When we think about branding common elements come to mind: logos, colors, and typography. However, we don’t want to forget one of the most important visible elements of your brand, photography. Brand photography plays a major role in helping brands tell their story and connecting them with their customers. So what exactly is brand photography and what makes it so important?
What is brand photography?
Brand photography is specifically curated imagery that visually represents your brand in a more targeted and authentic way. This is done through the use of elements that reflect your visual identity such as colors, props, tone, styling, sets and more. Brand photography can include all your product photos, photos of your space, team headshots, social media and blog images and every picture you use for digital or print media.
Why invest in brand photography?
Increase the Connection with Your Audience
Why can’t you just use stock imagery? You can, but this can lower your connection with your audience. What makes brand photography unique is that it can truly paint a story about who you are, what you do, and how it feels to work with you. Images that reflect all of these areas can be very difficult or impossible to find on stock imagery websites.
It is easier for potential clients to see themselves working with you when you give them a glimpse of who they would be working with and what the process looks like. Similarly, when photos of products and services have real people in them you are making the image seem more tangible. Brand photography can be very successful if it focuses on storytelling that allows people to imagine themselves being a part of an experience.
Improve First Impressions
Your brand has seven seconds to make a first impression. The great news is that “an image is worth a thousand words”, so you can say a lot in those few seconds. That being said you want to make sure you are saying the right thing. What do you think a pixelated blurry photo on your front page is telling your customers? High-quality professional imagery can capture your client’s attention and keep them there with increased credibility.
Improve Brand Consistency
As we said in our blog Why Branding Matters in 2021, consistency is key! For example, if you have a brand with very clean elements and a lot of white space your pictures should reflect the same design. See below an example of a website before and after brand photography was captured to reflect their new brand.
The images really bring the website to life. You can tell from the image below that the photographs reflect the colors of the brand adding to the overall tone. Images of cranes or boats can reflect the graphic icons and patterns, therefore, adding more consistency. When imagery consistently reflects the tone, mood, and visual aspects of your brand it helps build trust and familiarity between you and your consumer.
Examples of brand photography
Brand photos come in a range of types and styles. Here are a few different styles and where you could use them to elevate your business:
Headshot Photography – Headshots are traditional portrait photos in business. They are essential for your website’s about page, your social media profile photos, sending to third parties for events, and other marketing materials such as business cards.
Product and Service Photography – According to Justuno, 93% of consumers consider visual content to be the key deciding factor in a purchasing decision. Product photography is essential for convincing consumers you have the best products and services.
Location Photography – For any business that operates in a physical space location photos are ideal. A location branding photoshoot can capture a storefront to the inside atmosphere of a building. Shots of offices and teams hard at work in meetings or even with clients can be great to showcase how your business operates.
Lifestyle Photography – The goal of a lifestyle photoshoot is to tell stories about people’s lives. Lifestyle photography is a golden opportunity to further develop your brand story in a personalized way.
Detail Photography – A lot of brand photography focuses on the big picture, but detailed photography can look at things from a closer perspective. These images are great to use for filler design elements such as backgrounds and overlays.
Personal Brand Photography – A personal branding photography session includes corporate and lifestyle shots. They mainly are portraits of the subject at work and/or at home. These shots are perfect for “get to know” me sections of websites or for podcast, blogs, and social media post.
Are you ready for branding photography?
No matter what stage or type of business you are in new imagery can improve your success. Good times for branding photography are when you’re launching a website, launching a course, re-branding, moving to a new location, and when you‘re preparing for new press/publicity opportunities. One rule of thumb is that it is best to make the investment in branding photography when your brand messaging is clear. The most effective brand photos come from a marketing strategy and a concrete brand story.
It’s time to find a professional brand photographer!
If you are ready to elevate your branding with photography, M Agency can help with all the above! Contact Us today to get started.