Brand Sessions — What are they and why do you need one?

As small businesses, we are living in a time when we are expected to be on all the time — posting the perfect on-brand photos to Instagram, creating compelling blog posts, driving traffic to our website with the most tantalizing email newsletters. What all that pressure to post adds up to is sub-par imagery and — frankly — hollow messaging. Ironically, that’s exactly the opposite of what we are all working to achieve — so how do we fix it?

There are three tenets some of the best marketers in the business subscribe to:

1. Quality over quantity — always

It’s more effective to have fewer truly compelling, eye-catching and narrative images that tell your brand’s story in the right context rather than a bunch of mediocre photos of your product or service all over the Internet.

2. Batch, batch, batch!

No, the faces of the best small businesses aren’t always camera ready. All humans need sleep. They are getting lots of images that they can use all season in one session. Not only does it save time, but it is how they get consistency in their imagery.

3. A balance of seasonal and evergreen content

Seasonal content is anything that alludes to or reflects a distinct period of time — for example, a 2019 summer trends post, Christmas-related imagery or a one-time promotion you are offering. Evergreen content is anything that can be used to brand your business at anytime — for example, a clean and simple headshot or a blog post about what a brand session is for.

A brand session is a perfect way to bring your passion to life visually. It can be as simple as an hour-long session capturing you in your workspace or as elaborate as having your whole team styled for some polished headshots and lifestyle candids. However you want to spend your session, you will leave with a grab-bag of images to use throughout your branding that not only look professional, but they are unique to you. No one really cares about a succulent on a random white desk. What they care about is YOU (or at least, YOUR succulent collection on YOUR desk). Plus, when you call the shots, you get exactly what you need. For example, we can create a go-to image that will fit perfectly on all your email banners.

True, you may not want to become an Insta-celebrity — but it’s still so important to communicate your message clearly with your target clients. That’s why I have built collections just for you — the small business owner or entrepreneur who:

• needs a repository of compelling images on hand that show off your product or service and illustrate how it works

• plans to post to social media not just more often, but more authentically

• needs seasonal content — photos of Christmas-themed products, summer-ready messaging, etc.

• needs updated headshots of high-turnover employees

• needs an assortment of image-types: lifestyle portraits, product photos, photos documenting you and your team at work

Now offering one-off sessions starting at $350 and high-value yearly subscriptions starting at $2,000.