sure you tell them what you intend to do with the photos.
Or check the website of a pro tournament in your area to see if they have what you might need. Then, contact the tournament to get permission to use the photo, probably with a credit line that says something like: “Photo courtesy of ABC”. The tournament will most likely be amenable to your using their official photos, since they¹ll get some publicity out of it, too. But please, be wary of simply copying and disseminating photos from the Internet without permission. Once you do get permission to use a photo, or if you can find royalty-free images, you can start going to town. One idea is to email your members with a tennis instructional tip that is timely and is tied to a photo you selected. Attach the photo to your email and just click “send”.
You can also make these emails and photo attachments product-driven at the same time by announcing a sale in your shop.
Photos on Your Website
As with using the photos in emails, you can use your website to keep an archive of instructional tips along with photos (again, though, make sure you have the proper permissions to use the photos on your website). Plus, with their permission of course, you can take digital photos of your club members who exemplify some of the positive techniques that you can point out in the well-known pros.
Photo instructional book
Most pro shops and clubs have lounge areas. Take advantage of the instructional tips you have created by printing them out and inserting them into plastic sheets in a binder. This adds a very nice extra touch to your club, especially since the tips can feature club members themselves, alongside some of the best players in the world.
Bulletin boards
Cycle these same photo tips on your bulletin boards as well. Although all of these different ideas appear to be a lot of work, the concept is actually quite simple. Come up with basic instructional tips and use photos of pros and club members to demonstrate your points. Then use the tips in five different ways to get people to read them: Through emails, your website, a photo instructional book, on your bulletin boards, and on flyers that you can even hang in the restrooms.
Flyers with photos
As just mentioned, use each of your photo instructional tips in a number of different ways takes advantage of your work and maximize your valuable time in preparing each tip. The main thing is to keep rotating your tips, creating at least one a month at the very least. Besides hanging them in restrooms, you can also enclose them in club mailings.
Summary
The conclusion is that photos are great, but only good if you keep them fresh and rotating to keep members and players looking for the next photo you use. With today’s ever-expanding access to the Internet and the huge amount of information that is readily available on so many aspects of tennis, writing your tips to accompany the photos should be relatively easy as well.