When a practice is not in the position to invest in a complete branding photography session, they often turn to stock imagery to build their marketing materials. Stock photos are used in a variety of places when it comes to marketing for your pediatric practice. You’ve likely seen stock imagery on websites, in blogs, on brochures, on business cards, and on other printed materials.
But what happens when the stock imagery doesn’t align with your practice’s brand? Or yet, does not even represent your gender?
That is the exact situation that many female pediatric physicians are facing in 2022. In a survey of 54 female chiropractors, 44% indicated that traditional stock imagery for physicians no longer meets their needs. A quick search result from a popular stock imagery sight shows the severe underrepresentation of women in the chiropractic space. While just over 50% of chiropractors are women, they are seen in only 20% of the most popular search results for “chiropractor” on one of the world’s top stock imagery websites.
A bigger issue than gender representation is a glaring lack of diversity among stock images for female physicians. I understand that as a white female in the US, I will never feel the same level of impact that this lack of diversity has on a physician of any race besides white. However, as a human who works with practitioners of all races, I see the deficit as I create content for doctors of color who serve a demographic of kids that are also diverse. It is nearly impossible to find stock images. Scratch that – I have yet to find a reliable source for diverse stock images that represent female physicians of color. 46% of female physicians are not white, yet this search result would never show that.
With so few options for stock photos within their gender or race, female physicians also struggle to find images that show the equipment they use on a day-to-day basis. In the situation that the photos exist of the equipment, they are male-dominated and do not show the span of equipment used. On any given day you could walk in to a pediatric physical therapist’s office and find gait trainers, pediatric scooters, swings for sensory integration and so many more pieces of equipment unique to the pediatric space. A search for “pediatric physical therapy equipment” brings lackluster results, to say the least.
With an obvious lack of gender representation, diversity, and realistic equipment and techniques, female pediatric physicians are left with 2 options.
1) invest a substantial amount of money in branding photos for their practice so that their gender and race is appropriately represented.
or
2) use stock imagery for their blogs, websites, and other marketing materials that do not represent them at all.
It’s 2022. This cannot be the answer.
So what is the solution?
I’ve teamed up with female practitioners across the country to create a collection of stock images for the modern, female lead, pediatric practices.
These images showcase diversity in you, as practitioners and the humans you serve, the modern approach to an inviting clinic, and as many tools and techniques that we can cover, all in one place.
This long-overdue stock photo collection launches in the Summer of 2022 through jmercermarketing.com. Photos will be available for individual purchase or as a monthly subscription for full access. To be the first to have access to these photos, join the launch list here.