Create a visual brand you can be proud of.
If a consultant walked into your office right now and said, “The first thing your digital marketing needs is a staff photo,” you’d probably think you hired someone from the Dark Ages — or at least the Pre-Facebook Era.
What about social media? Video marketing? Retargeting? SEO?
The part that most businesses miss when they jump on the digital and visual marketing train is that, first, you need content to fill your marketing. Before you launch the greatest email marketing campaign Santa Clarita has ever seen, you need top-notch, gorgeous, professional photos, videos, graphics, etc. If you don’t have visual content to start with, what is your visual brand actually selling?
Establishing a foundation for your visual brand is essential.
A strong foundation for your visual brand includes all the visuals you need to make a strong, branded impact in your marketing. Along with professional headshots, a staff photo is at the top of that list. Why? Here are three reasons to start with:
1. Consistency
As you develop a digital marketing campaign, your photographs and graphics will quickly become your most valuable assets. You will use them in every avenue of your campaign — from Facebook to Instagram to email signatures, ads and videos.
While a good marketing campaign is diverse in its avenues, that is precisely why you want your visual brand to be consistent. Your visual brand needs to be immediately recognizable, so when your audience sees it across many different platforms, they can make the connection. Then you’re on your way to developing a strong brand presence.
Santa Clarita Photographer Explains: The Easy Visual Brand Tool You’ve Probably Overlooked
A staff photo is an essential piece of that foundation because it gives the entire team a consistent look. Everyone wears similar colors and styles of dress. Everyone is photographed and edited by the same photographer. And, most importantly, everyone is present in the picture, which sends the message that you’re all in it together — and everyone is treated equally. Consistency is established within the company, so it’s also communicated outside the company.
2. Cohesiveness
A staff photo tells a complete story. It doesn’t leave out the people your clients interact with on a regular basis, such as the receptionist or a second-in-command. Instead, it brings together all of the reasons your clients remain loyal to your company in one visual, showing the bigger picture of what you do for them. A staff photo helps your clients remember that your company is a team of people — and it takes every single one of those people to service the client.
It also connects the personal brands, or stories, of your staff. Each team member has his or her own relationship with the client, community and public; they are all part of telling the company’s overarching story. A staff photo unifies those individual stories, connecting personal brands to the company and strengthening the company’s overall brand. It encourages clients to maintain a relationship with the company, as well as the employees.
3. Emotion
I respect a company that respects its team enough to put their faces on the wall — Facebook or otherwise. And I bet I’m not alone. People love faces. They want a “face” on everything, from Progressive Insurance to the iconic founder of Apple.
Santa Clarita Photographer Explains: The Easy Visual Brand Tool You’ve Probably Overlooked
Faces are filled with emotion. So when you put a bunch of happy, smiling ones together for a staff photo, you’ve just created a lot of feels: unity, appreciation, teamwork, collaboration, loyalty. The list goes on. While logos and building fronts are incredibly important visual brand tools in their own rights, they don’t give you the warm and fuzzies like a good ol’ fashioned staff photo.
As you may recall from a previous blog, I posit that emotion is the foundation of effective branding. You want people to feel things — the right things — when they see your consistent, cohesive visual brand. What better way is there to tell a positive, emotional story than to start from the beginning: with the faces that make it happen every day?
Cherish your story,
Kirsten
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