What is Brand Photography and Why Do I Need It?
Brand Photography
If you’re a business owner looking to grow your business to the next level, you might’ve come across the term Brand Photography or Personal Branding Photography and wondered if it’s something you might need. As a Berkshire based personal Brand Photography specialist, I’m here to explain what it all means and talk through the many ways it will help your business.
Branding
The term Branding basically refers to the ongoing process of creating a strong, positive impression of your business through the messages you put out into the world. It is ensuring that everything you communicate is in line with your brand values and ideals, so that your ideal client is attracted to your business
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is when an individual markets themselves as the face of their business, turning themselves into a brand to create a more powerful presence.
What is Brand Photography?
Brand photography or Personal Branding photography is basically the art of using high quality images and visuals to tell the story of your brand and your business. Customers want to do business with people they know, like and trust so having strong, professional brand visuals that consistently show the right messages, the right feelings and tone to your ideal client is so important in attracting them to your business.
Why Is Brand Photography Important?
Do I really need to show my face?
It’s never been more important to be present and showing up online as ourselves, as the face of our brand, with professional, inspiring, beautiful on-brand images that attract and appeal to your ideal client and encourage them to engage with you.
Steve Forbes has said “Your brand is the single most important investment that you can make in your business”
Do I need Professional business photos?
Using professional photos to market and advertise your business and brand positions you as an expert in your field and helps you stand out from your competitors in a crowded marketplace. It gives you a professional and polished look and feel to your business, and reassures your potential clients that you are the real deal. It also gives your clients an authentic consistent brand experience, allowing you to gain their trust.
Is Brand Photography the Same as Headshots?
Brand Photography is so much more than just headshots or a commercial shoot - it’s helping to tell the story of who that brand is, what their values are, basically what that brand is all about. It’s all about storytelling, in the same way that modern wedding photographers will tell the story of the whole wedding day, not just the actual ceremony.
I have written a whole other blog post on the difference between Headshots and Personal Brand Photography, you can read it here.
What happens on a personal Brand shoot?
As a Brand Photographer, I will be telling your brand’s story, not just showing your products or services, but the feelings that you want to portray to your clients, the things that are important to YOU. I will take detail shots, emotive shots, the full story of who you are, what’s important to you and what your brand is all about.
Each session will be completely customised to the individual client to reflect a number of themes that you will have chosen, with my guidance, which will be used to create a bank of images that you can use to showcase your brand, your values, your mission and what you can do for your clients. Each shoot is extensively planned out before hand as a collaborative process.
Before the shoot, we will have two planning calls, you will be given access to my planning workbook and I will set you some homework! We will come together to discuss the type of content you are looking to be creating over the next few months and what types of photos you are likely to need for that content. Clients often find they come away from the planning process with a sense of renewed clarity around their brand and how to portray it.
And on the day, I will be there to hold your hand and guide you through the photos and scenarios we have planned out, to put you at ease, and we will even have some fun!! I know how nerve-wracking it can be having a photoshoot (I’ve even had my own done!) but rest assured that I will put you at ease and make it pain free for you!
What Photos will I get?
The result of your shoot will be a bank of varied but consistent, beautiful completely on-brand images that you can pull from for all your online and offline requirements.
Where will I use my photos?
The images you receive can be used for
social media
your website
email marketing
presentation pitches
printed marketing materials, such as business cards, brochures, leaflets, posters
profile images on any software such as zoom and WhatsApp
wall art for your office or client area
What are the Benefits of Brand Photography?
Having your beautiful brand images will increase your visibility and your online presence, which will increase your know, like and trust factor - your clients will get to know you so much more through visuals and images of you rather than just text, and will therefore be more likely to buy your product or service.
Having a bank of gorgeous images to pull from will also save you so much time and stress - no more scrabbling and searching for stock images or badly lit selfies when you have a ready made set of images for all of your needs.
Having a set of professional images will really elevate your brand, enabling you to stand out from the competition and attract more of your ideal clients, but will also help you feel more professional and business-like. Having invested in yourself and your business will really take your marketing to the next level, and will increase your confidence and self-worth - clients say how they feel more empowered in their business.
So, do you feel ready to level up your marketing and elevate your brand? If you think you might be ready to start thinking about your own shoot for your business, let’s have a chat. I would love to help you tell your brand’s story. Click on the link to book a free no-obligation discovery call