People Buy People Before They Buy Products

Your clients don’t just want to know what you do. They want to know who they’re trusting to do it.

One of the things I hear most often from business owners before a branding shoot is some variation of, “Nobody wants to see photographs of me.” It’s usually closely followed by, “I hate having my photograph taken,” but that’s a conversation for another day. The interesting part is that while we might not particularly want to see photographs of ourselves, our potential clients often do.

Think about the businesses you choose to work with. If you’re looking for an accountant, solicitor, financial adviser, estate agent, consultant or photographer, there will probably be dozens of people offering broadly similar services. Their qualifications may be comparable, their prices might not be wildly different and, if they’re good at their marketing, they’ll all tell you they’re professional, experienced and provide excellent customer service. So what makes you choose one over another?

Very often, it’s the person. Something about them feels right. You like the way they communicate, you recognise something of yourself in them or you simply get the feeling that they’re someone you’d be comfortable sitting down and having a conversation with. By the time you actually make contact, you may already feel as though you know a little about them.

That’s why I find it surprising when business owners deliberately hide themselves from their marketing. Their website is full of information about their services, their social media talks about what the company does and their LinkedIn profile lists years of experience, but there’s barely a glimpse of the person behind any of it. Sometimes the only photograph is a formal headshot taken several years ago that tells you very little about who you’re actually going to meet.

Personal branding photography isn’t about turning yourself into an influencer or filling your social media feed with photographs of your face. It’s about allowing people to see the human being behind the business. A good set of branding photographs might show you working with a client, having a conversation, concentrating on what you do or simply laughing. They’re ordinary moments, but they’re often the moments that communicate the most.

This is particularly important for businesses where the relationship is part of what the client is buying. If someone is going to trust you with their finances, their home, their business or something else that’s important to them, your expertise matters enormously, but so does how comfortable they feel with you. People want to know that the person they’re contacting is approachable and that the experience of working with them is likely to be a good one.

Of course, this is exactly the point where many people tell me they hate being in front of a camera. I understand that, and most of the people I photograph aren’t naturally comfortable having their photograph taken. They’re accountants, business owners, advisers and professionals, not models, and I don’t expect them to suddenly know what to do simply because I’ve pointed a camera at them.

That’s why a professional branding shoot shouldn’t feel like an endless series of poses. Much of my job happens before I press the shutter. It’s about talking, creating situations that feel natural and giving someone something to do rather than expecting them to stand awkwardly and smile at the camera. Quite often, the photographs people love most are the ones captured when they’ve stopped thinking about being photographed altogether.

Working with businesses across Suffolk, Norfolk, East Anglia and London, I’ve seen how much difference that can make to the way someone presents themselves online. Professional headshots absolutely have their place, but a strong collection of business and personal branding photography gives you something much more valuable: a visual introduction to the person your clients are actually going to meet.

And that’s really the point. Your clients aren’t looking for a perfect version of you. They aren’t expecting you to look like a model and they probably don’t care whether you love having your photograph taken. They want to know who you are, whether you understand them and whether they can trust you.

So take a look at your own website and social media from the perspective of someone who has never met you. Can they see the person behind the business? Do your photographs give them some sense of your personality and what it might actually feel like to work with you?

Because people may initially search for the service you provide, but very often it’s the person they discover behind it who gives them the confidence to make contact.

About the author

Denise Brady is a branding photographer based in Suffolk, working with businesses across Norfolk, Suffolk, East Anglia and London. She specialises in professional branding photography, event photography, property photography and theatre photography, helping businesses build trust through authentic, story-led imagery.