How to Use Your Brand Photographs
You invested in your business by booking a brand photoshoot, and now you have strategic imagery you can’t wait to show the world.
Many of you come to me saying that you need images for your website (your most common request!), or maybe you need a diverse library of images for social media… or you need images to use in a very specific way (i.e. the YouTube channel you are developing, or images to send to this one publication that reached out to you).
And because you went into the photoshoot with that specific end goal in mind, it’s possible that you’ve since downloaded your gallery, placed photos in a couple of places, and now the rest of them are living in a folder on your desktop.
If this is you, I want to make sure you maximize all your images and that you use them as strategically as possible. Below are some ideas to help you brainstorm!
Social Media
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
LinkedIn
YouTube
Your Content
Your newsletters
Blog posts
Online courses
Podcasts
Pricing guide
Your Business Website
Homepage
You can use one of your brand photographs as your hero image. That first image that appears above the fold (which is the area that a viewer sees before having to scroll further), is the photo that will either keep them on your website… or make them quickly exit.
About page
Brand photographs are perfect for this page! I would suggest using images that would resonate with your ideal client (perhaps these lean more professional or more casual). Think about which ones capture how you want to come across.
Contact page
Perhaps you remind potential clients who you are one more time, or perhaps you use one of your personalized stock images here.
Landing page
If you are directing your clients to a new offer that you are creating, you can include images here that give your client a better idea of what to expect when working with you. (For example, if you are a therapist, perhaps the main image here is of you in your working space.)
Pop-ups / Opt-ins / “Freebie”
As a rule of thumb, always make these visually appealing. People respond much more strongly to images than to do to text-only pop-ups/opt-ins/freebies.
Marketing and Reach
Paid promotion and ads
E-commerce site like etsy, or your own sales page if you are selling directly from your site
Publications and the press
Some ideas for you to initiate: reach out to publication to see if you can write a guest blog post on a topic you are an expert in, or reach out to see if a podcast can bring you on to talk about something you are passionate about. Or perhaps, media is reaching out to you! Perhaps they want to highlight you in a profile… you’ll now have more than just the standard headshot to send to them!
Material for events
When promoting events, it’s always helpful to be more personable by showing your face.
Material for collaborations
Whether you are planning an IG live with someone in a tangential field, or whether you are working on a new project with someone in your field, you’ll be able to promote about and talk about the upcoming collaboration with professional imagery.
Best practices when
using your brand photographs
Create graphics on Canva.
If you are not a professional designer, I highly recommend using Canva to mix your photos with graphics. You’ll be able to choose from pre-made templates and it’s super easy to customize the templates, or create ones from scratch!
Pair your images with the appropriate copy.
To best communicate a message to your viewer, you want the emotion conveyed to be the same. For example, it would be unwise to post a photo of you smiling when your caption addresses about a somber world event.
On social media feeds, mix it up!
I know you’ll be excited to use all your photographs on social media, but resist the temptation to use them all at once. Gradually ease them into your feed so your followers aren’t hit with a ton of photos of you at once.
Also, remember that diversity is good. You may want to alternate your brand photographs with images of text, or with videos/reels. I encourage you to look at other feeds for ideas.
Upload the best quality.
On Instagram, go into your Settings tab and then click Account, then Data Usage, and then turn on the High Quality Uploads.
If you are posting from your phone, but the images are on your computer, I recommend airdropping them to preserve the best quality before uploading (rather than texting/emailing the photos to yourself, for example).
Be consistent.
As you implement your brand photographs, remember that consistency not only builds brand recognition, but it also builds trust. And trust is truly the foundation to building relationships with clients. In this way, ensure that the rest of what you’re building (i.e. your website, a press release, a pricing guide) shares the same “feeling” and “vibe” as your brand photos do.
I always love seeing how my clients use their brand photos. If you have any more suggestions, leave them in the comments below!