How can you use photo content to build brand awareness and engagement?

This is what most people miss! A photo content strategy needs to focus on being cohesive and instantly recognizable. Choose an aesthetic and stick to it until your customers know your work inherently, without looking at the username. Branding and a style guide are your best friends, to begin with. The simplest example I can give you here is of J.Crew. Check out their pages. There is a flow of design that is hard to miss. Try to capture a similar kind of flow in your strategy.

Audience is key. You have to know who you are marketing to otherwise you are wasting money. I used to work for a brand that had a everyday item at a premium price but the item was designed for a younger audience who wouldn't spend that much. We had to change our photo content to make sure our audience would see the value we were asking them to spend.

Telling an authentic story is the only way a photo becomes a meaningful medium rather than just being a pretty picture.

There are a lot of photographers in the world. Hire them. It may seem like a silly investment for a white background product image, but the image output is so key to ensure people can trust your brand. Invest in it and it will pay you back.

I’m sure we have all heard it and some of us may even have said it but beware of the cheesecake factory effect. And some people might be wondering what in the heck am I talking about. Let me explain the cheesecake. Factory menu is absolutely huge and completely overloaded with different options. What happens is the customer gets easily overwhelmed by having too many choices. And because the food is actually really good, it makes it even harder because they now have to choose between a lot of really good food options. How does this relate to photography? Don’t overstress your client and devalue your work. Be confident in your skills. Deliver according to the project. Don’t overshoot to overcompensate.

For every photo you take, ensure that you take a vertical, horizontal, one that could be cropped square, a 5 second video and a behind the scenes. This is the easiest way to make sure you have options that fit each platform and still have the same voice.

This is where language and approved copy are essential. Be sure to follow all guidelines in how to interact with your audience. Secondly, trends come and go; quality sticks around. Not every trend is something to jump in to. Be smart about what trends you do participate in.

Look at your data. The only way to grow is by learning and that is in every aspect of life. Your audience may hate close ups or the color blue. The only way to know is by tracking engagements.

I am one of those who scroll through social media to get content inspiration. I have come to learn that sometimes, it's the photo in a status that pulls me to read through the caption. I believe that a nice photo is one that in itself shares emotion. If the audience can feel what message the photo is trying to send then the objective of it is achieved.