Are you a creative, business owner, or personal brand trying to reach your audience on social media or online? Do you have a collection of professional photographs that represent your brand and show off your personality?
Life is always offering us up new and exciting things. Change is the only constant, and that certainly applies to business and marketing. Jennings Photo is a photography studio, and we’ve noticed the shift: personal branding photography is a must.
Why is this important?
After 10 years as a professional photographer—an industry that is dynamic and in constant flux—there is one emerging trend I see that appears to be quickly securing its place as a staple in the business world.
Here are the top five reasons why I believe you need personal brand photography.
But before I dive in, what is the difference between personal branding and headshots?
If you book a photographer for a personal branding shoot, you will certainly come away with a variety of images that qualify as head shots. But in a personal branding session, you’ll work closely with your photographer to determine what kinds of shots are important to your message.
For example, let’s say you’re a personal chef. Perhaps you’d like part of your collection to reflect you working in a kitchen, part of your collection to show off your cuisine, and part to highlight your personal side at home, say, with your dog.
Make sense?
If you’re still with me, here are five reasons why personal brand photography is important for anyone marketing online:
Visuals are necessary
Seems obvious, but nowadays, if you don’t have a brick and mortar storefront where you’re behind the counter to greet customers, you need a way to connect. If people can see you, your products, your space, or whatever it is you are offering, they are far more likely to be interested in what you’re offering.
A connection is important. How often do you invest time or money in something sight unseen? Some stats show that publishers who feature visual content grow traffic 12 times faster than those who don’t.
12 times faster.
If you’re not yet sold on the importance of reaching your audience through imagery, read on, folks.
Our brain processes images faster
Our brains were built for visual information:
According to stats gathered by moveableink.com it takes only 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image. Additionally, the article notes that the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text.
If you’re not convinced, did you know 80% of people remember what they see, compared to ten percent what they hear, and 20 percent of what they read?
If you’re able to communicate with your audience quickly with photographs that accurately represent what you’re all about, why wouldn’t you want to utilize this option?
Let your audience in
Photos also do a great job of letting your audience behind the scenes. You can share and show as little or as much of yourself online as you’d like. Some people have built million dollar businesses by sharing regular photos of themselves in their underwear. It’s a thing.
A photographer really is capable of conveying a message that words can’t always achieve. If you share an image of yourself laughing with a friend, it speaks volumes about your vibe and personality…and as mentioned above, in milliseconds.
Look like a pro
If you’re in business, then this one is obvious. Who wants to invest in something that looks crappy? Really. If you’re not looking like you have at least a little bit of your shit together, and you’re asking for people’s time and money investment, you’re going to have a harder time.
I’m not saying things should be perfect. That’s the beauty of things like Instagram stories. They are a bit more raw and on-the-fly. But a curated website or social feed will immediately speak to your audience. You are a professional and you should look like one when you make a first impression to a potential client.
Handy access to on-brand material
The most practical reason for investing in personal brand photography? I can’t speak to the offerings of other photographers, but here at Jennings Photo we offer packages based on photos per day.
Starting with a season (3 months, or 90 days) we deliver 90 images, fully edited, and ready to post.
Why does this matter?
Clients continue to share how easy it is to create a better, more impactful impression online when they have a curated and on-brand gallery to draw from daily. You don’t have to style something new, or think about color palettes, or wonder if you’re straying from your message. We do all of this before the shoot so when you’re finished you have a large collection to use and reuse that best represents you.
If you’re still with me after all this, y’all need to invest in your brand and your message. Head over to this page to learn more about sessions, or send me a note. I’ll send you our full brochure with pricing info and what to expect!
