Branding is one of those important things that many photographers get wrong. Follow these guidelines to take the image of you and your photography to the next level.
It doesn't matter what level you are as a photographer, branding is important to all of us. For those who are reading this and rolling their eyes at this "business buzzword," I would suggest they think of branding as a way of giving people confidence when they look at you and your work. That confidence will help get you more work, open many more doors when reaching out to people, and gain you more of an audience on social media. This week, the team over at Canon Australia has teamed up with Australian and Belgian timelapse photographer Matthew Vandeputte to talk about the ways you can build out your brand as a photographer.
The video starts with Vandeputte talking about how the long-term goal of branding is to achieve clarity and familiarity when others look at your work. Another important concept that crops up throughout this video is consistency across the board. Whether it is your website, your socials, or your marketing material, Vandeputte goes through various areas of branding, from the choice of username on social media to the crucial components that should appear on your website and various online profiles. One thing I really liked was how he stressed the importance of a newsletter and a personal website. Many photographers are gravitating away from having their own websites, which from a branding perspective is a bad idea. By relinquishing the control of some areas of your online presence to a third party, your brand is bound to have to make compromises. The beauty of having your own website means you don't have to worry about things like content-suppressing algorithms or big corporate machines moving the goalposts at a moment's notice. Vandeputte makes a very good point that no social media will last forever, so being wary of putting all of your eggs in one basket is something well worth thinking about.
Even if you think you have your branding worked out, I still think the video is worth a watch. The video is concise and jam-packed full of important information regarding branding you can easily apply yourself. Good branding is about every single area of your photography pulling in the same direction. If you want to instill confidence in those who look at you and your work, then you need to build out your branding, and the rest will follow.
Lead image by Katie White, used under Creative Commons.
