As business owners we all want to make sure we are making the right investments in our businesses, right?  We want to put our limited resources where they’ll do the most good and ideally, we’d like to be able to see measurable results from those investments. So is custom brand photography a good investment for your business? The answer is…maybe. Let me explain.

One of the tricky things about brand photography is that it really doesn’t have a specific monetary ROI.  It’s a piece of the larger branding puzzle with some MAJOR non-monetary ROI but I’m not going to tell you that you’re going to see X dollars return on your brand photography investment.

If there’s no dollar ROI, what ARE the benefits?

Here’s what *good* *strategic* brand photography can do for you:

• Custom photos for your business help your brand stand out online. No more grabbing an on-brand stock photo, only to see three other businesses using the same publicly available stock image. Custom brand photos are created for YOU and YOUR business! You are the element of your brand that most differentiates your business from the competition.
• Having a library of on-brand images for your business makes your content creation easier. Whether you are building your blog, focusing on social media, or marketing a launch across multiple platforms, having a library of images to work from will save you (and your team if you have one) so much time and effort! And time, as we know, is money!
• Photos of you help build trust with your audience more quickly. People are looking for small-town type connection even in the online space. People want to know WHO they’re working with or buying from, ESPECIALLY if you’re direct to consumer or B2B where the businesses you serve are relatively small. Photos of YOU can help build that trust so much more quickly than words alone! (Other ways to build trust include video content and social proof – testimonials.)

Here are some questions to ask when deciding if brand photography is the right investment for you:

• Are you planning to grow or maintain a significant online presence? (website, social media, and email list? Having a library of images to pull from is key for consistency.
• Are you a service based business owner? Often services have a higher price tag and benefit from a more personal brand style than a product.
• Are your clients consumers or smaller businesses? Consumers and small business owners generally want a more personal connection than a larger business with multiple decision makers.
• If you’ve had brand photos in the past, has your list of offerings or branding pivoted significantly since your last photo session?
• In the next year, could you see yourself submitting a guest blog article, being interviewed on a podcast, or being featured elsewhere online? Here’s an example of one of my client’s using her brand photos in a Canvas Rebel feature. (Note that not all of the photos used in the article were taken by me.)
• If your business TOOK OFF in the next 6-12 months, would you be embarrassed to share your brand with all the new eyes finding your business?

If you’ve concluded that you do indeed need brand photos, I’d love to chat! I’m based in Madison, WI with frequent travel to various parts of the USA! Click here for my service offerings!

PS. Have we met? If not, hi! I’m Amy. I’m a business branding photographer for small business owners who are investing in their online presence and I created an exclusive planning process to make sure that your brand photo session produces images that you’ll actually use.