HOW BRANDING PHOTOS CAN BE USED IN YOUR MARKETING
BY ASHLEY MASON - FOUNDER OF DASH OF SOCIAL
Are you guilty of always deferring to stock images and simple text graphics to use in your marketing efforts because you really dislike taking photos of yourself and always feel like they don’t look “professional” enough? Although these stock images and graphics are OK to sprinkle into your content every now and then, you don’t want those types of photos to be the only ones you rely on.
Now you may be thinking, “Well, what can I do if every picture I take never looks right?” And here’s my answer for you: invest in PROFESSIONAL BRANDING PHOTOS.
Once you have those stunning photos in your hand, there are so many ways they can be used in your marketing. Let’s dive in!
Website
As a business owner or brand, you want potential clients or customers to be able to go to your website and see who you are, especially if they’re going to be handing over their money to you. Nothing is more annoying than going to a website and seeing that there’s no page that shows who the members of the team are… except for when there is a page that talks about the people behind the company and the correlating photo is an irrelevant stock image. Yikes!
You’ll want to use your images throughout your website in various locations:
Homepage
About page
Contact page
And maybe even other pages, depending on what your website content is. An important thing to note, however, is that branding photos aren’t always of just you but rather items that align with your brand, such as…
Healthy food if you’re a nutritionist
Journal if you’re a writer
Makeup brushes if you’re a makeup artist
And other items. This is great because it means that your face doesn’t have to be plastered everywhere, but you’re still showing items that relate to who you are and what you do that are custom to your overall brand identity.
Public Relations
How many times have you been featured in a publication or a guest speaker at an event, and the writer or event host asks you for a headshot to include with your bio to promote you as the featured subject or speaker? And then you do a facepalm because you realize that your “headshot” is a selfie you took on a whim?
This is a huge reason to have professional branding photos. If another company or organization is plastering how awesome you are to the world, you want to have beautiful photos to share with that and make people feel like they really know you. You don’t want to submit a photo and feel ashamed that it’s your headshot--you want to feel excited about it and proud to show it off!
Social Media
Your social media accounts are a big representation of who you are, so why wouldn’t you want your followers to feel like they really know you? That’s exactly where your images come in.
In a world where it’s ridiculously easy to mindlessly scroll through Instagram and double tap every photo that you see, you want to have a photo that makes the user go, “WOW!” and stop scrolling to see what the post is about. That happens thanks to your gorgeous professional branding photos.
If you post unedited, sloppy, poor quality photos on your social media profile, people might assume that you are unprofessional and don’t pay attention to detail. On the other end, however, if you have clean, bright, and beautiful photos, people will assume that you are professional and dedicated to your work.
There are many options for being able to work your professional branding photos into your marketing efforts, but these are three simple ideas to get you started. You’ll be amazed by how you’ll find your confidence and business growing when you make a commitment to showing up more online!
Which idea are you going to begin with?
Ashley Mason is a marketing consultant and the founder of the Massachusetts-based marketing firm Dash of Social, specializing in social media, marketing strategy, SEO, and content marketing. Working closely with their clients, Ashley and her team help small business owners and entrepreneurs craft and execute value-driven marketing strategies designed to establish thought leadership, grow online communities, and build connections and leads.
