Business: making your brand photography go further as a creative.
So you’ve had your brand shoot and have a set of strategic images for content, your business and website. You excitedly update your Instagram profile picture, replace your website images and fire off an Instagram post with some of your images. And then… they sit on a hard drive. But not on my watch! You’ve invested in a shoot and I really want you to make the most of the images you have so let’s see how we can make your brand photos work for you as an artist or creative.
Make a curation so you have less to trawl through.
A brand shoot will produce a number of images for you but that might seem overwhelming. And seeing yourself in a professional photo for the first time can take some getting used to. I recommend to all my clients that they sit down and make a selection of images they like - my gallery system allows them to make favourite lists and they can then go into that list when they need to pull images for use. Having a smaller selection of images to hand makes choosing an image for a particular usage easy. Having a favourites list/folder means you can instantly share the selection with someone when they request images of you. But then I also suggest revisiting a few months later and making a new list because I promise you, once those images have bedded in you’ll find some new gems you initially dismissed.
Define images for flyers and printed materials.
Take some time to look through your images and identify which images work the best to communicate the overall message of your business. You’re looking for impactful images that sit alongside text nicely. If you use Canva now is the time to get organising your uploads and getting those images on your account so you have them to hand when you have to quickly design an event poster or flyer to get to print quick time. Spending half an hour on this will make your life so much easier.
Use your images to make a list of post ideas.
Put some nice music on, grab a cuppa and sit and flick through your images. Pause on each one and think about what’s going on in the image - maybe it’s a close up of your hands and you can write a post about how everything is handmade. Or maybe it’s a shot of your packaging and you can talk about why choosing the right packaging means something to you. Write a list of posts as you go through and you’ll have an exhaustive list to pull from whenever you lack inspiration. I provide clients with a social media guide and always get certain images that I know will work for interesting posts so use the scope of images as an opportunity to inspire yourself into posting about your process. Remember that you are the expert of your craft and that you hold knowledge that might be obvious to you but is fascinating for a viewer.
Put together a press kit/info sheet.
If you’re a service provider like an interior designer having a press kit or info sheet that show exactly what you do, who you are and how you work with other businesses is so helpful, especially if kept handy on Dropbox or as a file on your phone. It means that if you meet someone that could be a business contact you can instantly email it over to them without having to craft a lengthy email. Likewise, if you’re an artist who stocks your products in shops having an info sheet on how you operate with stockists means that any organic meetings can be instantly stepped up to a business lead by sending them a ready to go pdf. And your photos will make it look profesh af!
Make up a feature pitch template.
Using Canva or whatever you use for sending out PDF’s - grab some images and have a play so you have an impactful template to hand when you have an idea to pitch to a magazine, journalist or blog. Editors are far more likely to feature something where it looks like all the work is done for them and they don’t have to spend money and time commissioning shoots.
Get your images on Pinterest.
Never underestimate the power of Pinterest! People browsing Pinterest are in the market for something specific so if that’s something like an item you produce you’d be missing out on people that are ready to buy. Or those all important website clicks for your SEO. It’s best to add pins rather than pin them direct from your website and make sure when you are uploading you have added a link to the right page on your website for the product or your favoured page that shows clearly what you do.
Brand photography is designed to make your life easier.
So to make the most out of your image usage, I recommend scheduling time after the delivery of your images to organise them, whittle down your favourites and out them to work. Brand photography is an investment and by just carving out a little time you’re increasing your return on investment (ROI). I provide clients with templates, a social media guide and other goodies to help you get the most out of your photos.
