Why should I invest in brand photography for my business?

So let's start this right... what is Personal Branding?

Defining and clearly highlighting what you and your brand stand for. Informed by your experience, your values, your skillset and your achievements within your field. It is what sets you apart from the competition. Ultimately it's about creating an identity for your brand.

And why is Personal Branding important?

It highlights your credibility, uniqueness, point-of-difference in the marketplace and critically, your personality. It is often the reason a client will choose YOU.

Refreshing your Headshot is great for a new profile picture, LinkedIn and for your social media profile. A branding shoot is essential where you need a number of images to communicate your personality, your working style, perhaps your working environment and give potential clients an insight into what it would be like working with you. This is the critical part: People buy from people. They need to see you to work out whether you look like the kind of person they want to work with and invest their hard earned money with.

This theory extends across multiple types of service businesses. Presenting ourselves in a personable, approachable way pays dividends versus faceless business profiles.

Brand Photography is great for small business owners who need to communicate their core brand messages and show how they fit seamlessly with their brand. Potential clients love to see you, they love to see you looking comfortable and confident and communicating that perfect bit of personality.

Crucial questions to ask yourself to determine whether you’re ready for a branding shoot first are:

1. Who is my core target audience?

2. What are my brand’s key attributes?

3. What messaging do I want to communicate with my audience?

   
   

As photographers, we can take this in a number of different directions in terms of the final shoot.

A good photographer will talk to you about outfits and location and offer some tips for preparation for your shoot.

A GREAT photographer will discuss how your 3 key pieces of information outlined above impact on choices of outfit, location, styling, backdrop colours, editing style and posing to ensure you communicate exactly what you need to in your branding imagery.

Taking some time to consider all of this is crucial to getting images that can work for you and your brand, across multiple platforms and with the versatility that you need.

Find a photographer who will talk to you about your business, beyond the top line, in enough time prior to your shoot that it will impact on your final images.

Being a brand photographer means you get to blend visual storytelling with strategy. Tonnes of creative direction that is bespoke to each individual brand (when it is done well). You need to be a good problem solver and have a vested interest in seeing your client’s business do well. It’s much more than just charging clients for your shoot time and that’s why I love it!