Strengthen Your Brand With Professional Photography
Today’s blog is all about helping you to strengthen your brand with professional photography. I will help you understand where and how you need to use your images to draw clients and customers and increase those sales.
I still get business owners calling me thinking that they need just a headshot. But really you need so much more than just a headshot if you want to have a strong online presence. If you’re not sure what the must have images are for your business, have a look at this blog – The Must Have Images for Your Business.
Once you have those images, where do you use them to strengthen your brand?
Your Website Homepage
The homepage is where people land first when they come to your website. This is the spot for your “hero shot”. The hero shot is the leading visual representation of your brand. If you are a solopreneur, then you are your brand. A great image of you needs to be on your homepage. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a headshot. In fact it looks much better if it’s a “personality” shot or a story telling image. Putting this image on your homepage lets people know who you are right away. This builds trust. If you are not a solopreneur, use an image of your staff, your location, your staff in action or your happy client.
Here are some great examples of how my clients have used their professional photos for their home page. Ron Clifford, landscape photographer and photography mentor is using a great action shot to show his personality, and what he does. Jadranka Muncoro, mind, body, spirit coach, is full of energy and her chosen image clearly shows that. Alecia at Eventistry has used an image that shows she is energetic (wearing red), fun and approachable. Werkmen, Boven & Associates have used both shots of themselves, and images of their location to give viewers a really great sense of who and where they are.
Your About Me Page Should Strengthen Your Brand
This is the easy one because people expect to see a photo of you here. You know they will be looking at your image before they read your copy. This is your chance to showcase unique, awesome, creative you. The image you select for this page should help people get closer to knowing you, liking you and trusting you….and that leads to clients and customers.
Here are some great examples from my clients. Alicia has done such a great job with creatively using her portraits from her personal branding photography session. Irene, at 360 Downsizing, also brought some great props to her branding session. We created some images that showed her clients her personality and her active role in her business. Scott Gray is a CPA with a very unique office in Oakville. Since his office is a big part of his story, we did an on location photo session. Anyone seeing these images on these About pages is going to get a good sense of the person behind the business.
Website Banner Images
Using stock images for your website banners work well. But how much better would it be if you had custom images to really portray your business?! Images of your happy client, you serving your client, you in your workspace all work really well as banner images. This is one more reason why it’s so important to have that strategy call before the photo session. Not every picture fits into the web banner space. Banner images are horizontal – wide and short. They therefore need to be shot accordingly, planned in advance, and shot with intention. We captured lots of images for Alicia, with negative space. We did this intentionally for her web banners. Estate Consultant, Debbie Stanley realized that she needed to strengthen her brand with professional photography. I love how she used this story telling, personality conveying image, as a banner on her website.
Blog Posts
As a business owner it’s a fantastic idea to write blogs. You can share your expertise and provide value to your clients. This will attract a larger audience and eventually convert them to customers. Your blog posts need an enticing title, as well as a relevant image header. Blog posts are a great place to use stock images. But it’s an even better place to use images of yourself – those personality images, those lifestyle images, especially if you are the face of your brand.
Not feeling creative? In the pre-session strategy call I help you brainstorm ideas. From there we can capture some super creative shots for your blog post topics – shots that are fun, and that draw people in. When Debbie called me, her idea was to get a couple of different headshots. After our initial phone consultation she realized she needed more. In our pre-session strategy meeting we brainstormed a variety of blog topics that she would be posting as an Estate Consultant. Ideas like Family Communications, Professional Help, Resources, Communicating With Your Executor, Looking for Lost Money? all came up in our discussion. Here are some of the images we captured for her blog headers.
Social Media Posts Should Strengthen Your Brand
It can be so hard to come up with ideas on what to post on social media 2, 3, 4 or even 5 times per week. Who can be that original? People are drawn to images, and if the image is enticing they will read the post. And if you have a library of images, customized for your business, it is so much easier. Images that are captured with the intention of repurposing them on social media are worth every penny. Werkman, Boven & Associates are doing a great job of using their images in social media posts. Here are some creative examples.
Did you know that you can upload images to Google My Business? Google is the number one search engine. There is a good chance that this is where your clients first find you. It is their first impression of you. You can upload images of you and your business that people will see even before they click on your website. How smart to take advantage of this free advertising with great images.
As you can see most businesses need more than just headshots.
Are you ready to be visible?
Still not sure how all of this applies to you?
Don’t have the creative ideas for images that will help your business?
Contact me today to book your free phone consultation.
Grab your FREE Online Presence Checklist to rate how well you’re doing with online visibility.
Let me help you strengthen your brand with professional photography, level up your online presence, look (way) more pro, get more inquiries, and convert more clients.
Recent Comments