You’ll hear me say it again and again: every small business needs brand photos! But why do I harp on this (aside from the fact that it’s my livelihood)? Well, as a small business owner, your brand’s identity can make or break your success in today’s world. Professional branding photos aren’t just a luxury – they are an essential investment that sets successful businesses apart from the competition. Whether you’re launching a new venture or looking to refresh your existing brand, understanding why small businesses need branding photos is crucial.

Create a first impression that establishes credibility + trust

Picture this: You’re searching for a service provider and you click on the first result that pops up in your search engine. When you open the page, it is filled with text in a variety of colors that makes it difficult to read. The few images used are clearly stock images that you barely even notice.

Now envision that you opened a beautifully crafted website where you were greeted by the excited and welcoming face of the business owner. As you scroll, you find several custom brand images that demonstrate how passionate that business owner is about the work they do.

Which of these would you be more likely to book? I know I typically choose the latter. Seeing a well-organized website with unique photos lets you as a consumer know who you’re working with, and opens the door for a relationship where your clients trust you and know that you are worth investing in because you’ve invested in your business.

Your brand story is yours, the visual story should be too

You’ve spent countless hours creating a business that brings you joy (and sometimes pain because, let’s be real, owning a business is HARD). Those individual hours all come together to create the story behind your brand. From the idea you sketched out on a napkin to the storefront you now proudly own, your brand’s journey belongs to you!

So shouldn’t the images you use to promote that business be the same? You’re doing your business a huge disservice by using stock images to tell your brand’s story. It removes the human element and takes away the personal connection that keeps clients coming back. In a world where connection is harder to come by every day, bringing your personality and story to your brand photos builds an instant connection between you and your customers.

Stand out from the competition

Ever researched a competitor and found that you were using the same stock images on your website? Or got excited about a piece of social media content from Canva, only to have someone else use the same image and template the day you were going to post? When you have unique brand photos, those problems will be a thing of the past.

After a brand photo session you’ll have DOZENS of photos that will help your business stand out from your competitors. Their uniqueness and authenticity combined with your personality and brand story will show customers that you aren’t like everyone else in your industry. That you bring something else to the table. That you care.

Enhanced marketing + social media engagement

When I was a wedding photographer, the wedding images I shared on social media would get a few likes every time I posted. But, when I posted pictures of myself, I went from 15-20 likes on a post to HUNDREDS of likes plus comments and shares. This is one of the reasons I started looking into brand photography and quickly agreed that small businesses need brand photos!

Dopamine addiction aside, this kind of engagement benefits you because when the algorithm sees that you’re providing content that others are enjoying and interacting with, it will put your post in front of new accounts. When your content gets put in front of new accounts you gain followers. And when you gain followers, more often than not, you’ll increase your sales.

Improved SEO + online visibility

The final reason small businesses need brand photos? Search engines favor original high-quality content – both written and visual. If you haven’t heard E-E-A-T, it stands for Experience-Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness, and it is one of the key measurements search engines use when determining what websites they’ll put at the top of search results. When your copy and visual elements align, it shows the search algorithms that your E-E-A-T is high. Just make sure you’re also using ALT text and including those long-tail keywords to boost your search engine presence!

Did I convince you that your small business needs brand photos?

Book a coffee consult with me and we’ll make it happen!