I’m an Atlanta Brand Photographer, asking you: So you’re still on the fence, and you just don’t know if you should invest in personal branding photography? You think it’s not that big of a deal, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.
Here’s what’s up. A picture speaks more than a thousand words. Which means one picture will speak, in different languages and to different audiences – twenty-four-seven, three-sixty-five, which by the way, it will take you approximately 6.67 minutes to say. (FYI, that’s how long it takes to speak 1,000 words).
Now, that’s just an ordinary photo. Personal Branding photography is a different beast altogether. Meaning? Investing in Personal Branding photography will – if you do it right – talk tens of thousands of words nineteen to a dozen, and will make you the talk of the town.
Below are seven tell-tale signs you need to invest in professional brand photos.
You feel utterly invisible
If you feel like a drop of salt in a vast sea of competitors, then that’s your cue to do something that will make you not just be visible, but cause seismic waves. See, branding photos go where a brick-and-mortar business can’t go; into the psyches of consumers, and stay there for years. Photos may be consumed through the eye-gate, but they permeate further than that.
Because images travel far and wide, via different types of mediums, branding photography can give a formerly-invisible business owner visibility to rival their competitor. Branding photography has been used by different people – from pop stars to business tycoons – to drive specific narratives to specific audiences, and has turned formerly invisible entities into public figures.
One of the worst things that can happen to a small business is invisibility. If your targeted and general consumers are not seeing you, then your business is as good as dead in the water. Branding images can change business from invisibility to discoverable. As an Atlanta Brand Photographer, I love to help my clients gain the visibility that puts them their ideal client.
You don’t get your target customers
Business-wise, you are making all the right moves. Or so it seems. Still, you don’t get your target audience. Potential ideal customers are slipping through your fingers, and making a beeline to your competitor’s check out lane.
This could mean that something is amiss with your brand photos. You may be sending wrong or mixed signals. Sit down with a professional photographer for a personal branding session and come up with a niche strategy concept for your target customers.
A niche strategy concept means that you’re not targeting the general public. If, for instance, your hair salon specializes in one type of hairstyle – say, dreads – your branding photography needs to explicitly communicate that. Hair is broad. Narrow it down to your niche and target customers, and let the branding photography shout out that uniqueness, loud and clear.
Your visual content isn’t attracting any traction
There’s a difference between plain same old, same old photography and branding photography. The former are pictures that are taken casually, without taking into consideration the different aspects of the business and what you want to communicate to potential clients.
On the other hand, branding photography is not just a fine art, but a science as well. Various aspects come into play, to produce branding images that will sell a business. If you’re not getting any responses from the photos that you have used for branding purposes, you need to go back to the drawing board, and come up with a creative concept and visual content to attract the traction of your ideal clients.
You ought to get returns from your visual content. Returns aren’t necessarily monetary. At times the feedback from customers who were attracted by the branding photography, can communicate to you some things that you need to do or change. Branding photography can also communicate that you’re engaging, professional and personable to your ideal audience and client. This is especially important for your online presence.
Your Social Media Content is a hit-or-miss
The social media space is mainly dominated by visual content; be the words, pictures, or videos. If from your analytics you find out that your social media content is a hit-or-miss, you may need to look at how you have put out your content on your social media platforms and website.
Are your marketing goals in line with the images you have used? Are you clients confused, and they keep calling you to seek explanation or clarification on what your photos convey or mean? Is your social media content and primarily, your photography attracting the sort of publicity that you don’t like?
They say that all publicity is good publicity. But you should be intentional about the sort of publicity that you want. And part of being intentional is being intentional with the images you use for branding your business.
Your Marketing efforts aren’t bearing much fruit
Gone are the days when a select team, who knocked on doors and made phone calls to potential customers, or dished out business cards, then hoped your dream client would come.
Marketing gurus know that targeted branding photography helps in driving foot traffic and ultimately, the bottom-line. This explains why some business owners choose to spend a big chunk of their ad dollars on billboards and/or platforms like facebook and instagram. They know professional branding photography will give them that shot in the arm for their target market.
Marketing isn’t just about hitting many potential customers with one stone. Variety is the name of the game. And part of variety is using personal branding photography as another stone to “hit” customers, far and wide.
Your Blog posts aren’t getting many readers
Researchers in consumer habits believe that consumers are more likely to read through vast amounts of business blog posts, if the text is intermittently broken up by suitable images and illustrations. Reading a novel is one thing, Slogging through a business blog is a different matter, and it can be mentally tedious to the average consumer.
Granted, you’re putting out the blogs to sell your business. But you need readers to buy it. That means you have to go into the headspace of readers. You must “read” a mile in their shoes. Do some homework; read. Ideally, don’t read your copy, because you have a bias toward it. Read other long form blog posts from other businesses, which don’t use images to break up their text. How does it feel? What does it look like to you? What is missing?
You may have the most creative copy in town, yet you seem to be struggling to get a considerable number of eyeballs. Invest in branding photography to go in tandem with the text in your blog posts and brochures, and see the turnaround in readership and feedback.
You’re not getting any “random clients”
I call them “random clients” for lack of a better term. But, in Business nothing is hardly ever random, although it may seem like that’s case to the untrained eye.
These are seemingly random clients who come knocking on your door because of your branding photography. They may have seen the images on social media channels, website, emails or a flyer, and the types of photos you put out piqued their interest. Human beings are by nature, just like cats, curious creatures.
A random client may not buy your product or service. but, just the fact that they reached out to you because of the power of your images, just goes to show that your branding photos is a whole ‘nother level.
Professional photography helps you build your credibility showcase your personality and gain trust. To invest in things that clearly move your brand forward, is something you won’t regret, you just won’t.
Contact Michelle Davina Photography, Atlanta Brand Photographer and pick the best service package for your brand. Are you ready to take your brand to the next level? Schedule a discovery call here for more information so you can book your personal brand photo session today.
