As small business owners, we’re constantly trying to think up new ways to elevate our brands. What can we do with our limited marketing budgets to keep up—or even surpass—the big brands we compete with? Investing in professional photography for your website, direct mail, and other marketing pieces can help you stand out, tell your story, and elevate your brand so you compete with the best and the brightest. Here’s how you can use professional photography to help your image in 2017.
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Photography helps bolster your brand identity.
The key to marketing success is developing a consistent, coherent brand identity. We’ve seen too many small business owners fret over logo, fonts, and brand colors while completely ignoring what most consumers find most engaging: photography. A professional photographer will consider how composition, lighting, and even filters contribute to your brand identity. Professional photographs of your staff, your facility, and your products help tell your story and boost your brand.
Professional photography helped show off a chemical company’s products and elevate their brand. Product images featured the rich blue and green of the company’s logo while highlighting the company’s warehouse and office facilities. Some photos featured staff members who wore branded shirts for a unified look that stayed true to the company’s brand identity.
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Photography makes it all about (your) people.
Whether your customers interact directly with your team or read online reviews of your business, sales depend on connecting with other people. Professional portraits of you and your staff help build a personal connection between you and your customers (and make a great first impression). Great photographers will capture the personality of your staff members, all while staying true to your brand identity.
One of our favorite recent projects was creating one-sheets highlighting the sales staff of an insurance agency. We created a uniform look with professional photos taken against the same, brick background. The images stay consistent while capturing every staff member’s personality. We think they turned out great!
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Photography works best when refreshed.
We’ve all had the experience of having our expectations dashed—for good or ill—by outdated photography. We might wait in a coffee shop for 20 minutes for our next meeting to show up, only to realize he or she’s been sitting right next to us the entire time, all because their headshot on LinkedIn or their website is 10 or 15 years old. Photography works best when you refresh it every 18 months to two years.
One of our clients has an easy way of remembering to update its professional photography. The auto parts company creates an 18-month calendar featuring its products, staff, and facility. It’s a great opportunity to continually update its photography library.
Professional photography can help you elevate your brand and better connect with your consumers. Origin Marketing Solutionistas can help you develop a plan for your photography shoot and how to incorporate your images into your marketing plan. Shoot us an email or give us a call at (763) 498-9168 to get your photography project started.
Source:
Think Business Magazine
