Hello small business owner! Have you ever thought about how having on-brand visual content that speaks to and connects with your ideal clients can help you to establish your brand and grow your small business, in a busy and competitive market?
Well I’m here to help you with just that! As a specialist small business brand photographer in Surrey, I’ve put together these 12 key branding photos every purpose led small business needs, to help guide you!
Incorporating these into your website and social media content strategy, will help you connect with your ideal clients on a level beyond the transactional; helping you to build real relationships with your audience and support your purpose led business mission.
When working with my Surrey branding photography clients, we explore your purpose, your vision, your brand and how you want to use the brand photos we will create. All to ensure we capture brand photos that are true to you and full of personality to help you connect and inspire your ideal client. Igniting your website and content with the magic of you! If you want to find out how I can help you get ALL of these photos and more, get in touch or book in a no-pressure chat.
I hope you find this useful!
Claire
12 branding photos every purpose led small business needs:
So let’s get to it, here’s 12 branding photos every purpose led small business needs...
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #1: Profile Photo with personality (not another corporate headshot!)
To me it’s so much more than just a serious, static headshot and much more about capturing your spark and brilliance in a personality filled profile photo!
As a purpose led business owner, you want to be able to demonstrate your authenticity, your approachability and your expertise, and so the branded headshot is arguably the most important photo you need for your business!
Just think how many times your profile photo is seen? It’s there every single time you post on your socials, every time someone views your profile, whether that’s on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. That’s a whole lot of eyes on that one photo… so you need to make it count!
I love capturing peoples’ personalities to turn a headshot into a stand out profile photo. Break away from the traditional corporate style studio headshot and have yours taken somewhere that fits with and gives visual clues to your brand, values and identity. Stand out and be seen!
And if you need any help with that, you can download my Top Ten Tips for the Perfect Profile Photo
12 Essential brand photos every business needs
#2: Service (or Product) showcase
To help your audience understand what you offer and stand out amongst a sea of bland stock photography.
Your brand is so much more than a logo, and every photo and image you use should reflect the vision, values and tone of your brand. Visual content is king so you need to make the most of your assets! It’s essential to have high-quality photos of the products or services you offer, to entice your audience and help them understand what you and your business are all about.
Visually showing what you offer with bespoke/real photos can truly encapsulate your personality and your brand helping create a consistent visual image to build up know, like and trust with your audience.
It also helps you stand out from the sea of bland stock photography out there, which is used by so many of your competitors, but which doesn’t engender any trust or help build your brand in any credible way.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs
#3: compelling storytelling
Inspire and connect with your audience through storytelling photos that can also become the catalyst for engaging social media content.
What does this mean? Photos that showcase your services or products being used in real-life situations, helping clients visualize how they could benefit from your offer, as well as establishing you as a trustworthy expert in your field.
I love these photos as they truly bring what you do alive and put a clear picture in people’s mind. Great storytelling brand photos can create feelings, emotions and instant connection.
You can also use them to tell stories around what inspires and delights you and your business journey. These photos are perfect for inspiring content – from social media posts to blogs for your website and emails. They truly give your audience an understanding of you and offer a way to connect and exchange stories. What things that inspire you could you include in your photos?
This type of branding photography can really help to elevate your business, developing the know, like and trust factor with your purpose led brand.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #4: where the magic happens
Photos showing how or where you work can really give your clients a feel for whether you are the right person for them. They can give potential clients an insight into your style, your vibe, your brand values and ethos.
Are you a creative? Photos showing how you make or create what you do, all the love and passion you pour into it and the magical little touches that are unique to you, are a wonderful way to inspire and engage your audience.
And if you’re a service based business, you may not think these are for you but they absolutely are! There are lots of creative ways to bring a bit of you to show the planning, strategy and creative thinking that you do in your business. This is your opportunity to demonstrate the love and passion that you pour info your services and the magic you deliver for your clients.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #5: brilliant brand details
Photos to bring to life all the little touches and unique you-ness of your brand!
Did you know, it takes someone on average 7-47 times of seeing a business for them to engage and buy. So these types of images will help to build recognisability and familiarity of your business to your ideal clients.
Photos of your logo, business cards and other key branding elements will help to reinforce your brand's visual identity.
Whether it’s items that you use on a daily basis, books that inspire you or quotes you live your life by, these all help to build up the whole a picture of you and your brand values, attracting your ideal clients to you and creating great stories for engaging with your audience.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #6: client connection
Demonstrate social proof and an emotional connection with photos that show you working with your clients.
I love photos of wonderful female business owners interacting with their clients. Imagine having photos that capture the spark and passion in your eyes for what you do, you in your happy place, doing what you do best?
These photos can dramatically set you apart from many online business owners who solely share photos of themselves. They show how you work with others and the safe, nurturing or fun space you create. After all, it’s not really about you, it’s what you offer, the transformation you inspire and the impact you have on your clients lives!
These photos can be used as a backdrop to sharing client testimonials and stories, showing the transformation you help to create in others and what they feel about working with you. Social proof is a must for online visibility and these photos show your ideal client they will be in safe hands.
If you are a service-based business then photos of you leading a workshop or speaking gig can be a great example of bringing customer testimonials to life.
These may be harder to secure but having photos of satisfied customers, along with quotes or testimonials about their experiences can be a game changer for your overall online visibility.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #7: how the magic happens
Showcasing the behind-the-scenes magic and passion you pour into your work.
We all love to see behind the scenes and what really goes into peoples businesses and lives. Can you give your clients a glimpse into the day-to-day operations of your business to deepen your connection and relationship with your ideal clients?
Great examples include you learning, creating or doing non-work activities too! The more relatable content you can build, the more you can separate yourself from your competition.
Whether that’s enjoying nature, reading, or doing some mindful journalling or reflection, it can all help your audience build up a picture of your values and who you are.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #8: events showreel
If your business runs events - whether workshops, strategy days, networking or retreat – you can use photos to capture the key moments, including you engaging with your audience, to their participation, learning and lightbulb moments. Photos can convey the atmosphere of the event, and what people got out of it, giving you fantastic content for when you next want to offer a similar event.
You can also use photos of events and activities that you and your business has participated, whether that’s networking events or community initiatives, to show your businesses commitment to getting involved. These are a brilliant way of developing relationships beyond the transactional.
Help build trust and authority, by showing you as a fully 4D human connecting and engaging in real life, not just you in the online space!
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #9: fun & bloopers
Allow your personality to shine through with some fun shots for extra social media content that stands out and connects.
If you want to be truly relatable and real to your audience, then having some blooper images or photos where you have completely let your hair down can be a real asset to your online visibility strategy!
The key to this is finding a branding photographer that puts you at ease, helps you to feel comfortable in your own skin and confident that the images that are being captured will represent you and your brand effectively.
I only encourage my clients to do what’s comfortable to them and what comes natural to them. Its most definitely not about making you do silly things, if it’s doesn’t fit with you or your brand! I love to find a way to bring out the perfectly imperfectness of you!
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #10: team players
From people to furry friends, don't forget to introduce your team members!
If you have a team working with you in your business, then include some photos to show the people behind the brand so your ideal clients can see who they will be interacting with and who your business is made up of.
If you are a solopreneur without a direct team, then perhaps some photos that show how you interact with your virtual team – or even your emotional support team (we love a furry mascot shot!).
If you book a branding photographer, let them know the culture of your team and how it supports your purpose led brand, so that you can work together to capture that in the imagery.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #11: promotional templates
On-brand photos which are perfect for creating Canva templates to promote your latest events, services and offers.
These might not be something you’ve thought about, but in the age of social media and promotion, this is a great option to have in your go to library of photos. You can overlay text in Canva and use these templates time and time again – to
promote new services, special offers, quotes and much more.
Creating your own templates that are completely in tune with your bespoke brand, not from overused standard Canva templates.
You can choose the frame to fit your style fun or professional, modern or traditional, bright or fresh. You can choose to hold a frame, use your laptop or a flat lay notebook.
12 Essential brand photos every business needs #12: website hero shots
Make your website an extension of you to create instant connection and impact!
These are a must for your small business website! Create large welcoming hero shots with blank or negative space that will allow key text and your website page headers to be overlayed, without going over the main image itself.
These images should create instant connection and welcome people onto your website, as if they are being personally greeted by you.
So there we have it! These 12 branding photos every purpose led business needs to generate more leads into your business. They will help your business to build a strong visual identity online, as well as providing a consistent and professional aesthetic.
Professional doesn’t need to mean corporate - and bringing out the magic and perfectly imperfect you is something I am passionate about!
If you are based in the South East and would like to discuss how branding photography could support your business ambitions, then book in for an informal chat, and let’s get started!
Claire