Photography Branding: How to Get Started Today

Photography branding is one of the most important things you can do to help generate income for your business. Yet many photographers put little effort into their brand identity or tell the wrong brand story.

If you want to create a photography brand that will attract potential clients and can easily be added to your marketing materials, then try one or all of the following techniques for your photography business.

What is Photography Branding?

So now that you know you need photography branding for your business, you may be wondering what exactly photography branding is? Well, think about the last time you looked at someone’s website or Instagram, and you felt a connection to their work.

There was a consistent style that you felt drawn to. You loved the colors and editing in their photos, and everything flowed and looked like it belonged together. This is photography branding. It’s not as hard as you think to create either.

Your content marketing strategy will fall together in just a few photos by following these tips and techniques. Once you develop your own brand, it’s essential to slowly grow these looks and messages across all of your photography business, so let’s learn how small business owners can do just that!

Branding Tips for Photographers

As a business owner, you have to wear many hats. Along with creating professional images, you also have to attract new clients and create a visual identity that is unique to you.

There are millions of photographers in the world, but by following these easy steps, you will find what makes your business unique.

Look Online for Inspiration

When it comes to your photography business, you are not alone. The internet is full of inspiration, ideas, and social media that you identify with. A great place to start is to look up other photographers in your niche that you love.

See what you love about their style and what you don’t like or could make your own. The biggest compliment someone can get is inspiring another such as yourself. So don’t be shy.

Obviously, don’t copy people word for word or image for image, instead imprint your own personality to make the work your own. Next, head over to Pinterest for even more ideas and niches that will be an essential part of your business.

Identify your USP (Unique Selling Points)

Unique selling points are essentially defining what is unique about you. What are you doing differently that will attract the most people to your photography business.

Are you great with children? Do you make your clients laugh? Are you super prepared and think of things any bride may usually forget? These are just a few examples of unique selling points.

If you are still feeling lost about what makes you and your business so special, then reach out to friends and family and ask for help and advice. Ask them what made you special as their photographer? What did you do differently?

Clients are happy to give feedback usually, and you can work on these points into everything from your email signature to your website.

Create a Mood Board

It’s important you create a physical mood board to get your branding going. Mood boards are a great way to inspire your creativity and business marketing. Check out magazines, newspapers, and the internet for things you like, such as fonts, colors, photography example.

Print them and cut them out to add to aboard. Next, hang these visual assets in your business office to know where you want your branding to go to attract potential customers.

It doesn’t have to be text-only content but more so pictures and images. Don’t be afraid to get creative and get dreaming of creating your own style in the photography industry.

Work with a Professional Designer

If you don’t feel confident enough to work in logo design, branding, or website design, then think about hiring a professional designer to help you. Once you define your branding and marketing, you can convey these ideas to a designer to bring them to life.

Start by checking out Upwork, Fiverr, and 99 Designs to get started and have fun choosing the right designer for you.

Since we are already wearing many hats as photography business owners, you can relieve yourself of this step in setting up a photography business by hiring someone else to help you with these valuable tools that will tell the story and style of your services.

Use Local Connections

Using your social media, you can connect with local businesses to spread the word about your brand. Oftentimes photographers will exchange business ideas and sales. For example, if you need a new website, you could offer a local web designer a free photo session in exchange.

Think about some of the things your business needs and then reach out to local connections and offer to exchange photography services for something such as a logo design. There is a whole world of local businesses that can help you with your advertising in exchange for pictures and images.

Evaluate your Competition

Take a look at the brand of your local competition. What types of images are they sharing on their website? What does their logo tell the person looking at their website? What do you love or hate about their style?

It’s important to look at your competition’s brand to see things from your clients’ point of view. Sometimes when we are in our world, it’s hard to see things from the point of view of others.

By taking a look at things from the point of view of your audience, you can better describe your brand and start creating something new.

Choose a Theme for your Brand Colors and Fonts

If you want your brand to stand out from others and attract your dream clients, you need to look at your brand colors and fonts.

Once you decide on which colors and fonts you love best, and your potential client will love them too, make sure to work them everywhere. You should use the same colors and fonts across your logo, advertising, and social media.

A client should be able to look at your images and say – hey, I know that is “so and so” because of the style. Once you reach this point in your advertising, you will know your brand is where it should be as a photographer. You want to create a clear online image that a client can process and identify easily.

Design with your Target Audience in Mind

Just because you love your brand doesn’t mean your dream clients will. Start with your client in mind when it comes to branding. You should write out a list describing your client. Where do they work? Where do they shop?

What photography style do they look for? You want to give them a good reason to spend their money on you because you already know them and provide a solution to a problem specific to their needs.

You do a lot more than take photographs with your camera; you help people find a solution. Keep that in mind in your branding. Strive to tell that story on every shoot and give that impression in your advertising.

Accept That Not Everyone will Like Your Style

No matter how creative and talented we are as a photographer, you have to accept that your brand is not for everyone. When you try to be everyone’s photographer, your message becomes less clear and concise.

You should not strive to be the person everyone wants as their photographer. Instead, focus on your dream client that you defined above.

All your online photos should speak to that client and give them a message that focuses on the important thing they need from their photographer.

Be Consistent in your Photography Branding

Your message should be clear and give clients what they expect. Whether you are on a shoot or adding another image to your logo, make sure the message is concise.

Also, every post on social media should tell the same story as well as work in your unique selling points. If you do this, you will give clients a reason to spend their money on you instead of another photographer.

Common Mistakes

Here are a few common mistakes that most photographers will make when it comes to photography branding. Knowledge is power, so evaluate if you are already making some of these mistakes before you spend more money on your branding.

Stale Content

Is your content repetitive? Are you creating unique ideas or telling the same old over and over? As mentioned above, we want to share a consistent message in our brand, but also you need to find ways to tell that message in different ways that are fresh and new to clients.

Quality

Less is more when it comes to sharing images for your branding. You should choose quality over quantity when it comes to sharing images on your site.

Choose only the very best and the ones that align with your branding and target audience. Take a look at your site and other media to see if some of the images are old and no longer go with your new strategy.

Not Being Consistent

Once you decide on your branding, be consistent. Make sure it appears everywhere, including your logo, email signature, and ad materials. Every post should be made with the same consistent look, so customers know who they are looking at before you tell them.

Want More?

We hope this article helped you to find a way to take a better approach to your photography branding. But if you want a more in-depth look at building your photography business from the ground up, consider our online course with Krystal Kenney on the Business of Photography!

The course is full of insider information from an industry pro with over 15 years of experience and who has moved her business abroad. She covers everything you need to know about branding and much more!