How to Nail Your Next Brand Photoshoot
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Grab BrandWell’s Brand Shoot Prep Guide
Elevate your brand's visual identity and leverage the power of branding! Today’s episode is a journey through the essentials of brand photography and its transformative power for your business's online presence. Victoria unravels the importance of professional imagery, sharing firsthand insights from Brandwell's own leap into the limelight of major publications. Discover how the right photos can instill trust, professionalism, and set the stage for acquiring high-ticket clients. Victoria is peeling back the layers on how a cohesive visual brand can set you apart from the competition, and why it's crucial that your online visuals truly reflect the caliber of service you're promising.
Strategizing for your brand photoshoot is crucial and Victoria walks you through how she and her team prep for BrandWell’s photoshoots! From selecting a photographer who mirrors your brand's aesthetic to choosing outfits that resonate with your brand's color story, these details help your brand's mission shine visually. Victoria even shares a bonus with you so that you too can strategically plan for your next brand photoshoot! Get ready to elevate your brand's image with strategy and style!
Why having brand photos matters [01:15]
BrandWell Designs has been featured in Forbes, Yahoo, Canvas, Rebel, and a lot of other major news publications. Through this process of having BrandWell featured in these publications, Victoria has learned that they really only care about your online presence. They care that you look professional, that you look legit. It’s important to have that online presence that shows you are a professional and that people can trust you with their funds. When you’re constantly showing up with the DIY brand shoots and the photos that you take with your iPhone, you are compromising your professionalism online.
Why your online presence matters [03:44]
If you’re having a hard time booking your high-ticket clients or selling your expensive offer, it could be because there’s a massive disconnect with the way that you’re showing up online through your brand images and with the pricing that you’re expecting people to pay for your services. Your competition is going to prioritize design to get in front of your audience, and that includes imagery. If you go to a website that has unique brand photos that are custom, you get to see the people behind the company. You can see the emotion and style of the company that you are going to work with, and it’s in alignment with the copy on the website, the headlines, and the overall layout and design of the website.
The words that you say and the promises that you make to your customers need to be backed up by the way that you’re operating your own business. Treat your business seriously, treat it with the respect that it deserves, and when you stop treating it like a side hustle, then it likely won’t be viewed by everyone else as a side hustle. They’re going to start to see you as legit.
How BrandWell prepares for a Brand Shoot [06:50]
→ Plan along with the podcast by grabbing BrandWell’s FREE Brand Shoot Prep Guide here! ←
Set the Overall Vision [07:31] – Figure out what the overall feeling is that you want people to have when they see the photos. Think super specific all the way down to the characteristics of your brand and mission. For example, BrandWell’s overall vision is confidence but beyond that, Victoria wants these photos to show friendliness and relatability. You want your overall feeling to be in line with the mission of your business.
Find a Photographer [09:39] – Find a photographer that aligns with your overall style in terms of design. Personal preference does come into play here, but if you’ve already invested in branding or have a website done, make sure that the photography style you choose plays into the overall visual design of your company. Find a photographer whose editing style aligns with your vision. Something Victoria encourages is to find a photographer that’s in your price range, that you can afford a couple times a year, and hopefully one that you can continue going to year after year to continue to update your brand photos.
Prep for the Type of Shoot [11:16] – Is this going to be a lifestyle shoot? Are you going to be in your element, showcasing what you do? Will you need to stage the work you’re doing? If you’re a therapist, are you going to get models and stage a therapy session? By doing this you could have pictures of you in action, doing the service that you’re going to be promoting through social media and on your website.
Find Inspiration for your Shoot [11:43] – Head to Pinterest to find some inspiration that meets your goals for the type of shoot you’re having and the overall vision. Pin images that would be great for your business to get across your mission from a visual point of view. Pictures can say a thousand words, so if you can’t have a thousand words on your homepage but you can have 10 photos, then that will serve you well in getting your message across.
Set Up your Color Palette [12:46] – If you’ve invested in branding before and you have a style guide with your color palette, that’s a great tool to utilize for a brand shoot. Go ahead and use that and then plan your outfits, your props, and your venue accordingly to be in alignment with your brand colors. This will make your website and your socials look really curated.
Pick Your Outfits [13:26] – Don’t wait until the last minute to pick out your outfits for a brand shoot. Victoria’s inside tip to picking out brand shoot outfits: use Nuuly. Nuuly is a clothing rental company that allows you to pick out six articles of clothing and rent it for an entire month. The monthly subscription is $100 but you can pause it anytime. When prepping for a brand shoot, you almost always want to buy at least one new outfit, if not two, easily costing you $100 or more. With Nuuly, you’re able to get unique pieces that you otherwise wouldn’t have bought to wear on the daily, but would work great for this brand shoot. Try Nuuly and save $20 off your first month with Victoria’s affiliate code!
If you’d rather pick and choose on your own, head to Pinterest again for outfit inspiration. BrandWell typically does two outfit changes for each brand shoot to give lots of variety in the photos. If you have a team, make sure that everyone plans their outfits and work together to coordinate. You don’t want them to necessarily match, but that they go well together.Make Your Shot List [16:48] – This doesn’t have to be difficult. Make a bullet point list of the shots that you know you want to get during the brand shoot. Brand photoshoots are expensive if you’re using a good photographer, so you want to make sure that you’re getting the most return on investment and that you’re getting the shots that you want to get. No matter how prepared you are, the brand shoot day feels like a blur. You’re going to forget things day-of, so have your shot list printed out and ready to go so you can move down the list and get the maximum amount of photos. Go into making this list with some strategy. Where do you need to update photos? What type of content are you going to be sharing on social media? What type of photos do you need to get to ensure that you can deliver the content in a professional manner?
Have fun & Be Confident [18:32] – You want to have fun! You are having somebody come in and photograph you doing what you love and it needs to show that in the photos! Set a mood before and during the photos! At BrandWell brand shoot days, everyone shows up with an iced coffee in hand. Taylor Swift is blasting on the radio and everything is kept light and fun! The more prepared you are ahead of time, the more you’re going to be relaxed on brand shoot day. This is important because if you feel stiff and flustered, it will show in your photos. But if you feel confident and relaxed, you’ll look confident and relaxed in the photos!
Final Thoughts [20:50]
Your brand photos say so much about your business and, in the same way that you spend a lot of time working on your website, you spend a lot of time curating your social media grid. You want to spend the time getting the brand photos to be in alignment with the rest of the mission and vision that you’re casting for your brand online. If you haven’t yet, book a brand photoshoot this year. It will do wonders for your business and when your prospective clients see that you’re willing to invest in your own business, they’re going to be far more comfortable investing with you!
Planning for your next brand shoot? Grab BrandWell’s FREE Brand Shoot Prep Guide here!
Key Quotes
“When you’re constantly showing up with the DIY brand shoots and the photos that you take with your iPhone, you are compromising your professionalism online.”
Victoria Marcouillier
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