For Authenticity, Dig Deeper

There’s a common belief that promotional imagery looks contrived, inauthentic, and lacks spontaneity.

I’m calling bullshit.

Can promotional imagery look that way? Of course it can, and often does. We all know the classic trope of what a Big Mac looks like on television, and what you actually get handed to you in the brown bag at the drive-thru.

However, when done thoughtfully and honestly, your imagery can easily rise above noise and show the authenticity of you and your business, and can look just as real as you are. As a matter of fact, this paradigm shift is the main reason why I want you to think of the pictures you use to promote, advertise, market, or otherwise call attention to and differentiate your business as “visual branding”.

If the term sounds a bit pretentious, that is due mostly to some people having a negative association to the term “brand” What I want you to do instead is think of visual branding as a means to express who you truly are as a business, and also show what kind of values and strengths you possess. It is this very shift in thinking that is the key to harnessing the power of the visual medium.

“In short, you are no longer going to think of your imagery as what you should show to others, but what you need to show.”

What parts of your business culture and skillset absolutely will benefit from a visual representation? How can you use the precious seconds that a potential client spends looking at your site or social media post to let them know who you really are? What does that viewer need to see to convince themselves they are making the right decision?

Once you are in the mindset of thinking what you need to show, the fun starts. It’s time to brainstorm what makes you excited about your business, what you find most rewarding, and why you do what you do. Most importantly, what problem are you solving for your potential customer. You have a solution, and you need to let them know they can trust you. When you start stripping away the typical visuals that years of advertising conditioning have convinced you that you should feature, you can get on with the more effective and authentic task of developing what a potential client needs to see to establish trust and familiarity.

Before I undertake a visual branding assignment, I find it crucial to come up with some core principles or phrases that define the business. I also take an honest look at the client-facing side of the business, and how to best represent that so it portrays what a client can actually expect. I take great pains to encourage a client not to try to portray themselves as something they are not, since it then becomes too hard to keep up the facade, and can lead to the despised lack of authenticity. What’s the use of bringing clients to your site, through your door, or meeting them where they work or live, only for them to find out the experience, service, or product you deliver is not what you made it out to be?

Instead, let’s go a bit deeper and devise imagery that conveys your motivations for what you do, the care you take, and perhaps most importantly, the results you will deliver. How will working with you make your client’s life better? How can you solve a problem that frees up more time for them to allocate to other aspects of their life? Why should they work with you over all of the other businesses that popped up in their search? How can someone who has been referred to you immediately get a sense of who they will be working with, and what the experience will be like?

These questions should guide you to being who you really are, and what your business can truly deliver. Next step is to partner with an image maker who understands what techniques, styles, and approaches can communicate these aspects. That’s where Stillmotion/UP\ comes in.

That’s who I am, and that’s what my business does.

/k/