Why 99.9% of people poorly use their photos, and how you can QUICKLY fix yours
Photos and Video for your online biz brand are the whipped cream in your frappuccino, cheese in your macaroni, and a banana in your smoothie. Whatever you’re serving up to your customers is ohhh-so-much-better with quirky and unique on-brand personality-infused visuals that show people just WHO YOU ARE, what you’re like, and why they might wanna eat you up (or leave you untouched to get cold on the plate). The difference is that drastic. (And nobody ever gets fat!)
In your brand visuals people want to see your perfectly imperfect face, smile at the dimples in your cheeks, and adore the way your toes touch when you sit on your sofa and nerd out about your business ideas and principles.
They connect with your facial and body expressions.
They are curious about the paper-folded bird on your desk and the unusual ring on your finger - the story. And they’re interested in the weird painting behind your left shoulder (something catchy)…
They get a consistent brand impression (your shirts are pressed, your nails are trimmed, hair - clean, you’re positive and exude good energy) and values all across the platform (promoting drinking fair-trade monkey-poo coffee, supporting your local chipmunk preservation society, and donating used clothes to people who are rich with experiences but not with money)… all this good stuff shows up in our visuals and registers in their mind WITHOUT anyone having to make an effort to read a single line. It’s stupid fast! And it is impactful! Or rather - it CAN BE.
Here’s why I said “can be”, and not “is”.
Even though brand photography is at the highest point of popularity it ever was, unfortunately 99.9% of the online coaches either ignore, or don’t know about this high horse-power widget they’re missing out on. “Unfortunately” because if they didn’t ignore it - they’d be finding that growing their business, the hustle, the time it takes to become recognized - it’s all so much easier when your images TRULY support your efforts online.
Which is why I’m here, in my rented kitchen in Florence (Italy), where I currently work from and live in - on my nomadic adventure across the World, (and Europe specifically as of Fall 2021). And I’m fidgeting impatiently, editing this magnificent evidence to the value of my work - on the tip of this rustic kitchen chair, with the crick in my neck from too many hours in a non-ergonomic workspace - ALL FOR YOU, my friend. In hopes to help you blaze brighter and live louder.
Let’s take a quick run through all the good things images CAN do for you if you plan them right (and some things that happen despite your not planning, and that can work against you, if you’re not mindful). I’ll also give you examples to illustrate my thought-process when I work on a list of potential brand images for someone like you.
Visuals are the 1st thing we see
… and grasp with our conscious and unconscious mind.
It’s a given! After all - words are also images, but usually much smaller, and there’s a lot more of them. But, of course, people who are trying to prove the efficiency of visuals even go as far as making up stats like “images are processed 60,000 times faster than copy. Makes me roll my eyes so hard that I see green spots.
Which copy exactly? Which image did they use? How did they measure that?
It’s impossible to get a number like that. My friends who have their PhDs in neuroscience agree and chuckle along with me.
So let’s just accept that images are the 1st thing we see - always - and continue below to find out what exactly it means to us.
seT the mood
Visuals are the best mood setters (and obviously the most efficient) so be sure to create and manage that MOOD.
Are you grounding your viewer?
Do they feel elevated?
Are you pulling them into their dream destinations or feelings, leaving behind the ho-hum of everyday working grind?
Is your page comforting, like a big brotherly hug?
Or do you make them feel cold?
You can learn all about this and stimulate all human senses with my “5 Senses Framework” mini training (it is being re-recorded at the moment, pls signup to Newsletter to hear when it’s back up!).
Make people notice
notice YOU, and notice your content online.
Not every image will get you noticed. Most coaching brands use these dull perfected photos with their hands and legs “just so”. Photos that fail to create a connection with us. The only thing I (personally) notice about those photos is how much they make me shudder.
What most of us are drawn to is the CONTRAST. Contrast in light, in colors, in stories. Contrast in ideas, and in the way of life.
Stories. Not perfection.
Choice of an image will make or break the performance of your content piece when it’s placed in a feed to compete against other content for your attention. Scrollers do what they do best - they scroll and scan for something that will grab them by their eyeballs (or heartstrings). Will yours be lost in that sea?
MAKE US TAKE ACTION
Visuals trigger further consumption of your content. From headline, to the call to action - they often are the biggest reason people take the plunge down your slippery slide of a content piece. And there, in the end - they encourage us to take action. Or not! Are YOUR photos actionable? (which means they have to be EMOTIVE!).
Are you making your people want to read the title, read the caption, take the action? Or are you just using the image because it’s mandatory in order to create a post on Instagram?
Photos entertain
At least they are MEANT to!
One of my recent surveys shows that people look for very specific things in the photos they see. Once the image has caught their attention:
they love checking out all the details in your photos
want to see something new they haven’t experienced yet (e.g. in your travels)
look for a “deeper” element or meaning - something that makes them “feel stuff”.
And you can make your photos MORE interesting by exaggerating your pose or expression, using props, and applying other elements of visual storytelling.
You also want to break patterns.
For example, if you have a highly expressive face, and all your photos and videos look like you’re clowning around, then a good contrast that catches their attention will be a photo of you looking completely normal, and not grimacing to make things super entertaining. Keep the variety up!
CONTRAST IS YOUR FRIEND.
trigger the emotion
photos have the biggest potential to trigger the emotion in our viewer. Visuals are processed by both hemispheres, and the emotional side gets to things much faster than the logical. Why use “flat” images when you can stir up powerful emotion in your people?
Go over your main messaging THEME-points and figure out what images would set the mood and get the emotion going. For example:
If your message is “catch the wave/train/flight or any other opportunity for transformation” - then illustrate an act of grabbing that opportunity. Ideally with an entertaining twist (see the point above).
make meaningful connection
And they do it fast (do YOUR photos do that?).
For example, when you look into the camera, you are connecting to the viewer with your eyes.
Eye-contact is so incredibly basic - people overlook it ALL THE TIME. But it’s very powerful. They are connecting with you and don’t even know it. So make sure there are enough closeups of you providing that eye-contact across your platforms.
How you come across and what’s your body language - these things are equally (if not more) important (depending on the image), so we’re being mindful of that when we think up the images for our shot list.
Subscribe to my newsletter to learn all the ways we can create a connection through a still image.
unforgettable 1st impression
There are different kinds of impressions. You can come out of your house today looking like a slob and most people won’t even notice you exist. But some WILL notice and you will become imprinted in their mind as a slob, even if they see you dressed to the 9’s everyday for the next 7 days. You can correct that impression with time and consistency, but that 1st one is a strong bond with their memory and the emotion they experienced when they 1st saw you.
I don’t always follow this rule myself, being a photographer and having an excuse to wear clothes that don’t attract too much attention, but you want to leave the house looking like you’re about to meet your future forever mate. Keeping that standard high shows people that you’re serious about being a stand up person. It’s like when men used to carry a handkerchief with them at all times - for the one time in their life when they are in the presence of a crying woman, so they can offer it to her. (I don’t know why I’m incredibly amused and touched by this. Where is my knight in shining armor with a tissue box in his backpack??)
They get people curious
So take the time to bring up subjects and stories that create that curiosity. You want to use this opportunity to stop the scroll and make people wonder who the heck you are, when you’re doing something unusual or even slightly outrageous. And eventually, with your “warm” audience you want to use consistent stories that raise curiosity, like - what’s up with all the ice cream eating and never getting fat.
The bar on image curiosity is still pretty low considering how poorly most brand images are planned.
We have a whole industry of quality photographers creating images that you ask them to do, and you need to learn to ask them for stronger images. They simply CAN’T be your artistic director, it’s a separate job on it’s own. So either become one, or hire one separately to work on your brand image IDEAS. (hint-hint: art direction is my favorite thing to do for other people, and this is what you get when you work with me)
Still images are globe-trotting mediators
Photography is more universal than any other communication means. It travels across cultures and languages.
Photo is a piece of real life - but focused on and frozen in a moment in time.
Why do you think Nat Geo is so big in the world of photography? The images they publish are powerful enough to capture attention and move the entire World.
(the company is also brilliant at marketing, but that’s another story)
But let’s simplify things to prove my point above.
As someone who’s been learning and speaking non-native languages all of my adult life, and became a pro at relocating and adapting, I must extend a helping hand to those who never challenged themselves with surviving in a foreign environment. I know that the majority of people - even in the developed World - have never left their own country, and if you’re not one of them please bear with me for just a sec as I describe the basic ninja-principle of surviving in the foreign land.
Have you ever been on vacation in a place where you don’t know the language?
Imagine you’re in Peru. You can’t read or understand what anyone’s saying. How do you find the nearest ice cream parlor?
You look at all the images and signs (also images) all around you. Something that typically gives away an ice cream shop -
This was a singular most primitive example, but the same goes for more global stories. Images like below clearly trigger an agenda and an emotion in everyone across the globe.
What do you say?
Want some of this for YOUR brand?
Here are possible next steps:
If you’re brand new to photoshoots - grab my shoot planning bundle to understand how the successful brand shoots are planned and what images you need to get you started.
If you want to enhance your existing image creation efforts (you create ongoing videos - LIVE or recorded, you have done a photoshoot of two and feel like you can do better) - check out the “5 Senses” mini-training (it’s being re-recorded but signup to get news when it’s up!) that teaches you exactly how to use all senses stimulation to create more emotional images even before you get to your own act inside the frame.
Want some serious and undivided 1:1 attention? There’s a 90 min 1:1 sesh we can start with, and after that you see if a VIP package or an ongoing project with me is something that’s a good fit for your marketing goals.
For me - the ultimate goal in branding with photos is for you to be blown away and inspired by your own brand. I don’t want to ever hear you say “I can’t seem to get it right, and after every shoot I still feel like something’s missing”.
Cover photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash