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Photography for startups. Part 1 of 3

A man stands beside a data server bank

Branding

Starting or growing a business? Marketing strategist Daniel DiGriz at Madpipe suggests that your photography should have three purposes.

Wait a minute! Was that “three purposes?” Not “three types of photos?” Yes, purposes: a startup has three goals that its images and other marketing efforts must meet. If your images aren’t doing anything, if they don’t have a purpose, they’re just filling space.

  • Your potential customers need to learn about your brand

  • Your potential investors need to have social proof of your business’s existence and viability

  • You will need to court additional investment and find additional talent

While there will always be overlap, it’s probably best to think about these goals separately. I’ll start with the most obvious, and the one you may already be thinking about: your potential customers need to learn about your brand.

Branding is a lot more than a logo and a catchphrase:

  • It’s the world’s perception of your business—not just what it does, but how it does it.

  • Not just what the customer is buying but why the customer would want to buy what you’re selling and why they should buy it from you and not someone else.

  • What are the company’s values, not just with their customers, but in the world at large?

That’s a lot your photographs need to accomplish; and a lot for you, your marketing department, your art director, and your photographer to discuss before anyone picks up a camera. 

So leave the cameras aside for a while and go talk. What story do you need to tell about your company? What’s the best way to convey this visually?

Click here if you want to talk about photography for your branding.

In my next post I’ll look at the topic of social proof for potential investors.