If your goal in business is to set yourself apart from the competition and create a truly dynamic experience for your customers from start to finish, brand photography could be just the “oomph” you need!

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” In the digital and fast-paced environment that we live in today, this saying has never been more true. 

Brand photography helps businesses tell their story and connect with their customers on an authentic level. After all, your business is so much more than just your logo, your website, and a list of products or services. You, your team (the heartbeat of your business), your brand personality, and the amazing work you do day in and day out are essential components of your business!

Yes, stock photos are an amazing gift to business owners, when used strategically. But overuse of them can do more harm than good, making it hard to build trust and a relationship with your target audience.

From social media to marketing collateral, brand photos can be used in countless places within your business. But from a web designer’s perspective, here are three reasons why you should regularly schedule brand photography shoots for your business:

1. It Builds Brand Trust + Engagement

It only takes 50 milliseconds for a person to form a first impression, so everything you share online has to WOW your audience… quickly. Not only does it make a great first impression, but consistent and quality brand photography on your website and social media make you and your business recognizable. 

But what about stock photos? Now more than ever, many businesses operate fully online. With less face-to-face interaction, it can be difficult to make connections with people with stock photos alone. People like doing business with people they know and trust. Professional photography puts a face to the name behind your business and shows your audience your transparency so they feel they can relate to you, thus building trust.

Branded photography that shows the face behind your business is a crucial piece to offering connection to your customers. Several studies have shown that images shared on social media that feature a face perform, on average, 40% better than images without. Individuals simply engage more with quality, branded photography. 

2. Unique Imagery Increases Web Conversions

With our clients, we stress the importance of building trust and boosting engagement online. Often we advocate for blogging and sharing your expertise with potential customers in order to boost conversions! This along with calculated CTAs and additional web tactics, we don’t want to leave out the importance that branded photography can have on a website’s conversion rates!

And if you’ve been in business for a while, you know that visual content trumps text-heavy content when it comes to engagement. We’ve included in previous blogs that quality unique images are important to the overall performance of a website. When we’ve discussed this in the past, we have focused on avoiding low-quality images or stock photography, but the concept goes beyond that. A study performed by MeladiaArt has shown that including photos with the faces behind the business can increase conversion rates by an astounding 95%!

So tell me, are you onboard yet? If not, maybe this last reason will convince you!

3. It Consistently Tells Your Unique Story Across Platforms

Consistency is key and personalized photography increases brand consistency. While branding elements like colors, logo variations, and typography bring your brand to the next level, brand photography can aid in linking your unique story across all your platforms! 

If a customer visits your website, will they get the same feel from your business’s social media account? Or will they feel disjointed and lost? 

Your first impression online is crucial, however, you never know where a potential customer will be getting that first impression. Creating a truly cohesive brand experience across platforms will only further solidify the points above. 

Interested in upping your game when it comes to branding your business?

Learn more about our branding packages here!