What is Personal Brand Photography and Why Do You Need It?

Whether in London or abroad, as a Personal Brand Photographer I get asked these questions frequently: What exactly does Brand Photography mean? Is it business headshots? Is it corporate portraits? What should I expect from a branding photoshoot, and why should I consider investing in a session? What are the best tips you could offer in preparation for my personal brand shoot? and so on. Have you wondered about these things yourself? Then stick around, I will be covering everything you wanted to know in a series of branding blog posts based on my professional training, specialist education and my own expertise as a London brand photographer over the last couple of years.

Branding Photography as Visual Communication

Whether we like it or not, we live in a very visual world. The connection between personal image, people’s perceptions of a personal brand and first impressions are greater than ever. Some studies show that it takes less than a second for someone to form a lasting impression of a stranger, and only 7% is based on what they say, 38% on how they sound, and an impressive 55% on how they look and their non-verbal communication.

Best-selling leadership author Olivia Fox Cabane makes a fantastic point by saying that “You never get second chance to make a great first impression. Within a few seconds, with just a glance, people have judged your social and economic level, your level of education, and even your level of success. Within minutes, they've also decided your levels of intelligence, trustworthiness, competence, friendliness, and confidence.” But what’s even more striking about this observation, is that although these evaluations happen in the blink of an eye, they can last for years.

This is extremely important in the business world, where the ability to communicate effectively with your stakeholders influences most management decisions and marketing processes out there. As customers often come across a company they might want to buy from, or work with, in the online environment, the verbal and vocal aspects of one’s message are obviously diminished. However the visual really stands out as the tool to use for conveying the right story to your audiences.

Our image as professionals and entrepreneurs is indeed our most important business asset. And if we never get a second chance to make a good first impression, we should get it right in the first place.

Be Authentic Social - Founders Elsa Oliver and Jade Staiano

Renowned branding author Marty Neumaier points out that 'cognitive scientists estimate that more than half of the brain is dedicated to the visual system’, which once again reinforces the fact that even though it can involve other senses (such as smell, sound, taste, touch etc.), a brand should be strongly visual before anything else.

This is why visual communication really shines in my book, and why I am so passionate about this subject. In the online business-sphere, our website is our digital persona, a reflection of our personal brand. And there are three key elements, equally important, that can make or break one’s professional image: photography, written content and design. You can’t really have a credible, successful business presence online without hitting the mark on all these aspects. But as a brand photographer with a background in visual media, I would like to focus on the first of the three, to help other business owners understand its great potential in making a brand truly stand out.

Brand Photography is all about Strategic Storytelling

“Story is atomic. It is perpetual energy and can power a city. Story is the one thing that can hold of human being's attention for hours. Nobody can look away from a good story” - David Miller

Professional Brand Photography has this huge inherent ability to take everything that’s unique and irresistible about you and your business, and weave it into a visual story that immediately catches the eye of your ideal audience and builds a strong connection (and certainly, a great first impression too!). It’s a powerful invitation for people to get to know you better, enquire about your expertise, buy your products or services.

Natasha Shamji - Private Chef, Thyme in the Kitchen

One thing to bear in mind though, working with the right professional to create your branding images makes a really big difference. Some photographers out there have recently jumped on the bandwagon of personal brand photography, promoting this genre to capitalise on its popularity, without proper knowledge of marketing, branding, communication and how professional photography should truly help their clients boost their business.

Yes pretty pictures can grab some people’s attention (are they your ideal clients though?), but great brand photography should be intentional, strategic, planned and executed with a marketing hat on, so that it serves its ultimate purpose: to help elevate a brand, convey its unique message, and attract the ideal type of customer for that one particular business or organisation.

If we were looking to define it, Personal Brand Photography is in essence a bespoke portfolio of expressive, professionally crafted, on-brand images, that tell your story and help consolidate your business identity. It’s certainly not your typical corporate headshots and portraits, branding photography can include a wide variety of imagery such as:

• great portraiture that really captures your personality

• in-action photos for your blog or social media

• individual business headshots and/or team photos

• product details

• styled flatlays

• exciting visual content for your website gallery, i.e. customers using your products, or experiencing your services

• posed or candid portraits of you and your team members

• products being made, or services being delivered to your customers

• behind-the-scenes shots and many more.

In other words, a great personal brand photographer would not only deliver pretty pictures, but the perfect photos for your brand!

Lorraine Avanessian - Skin Therapist London

Why would Business Owners, Founders and Entrepreneurs need Personal Brand Photography?

The storytelling quality of personal brand photography is an extremely powerful aspect that should be incorporated into every company’s communication strategy. As potential clients land on your website, the role of branding imagery is to enhance your Know, Like & Trust factors, all fundamental in the business world.

Brought to our attention by author Bob Burg in his book Endless Referrals, the concept is dead simple - people tend to work with you, or refer business to you, if and when they get to know, like and trust you. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, wouldn’t professional brand photos be speaking volumes? Your audience would immediately get a feel of your personality, grasp what you stand for, share your values, and start connecting with you based on the stories incorporated in your branding images.

They’d also get a chance to see the best reflection of you as a business owner, and understand that you are 100% invested in your own career, professional image, credibility and reputation, therefore most likely to help solve their problems best.

AnYes van Rhijn - The Reinvention Mentor

Imagine that you’re looking to book these types of services for yourself: 1) a health specialist from a private practice; 2) a business coach to help achieve some new ambitious business goals; or perhaps 3) a personal stylist to help you boost your confidence and professional look. Wouldn’t it make a world of a difference if all these brands looked the part? Wouldn’t you be more inclined to work with the businesses who present themselves as: 1) professional, highly competent and trust-worthy; 2) focused, motivated and really successful in their methods; 3) stylish, fun and attentive to their own business image?

Dr James Thing - The Joint Injection Clinic

In my previous article An Introduction to Branding for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners, I was showing that even though we can’t really control what others say about us, having a great business image and building an exciting personal brand will always help guide public opinion towards how we really want to be perceived.

Beautiful, authentic and on-brand photography can help greatly with impactful first impressions, but also with your customer acquisition too i.e. generating initial traffic to your website and boost your number of leads and business enquiries.

Ready to give it a go and invest in your own Personal Branding Photoshoot? Have a look at some recommendations to make it the most successful process it could be!

Translating Your Brand Identity into Powerful Imagery

A good starting point is coming up with a creative brief for your branding photographer. This will give the person you work with a better understanding of who you are as an individual (professional/entrepreneur/business owner), what goals you are trying to achieve by commissioning a branding photo session, where will you be using the images and what valuable ideas you may have for your photoshoot.

To begin crafting your brand identity and putting together a brief, start by thinking about what makes you YOU:

Emmie Faust - Digital Marketing Consultant

• Compile a list of everything that communicates your identity in a few words and phrases

• Consider your own passions , what special skills do have, what unique selling points do you bring to your industry

• Come up with a tagline to describe yourself as a business

• Do a bit of research about your ideal client - who is your target audience, what are their likes and dislikes, what they respond to?

• Keep an eye on the industry and your specific field, see how some of your competitors represent themselves. But most importantly, identify how you are different from your competition!

Once you have come up with an identity that aligns with your vision and strategy, working with an experienced photographer is essential for translating it visually and telling your story. In a future post I will be covering some essential points in finding the best branding photographer for you and your business. See you back here really soon!