Do you know how to captivate your audience with stunning visuals that tell your brand's story? Well, let me enlighten you. Photography is a crucial component of branding, and it will most certainly impact the results of your business campaign. Having a strong visual presence will increase your engagement, as well as working on components such as brand retention, recognition, and loyalty. In today’s article, I will go through certain elements that will help improve your campaign.
1. Understanding Branding Photography
Before we can move into the wider swaths of information, it is important to understand the impact of branding photography and what branding will do for your business. Branding photography as a practice only began as a commercial practice in the early 1900s and with the times, there has been a great deal of development and refinement. With those refinements, that brings us to today, where branding is a well-defined and partially scientific business practice. The goal of branding photography is to give the audience something to develop their perception of the brand and, preferably, attach themselves to what the brand represents, based on their understanding. In the age of social media prevalence, branding photography has become simultaneously easily accessible and increasingly more difficult to garner attention. Which is why having a clear idea of your brand’s identity will be crucial to outline.
2. Creating a Visual Identity
Defining your brand’s visual identity will be the most important component, influenced only by the brand’s values, beliefs, and mission. It is incredibly important to consider these ideals so that you ensure that the visual identity aligns with what you are attempting to convey. Having a cohesive identity is very important when it comes to showing off your brand. For example, wedding photographers tend to use colors, such as white and tan. If they verge from those, it will be a lighter form of green or brown. When using a white background, black text does best to accompany and compliment. There’s a great deal of other minutia that plays into this, but the important thing is that your brand replicates what you do. Branding photography can be very simple. Especially when photography is the name of the game. But when it comes to products, highlighting the intrinsic value of the item is important. Now, certain things are easier to do with, such as tools and appliances. If you are highlighting products that are of subjective value, it becomes a bit more difficult, as you must lay out some groundwork that gets people interested. Another example would be vinyl sales. There is nothing intrinsically valuable about the product. However, extrinsically, there is plenty of value to the right people. It’s about knowing how to reach those people that’s important and that comes from developing a persona and knowing your demographics. The point of highlighting this is to establish that you may find it difficult to do the job with branding photography alone. But good work will do the job for you in the long run. Making sure your image is in line with what your audience resonates with is key.
3. Telling Your Brand’s Story
Now that you’ve figured out how to align your work with your audience’s wants and needs, I should emphasize the importance of storytelling when it comes to branding photography. You’ve created the base incentives, now it’s time to sell it. When you create your visual identity, you should have a clear idea of what you are going for. Incorporating that identity into a story that tells your audience what your vision and mission statements are in a way that is subtle but present. An image is worth a thousand words, as they say, but the right one can be worth so much more. What’s important for a story is evoking emotions. By doing so, you can create a deeper connection with your audience, which is potentially the most valuable thing you can do when it comes to running a business. One such example is Chick-Fil-A. There is nothing incredibly life changing about the service they provide as a fast-food service. However, they have connected with their audience, and they are very loyal because of it. Part of their visual story they tell is through their employees. Every company has pictures of their employees appearing to be happy and cordial. However, the difference is in the experience. Chick-Fil-A is one of the few companies where this experience is accurate. Aligning the visuals with the experience tells the story and conveys to your audience that you mean business.
4. Driving Campaigns with Branding Photography
A marketing campaign can mean several different things: email marketing, social media marketing, brand awareness marketing, and on and on. Branding photography is especially important for the types of campaigns I previously listed. Email marketing can grow monotonous if you only use text. A well-placed visual can really improve the time spent on the email. Click rate, open rate, and performance are all factors to improve. Branding photographs are probably the most viable going through social media marketing and gauging brand awareness. Social media marketing is one of the most common forms of driving a campaign, reaching the audience in a much broader way than through an email list. Now because of how broad social media tends to be, the odds of all your followers seeing it are slim. But, if utilized properly, you can enhance overall engagement, while acquiring a few new people along the way. Advertisements are the most effective form of driving a campaign and quality pictures will do that for you. A post or an email will come and go quickly, and people’s short-term retention is also declining (no connection there, I’m sure). However, an advertisement will remain steadfast until the allotted time has passed. Depending on the industry, you can even utilize collaborations with other brands and influencers to your advantage, reaping the rewards of boosting your engagements and your collaborators.
5. Hiring a Professional Branding Photographer
Since I’ve laid out the benefits of professional branding photography, it might also be beneficial to highlight hiring a professional branding photographer. I will always advocate for getting a great photographer for the job. Whether it’s me or not, it is incredibly important, so you get the best work possible. The best way to find the right photographer is to look in your industry. Networking with other brands like yours tends to yield results. With those recommendations, you can sort through your options, look through their portfolios, and pick the best of the batch. But it is important that you work with someone who understand your brand’s vision and objectives. I have to say it is incredibly important to collaborate with the photographer and whoever is running the marketing. It especially helps when they understand the reason behind their task and the significance of it.
The truth of it all is that people engage better with a brand when they have something they associate with. Branding photography will build that level of rapport as long as you are able to back it up with the experience. With the right person behind the lens, you can capture all you need inside the frame. If you would like to see my portfolio, feel free to reach out and we can set something up. I hope to have added something to your campaign and to your day.
Warmest regards,
Logan Clark