Photographer, What's Your Branding Message?

I just returned from the WPPI Expo in Las Vegas, and co-presented a master class in blogging for wedding photographers with New York Institute of Photography Director Chuck DeLaney. Our presentation was on blogging, but it had a heavier emphasis on how a photographer brands herself or himself. I used the Harry Potter analogy of Hogwart's sorting hat: you want to visit a photographer's website and read the About message and automatically know if this is the right photographer for you - just by the brand message you're putting out there.
 
 

Here are three different About pages from three very different wedding photographers. Look at the messages themselves, the adjectives used to describe the photographers and their work, messages that talk about where the photographers like to work and descriptions of their typical clientelle.

• Weddings By Two
• Edyta Photography
• Charlotte Jenks Lewis Photography

 
It's easy to identify each of these photographers from their About descriptions, right? Each one would have a different ideal client in mind, but each exhibits the four Branding Guidelines while still appealing to a unique client base:

1. Brand Well
2. Show What You're Selling
3. Show To Whom You Are Selling
4. Brand Yourself Consistently

How's your branding message and overall branding program? Are you satisfied with where you're at right now? Does your About message sort yourself out from the competition and carve a definite niche for you in the business community? Share your branding message with us, and we'd like to hear how you define your business and how that's worked for you!

We're the New York Institute of Photography, a distance education school teaching photography since 1910 - over 100 years of knowledge and experience. Listen to the following podcast to learn more about who we are and what we do.

AUDIO LINK: WHAT IS THE NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF PHOTOGRAPHY? [20:58M]

Comments

[new york boudoir photography]

What a great Article! you addressed some really great point here which come up for discussion all the time.