The worst case scenario would be; to contract a photographer and then end up with a bunch of photography that simply doesn't resonate with your audience.

Try this step by step process to get the best content photography for your brand/personal brand.

Step 1: Identify the audience/buyer (go through our Dream Buyer Avatar questions here)

Step 2: What are the pain points, desires, needs, wants of the audience? Write those down, but also write down examples of when and where they may use your services/relate to the brand etc. Personal branding is a bit harder (that's where content pillars come in to it - and more on that later). But for business branding, for example, for a beauty brand, the photography list good look like this:

• Using product in bathroom
• Product photography
• Applying product to face
• Dropping product (from a dropper) into palm of the hand
• Shopping for product at the beauty store
• Relaxing with a face mask on and a cup of tea

Step 3: Think about personalisation. How can the photography include a human element? A hand, a body part, an action, either with or without a face.

Step 4: Use Pinterest, create a board with photography examples of the above list that you relate to and like the look of.

Step 5: Reduce your photography list to 4-7 genres or elements to keep the photoshoot simple. Collage the ideas from Pinterest onto a document under each genre/element on a document.

Step 6: Provide this collage sheet to your photographer to provide art direction.

Step 7: Go ahead and SHOOT - copying the look and feel of the photography you like, but with your own style (your photographer will help with this).

Step 8: Allow the photographer to guide you - they are experts.

Above all, have fun,

If this photography shoot step by step guide was helpful, please pop your email below for more free ideas directly to your inbox.

Thanks!

Christine,

one eighty offers technical recruitment services across the built environment.

When Blackjet started working with one eighty there was no digital content strategy late November 2019.

OBJECTIVE:

• To add value and engage with clients and candidates to assist them with their recruitment or job needs.
• Increase one eighty online presence so they are top of mind when the need arises.
• Establish one eighty are 'experts in their field' in a professional, accredited manner.

PROCESS:

one eighty engaged in the Blackjet Prepare to Take Off workshop to confirm the content strategy. Followed by implementation by Blackjet. Blackjet became one eighty's outsourced content implementer.

OUTCOMES OF WORKSHOP:

• Deep understanding of audience profile
• Social marketing content guidelines; language, colours, content types and style etc
• Developed initial brand personalisation story
• Content calendar; blogs, posts, and other media type
• Email marketing strategy

IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS:

These results are after four months of working with Blackjet. Through this time period New Zealand had the Christmas close down period (which is typically a quiet time in recruitment), and in March 2020 the COVID-19 National State of Emergency.

Engagement rate:

• The best engagement yet.

Impressions of LinkedIn Content:

• From 0 to 10,000's.

• Adding value to clients and candidates in form of market insights, blogs, videos, external articles.
• Engaged recruitment team who are now sharing their own content across platforms following the 'story' and guidelines.
• Email marketing strategy altered and systemised
• Social profiles maintained with regular posting.
• Photography resource created for future posting, articles and staff to use.

one eighty's MARKETING CONTENT:

• LinkedIn Company Strategy
• LinkedIn Founder Strategy
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Website
• one eighty Blog

Who are you really adding value to when interacting with your audience?

Note here, how I didn't write; "who are you talking to when speaking to your audience?"

Key point here being 'adding value' and 'interacting'.

When looking at our audiences it's easy to simply describe the audience as;

25-45 Year Old, Female, Young Family, Suburban, Health and Fitness Lover (yes, I'm describing myself!).

Truth is, we want to dive deeper by asking these simple questions:

• Who are your customers? Are they; wholesalers? B2B? consumers?
• Where does your audience hang out? Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Offline, Family, Events, Location?
• What are their information sources? Google, Books, YouTube, Friends, Family?
• What do they look like? Actions? Trends? i.e. 32 year old female who works out, has a young family and likes to eat healthy food.
• How do they speak? Formal, informal, corporate, friendly?
• Preferred form of communication? Email, text message, letter, video, telephone?
• What marketing channels do they hang out on? Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Offline, Messenger, Offline, YouTube?
• Would you name them? Sometimes it can be helpful to give your customer group a name, i.e. Mrs Jones which the internal company uses.

Now, having answered these questions, write a paragraph about your audience covering all of these items above. Does it give you a better picture?

For example;

Our business to business audience primarily hangs out on LinkedIn and at industry events. Information sources include Google, industry related friends and network. Traditionally fairly formal language as the industry is 'serious' with industry experts.. There are two forms of preferred communication; the older end of the audience spectrum prefer phone calls, where as the younger audience prefers email.

Further understanding allows us to make communication decisions to suit the business and audience. It's now possible to decide where the interaction is going to happen and how we can easily target.

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