If You Think You’re Ready To Hire A Brand Photographer Without These Crucial Elements In Place, Think Again.
You’re a savvy business owner, so you know that having a strong personal brand can make all the difference in how you are perceived online and off.
You also know that having personal brand photography is one of the BEST ways to create a strong brand.
But did you know that there were certain things you needed to have in place before you hired a brand photographer? I’m not trying to scare you, and I love rule-breakers, so feel free to ignore this advice. However, after photographing over 70 personal brand clients I have noticed which clients have the most success with their images and which don’t.
The brands that are ready to hire a photographer have the following characteristics in common.
Brands That Are Ready To Hire A Photographer Know Their Brand Message.
A big part of creating successful, powerful imagery for your brand is telling your brand story. Your images will be the visual representation of the message your brand conveys.
Your brand message is how you communicate your values and your mission to your clients.
It’s in the copy of your website and the captions on your social media platforms. Your message is the voice of your brand and how you communicate and resonate with your clients.
If you don’t have at least the basic message you want to communicate, it will be difficult to create photos that have an intention and fit seamlessly into your business.
They Have A Clear Brand Voice.
Successful brands have fine-tuned the voice they use to communicate their message to their clients. They understand that what they say and how they say it can mean the difference between attracting the right clients or the wrong ones.
Knowing your brand message and having a clear voice to communicate it is so important when hiring a photographer.
Even as professionals who conceptualize your brand, photographers need direction for how you want to portray yourselves and your business to your audience.
If you don’t know what kind of voice your brand has, then it will be extremely difficult to create imagery that captures your message. Does your brand have the voice of the expert that leaves your clients feeling like they’ve hired an authority? Or does it have the voice of a trusted confidant that puts your clients at ease knowing they can approach you as a friend?
If you don’t know, how will your photographer?
They Know Their Brand Identity And Color Story.
I think of brand identity as the whole visual element of your brand. It is your color strategy, web design, aesthetics, and overall visual mood. Your color strategy becomes the glue that holds it all together.
Having a solid color strategy and brand identity is essential to a successful photo session because they are used to coordinate wardrobe, prop colors, and overall style.
One of the biggest challenges my clients have when they come to a session without these elements is that, as their brand comes together and these things come into place, the images start to become outdated and go unused. The most successful clients come to their sessions with intention and make the most of every image they purchase because they fit seamlessly within their visual brand.
They Know Where Photos Are Going To Be Used.
Your images will be one of the visual elements of every place that your clients come across. Whether you only have a website, or you have pages worth of content, you need to know exactly where you need imagery and how you want it to look. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to fit an image into a design that just won’t fit.
Not all platforms are created equal, images that need to be created for website banners should be photographed differently than images that are created for Instagram.
And Finally, They Know How Each Image Will Be Used
The biggest challenge my clients face after they download their images is how to use them.
Knowing exactly what image would work best for a specific purpose, writing captions to go along with them, and knowing which image will have the most impact in an ad, are all things that require an understanding of your brand message, voice, identity, and brand assets.
The “how” of it all is where these crucial elements come together to create imagery that not only adds beauty to your brand but adds immense value.
