How to Stand out with Compelling Brand Photography

The importance of brand photography can make it, or break it when you’re getting your website to stand out amongst competitors.

We all know it! Images increase engagement and ultimately turn viewers into clients. It doesn’t matter if you have a business in Camp Hill or mostly serve clients online.

As simple as this sounds, there is more to it. Unfortunately, images are often an afterthought when it comes to web design and marketing your services. You’ve spent hours or maybe even months designing a new website. You’ve hired a content writer to populate the pages with copy that explains your services and processes. Your website is easy to navigate and yet, the results you had hoped for are just not coming in.

You may have forgotten one important element of your branding. Images.

All photography in this post was provided by Heike Martin Photography.

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Business owner holding this inspirational message grabs the viewers attention. Photo by Heike Martin Photography

To grab the attention of your audience you want to stand out with compelling professional brand photography. These images should align with the six elements of branding. So how do you make sure that the images on your website are infused with these branding elements?

• Brand voice
• Brand identity
• Brand promise
• Brand values
• Brand targeting
• Brand positioning

The easy and more affordable route is to choose stock photos to quickly populate your new website or to create marketing graphics for your next campaign. With careful research and quite a few hours spent surfing you can find some of these images on stock photo sites like Shutterstock, Unsplash or Adobe Photo. Another option to bring you the results you are looking for is to invest in personalized branding photography created with your business and brand message in mind.

How do you choose the best solution for your own branded marketing? Let’s take a closer look at the difference between stock photos vs real photos.

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• The models in the image are too perfect and don’t represent real people.
• The content of the image is too generic and looks staged.
• Many of the images are too cliché. We all know that the overly happy and smiling young woman on so many business homepages does not actually work for those companies.

The research done by Marketing Experiments shows that the CTR (click through rate) is much higher when you change a stock photo of a generic person with a real photo of the founder/business owner who is well-known and has real credentials and a familiar face. So what are we looking for in brand photos that make our audience stop the scroll and actually click through to our website?

For your audience to notice the images on your website they need to be RELEVANT, RELATABLE and REAL.

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The value of personal brand photography

This is where the value of personal brand photography comes into play. A compelling brand photo is created with intention and guided by your brand style guide. Your branding photographer will take time to do a deep dive to better understand your brand message and the marketing intent you are looking for in your brand photos. This is an investment that will provide assets for your business for a long period of time.

As you think about images on your website, you want to visualize meeting with a client. Your website is like an in-person meeting. Your client is trying to get to know you. They can hear your voice in your writing. Seeing an image of you, your staff and how you offer your services will create an important personal touch point that builds trust and confidence in who you are and what you have to offer.

Marketing graphic that shows a group portrait of the team. Photo by Heike Martin Photography

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5 elements of great on-brand images

Let’s take a look at what elements you want to look for in great on-brand images with your brand photography to help you stand out from the crowd and get the engagement you are looking for.

Group photo of the entire team welcomes you right on the home page. Photo by Heike Martin Photography.

2. EVOKE EMOTIONS:

Evoking an emotional connection can happen in many different ways and depends on your type of business. Take a look at these examples. This set of images tells a story your audience will want to experience themselves.

Branded photos for Beauregard’s Meadery new website.

3. ONE CLEAR MESSAGE:

We often hear the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words”. A well-branded image is worth ONE WORD or rather has one clear message. Compelling photos help you focus on the main marketing message you want your audience to understand and take action on.

This image of the woman holding the painting paired with a call-to-action invitation has one clear message. Photo of woman by Heike Martin Photography.

4. CONSISTENT BRAND AESTHETIC:

Images that are created for your brand alone will include subtle nods to your brand colors and overall aesthetic, show branded items like pens, business cards or brochures. They will utilize your environment and other carefully selected brand items that help convey your message.

5. BE MEMORABLE:

Images that are paired well with your online content will help your reader to actually remember the message. Our eyes go first to an image, then we scan the accompanying text. It’s guaranteed you that you’ve done the same with this blog post. What has grabbed your attention? The ability to remember content goes up from 10% to 65% when paired with a compelling image.

Memorable images speak to your audience. Photo by Heike Martin Photography.

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Clients talk about another additional bonus of having personalized brand photography. These photos are dynamic. Filled with your brand voice and messaging, these images can serve you for many years. Having a personalized on-brand image bank at your fingertips allows you to market with ease and confidence.

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