056: Claire Reynolds – Be Brave with Your Branding & Stand Out From The Crowd

March 20, 2022

“Believe in yourself, be confident – if you love what you’re doing and you’re really passionate about what you are producing, it’s going to come through in your work”

CLAIRE REYNOLDS

Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Claire Reynolds!

Check out some of the biggest points from Claire’s interview below:

Is logo design and branding worth the investment?

Well, of course I’m going to say definitely, but I’m going to tell you why. This is very specific to wedding photographers and other people where the service and the product is you. It’s a lot easier when you’re selling a cup because you can see the cup, you can sell the cup, you know the cup’s purpose, but it’s really difficult when you’re trying to sell yourself. It’s just like, “How do I make myself appealing? How do I attract people that I want to work with?” Also, you’ve got all the other internal voices like imposter syndrome and, “Will people like me? Will people get me?” That’s why it’s really good to get somebody outside to look at you and your business and see what it is that you’re offering and how to make that communicate to the right people, the clients that you want to attract.

I know it’s really… And I’ve done it myself. It’s really tempting when you first start up a business, you feel like you’re just so small and you’re starting out and, obviously, paying for a logo feels like an absolutely massive investment, but it’s going to be with you and your business, it’s going to involve your business for such a long time. It’s worth sort of getting it out there from the very beginning because, after all, it’s like your constant cheerleader. You’re not able to sell yourself when a new couple, newly engaged are looking through the internet or Instagram or Facebook trying to find their wedding photographer. You’re not going to be there going, “Hey, I’m the right photographer for you. Book me.” Your logo is doing that for you. It’s your voice and that’s why it’s such an important investment because it’s what’s shouting out, “Book this person, book this person.”

How can you use your branding to stand out from the crowd?

I think definitely get your logo sorted and make sure your logo reflects your personality. Part of the process that I offer through Be Brave Branding is that we have an in depth questionnaire and to really get into what drives you and your business. There’s some really interesting outcomes from this questionnaire where my client previously had an idea about themselves, and though through this questioning they were just like, “Actually, I’m discovering more about myself and more about the people that I want to work with.” So when doing your logo design, if you want to project yourself as somebody that’s a creative, fun, energetic, quirky photographer, make sure your branding is screaming that.

I mean, you don’t need to go overly crazy with it, but just something that stands out and says that you’re going to be fun to work with and you want to work with fun people. Equally, you might be a photographer who does very natural, feminine, romantic photography so make sure that’s coming through in your branding as well. This can also work with, like we’ve touched on, with what you put on social media. Make sure you’re projecting the kind of photography that you offer so it all works within your branding. Yeah. I think we might have to talk about fonts and colours.

How can photographers ensure their branding is cohesive?

The process that I do with clients is that at the end when you get your logo files through, you also get a branding document and on there I pop your logo on, but you also have your fonts that are used in your logo and fonts that would work alongside your logo. I often talk about web design with my clients and suggest, say, a Google font that they can use on their website that’s going to work really nicely with their logo, but also your colour palette. If you’re not going through somebody that’s offering a branding service, try and do that for yourself. Look at colours and just decide three to five colours max, probably three actually, and fonts that you’re going to use so when you’re on your social media… Lots of people use Canva these days to create their social media posts. If you’ve got a pro account, you can upload your own fonts to it and you can select your own colour palette, so do that. Make sure that those things are cohesive.

Reduce the amount of colours that you’re using and reduce the amount of fonts that you’re using, and instantly that will make everything look tidier and more cohesive to your branding. That’s really important. Then look at anything else that you offer. The documentation that you email to your clients, like yourself, you send out actual physical objects, think about how you can present all of those very nicely. Now, that doesn’t need to be really expensive. That could be just some tissue paper that’s the same colour as your branding, you could get stickers printed with your logos on, even something as simple as that that just pulls it all together. It’s just the glue that glues every element of your business together. If you can do something like that, then instantly you’re going to look more professional, more together and just a stronger brand. Just have a little bit of a…

I mean, it’s something that I do offer, that I’ll look across everything that you send out and I can recommend where you can tweak things and change things within your budget. I mean, obviously if you’ve got a bit more budget you can have some beautiful… You can have your own branded tissue paper printed. There’s so much that you can do, but yeah. Just think about all of those things. I’m not great with the words, with the writing stuff on social media, but just think about your tone of voice in… If you’re fun and energetic, make sure that’s coming through on your posts, if you’re romantic and natural make sure that comes through on your posts, just any way that you can sort of carry on projecting that personality of your business will just do lots and lots of favours.

Thank you!

Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Claire for joining us on the show!

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, I hope you all enjoyed this episode.

See you soon,

Sally