How Photography Impacts Your Brand
In the digital age, a picture is worth not just a thousand words, but potentially thousands of dollars!
Photography can have serious implications on the success of a brand or business. A photo gives a ton of relevant, valuable information to users and customers that often supersedes the written word. So how can we leverage your brand’s photography to grab attention, communicate clearly, and make a conversion? Let’s first define a few terms:
Brand and Product Photography
Both types of photography are essential to most businesses. Brand Photography is the set of images used to represent a company to form clear identities of the brand. This includes anything from lifestyle images, team headshots, photos of the team in action, the space they work in, and more! It includes anything that makes the company what it is and set itself apart. You can think of these as your big-picture images that communicate to the world who and what a company stands for.
Product Photography, on the other hand, is a specific sect of brand photography that focuses in on the products or services a company sells. These images are far more detail-oriented and offer and closer look into what a company offers. These are your smaller-picture photos that drive conversions. It also offers a hand in the identity of a brand because it reflects what the brand is made of, literally.
So, what can be done with this information?
The Impact of Good Photography
There are two tenets to keep in mind when it comes to photography and your brand: 1. first impressions matter and 2. from then on, trust is key.
In the digital age we find ourselves, there has never been more information available to consumers at any point in time. Competition for ad space is higher, or focus on trends and algorithms are changing every second, and attention spans are shorter than ever. How short are we talking? Studies show that consumers form opinions about a brand in 50 milliseconds or less by evaluating mediums such as websites and social media, all of which are built upon photography. Thus, first impressions are a make or break element of your brand’s design. Having quality visuals can engage your audience and retain attention so that your brand is being interacted with longer. And when talking about algorithm and exposure, that retention time is key.
Additionally, surveys have shown that over 63% of consumers trust companies with higher image quality across platforms because image quality and product/service quality are highly associated during the evaluation stage of conversion. Just so, high quality and trust go hand in hand. And with so many products and services competing in one market, maintaining high quality is key in maintaining and growing a customer base.
The Impact of Bad Photography
Bad photography, namely poor quality or irrelevant images, have the ability to do two things: 1. drop conversion rates and 2. dilute brand identity.
Remember how users trend to trust brands with quality imagery? When your business hosts images across social media, your website, emails, etc. there is potential to entice consumers or drive them away with the photography you showcase. Poor imagery has been linked to conversion declines as high as rates of 70% because users begin to distrust brands with images that are low in quality or do not reflect what is trying to be communicated.
Similarly, brands who are not consistent in their photography can fall into the trap of diluting their brand image. Consistency in imagery can mean editing photos with a similar color scheme, snapping images aligned with the work your business conducts, or simply keeping record of things that are relevant to your brand that should be photographed and scrapping the rest. What happens when a brand doesn’t organize their photography in these ways results in dilution: when consumers cannot recognize a pattern, message, or position within your brand, which often leads consumer to part ways and find new alternatives.
What You Can Do
How can you assure than your business uses proper, effective, and good photography? At FullWell, we recommend a few items to keep track of that, when done consistently, can guarantee solid imagery:
Keep your image quality high.
High-resolution photos work well across platforms and maintain a professional feel. And when showing images on your website or social media, make sure they are web optimized and follow the correct dimensions. If you need a hand, you can follow our resolution and dimension guide here!
Keep your images relevant.
Take and use photos that reflect what you are trying to communicate well. For e-commerce that may look like high-quality product images and photos of the founding team. For non-profits, photos of the staff and the communities they outreach to are fitting. In short, posting what you and your family are doing on a Sunday afternoon or other casual postings should be avoided. Unless, of course, that’s what your brand hinges on.
When it comes to strong photography, you will need to evaluate the message that your brand tries to send most often and hinge your inspiration off that. You can find this in your brand guidelines, business model canvas, or other brand-development sources. Don’t have one OR have one that needs a touch-up? You can make your own using one of our Brand Development Templates or by connecting with our FullWell Design Team!
Keep your images representative.
Each image should reflect the look and feel of your brand just as much as the things you stand for. When photographing yourself or working with external photographers, you should have handy a list of do’s and don’t’s for image styling and editing that keep your photos aligned with your brand identity. If you don’t have media style guides handy, feel free to create your own with one of our Media Style Guides or draw one up with our FullWell Design Team!
