Branding is more than just a logo, colours and fonts. Those things are important, but your brand is made of everything connected to it, including the photos.
Brand photography is a powerful marketing tool which, at its best, communicates a brand’s values, personality and vision and entices customers to buy from or work with you. Carefully crafted images can showcase the essence of you brand, it represents you visually. Brand photography can include images of your team, your products, your process, your space and anything that conveys what makes your business unique.
Why is it important?
Brand photography makes your brand more relatable, human and appealing.
First impression
People form a first impression in just 50 milliseconds, so everything you share needs to "grab" and do it fast! The images your potential client sees set the tone and character of your brand and tells them if they want to engage.
High quality, consistent and professional photography will help capture potential clients in a flash: they'll appreciate attention to detail, thoughtful and deliberately crafted content, consistency and harmonious aesthetics. For me, if something is presented well I am more likely to trust that the brand will bring the same attention to me, as a client.
You are also immediately telling your customer: this is who we are! Images are an essential part of your visual identity. They communicate your values.
Increase engagement, increase sales
Branding experts such as Buffer and Hootsuite agree that posts with pictures or visual media are much more likely to be shared and eighty-one percent (81%) of people visit a business’s website from social media. Social media is becoming the preferred e-commerce platform for consumers: "25% of social media users age 18-44 have bought a product on a social app", so your customers are online, and your online customers see images, then visit your website and purchase your product or service.
Brand consistency
So you've invested in a headshot for your LinkedIn profile or a website, brand photography goes beyond a single image. It's about having a set of consistent, high-quality photos you can use across different marketing channels such as social media, websites, promotional materials and emails.
Consistency is key when it comes to brand photography. You can create a memorable and coherent visual experience for your audience. An experienced photographer will translate your brand message and values into a visual identity, and create consistent images reflecting this, making it easier for your customers to connect with and remember your brand. Your images should consider mood, colours, focus and message: a professional brand photographer can do that for you!
This is an integral part of any company's marketing strategy, an investment in your visual identity is an investment in your brand story and values: an investment in your connection with your customer.
Brand photography is an integral part of any company’s marketing strategy. A company can maintain its strong visual identity by creating a consistent and high-quality series of photographs.
Tailored to your niche
You may find some good stock images by searching for keywords, but chances are that they aren't quite on-brand, or if they are, you're not the only one using them. A reverse image search may find hundreds of other people using the same image in their branding. Stock imagery can be a good stop gap, and can help you figure out the style you're aiming for, but it should be the goal to have your own, unique and perfectly on-brand photos to use instead. You can't tell a stock site to take a photo of your office setup, create a set of product shots or take a team photo: you can tell a photographer!
Unique & Yours
You've decided you want some photos that capture your brand's essence, excellent! They'll tell the customer exactly who you are and on top of that: they'll be yours! We've touched on the fact that any images taken for you, by a dedicated photographer, will be unique to you: you won't find that picture on anyone else's site and more than that, you will share your image with your customer and help them get to know your business, not "Stock-Business-Photo-01024".
By virtue of the fact that the images will be unique, they're going to stand out! If you see five companies using similar stock photos of an workspace, product mock up or flatlay, you're not being drawn to that company specifically: you're drawn to the image. It doesn't show what you actually offer or how what you offer is special!
On a more technical level, you can purchase the right to use a stock image but it won't be yours. You don't own the copyright and you can't negotiate or specify specific use cases. If you work with a photographer, you can agree use case terms between you, under a copyright agreement which can work out better value in the long run!
Customer Connection
Put your actual customer experience front and centre! A photographer can take photos of your customers, your area, your store or your events. The photos can involve your audience directly, they can show details of your storefront, products or people. Sharing images of real customers increases trust and brand loyalty.
Your audience want to see visuals they relate to: what better to relate to than themselves?
Where can you use it?
You need to know where you could possible use all of these photos, you want to get your money's worth and make the best of your investment, so here are some ideas of how you can use the images once you have them:
As your social media profile photos, especially if you’re a team of one, or your brand is really personal, like a life coach or blogger.
For Instagram photos
In your Instagram stories
To show who you are on your about page
In blog posts
As the graphics for your paid ads
To show your process
As the sign-off of your email newsletter alongside your name
On one side of your business card
To introduce yourself in a webinar
On the team page of your website
Throughout a PDF opt-in
For a client thank you note
As part of your PR/Media/Press package so others can write and share about you and your business
In your email signature
As podcast artwork
In your online course content
How do you start?
1. Understand the story you want to tell
Now it's part of my job to tell the story, but before you think about taking any photos you need to know who you are, what your brand is about, what your audience wants to know and needs to know and what you want them to think, feel and do when they see your photos or any part of your visual identity.
Are you a small craft shop appealing to local young-adults who want to start knitting and want them to feel inspired, welcomed and entertained by your service, or maybe you're a bakery specialising in cosy drinks and luxurious cakes and your customers want to see behind-the-scenes of what goes into your bakes.
Whoever you are and whatever story you're trying to tell, it should be unique and clear to you before you get you get your photos taken. This will prevent you wasting your time, effort and money on something that doesn't fit. If you're not sure what kind of images you want, then book a short call with me and we can have a chat and make a plan. Here are some questions to get you started:
Who am I targeting with this image? What do I want them to do, having seen it? What images make me feel, or do, what I want my audience to do?
2. Create a list of key or essential shots
Is there anything you absolutely must get a photo of? Note it down! You don't need to know a full list of the shots you want, as that's my job as the photographer, but it's good to come up with a basic outline for what types of photos you need. You might need headshots of your team or photos of your window displays, maybe you want a set of product shots, a photo of the office dog or a set of flat-lays: knowing this will help me to figure out what questions to ask you, timings and setup and also ensure nothing important is missed.
3. Find a photographer
Let's make it happen! The most important thing, especially if you are going to be getting photos of you and your team, is to work with someone who makes you feel comfortable and you can have fun with, because this will show in the photos. The best way to find out if that's the case, is to get in touch. If you're interested in working with me then you can book a call or send me an email, and we can have a chat. If you're local to Inverness then we can meet in person if you'd like.
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