A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post for Mayday VA. It’s very relevant so I will share it here too.
It’s no secret that in the digital age people have shorter attention spans.
In the world of
fast news and social media we are continually bombarded by information, which
makes it hard for businesses to not only get the people’s attention, but to
hold it long enough to get their message across.
Interestingly,
people are more likely to stop scrolling when they see a face. This means
that personal brand photography, photography which aims to showcase the
personality of your brand, is now more important than ever in making sure your
brand not only gets seen but is also easily recognisable.
Here are my top
reasons why personal brand photography is important to any business.
It creates the
Know, Like and Trust factor.
In the current
marketplace, potential clients and customers prefer to know who they’re buying
from, and personal brand photography allows them to actually see your face.
In the era of the
heart, people don’t want to talk to a computer. They prefer more personal
communication and are looking for the real-life person behind the brand.
Having a picture of yourself on your website and across your social media creates a sense of knowing and helps to build trust and increase likeability amongst existing and potential clients.
You
can showcase your personality.
Behind every brand is a real-life person with their own
uniqueness and eccentricities.
Some brand owners have had to overcome amazing odds to get to
where they are today and these stories should be shared and celebrated.
Whether you’re classic, bold, modern, colourful or monochromatic, personal brand photography will showcase your unique personality and tell your story which will, in turn, attract your tribe.
You
become more recognisable.
Pretty
soon, people will start to recognise you and associate you with your brand. You
may find that people may recognise you at networking events or even on the
street and approach you for conversation.
Always
remember to be true to yourself. Portraying a false image is not only
misleading but will also be a nightmare to keep up with. If you always wear
bright red lipstick, keep wearing it. Stay true to you and don’t feel like you
need to change just for the camera.
Be
kind, work hard and you will be recognised for all the right reasons.
It
markets YOU!
Because
personal brand photography markets you, you will end up creating a personal
brand and be seen as the leader in your industry.
Your
personality and the brand itself will become entwined with one another in a
beautiful dance of recognition and people will think of your name when they
hear your brand mentioned.
As you
can see from the list above there are many benefits to investing in personal
brand photography.
Creating
recognition, building trust and putting a face to the business name are all
things that will help instil trust and relatability in potential clients and
customers.
In
this fast-paced world full of multinational corporations and automation, people
crave a more personal approach when doing business with someone. This means
that personal brand photography is now more important than ever in showcase
yourself and what you do best.
It’s
time to shine, get personal and show the world who you are and what you do!
Would you like to know how to use visual branding to amplify your brand? In this video, I am going to talk about my top three tips for creating a consistent and strong visual brand that will attract your ideal customer and become recognisable online.
Your brand style guide. How to use it to create a consistent visual brand.
Personal brand and personal brand photography and how to use this to create an authentic and recognisable brand for your business on and offline.
Do you need some help getting your visual brand attracting your ideal customer? Book a free 15 minute chat to discuss how I can help you achieve your goals.
I love photo shoot day. It’s busy and the best bit of my week. My Melbourne Branded Headshot Days have been quite popular. Each one has had a different set of beautiful business owners with different needs. Below features a set of women in the Health & Wellness space.
Leanne Vandeligt from Uplift Health Fitness Coaching
Leanne is a Health and Fitness coach for women who want to feel better, workout at home, lose weight and change habits. Her goal is to celebrate the older women and educate them that it’s not too late. With consistent workouts and the right tools they can feel proud of their bodies again. Leanne was after on-brand images for her fitness business that portrayed her strength and fitness as a role model for her clients.
Natalie is a Wellness coach and trainer. She mainly works with women and a lot of mums who are lacking in energy, confidence and time to be able to take care of themselves. She was looking for fresh, natural photos that women can resonate with and that reflect her business.
Nicole and Nova have recently launched Soul Link Studio in Newport offering (traumatic memory work), kinesiology, intuitive energy healing and eft. Their goal is to normalise healing and alternative therapies and support families on their journeys in everyday life. They were looking for images separately and together that looked professional and on-brand.
Megan is an intuitive healer, psychic and healing reader, flower essence practitioner and soon to be author. She works mainly with clients who have suffered from anxiety and depression. She uses the Autumn leaf to represent the need to die and be regrow again and this was important to include in her branding images.
Frances runs The Conscientious Cook. She has a passion to be a change-maker. Her goal is to look at how food nurtures or poisons us and help you discover something that helps you take control of your health and your wellbeing. Check out her business to learn how food really is medicine.
Emmylou has hit Instagram in a big way with her big parties, TV show, fun personality, epic videos and authentic personal branding. Her followers love her real ‘say it as it is’ attitude.
Someone commented “You did that well—your outfit matches the ribbon colour on the car.”
Emmylou replied “Those are my brand colours!”
I loved that answer! Her perfectly thought out personal branding helped create beautiful on-brand images of the special event.
I was excited to be part of the “Emmylou CAR” story.
I’d expected to get a few ‘red carpet’ style shots as Emmylou arrived, but no: she, and Bec and Kara from Social ConXN were early. The Social ConXN girls and I went inside to set up the shoot, and then it was time for Emmylou to come and get the keys.
Emmylou was totally overwhelmed and the guys at Werribee Mitsubishi were amazing. The gift of a car is going to really change Emmylou’s world and she was blown away by their generosity. Instead of getting her three children to school on foot and tram in the Melbourne winter, she’ll be able to drive to drop-off and pick-up.
Like every great photoshoot most of the time is taken up by re-creating that perfect moment and videoing and photographing every detail from every angle. And then the real work starts. Thanks to modern technology images and videos were transferred on site. We all went to pick up our kids and at the perfect Insta worthy time the event was broadcast to the world (with one tiny tech issue).
Thank you Social ConXN for inviting me to be part of this exciting event!
Saving time is my number one priority these days. I am not sure about you but as I get older I just seem to leak time out my ears. The less time it takes to create the images and graphics to promote my business the more time I have to spend on making money, working on my business and enjoying my family and friends. Here are my top 5 time saving tips for creating visual content for your brand.
1.Create a mood board
Which should include:
Your fonts
Brand colours (including Hex, RGB and CMYK value so you can easily find the right colours.)
Brand visual style (a selection of images that sums up your brand’s style.)
Tip: Put your mood board on your wall so you can easily see it. Simply print it out or make something creative like this mood wall.
Create templates for all your common visual elements so you only have to add text and sometimes an image to create the visuals for your posts. Some of the common visuals you may use are:
-Promotional post
-Blog posts
-Business tips
-Testimonials
-About Me
-Facebook banner
Tip: Use Canva to create your templates. It’s free and easy to use.
3. Selection images that work for your brand
Spend some time coming up with a selection of images that work for your brand and that you can use across your visuals. What is the element or two that ties all the images together?
Tip: Get a photoshoot done at your office which includes professional headshot and office shots plus some more relaxed images of you at your desk, on your phone, on the couch and being silly. Change your outfit and the items around you on your desk a few times to give it a different look.
4. Save new content and inspiration as you find it
Always be on the lookout for any relevant content, text or images that you may be able to use. Save the images and text in one place so you can easily find it when you are creating your content.
Tip: Use Evernote or something similar to save all your source content in the same place. I love Evernote as you can easily find what you are looking for by searching using tags or text.
5. A plan
List all the visuals you need each week and put aside 1 or 2hour a week to create them and write the text.Use scheduling tools or a spreadsheet so you can easily find the content your need.
Finally add all the details to one document or file and keep it somewhere that you can easily refer to it. I have mine on my computer but you could also print it out and put it on your wall.
Do you need help finding your visual spark? Contact me to find out how I can help you.
