Five Ways to Add More Personality to Your Brand

There’s been a big transition in the marketing world within the last few years. For the longest time, marketers assumed that the more prestigious a brand seemed, the more likely consumers would be to trust the brand.

And, guys, this isn’t the case at all! Studies prove that consumers are more likely to trust brands that have personality and a human connection. And, this is great news for photographers and other creative entrepreneurs because it makes connecting with your ideal clients super easy!

But, how do you give your brand personality? And, how do you help your ideal clients feel connected to your brand?

Here are five easy ways to add more personality to your brand!

 

Five Ways to Add More Personality to Your Brand

1. Share Photos of YOURSELF

If you’re like me, you’d much rather be behind the camera than in front of it. (I mean, I’m a photographer. I clearly love being behind the camera!) But, if you truly want to connect with your followers and potential clients, you have to stop hiding!

Strong brands make people feel connected to a business, and there’s no better way to connect with your followers than to actually show up for them. So, on your website and on social media, include photos of yourself.

Photography is a very personal service, so it’s important for your clients to feel like they know you. By sharing photos of yourself, your followers and prospective clients can start connecting with you before ever contacting you.

As if this isn’t reason enough to share more photos of yourself, Instagram analytics show that posting photos of your lovely face (as opposed to photos of your clients or objects) receive more engagement than any other kind of post!

In my experience, this is 100% the case. In fact, here are my three best-performing Instagram posts. And, you can see that they’re all photos where I sucked it up and got in front of camera.

 

2. Introduce Your Followers to the People You Love

In addition to your lovely self, your followers and prospective clients will also appreciate being introduced to the people (or animals) in your life!

So, don’t hesitate to share photos and talk about your hunky/beautiful spouse, kiddos, team, family, or pets.

I regularly share about Zach (my husband) and Hattie (our goldendoodle). They are huge parts of my life and my brand, and to be honest, posts that include them typically get WAY more engagement than posts of just me. I mean, I know I’m biased, but if you ask me, these two are pretty adorable!

By introducing the people you love most, your followers and clients will feel like they know you and are more connected to you.

 

3. Tell the People What You’re Passionate About (Other than Your Work)

One great thing about having your own brand is that you can make your brand bigger than yourself so that it stands for something and can make a difference. So, share what you stand for!

For example, two of my passions are part of my brand:

1. Marriage
2. Supporting small businesses

I share these passions on both my website and social media by telling stories. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that Zach and I enrolled in marriage counseling after three years of being married, and it transformed our lives. So, I regularly share about the importance of marriage and staying committed to your spouse and how the stigma of going to to counseling is unfortunate because counseling helped us so much. I hope by sharing this information, husbands and wives who are struggling won’t feel so alone and will feel motivated to make changes in their marriages.

I also regularly share that we support small businesses as much as we can because we know how hard small business owners work firsthand. Seven of our nine grandparents, Zach’s dad, and I are either currently or have been small business owners. So, supporting the small business community is very near and dear to our hearts.

These are my personal examples, but leaders in the influencer world definitely embrace this idea. I mean:

1. Jenna Kutcher is a photographer turned marketing leader, but through her influence, she shares her passion for positive body image and mothers suffering from miscarriage.
2. Amy Porterfield helps entrepreneurs create online courses, but she shares about her experience with depression and how she’s working to overcome her mental health battles.
3. Katelyn James is a wedding photographer who shares her story of losing a child to give parents facing the same heartache hope.

By sharing your passions, you can:

1. Help your followers and prospective clients feel more connected to you.
2. Give people a reason to connect with and follow you even if they aren’t currently looking for your service. (For me, I know not everyone is looking for a wedding photographer on a regular basis.)
3. Play a small part in changing the world.

 

4. Establish a Voice & Tone

As photographers and creatives, we tend to put a lot of focus on the visual aspects of our brands, but your words matter too!

If you haven’t already, establish a voice or a tone for your brand. Your voice is simply the way you talk to your followers and prospective clients.

You want your voice to be:

1. Consistent in everything you do.
2. Easy to recognize.

By this, I just mean that you want to use your same brand voice in your marketing materials, on social media, on your website, in your emails, and in everything else you do so that your voice is cohesive and becomes familiar to people.

So, decide how you want to speak to prospective customers and write accordingly! Your brand voice can come from exactly how you interact with your clients. So, if you’re bubbly and loud (like me), you might want to include lots of exclamation points and have a relaxed, informal tone. If you’re more quiet, that’s totally fine! Use your brand voice to demonstrate that.

By establishing a consistent brand tone that matches your personal personality, your prospective clients can get a much better idea of what it’s like to work with you.

Side Note: As a photographer, it’s REALLY important that your tone reflects your personality. If you pretend to be someone you’re not online and that isn’t you at all, you’re bound to attract clients that you aren’t best suited to serve For example, if I were to have a formal, posh tone and then show up to a wedding as my loud, bubbly self, people would be very thrown off and confused. You’re amazing, and your true personality will attract the right clients for you!

 

5. Show Behind the Scenes

While social media tends to be our highlight reels, I promise your followers and prospective clients will feel SO much more connected to you if you start sharing what happens behind the scenes (BTS).

Fortunately, using Instagram stories is an incredibly easy way to do this. No matter what you’re doing, give your followers a little insight and make Instagram stories part of your social media strategy.

If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking, “My life is too boring to share Instagram stories of.” But, guys, I promise that isn’t the case. By sharing behind the scenes info, you will naturally:

1. Help your followers get to know you better and feel more connected to you.
2. Show your value. If your current and prospective clients can see what you do behind the scenes, they’ll appreciate you and your hard work so much more.

Here are things you can easily share on your Instagram story:

1. 1. Moments during shoots or projects. If you’re a wedding photographer, take some BTS photos and videos from your phone to show your followers what you’re up to. If you’re a newborn photographer, show videos and photos of you setting up and posing sweet babies. If you’re a family photographer, ask your families to do a boomerang for you in the middle of the session.
   2. Editing or work days. If you’re behind your computer all day, that’s okay! Do a quick video and explain what you’re working on.
   3. Personal moments. You might think it’s boring, but I promise people want to know what you’re up to! So, share personal moments on your Instagram story. Maybe you’re raking leaves and the dog or kids are loving it. Maybe it’s date night (whether you’re going out or eating Chinese on the couch while watching a movie). Whatever it is, share your life! People want to see and get to know you. 

 

You don’t have to share your whole life on the Internet.

While I hope you take these five ways to add more personality to your brand to heart, I do want to tell you something. You DO NOT have to share your whole life on the Internet!

While I feel called to share about our marriage struggles online because I think our story might be able to help others, there are absolutely parts of my life that I don’t share and keep private. Those things are not part of my brand, and that’s okay!

So, don’t feel bad if there are parts of your life you don’t want to share. That’s 100% fine! Decide what is and isn’t going to be part of your brand and go from there.

 

I have a challenge for you!

Guys, it’s time to get started! Over the next week, I have a five-part challenge for you that will help you start incorporation more personality into your marketing efforts.

In the next seven days, I want you to:

1. Establish your brand voice so it will be consistent going forward.
2. Post at least one photo of yourself to Instagram.
3. Introduce someone you love to your Instagram followers.
4. Create a post that explains something you’re passionate about.
5. Share at least one BTS Instagram story.

If you do these five things this week and haven’t ever before, I promise you’ll see an increase in engagement this week!

So, it’s time to get to work! Add some personality to your brand to start building more trust with your ideal clients!