INTRODUCTION

What exactly is branding? What does it mean to rebrand?

If there were one topic of discussion that I feel seems to confuse photographers and creatives more than anything else, it would have to be branding and what it actually means to re-brand. A good yet very basic and simple example would be to think about the McDonalds brand. If they were to rebrand they would not only change their logo, but also the food they serve, the way that they serve it, and more than likely not have a drive through anymore. Many photographers and creatives think of re-branding as a logo and website change, yet it would actually mean so much more than that.

I was able to get a good understanding of branding and the importance of knowing when it’s time to do so during the 15 years that I spent working in the corporate world. When I left the corporate world behind to start my own photography business, it took just 3 years to change just about everything that I had built in order to create an entirely new company with a completely new look. All new goals, a new sales approach, and a completely revamped style of service that we would offer our clients. We had a new logo and website designed to make it very easy to see what our new brand and style were all about. Why? Well, the main reason was to make the switch from a digitally based wedding photography studio to a product-based one with a new style that left no questions as to who we were and what we were about.

Our first photography studio, Cass Imaging, was a jack of all trades type of studio that was based around charging a flat fee and providing digital images. With the new brand and new company name, Twisted Oaks Studio, we wanted to first and foremost make it clear that we were primarily a wedding photography studio now. We changed the entire approach to working with our clients and focused on creating an all-new experience for them. The biggest change had to do with the end product for our clients. Instead of just handing over digital images on a flash drive and an online gallery, we wanted to educate our clients on the importance of prints and most importantly, wedding albums. This was a scary move, mostly due to the fact that we would no longer include high-resolution files unless they received an album.

So many of our previous wedding clients would ask us for high-res files, how would we get around this? Simple, I would educate them on why they didn’t need high-res files to post on social media. The only thing they would need them for would be prints larger than 8x10 or albums, and I made it very clear that Twisted Oaks offered better products than anything they can buy on their own. Yes, we feared that we would lose business because of this change, but once we made the transition over and it didn’t take very long to see how there was absolutely no pushback from new clients. In fact, the only feeling we were left with was regret. Regret that we hadn’t made this change sooner.

My ultimate goal with the new Twisted Oaks brand was to have recently engaged couples know that we were a studio that was based around providing a one-of-a-kind experience and a wedding album at the end as the final product to tell their story. It was no longer about just receiving digital images to sit on a flash drive somewhere. I built a brand that made albums just as crucial as the creative and artistic side of hiring us. In the end, there were three branding techniques that I focused on to take the selling out of album sales for us. I didn’t want to be a car salesman with each client that came into the studio. Instead, I wanted to make it so clients came in and already knew that they wanted an album. Within the first two years of starting a completely brand new studio, we were able to do just that and we sold over 80 albums. Prior to the rebrand, we sold 3.

THE BACKSTORY

As most of you know that follow my work, Twisted Oaks Studio is a multi-photographer studio. Not only did we rebrand to a product based wedding photography studio, but we also had much bigger plans on how we wanted to grow. Building a large studio like Twisted Oaks isn’t for everyone but adding associate photographers along with other admin employees was the direction that we wanted to go. Two years into starting our first photography company and basically taking everything from family shoots to headshots, wedding photography quickly took over. We found ourselves faced with a tough decision. We were both still working full-time jobs, and Sandi was pregnant with our son, so we knew we needed to start preparing for the future if we wanted to make this a real career. Less than three years in and a ton of decision making mixed with business coaching, we made the decision to start a brand new studio from scratch. This time with a full game plan of what we wanted to do. We knew where we wanted the business to go, the brand we wanted to build and most importantly the steps we planned on taking to become one of the most successful and popular multi-photographer studios on the East Coast.

These were our main goals when we decided to re-brand. Most importantly, these were ultimately what became the foundation of what the Twisted Oaks brand was built on.

- No longer be known as a “Jack of all trades” studio, focus strictly on wedding photography.

- Convert over to a product based company

- Have album sales become a large part of our income

- Slowly build our two photographers (husband and wife team) into a successful multi-photographer studio

- Create an entirely new experience for our clients, something that we would need to separate ourselves from the other multi-photographer studios in the area.

THE FIRST FEW YEARS

Before Twisted Oaks Studio, we didn’t have a reliable brand built. It was difficult for potential clients to know exactly who we were or what we were all about. Since we were keeping busy and continuing to grow, it was easy for us to see how a lot of other photographers can fall into this trap. Thinking that the brand they built is working because they are seeing continued growth within the first few years. Luckily for us, we realized that if we wanted to really make a successful career out of photography, we needed to make some significant changes. Looking back on our first studio, just three years ago, it was the perfect test run for us to learn from our mistakes and ultimately give us the ability to see what we needed to change in order to start a new successful studio from the ground up that would have a game plan for years to come.  

We started putting together a game plan long before making the full transition over to Twisted Oaks and to be honest, I could teach an entire three-day workshop on that process alone. We implemented an entirely new marketing strategy, pricing structure, consultation process, sales techniques, and even had mentors to help coach us along the way. All of which played a role in building a new brand, the one that you see today as Twisted Oaks. That was our primary focus, and it’s what has been the most crucial factor in the success that we’ve seen in such a short period. Within a year of making the transition, Twisted Oaks had become the brand that we had envisioned.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD BRAND

Branding can often be the most confusing and misunderstood aspect of being a business owner, especially in the creative industry. Branding is so much more than just a logo and a website re-design. It’s often confused with the style that you have as a photographer. Whether it be your shooting style, editing style, or the look of your website. The more confusing part is that branding and style actually go hand in hand but are also two very different things.

Before starting Twisted Oaks Studio, we had a unique editing style that made it easy for others to distinguish our work from others. We hired someone to help us take that editing style, the overall look, and style of what we wanted our new studio to look like and create a new logo and website. Within a few weeks, we had a whole new look, a particular color palette to our website that matched our editing style, and a design that made it extremely easy and obvious for potential clients to know what the Twisted Oaks brand was all about. To give you an idea of what went into creating the new brand, here are a handful of things that we focused on:

1. What the studio’s mission is all about

2. Our photography focus (primarily a wedding based studio)

3. How we want to make our client’s feel

4. What experience we offer to our clients

5. The price in relation to value

6. What makes us unique

7. Consistency in our editing style

8. The style of our photography

9. The style in which we shoot

10. The products that we offer and having them match the brand style

BRANDING & ALBUM SALES

Besides the addition of the associate program, the biggest goal for us was to fully convert over to a product based studio. We basically avoided album sales the entire first year that we shot weddings, and it honestly wasn’t tough to do since none of our clients even wanted them. We didn’t even realize we were doing it, but we were attracting clients that had no interest in an album or wall art by advertising ourselves as a fully digital studio that handed over a flash drive and online gallery as a final product. We had ourselves convinced that clients no longer wanted albums. They apparently only wanted high-res digital files, and it was a waste of time trying to sell them a wedding album. We also had ourselves convinced before the re-brand that if we did take away high-res files and create a brand built around albums that no one would hire us. They would go with our competition that offered what we used to. Well, long story short, we were wrong. Very wrong. If you’re in the mood for tacos, you aren’t going to McDonald's. If Taco Bell started offering hamburgers and french fries but only had it on their menu for walk-in customers to see. After months of no one purchasing anything but tacos, it would be easy for them to say that no one likes hamburgers and french fries. Meanwhile, across the street, McDonald's is bumping with the business since that is what they are known for. Not the best analogy, but I’m writing this from a hotel room in San Diego at 1am, and I’m starving. Hopefully, you get my point.

3 BRANDING TECHNIQUES

SHOW THEM OFF - MARKET THE HELL OUT OF THEM

I wanted to make it known to anyone who followed our work or scrolled through our website and social media that albums are a big part of who we are. I wanted to make it so that any potential clients that did their research would see how unique our albums are, how well they fit the brand, and how the majority of other clients are excited to receive their albums once they arrive. Basically, my goal was to make it so I never even had to mention the word albums during initial client consultations, but instead, they ask me about them. For clients that came into the studio for their meetings, they would be surrounded by albums to the point that they would find it difficult to leave without wanting one

The biggest mistake that I see photographers make is not marketing their albums or showing them off as much as possible. It’s not only difficult to find examples of them on their websites, but they don’t post photos of them on social media. Not just photos of the albums themselves, but also photos showing off the excitement of clients getting to see their album for the first time. Ever since I rebranded and made albums a primary focus, showing them off everywhere that we possibly could ultimately created an interest in them for not only new potential clients but past clients as well.

TWISTED OAKS ALBUM GALLERY

We went from selling a total of 3 albums to 30 in the first year as Twisted Oaks. In 2018, we will have sold more than double that with a good number of clients still in the building process. Today, 9 out of 10 clients request an album in their wedding package rather than waiting until afterwards.

GIVE THEM BRAGGING RIGHTS

You want your clients to be excited to not only receive their album but to start the designing process. We make it, so they play a big part in the designing process and offer them the opportunity to come into the studio to work with us on it in person. We have not only photographed but shot videos of clients getting to see their first album design draft as well as receiving their album. These experiences are quite emotional, and anyone that sees them will find it difficult to not experience the same thing for themselves. We have the majority of the albums shipped to the studio first so that we can photograph them and show them off on social media, as well as our website. It can quickly and easily create the desire to get their album as soon as they can and show it off. Most have custom-designed covers, and with the images produced by our studio’s photographers, the albums are quite impressive and customized perfectly to fit our brand. We use Vision Art Albums and couldn’t recommend them more. I reached out to 6 album companies and ordered samples, not only was Vision Art one of the most impressive when it came to quality, they were the most customizable.

HAVE CLIENTS HELP

We offer our clients a gift package for taking photos of their albums and posting them on their own social media pages. Sure, it’s always great to see your clients sharing their pictures on their social media platforms. Imagine having your clients showing off their wedding photos along with the album and the printed photos inside. This not only creates an interest in your photography to the friends and family of your clients, but it also helps to make it known just how impressive the final product looks and how happy they are with it. Create an incentive to have your clients help promote your work and your brand. Showing off the album and the photos inside not only promotes your work but also what your brand is all about.

CONCLUSION

I hope this helps, and most of all I hope it makes sense. It’s difficult for me at times to put such a detailed and planned out branding plan into words when it’s much easier explained in person. It’s because of the successes I’ve seen as a studio owner and the amount of growth in such a short period of time that I started teaching workshops rather than trying to explain things in short articles like this. If you are struggling with album sales, there’s nothing I can suggest more than taking the sales part out of it. If you’re good at sales, having the proper branding in place will only help make your life easier. If you aren’t, maybe rebranding is something to consider so that albums are a much bigger part of who you are as a company. Albums will start to sell themselves and you’ll never have to give a sales pitch about how good your albums are again.