Simply C Photography answers the question ‘When is a headshot not a headshot?’

Professional headshots have traditionally been about putting faces to the names of your team, or a face to the author of an article in the press. But, times have changed and headshots are being recognised as the valuable opportunity they are and Cherry Beesley of Simply C Photography is determined to promote the value that a commercial branding headshot can bring to your business.

“Put Simply, when your headshot images add something authentic to your business’s story, they are better representing your brand” Cherry explains, “and when that happens, you have not just used but harnessed the power of the commercial branding photoshoot”.

Cherry is a great advocate of the adage that ‘people buy from people’ and one of the best ways to get people to buy into what you’re doing is to show them who they are buying from.

“When you run a business, you really want people to love what you do and why you’re doing it, and if they love it as much as you do then they’ll want to become customers.”

“Your team are your brand ambassadors, the cogs in your machine and your greatest secret weapon” Cherry continues, here she explains more about the concept of a brand and how to make it work for your marketing.

What a brand actually is….

The problem with explaining what we mean by ‘your brand’ is that a brand is a concept rather than a specifically defined list of elements. A brand isn’t your logo or something that you can touch or hold, instead it is what makes your business easily recognisable. Your corporate personality. Just like a person, your business will look a certain way, behave to a set of values and prioritise certain things over others. So your brand includes, the colour scheme you use, the tone of voice you adopt in your brochures, adverts and website. It’s the consistent quality and style of images through your digital and traditional marketing. When you put everything together to build your brand identity this is what people remember and what encourages them to choose you over a competitor.

Think about the messages your images need to support and how they can demonstrate your brand. Are you a fun, eye-catching, engaging business (in which case let’s take some fun, eye catching photos!) or are you placed in a more serious industry or arena? Do you provide products or services? Who is your ideal client? And then think about how your images will be interpreted and who they will resonate with.

Engaging with your customers…

Whether you are selling a service or a physical product, the more that you can get your audience to engage with what you are offering the better – and getting your team involved is a great way to achieve this. This is where we can elevate your ‘meet the team’ pictures to the lofty heights of ‘commercial branded headshots’.

Cherry has definitely seen a recent increase in the call for corporate branded headshots, “I am very lucky to have worked with some great Suffolk businesses recently and the authenticity they have added to their business with well thought out team images has been wonderful to see.”

If you want to see some examples of corporate branded headshots visit the Simply C Photography website.

The County Wire is also very excited that Cherry has signed up to present a workshop at the Wired For Success event to be held 24th March at Trinity Park. If you would like to learn more about the value of professional images to your business further details about the event can be found here.