Professional Branding and Why you Need It

Good morning! Do you own your own business? You do!? Excellent. As a business owner myself, I 100% understand the stress and multi-hatting wearing you are doing. Even those pesky invisible things that nobody really knows about that helps things run smoothly.

One thing I want to talk about is professional branding. Professional branding is your business's image. It's more than just a headshot. It's a photo that captures the essence of you and your business.

Last year I took branding photos of Helen with Kitchen Corner Knitting. I even wrote an entire blog post about it here. Helen's photos reflect her personality and her craft. She's pictured knitting on her front stoop with her kids hiding in the shadows.

Branding is a way to help consumers and potential clients connect with you on both a personal and professional level. It helps them decide if you're selling the product they are looking for as well as if you're going to mesh well on a personal level. You might be scratching your head here and wondering what a photographer has to do with this. The photographer helps paint that picture. We help create the stylized photos to use on the website and business cards.

We plan out the location, colors, and editing with the client to make sure it encompasses their personality and their business.

Katy is a substitute teacher and private tutor. She loves color, books, nature, and coffee. Katy has her master's degree in education and has specific training for Montessori teaching. She's a wealth of knowledge in all things education and teaching. She wanted photos that reflected her colorful personality as well as photos that were versatile. Katy and I brainstormed different location options and settled on meeting near Beaverdale Books. This colorful floral mural is located behind the bookstore.

Now you know why branding is important for your business, but you may be wondering why branding or professional headshots have a higher cost per image compared to family photographs. The reasoning is behind the intent or the usage. When you hire a photographer for your family photo session, you're going to be using that image for personal use. When you use a headshot or a branding photo, that is no longer for personal use, that is for your business. You are hoping to generate new leads and revenue from that image. You'll be using that photograph on your business card, flyers, e-mail lists, your website, social media, and the list goes on and on. You can use that digital image an unlimited amount of times to help you generate future business. Because you're going to be using that image in different capacities, you're also getting the permission to crop that image to fit your needs. When you get family photos taken, there's a line in the contract that states you won't alter the photo, including cropping it and applying filters. With a headshot, you may need to crop it to fit into your business card better. Or maybe you'll need to create a border for your flyer. A commercial use allows for those alternations.

I had the opportunity to take photos of Tamara in downtown Des Moines. It was a chilly evening and she never once complained. Tamara loves bold colors too! Tamara owns a quilting and fabric business called Abusua Quilting. She makes quilts, bags, and clothing as well as sells authentic African fabrics. Tamara made her pants pictured in the photos.

One of my goals for 2022 is to create a studio space within my home to focus on headshots and branding. It is imperative nowadays for companies to have a strong online presence with images to reflect their personality Gone are the days of iPhone photos in a dark office. Level up your business's image by scheduling your branding photos today.