Successful Branding Tips

Here is an article from PDN that I liked:

"In our February article, Are You Just Another Face In The Crowd?, several photographers explained how their successful branding helped them achieve a better clientele and gave them more confidence in their work. But how do you begin to create a brand identity? Here we offer advice from some experts. Start your branding with a journey of self-discovery Ideally, your brand should reflect your unique personal identity—something that arises from your DNA that nobody else can appropriate, explains photo consultant Allegra Wilde. Figuring out what that is, exactly, may call for intensive self-reflection. San Francisco photographer joSon says he started the process in a panic after a mentor in graduate school looked at his technically adept portfolio—and declared it void of any personality. “So for the last four or five years, I went back to [examine] my core values: who I am, what I believe in, and how I look at life.” That led him to a quirky, distinctive brand of lifestyle photography (tag line: “Photographs that celebrate the joy of living”) that is now attracting an elite clientele that might not have otherwise noticed him. New York photographer Steve Cohen spent several years on a similar existential journey. “You [discover] common threads in your own soul, and you make them part of your work,” he explains. The process helped define his signature style as a still life photographer, enabled him to offer more creative input to his clients, and formed the basis of a brand makeover. “I think the level of work that I’ve been getting as a result of exploring myself has really gone way up,” he says.Converse visually with clients who are just like you So many photographers lack distinction—and compete with each other—because they try to appeal to particular markets. That sounds logical, but it’s backward, Allegra Wilde argues. Instead of thinking, “I’ll shoot some beauty images and go after cosmetic clients,” she suggests, figure out instead what interests you, and what you know intimately (your hobbies are a good place to start) and shoot those subjects. You’ll have intimate knowledge of the subjects closest to you that other photographers won’t have, and that will be conveyed in your pictures like some secret insider’s language to others who share your knowledge. For instance, a photographer with a passion for fly fishing once used a fly fishing image in a promotion that brought in calls not only for shoots involving fishing, but from fly-fishing art directors with whom the image connected and resonated, Wilde recounts. “And look at the work of, say, Lauren Greenfield. She pushes these very female buttons with girl culture that all girls know—and some girls are art directors.” Wilde concludes, “Market aggressively and position your portfolio in such a way that speaks to the smartest people out there who are just like you. Most photographers do it the other way around—they go after the most literal thing, and what they’re forgetting is, so is everyone else!” Another photographer who targets like-minded clients rather than markets is Minneapolis shooter David Bowman. “What I love about my branding is that it brings me to the people I want to be with. If they don’t get my branding, and they don’t get my style, my personality, that’s great. It’s almost like a weeding out process. I don’t want someone to hire me and say, I love your work and now I want you to shoot like this.”Collect descriptive words about yourself The words that others use to describe your work—and that you use to describe yourself—can be an invaluable tool for building your brand identity. Words that come up repeatedly, for instance, can help guide image selection for your portfolio, help you select the right typography and colors for your web site and promotions, or even help you keep your blog posts consistent with your brand image. David Bowman says he writes down and saves the words that he hears photo editors and curators use to describe his work. Those words help guide his brand building, ensuring that it remains consistent with his work. “Lately I’ve heard enchanting, simple, honest, lyrical. Once you hear those words, you can build on them,” he says. For instance, he writes his blog posts to elicit the same feelings that people get from his work, contrast to other photographers’ blogs, “where they’re just telling you everything,” he says. Wedding photographer Liana Lehman, meanwhile, has also collected words to help build her brand identity. For instance, she made a list of all the words she could think of that described her personality, then used the list to home in on a logo, asking several friends which of the various logos proposed by a designer she had hired best reflected the words on her list.Design your own web site Designing a web site helps make branding a manageable, step-by-step process, says photography consultant Mary Virginia Swanson. “It is the beginning of shaping your look, editing your work to be under the banner of a certain portfolio, picking colors and a font for your name, and writing a bio and a short statement for your body of work. It’s a trigger to force you to figure out what you’re identity is going to be.” Web design tools for photographers such as VisualServer and Clickbooq make web site construction and maintenance relatively easy, though many photographers may want a professional designer to help with their branding. That’s OK, Swanson says. “I’m a huge fan of seeking professional help.” Just don’t hire a designer until after you’ve started the brand development process on your own, she advises. The reason is because you have to be able to communicate to the designer who you are as a photographer, what your business model is, and what market you want to reach. Otherwise, you’re likely to end up with a brand identity that may be wrong for you, and not very effective.Define your mission in writing Writing down a mission statement that succinctly defines what you do and then posting it prominently on your web site is an integral part of branding. It forces you to figure out and focus on your core strength, and can help you identify the appropriate visual components of your brand, such as typefaces and colors. But just as importantly, a mission statement quickly communicates your expertise to clients. “Documenting life under the Big Sky of Montana and the northern Rocky Mountains” is the defining statement on Montana photographer Thomas Lee's web site, for instance. It signals to clients he knows the people and places of the state better than most photographers. Still life photographer Steve Cohen explains on his site, “Steve is passionate about objects…[he] aims to elevate the simple and even mundane to that of beauty, depicting a combination of excellent taste, sharp wit, and aesthetic sensibility.” In small markets, selling yourself as a generalist may be a good strategy. But clients in larger markets look for specialists whose particular style and skills meet the demands of the assignment at hand, and that’s where your mission statement will help most. “If you have an expertise, celebrate it,” says Mary Virginia Swanson. Spell it out on your web site and use it to build a reputation as the photographer who shoots X like nobody else. And make sure, of course, that you have the images to back up your statement.Get personal Clients will judge you first and foremost on the quality of your work, but they will also be asking themselves, “Is this the kind of person I can work with?” So make your bio an integral part of your branding. Give clients a glimpse of who you are. After all, they have less and less time to actually meet photographers, so you have to convey your personality through your branding. Rob Haggart, who was until recently photography director at Men’s Journal, says he spends a lot of time “sleuthing out” personal information about photographers in order to figure out what they’re passionate about and what assignments they’re most suited for. “Personal work humanizes them, and their bio helps complete the picture of who they are and what their likes and dislikes are,” he says. “Every element on your site and promotions has to go to the kind of person you are, and extend to some real associations that you are brave enough to make on your web site, like, ‘I’m a big Democrat,’ because in this age of personalization, everyone wants to have their tribe collected,” Wilde says. Swanson advises photographers to let clients know how they are giving back to their communities, too. “Clients are growing up in a world where being a good citizen and giving back matters,” so they take note of that information on web sites and promotional materials, she says.Be relentlessly consistent Your portfolio, promotions, and web site should all have the same look and feel, and sustain them over time. That means selecting typography and colors that you can use in everything you produce and stick with for a long time. “From the minute your first promotion is in their hand, until you send the final invoice for the job, everything should be consistent, and clean, and readable,” Wilde says. The reason is because your graphical look builds what she calls “visual equity.” She explains, “With enough broadcasting, enough promotion, [your graphic identity] becomes attached to your images—so that eventually people are going to be able to look at your typography and conjure your imagery. They’ll be able to [imagine] your images before their eyes even if they only see a tag on a portfolio.” Inconsistency or frequent course changes in your branding only confuse clients. “I can't’ tell you how often I get an intriguing promotion that will drive me to a photographer’s web site, and it will look like a completely different person,” Swanson says. Suddenly, the perplexed client is asking herself, Am I in the right place? Does this photographer know what he’s doing? “Whenever you have a point of confusion in the brand, you’re really losing ground,” Swanson warns."