If you’re building a photography brand, there are myriad things you need to get right: a solid website, fresh content, stellar marketing, and so on. But one thing that needs to permeate every aspect of your brand is professionalism.
A professional brand builds trust, and trust creates repeat customers. But how can you get this right in 2020? Read on to learn how to build a professional photography brand that clients can trust.
Know your target audience
Knowing your audience is important for every brand. When you identify your target audience, you know how to position your marketing and push the right products to the right people.
But knowing your audience also means knowing how to communicate with them.
The way you communicate with your customers builds trust by using language, references, and tone in a way that feels familiar to them.
Social media should be your first point of contact for this. A cursory check of your customers on social reveals the kind of language they use, the kind of content they engage with, and so on.
Once you have this information, mirror it in your branding. Use the language your customers use, both in your web, social, and email copy, and in your responses to your customers.
Be consistent across every channel
Consistency is a crucial driver of trust between a brand and its customers. When clients experience the same branding across every channel, it creates a sense of familiarity that they can trust.
For instance, if your website offers one price for a product, but your social channels offer another (or a special offer that isn’t available on your website), customers will feel scammed and will retreat.
This also extends to your design too. Use consistent brand colors and imagery across each of your channels. If you’re using your own photography for your channels, this will be easy. You should also use the same logo across your marketing, as well as keeping your language and tone of voice the same too. Imagine hearing a trusted friend suddenly use different vocabulary and accent one day — quite confusing. If your TOV differs across your channels, your clients will feel the same way.
It’s important to stick to the same aesthetic across your social media, email, and website to create a cohesive brand, wherever your customers find you.
Strive for high quality in your content
In this digital age, high quality is everything. With accessible content management systems and a plethora of free online tools available to help you create an online presence, there’s no excuse for poor quality content. Indeed, a brand that does offer such bad content will lose client trust as a result.
Naturally, your copy should be on-point. Keeping it concise, well-written, and spell-checked is crucial for building trust. Struggle with the written word? No problem — tools like the Hemingway Editor make it easy for anyone to create stellar copy that clients can engage with.
Naturally, the photography you sell is high-quality already. But this also applies to your owned photography too, beyond your actual photographs, for instance, photos of yourself or your studio. It’s this kind of ‘back-end’ photography that really shows your clients you’re a brand they can trust.
The principles of product photography apply here. Natural light provides a natural atmosphere instead of an artificial vibe, and you should use high-quality cameras and editing software even for your non-photography visual content.
Creating high-quality content that your customers trust takes time and effort. But when clients trust you, they return time and again, so it’s something worth striving for.
Make your pricing clear
There’s nothing worse than hiring someone to do some work for you, only to find yourself charged with hidden costs and fees when it comes to paying. These are the hallmarks of a shady brand and will do nothing to encourage repeat custom.
Make your pricing structure clear and concise on your website. Be sure to cover every eventuality too. As a rule of thumb, include the following:
- Price per hour/per project.
- What the price includes e.g. editing, printing, and so on.
- Rough turnaround of each project
- Price fluctuations according to different types of projects e.g. location shoots, studio shoots, etc.
The variables you need to include will vary depending on the kind of photography you do. Cover every possible price variable and create a dedicated pricing page that it is easy to find.
In business, trust is everything. And when it comes to photography, it’s particularly important. People are trusting you with capturing their special events, so it’s crucial that you convey professionalism in everything you do. Follow the tips above and create a professional photography brand that will encourage customers to return to you time and again in 2020.
