Why You Need Brand Photography
Building a brand extends beyond a logo and brand colours. It’s about creating an identity that your customers can use to distinguish you from others in your industry. Your brand is a way to tell your story and create brand loyalty among your audience. An important, but sometimes overlooked part of creating your brand identity is having a library of brand photography.
You’ve heard it countless times: a picture is worth a thousand words. There’s a reason for that. If you visited your favourite brand’s website or social media page and it was all words and stock images with no real connection to the business, would you continue engaging with that brand? Probably not. That’s why brand photography is a crucial part of the brand identity. Brand photography connects your audience with your product, your team, and your brand purpose. Good, consistent brand photography makes you recognizable in your landscape. And as your business grows and evolves, your brand photography should, too.
At The Small Social, we are big believers in having good, consistent, up-to-date brand images. Keep reading to find out why.
Makes your brand more relatable and human
There are people behind your business and your customers want to see that. You might be nervous about putting yourself out there, but customers are more likely to engage with you and trust you when they can see it’s real people behind the product. Photographs of you and your team in action, branded photos of your products, and happy team photo and headshots - these all go a long way in relating to your current customers and bringing in new ones.
Great first impression
Think about what you look at when you first visit a website or a social media profile. It’s almost always the pictures. And since people get a first impression online in less than 10 seconds, you want to make sure your photos stand out and capture who you are and what you do right away.
Creates Brand Consistency
Brand photography can help you create consistency. Your photographer will capture and edit photos in a style that aligns with who you are and what you do to convey your brand story. When people see your photos appear on their Instagram feed, they should be able to know, before even seeing your profile name, that it’s yours.
While we love reusing content that you have, it can become stale. When you use the same photography repeatedly, it becomes less exciting. We always want branding and photography to perform to the best of their ability, which includes fresh content to brighten up your website and social posting. This keep your business exciting and captivating.
Help brands tell a story
Having up-to-date photography can help elevate your brand, services, or products to tell a story. You want to continue to grow and evolve and your imagery should too. The images that were exciting and new last year or even last season may no longer fit the vision or goals you have. Use new imagery to capture the message you want to spread.
Convey emotion
In any business, you should always be looking to the steps on your path to success. There should be a plan on what your goals are and how you want to approach them. If you have a plan, you’ll be able to establish the type of content you want to push out, what emotions you want to relate to, and the type of imagery you need to get you there. Connect with your audience, relate to them, and show them your best efforts.
Perceived value
When you have outdated images and content or poor quality content, what you’re saying to your audience is that you don’t care enough about your business to put in the time or effort to properly present yourself. This ultimately gives the perception that if you don’t care enough to update your own content, what kind of service are you going to provide to others. When you invest in yourself and your business, you’re ultimately investing in quality clients or customers too.
Trust and recognition
Much like our point about perceived value, investing in yourself and brand showcases that you are dedicated to always being your best and performing at your best. What this tells your audience is that you are trustworthy because you put in the time and effort. This will ultimately build a positive recognition and meaningful relationship with your audience.
Relevancy
When you utilize seasonal photography you show that you are relevant. While your photography from the spring might be of high quality, if you post photos from several months ago is may come across as though you are out of touch or out dated on your content. If you were to see a brand posting snowy winter content in the middle of summer the quality wouldn’t matter, the perception would be “why is this content here” and will ultimately feel like a mishap or mistake.
At the end of the day, there are countless reasons why it is beneficial to keep your content, imagery, and photography updated. Investing in your content will not only enhance the quality of your brand, but it will also show your audience that you are dedicated, believe in quality and value, and that you are able to keep up with what is new in the industry and world around you.
