Most people think a brand is your logo, your colour palette and the design of your marketing materials.
But building a brand starts long before you design anything.
A photographer builds a brand by looking inside themselves.
You have to look at your personality.
What are you good at?
What do you love?
What do you hate?
The most inane things can help you build your photography brand.
Things that seem completely unrelated to photography.
My brand is ‘The World’s Most Helpful Photographer’ (who’s also got a quirky side).
I created it because it suited me. I’m a people pleaser and have a penchant for the quirky and fun.
There’s nothing ground breaking about enjoying making people happy, or being quirky – but I turned it into a strong brand.
‘The World’s Most Helpful Photographer is far more powerful than writing something dull and meaningless like ‘I offer great customer service’.
I then backed up my claim by starting a side project to do a random act of kindness for someone from every country on earth.
Anyone can great a powerful brand.
We all have friends who love us.
The reasons they love you are the same reasons your clients will love you.
Here are some photographers who have a strong brand and are completely different from each other:
Quirky wedding photographer: www.annapumerphotography.com
Stylised dog photography: www.dogbreathphoto.com
Wedding photographer to the underworld! www.allebachphotography.com
Highly edited family photography: www.jakeolsontutorials.com
To build a brand photographers need to:
Analyse their ideal client. Think about your favourite clients and stalk them on Facebook. What businesses have they ‘liked’. What groups do they belong to? Where do they work? Are there any trends?
Build alliances with the businesses that your target client uses.
When you know your audience you have to write, speak and dress in a way that appeals to them and your marketing designs can reflect that style too.
Building a brand takes a little thought and time so photographers don’t bother.
They focus on quick and easy things like a price promotion.
But if you want to stand out from the crowd you have to become known as THE photographer for a particular niche.
That niche can be a type of person (quirky, tattooed, stylish etc.) or a type of photography.
Ideally a bit of both.
Don’t think of creating a brand as a tedious task that’s hard.
Have fun with it.
Analyse yourself.
Get friends and family to tell you what’s great about you.
You’re creating your ideal photography business to attract your ideal clients.
Inject some enthusiasm into the process.
It’s FUN!
Ultimately, if your photographs and the way you talk about your business sounds the same as everyone else’s then you’re in trouble.
It’s ok if your website repels people.
Indeed it SHOULD repel some people.
Because when you repel people you’ll almost certainly attract other people more strongly.
Here’s what you’re going to discover in this episode.
Examples of photography brands and how to create them
Your website must have a distinct theme / brand / personality.
If you photograph families in certain special locations you can give those locations special names on your website. Eg. The bluebell wood becomes ‘The enchanted forest’ or ‘the mystic river’, for example. Not only does it make it sound more interesting f...
