You and your business are more than a logo; a brand lives and evolves in the minds and hearts of potential clients. It’s a fostered set of emotions and ideas clients associate with your company. As the business owner, you are the face of your business. It’s important to have a brand that visually represents you in the best light, with an up-to-date look that you feel fabulous about. How a brand is perceived affects its success! In fact, it takes about 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for people to form an opinion about your website (8ways, 2019). As competition increases, it creates infinite choices, small business owners look for ways to connect emotionally with their clients and customers, become irreplaceable, and create lifelong relationships, we hope these 5 reasons why you need brand photography will help you see the worth in the investment.

We live in a visual world (cue the infinite scroll of Instagram and Pinterest!). Having cohesive on-brand photos for your brand is becoming more and more necessary to set yourself apart from others in your industry. Distinguishing yourself from others in your industry is what sets you apart. Brand photography is an essential piece of your overall brand experience. Whether you’re a service-based business or a product-based business, having strong brand photography is a piece that elevates your brand and positions you in today’s market.

Today we’ll walk through the importance of brand photography, why we invested in a brand photographer and some of our favorite tips for your photoshoot. Here are our 5 reasons why you need brand photography.

5 REASONS WHY YOU NEED BRAND PHOTOGRAPHY:

1. You only have one chance to make a first impression!

Our world is visually rich. Good photography has the ability to drive traffic to websites, blogs, social media, and more important sales!  While stock photography is great for certain businesses, personalized visuals will help you stand out and establish a more personal connection. A brand photoshoot adds a touch of humanity that helps define who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Additionally, it’s a fun chance to dress up, show off, and have fun! Great imagery has the potential to offer cohesiveness that stock photography can’t always do.

2. Visuals have the potential to create a know, like, trust factor.

Not only can brand photography convey your values, but it also helps your potential clients connect with you. It makes for a great spark in the know, like, and trust factor. Potential clients and customers can connect with you online, enabling you to start building trust with you without even having met you in person. In fact, studies show that photos with your face drive 38% more engagement. The more you can show off your vibrant personality and unique brand magic, the stronger the connection is—today’s clients are more and more wanting to connect with the person behind the business and their story.

3. Content wizard!

Have you ever noticed pictures of you or other humans on your Instagram feed perform better than photos of your work or your product? It’s true—test it! Branding photography not only helps you develop your unique brand magic, but it gives you more content to share. This increased content library gives you more opportunities to share, and therefore gives you more opportunity to engage with your audience and ideal client! YOU are the essential element that sets you apart from the crowd. Awesome brand visuals give your clients a reason to care about your brand, your business, your products/services, or even you as a person. These photos should make your clients feel like a part of something bigger than themselves and the product or service they are buying. In other words, you want to emote ALL the feels.  

4. It drives sales!

Brand photography can do more than just enhance the look of your brand and website, y’all…it drives sales. You’ll be amazed at how much of an impact brand photography will make on your conversion rates. Plus, have you noticed how much better pictures of your beautiful face increase engagement on social media? That engagement allows for more people to see your posts which in turn brings in more potential customers your way.

5. Because you are #worthit. DUH.

You have been working your tail off. Your business is thriving. You deserve the chance to show off your best side, feel amazing and share what you have poured your heart into. Every business owner should have an amazing set of photos to showcase your unique brand magic in a photographic medium. A shoot can be the confidence booster you need to prove your legitimacy and show off your #BossBabe.

WHERE TO START

Now that you read through our 5 reasons why you need brand photography we move on to the possibly daunting issue—how do I start?! Let’s be clear if you haven’t invested time or effort into your actual brand identity then start there. The first thing you should do BEFORE you have professional photos is to have a professional brand. Understand your why, your overall brand style, color palette, brand values, who your target client is, and how you will reach them. It’s no easy task, but if you are looking to level up your business, do it right—once you do, your brand photography will all fall into place.

Once you know your brand well start creating a dedicated Pinterest board just for brand photography inspiration.  This is where you can stay daydreaming about what this all will look like. Do you like flat lays? How do you want your headshots to look like? You can daydream about product styling, room styling, detail shots, whatever you want! As you are pinning, keep in mind what your overall style is…aka: if you have a more muted and neutral style, make sure to pin images that match that versus images that are bright and colorful. This will lead to some awesome ideas to share with your photographer to create your shot list.

THINGS TO LOOK FOR WHEN HIRING A BRAND PHOTOGRAPHER

If you are going to make this investment, hire a seasoned photographer, you might even hire a stylist or creative director to help nail your brand images (this could be the person who helped you build your brand!). Find photographers who specialize in brand photography, or someone who’s aesthetic your brand vibes with. These can help provide that additional story and style to up-level your brand. Be ready to invest into finding a quality photographer. You want someone who knows what they are doing and can help elevate your vision and make it a reality.

Again, make sure you care about your brand images as much as you care about your visual identity, brand voice, content, etc. We can guarantee if we’re attracted to beautiful and cohesive images on Instagram or a website we’re pulled in to know more. Plus we’re more likely to remember you and come back! 

Although we’ve known the impact of brand photography, we’ve only recently made the investment in professional brand photography, because as you know friends, stock photos can only get you so far! Cue Ailin Rachael Hyde our amazing brand photographer and collaborator for this blog post + this amazing freebie!

If you’re Austin based, we highly recommend working with Rachael, not only did she capture our essence perfectly, but she also made the process seamless, stress-free, and SUPER fun! Now let’s jump into the nitty-gritty:

3 things to look out for:

1. You mesh with them the way you do with a bestie. Rachael was upfront, comforting, and funny—she talked to us like a friend. Obviously, she was professional throughout the whole process from the get-go but she also built a relationship with us first and foremost. 
   
2. They know it’s WAY more than some pretty pictures. Just like our strategic approach, Rachael made sure we approached this shoot strategically. She created a beautiful and accurate representation of who we are. Your imagery should be able to spark the imagination so when you add words to them it’s even better!
   
3. They don’t do cookie-cutter scenarios. Rachael had some poses and ideas for inspiration, but ultimately, she made sure our shoot was personalized! She took the time to get to know our brand and tied our quirks and fun into even the smallest details. She not only focused on taking headshots but also creating brand images that are evergreen and can be used in multiple ways.

Lastly, always ask for a portfolio of work and maybe even examples of full galleries. We know, it’s a lot to take in but we promise it will be worth it.

Hiring a professional to help really takes the stress off your shoulders. It makes for a great experience that will leave you thrilled and ready to take on your next business challenge! We hope you enjoy this blog on the 5 reasons why you should hire a brand photographer.