Ever wonder if good photos really matter to your brand identity?
In the online world, first impressions are made in less than two tenths of a second. Before clients read your text, or understand what exactly you can help them with, they form a baseline impression based on your visuals. This means your design and your photos are of the utmost importance. You can be the absolute right person to solve their problem, or selling the secret that will change their lives, but if your photos don’t captivate and convince them of that right off that bat, you’re going to have an uphill battle on your hands.
Whether it’s your website, your social media, or your company newsletter, you want your photos to be consistent and representative of your brand identity. What does that mean? It means that your wardrobe choices for headshots and website photos should be consistent with what your customers expect to see you in. It means that you should be photographing your business in a location that makes sense for your audience, and it means that you’ll want to choose professional photos, over selfies and shaky phone pics.
Some easy ways to step up your photo game, and make sure your brand identity is visually well represented:
1) Color palette. Make sure you have one nailed down, and that all photos shared (custom or stock) fit within that color palette. If you’re not sure if a photo works with your current colors, apps like planoly.com are a great resource to help you layout social media images before posting.
2) Content that makes sense. Make sure that whatever visuals you’re sharing have some relevance to your business and your brand. Share behind the scenes of your processes, or tools/equipment that tell a story. A good branding photographer should be able to help you use props to tell the story of your brand, and connect with your clients much faster.
3) Properly lit photos. This is a simple tip that so many fail to get right. Properly lit photos look infinitely more high end and professional than poorly lit photos. Keep this in mind when choosing stock photos, or a photographer.
4) Photos of people. All of your buyers are going to be human beings, and humans like to buy from other humans they know and trust. Having a great photo of the owner/team behind the business is a sure fire way to elevate your know-like-trust factor, and increase engagement and sales.
What about when the local newspaper calls, and wants to run a feature on your great small business? What headshot are you going to send over? If you haven’t taken the time to create a folder of images for the press, they will likely just pull whatever shots come up first when they Google search your business. Maybe that photo of your store from the first week you opened isn’t sending the exact message you want. Take control of your brand, and be ready with professional photos that tell the story you want to tell!
If you ARE going to use stock photos until you can have professional photos done for you, there are some low-cost options that look infinitely better than the free ones that all your competitors are using. Stand out by choosing gorgeous images from Creative Market, and again, make sure you’re selecting ones that fit your brands color palette, style, and industry.
Lastly, when clients come to your website, they want to know they are buying from a company that is going to be sticking around for the long haul. Having professional photos on your website says that yours is a legitimate company or brand that invests in itself and its customers. If the photo you’re using on your About Me page is a blurry cell phone pic from your honeymoon in Aruba, what is that telling your audience? That you’re not 100% committed to this idea of being a business owner.
If you’re interested in stepping up your photo game and better reflecting your brand identity, I encourage you to reach out to us! Our resident photographer, Kristin Hardwick, is offering great specials to get you up and running, and looking your best.
