Brand Imagery Challenge

 

Congratulations - you've taken the first step to improve your brand imagery by joining our challenge. We've put together 5 actionable strategies to help you bring your imagery in line with your brand.  With an explanation of why it's important for your business and actions for you to follow, completing this challenge will help you stand out and make creating content easier. We've also got some free stock images for you to get you started - your reward for completing the challenge. 

 

1. Brand Imagery Guidelines
2. Images - Back To Basics
3. Extend Your Visual Branding
4. Create Your Image Library.
5. Keep Moving In The Right Direction

 

 

Brand Imagery Guidelines

When it comes to the imagery the aim is to ensure that ALL imagery is recognisable as YOU!. You need to make sure you have a consistent photo style, logo and colour palette across all social media and your website. The easiest way to keep track of this is to create Brand Imagery Guidelines and stick to them - Over time, your customers will see the consistency in posts and begin to recognise when a post is from you without seeing your brand’s logo or social media handle. 
 

Actions - Create your brand imagery guidelines

• Have you got a logo? This is a must - If you don't have one you can create your own or ask someone to create one for you using fiverr
• What are your brand colours? Consider these colours in the clothes you wear on a shoot and in the background of your images. Just a pop of colour tells your audience it's you. (You'll see our logo colours all over our social media - even bought a couple of new tops & stationery to match). 
• Is your brand style - formal or informal? Light and airy or with bold colours? This style should be reflected in your images. Getting this wrong can be very confusing for your audience. Imagine a stuffy old boys boardroom photo for quirky young female sports clothing company 'Roxy' - it makes no sense. 
• Are you going to use a filter - if so which one represents your brand style? 

 

 

Images - Back To Basics

Now you've created your guidelines it's useful to perform an audit of your imagery.  There are lots of stock images out there, and we often use them for a 'quick post'.  But with so many different styles, you have to be careful that the images are not confusing for your audience. Remember people connect with people - it's good to show people who is behind the business too. 

 

Actions

• Perform an audit across all of your social media accounts and website - Ensure logos, banners and images are consistent with your brand guidelines,  and audit regularly.
• Make sure you’re posting on a schedule consistently and that your content aligns with the look and feel of the branding you’ve established.
• When choosing new images always ask the questions, 'is it in line with my guidelines', 'will my customer recognise it as me'

 

Extend Your Visual Branding

So now that you have a consistent visual brand across social media and your website accounts, it’s time to enhance that even further. What does that mean? It means ensuring you have the same colours, style and font reflected in your images, graphics and videos. When a photo/graphic is published on social media or your website, are the overlay text fonts consistent with your brand guidelines? 

Actions

• Create templates for the same type of announcement (e.g. new product announcement, quotes, special offers) considering the font, colour and image design agreed in your Brand Imagery Guidelines.
• Create photos and videos that keep your brand’s aesthetic and colour choices in mind. The posts should flow seamlessly into each other. Use carefully chosen stock images, when taking your own images consider your guidelines or ask a branding photographer to take a whole series of images that you can use confident that they meet your guidelines. - Of course, we're not going to miss the opportunity to promote our photography services here. Drop me a message I'm always happy to meet for coffee and chat about branding photography that tells your story.

 

 

Create Your Image Library

The, sometimes, overwhelming demand for continuous and fresh social media content can be eased by having everything prepared in advance and accessible anywhere, any time. A carefully created library will ensure you have on-brand imagery and templates to hand. 
 

For a more in-depth look at Image Libraries pop on over to our Image Library blog   

 

Actions

• Brainstorm ideas of what resources you might need. Think about the articles you will write, blogs, social media posts etc and the resources you will need to complete them. These might be brand photography like portrait photos, products or stock images as well as logos and templates.
• Create an online storage space for your library so you can access your image library anywhere in the world and allow shared access - we love Google Drive.
• Organise your storage space, add your resources and keep it up to date!

 

Keep moving in the right direction

Thank you for completing our Brand Imagery Challenge, why not get your image library off the ground with a series of photos that are so much more than just headshots - they tell the story of your business. You can see more of the details on our website, or drop me an email and we'll arrange to meet for a no-obligation chat (any excuse to meet for coffee). Not ready to jump in front of the camera yet? Have a look at our Stock PhotoShop. and see if there is a collection in line with your brand colours. 

CONGRATULATIONS - You've completed the challenge, and we think YOU DESERVE A REWARD - here are some FREE STOCK IMAGES to download and get you started!!! We hope you are now feeling more confident with brand imagery that is clearly YOU! 

Kate x

[email protected]