How to Create an Effective Brand

Today’s post is with Muriel Silva of Stocklane. Muriel creates beautiful images for female entrepreneurs and her branding expertise is the perfect post to conclude the Business Photos series!

Read the other posts here:

Planning your Brand Photoshoot | Stock Photos for your Business | Presets for your Business Photos

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First, I’d like to introduce myself, so 1. you know who’s speaking to you and 2. you understand how my background is relevant to what I’m writing about today.  My name is Muriel Silva and I am a commercial and editorial photographer. I have worked with multiple brands creating custom imagery for their business, which lately has been focused primarily on Interiors, Food, and Lifestyle brands. My work has also been published in multiple magazines both nationally and internationally, which I’ll admit it feels like a miracle every time it happens (impostor syndrome 100%).

I am also the founder of Stocklane.co – a stock photography membership site for female entrepreneurs in lifestyle industries. Through Stocklane, I get to let my creativity flow and create gorgeous images for women entrepreneurs.

In addition to my photography work, I previously worked for a Strategic Branding Agency in the DC area – a job that I absolutely LOVED and enjoyed thoroughly. It was in that job that I truly learned what branding is and what it is not. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the pretty, shiny things that surround branding: the logo, the colors, the website (hey, I love pretty, shiny things too!). But these things distract us from the deeper, more meaningful work that goes behind true, effective branding.

I know—right now you might be thinking: “Wait a minute…you’re a photographer. And you sell stock photos. So you’re in a pretty-and-shiny kind of business. So… huh?” Let’s be clear – branding is much more than just the visuals of a brand, but visuals are still a very important part of branding. They just aren’t the first thing you should work on when developing your brand. There are multiple elements of your brand that you need to develop before you create or select effective visuals for your brand.

So, what exactly is branding?

Your brand is what other people say about your business when you’re not in the room.

- Jeff Bezos

A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose our product or service over another. If the consumer doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists.

- Seth Godin

At the end of the day, there is only one thing that constitutes “brand”. It’s how you feel in the moment you interact with the product, service or brand.

- Gary Vaynerchuck

So you see, branding is complex – it involves expectations, memories, feelings. And it involves behaviors and action.

Great branding is about creating powerful and purposeful gut reactions that, eventually, lead people to take action.

I’m sure by now you’re beginning to understand there’s so much to think and work through when you’re creating an effective brand. If you want to create a gut reaction that makes people act, you need to have absolute clarity on who these people are, what do they need and want, what are their pain points, and most importantly, how your product or service is THE solution to their problem.

Having that clarity will allow you to create messaging that truly speaks to them and makes them pay attention.

But it’s not just what you say that matters. It’s how you say it and how you present it. Every single point of interaction your customer has with you or your business has to reflect your brand’s values and messages – that includes phone calls, emails, packaging, marketing collateral, website... EVERYTHING.  And, most importantly, your own behavior (and/or your employees). It all leaves an impression in your customer’s mind about your brand.

Branding Visuals 

Now, where do the pretty and shiny visuals come in? Your brand’s visuals help you create those feelings and gut reactions. Studies have shown that the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual.

The visuals you develop or choose for your brand will convey a LOT more information than your copy ever will. That is why visuals are so important. But if you don’t do the deep branding work first (who your customer is, what they need and want, pain points, etc), then most likely you will not pick or develop the right visuals for your brand to be effective.

Stocklane

So let’s go back to my own business – Stocklane. I created Stocklane to support stylish and sophisticated women entrepreneurs in lifestyle industries. Women who have high quality brands, while remaining warm and approachable. Women who are feeling the current demands of social media marketing and need a high volume of images. Women who are too busy to be having photo shoots regularly but who don’t want to compromise the quality of their images. That’s my audience. Those are their pain points. And I’ve carefully worked on every aspect of my brand to reflect that. More importantly – I need my clients to feel not only relieved that they have a source of quality images at their fingertips, but also that the use of my stock photos will help them convey those same values in their own branding.

I invite you to visit my website and poke around – how does it make you feel? Do you think it conveys the message and values that I explained above?

Now – let’s look at your own brand.

Have you done the strategic branding work before you worked on your visuals? Are your visuals aligned with your overall values and messaging? If you find a disconnect, I suggest going back to the basics and really diving deep on those key branding points about your audience. Having clarity on the basics is one of the most important things you can do to create a highly effective brand.

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