[Replay] Effective and strategic photography branding

[00:00:00] Speaker A: July is such a great time to relax, catch up on things and not have anything scheduled. So the podcast is airing reruns of episodes that you might have missed. The ads might not be completely relevant in terms of dates, but if you want to know how I can help you, you can always dm Megwilkolnis on instagram that's Ingvild Kolnese. Or go to engvelkolnas.com waitlist and sign up there to be the first to know whats happening. Emily Foster specializes in helping photographers stand out with personalized strategic branding and web design. Having a clear brand is something thats so often underrated. [00:00:44] Speaker B: So I cant wait to talk with Emily about this. And since we both do website design. [00:00:49] Speaker A: Itll be interesting to hear her approach. [00:00:51] Speaker B: To that as well. [00:00:55] Speaker A: You're listening to sustainable photography, a podcast all about business tips, inspiration and confidence building. I'm Inguil Kolnes, the host of this podcast and after over a decade as a photographer, I now help talented photographers run sustainable businesses. And for full transparency, you should know that I'm a mentor with paid offers and eyes. I will probably mention some of those in this episode. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Hi Emily, welcome to the podcast. How are you today? [00:01:26] Speaker C: Hi, I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. [00:01:30] Speaker B: Oh I'm so excited and I'm really looking forward to chatting with you and to hearing your views when it comes to website and branding. Your thanks to everything that you do. I want to know more about it, so maybe we can just start there. Tell us who you are and how you got into branding and web design. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah. I'm Emily Foster Keller. Technically my business name is under Emily Foster but I got married last year so added on my husband's last name too. Thank you. I am a branding and website designer based in Portland, Oregon and I run a studio that mostly helps creative service based businesses. So photographers, wedding pros, travel professionals, people in the hospitality and events industry and I help people to get really clear on who they are and who their business is so that they can show up as their most real self to their ideal clients and start attracting clients who are a really good match for their business. And then we reflect that through their branding. So like logo designs, all of the brand assets that you think of in a brand and then also through their website design. And I create really tailored, customized websites for clients that have all of those details to show off who they are. I got into the business kind of because I was planning my own wedding and also ironically because of COVID which is always a weird topic to bring up, but I was working in an event marketing agency and kind of going down the regular agency path as a designer and then was laid off in 2021 and was simultaneously planning my wedding. So it was both of those coming together that made me decide to just go full time with my business and help wedding pros and photographers with their brands and websites. [00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I completely understand that feeling of having to start over when maybe you didn't intend to, but it seemed to have worked out really well for you. [00:03:23] Speaker C: Yeah, it did. It's funny that I feel like those are the best times in life, kind of when you are kind of forced to start over and it's not something that you would have wished for at the time. But it's funny because looking back, I had all of these ideas for a long time as soon as I graduated college that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My environment wasn't really set up for that. I feel like I didn't have a lot of entrepreneurs around me and so I think it really took kind of a shove. Otherwise, I probably would have waited like ten more years to do it myself. [00:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I completely understand that. And in terms of sustainability, what do you think is important if you want to have a sustainable business? [00:04:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I think there's a lot of different factors. So I know we were talking about sustainability to me is like the environmental impact, but also the way that your business kind of supports you and your lifestyle and building a sustainable lifestyle in the sense that you can keep going for years and not burn out, but also not fail in business because you don't have enough profit and things like that. So I would say they can kind of meet in some areas. To me, building a sustainable environmental business, and also like a mental balanced business is choosing investments in your business that are going to be good and easy to kind of continue investing in. So for me, as a brand new website designer, it's, I think, really easy to be environmentally friendly in some ways because most of what I do is, like, paperless. A lot of the investments are fairly low income investments. I would say like smaller subscriptions and things that allow me to both save time but also not have like giant expenses each month. So that's something I would say investing in your website, I think is a huge way to do that, of just not needing to, number one, print paper and have business cards everywhere and like flyers and things like that, which I think a lot of photographers are past that era anyway. But then also number two, like not having to continue to like, burn yourself out on things like networking events and bridal shows and things like that. Something that you can continue to invest in and also even comparing it to Instagram or Facebook, you're not burning yourself out by continuing to create content. It's more sustainable because everything that you do on your website is kind of building upon itself and leading to an even better version of that website. So that's what I think of. I think also just creating a business that you love. And I think slow growth is really underrated, too. The photography industry and the website design industry, too, especially when we see coaches who maybe went from having no clients to two years later, they're telling me that they make millions of dollars and have a whole team. And I think that that's a great thing if it works out. But I think building a more sustainable business in a sense that you can trust that the growth is there. Like you're not worried about overnight success and the opposite of losing it all overnight. I think just building upon it step by step, kind of brick by brick and laying the foundation is something that I view as really important. I don't think, I thought that about a year ago, to be honest. But as I get, like, older in my business, I really believe that slow growth is really powerful. [00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. It's definitely underrated. And I feel like if you think that it's about growing as quickly as possible, I think that's not only hurting your mindset, but I also think that you're kind of setting yourself up for failure. Because if you grow too quickly, none of the systems in your business have kind of like the ability to catch up with you. So you're always overworking and you're just not able to do everything in a nice way. You're just always stressed. [00:07:10] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that's a huge part for me, too, of a sustainable business is one that you're supposed to enjoy. And that's actually one of the reasons that I got into the business of my working for myself, but also helping creative service providers, especially photographers, because it's like you quit your full time job and you want to do the work you love and create the art that you want to create. And then it's like all of a sudden 80% of your time is spent in honeybook or dubsado and trying to figure out systems and trying to learn how to show it or squarespace works and it's not fun for a lot of people. And that's, I think, one of the quick ways to get burnt out is not doing things that you're passionate about. And so, yeah, I think that quick growth kind of forces you to do that because you also don't have the time to hire even a brand or website designer because you're just going 100 miles an hour. So that's one thing I'm really passionate about, is balance, mental health, self care, especially as creatives like we are. It's probably already been said on the podcast, too. I was thinking just more in the environmental sense of sustainability of what it means to me. But I know leave no trace is such a huge part for photographers, too. So working with my photographer clients, I've actually learned a lot more about it, too, of little things that I think I took for granted before I really got to know the photography industry of like, for example, one of my clients is doing a guide about location scouting and she mentioned something about how she's not really going to give tips about, like, here's how you find this location in Pacific Northwest because those are like, her locations. And she was like, I understand that could be controversial, but she's like, I'm trying to protect these areas. So basically, yeah, if there's multiple photographers working with areas, but that's something that I always, or I guess never really thought of, is that you want to be kind of protective over the areas that you're working with, not because of gatekeeping, but just trying to protect the environment a little bit more. [00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's definitely true. And we both do web design and I really want us to cover some of that as well. But I want to start with branding. Can you talk a little bit about branding and what's important to think of when you, maybe you've been in business for a while, but then you have figured out that actually the things that I just put together because I thought it looked nice, not necessarily reflecting my brand. Can you just say a little bit about what you recommend? [00:09:40] Speaker C: Yeah. So I always say it's the visual voice of your business and I think that is huge. It's a lot more than just a logo and color palette and typography, but I think what I see most commonly is that photographers really try to rush the process. I think of just saying, like, okay, I picked this brand name and now I don't like my logo anymore. So I need to hire someone to just design a new logo and I just need it fast. But in reality, it's more of a strategic process where you need to take a step back and think more about your business problems and why you need the rebrand who you're trying to speak to, even how your business has evolved from that, like DIY branding that you were doing before. So a huge part of it is strategy. And I think that's not talked about enough. And there's still a lot of designers too, who will tell you that strategy doesn't matter. That's kind of the hill that I'll die on, is that it does really matter. And I spend a lot of time going through the brand strategy process with clients, even in my quicker forms of projects. So I offer vip days, which is basically like designing a brand in a day. And it gets this reputation that it's like quick and fast, kind of fast fashion branding. But in reality, my process is that we're still spending about two weeks before still like talking about the process and getting to know your business before that actual day. So even with that quickest version of my project, it's not something that can be rushed. It's something that I would say is usually about 70% to 80% conversation and research, and then about 20% to 30% actual design and fun things like picking colors and typography and designing logos. So that's what I would say, start with a strategy and then also thinking through psychology. So there's a lot of color psychology and even psychology behind the fonts that you're choosing and the logo that you're designing. So that's usually something that I tie in. Also, after getting know the brand strategy behind a client's business, then bringing in just strategic things like what kind of color tones can we use to present that strategy that we were talking about? There's so many little tips if you want more concrete examples of things to do too. [00:11:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure because a lot of photographers and creatives seem to think that it's about that logo. Like that is the ultimate thing. What do you have to say to them? [00:12:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say that the logo is kind of like if you only have a logo and you don't do anything else with your branding, you can kind of think of it as just like a pin that you're wearing. Like it really matters only as much as that when it's on its own, especially when we're just talking one logo. So for all of my clients, even like the most affordable, quickest package I have, which is the vip day, like, they are still getting at least three versions of their logo to use in different cases. And I think people forget that, like, if you only invest in the logo, it's going to get lost so quickly and it's not going to be memorable. If you think about giant brands like Coca Cola or Subaru or Ford. Like, they have a logo obviously as their main part, but there's also so much feeling behind their branding. It's in the emotions that they're putting across, which a lot of times really correlates to the colors, the way that their logo is positioned on things. The wording used too. That's another thing that's not talked about enough in branding is how your copywriting is a huge part of your brand as well. It's not just conversion copy on your website. It's actually meant to also create a feeling and target ideal clients. So I would say when people say that they just want to work on their logo, I think that you should just make a very small investment in that case. Like do it yourself or even like, as much as it pains me, like hire a fiber designer or something. But when you're really ready to get serious about attracting your ideal clients, creating a business that is more spacious, then that's the time to really invest in a brand that has a lot more assets than just a logo. A quick way to kind of, I think, scope that out too, and like, talk with designers and figure out if you are just getting a logo or an entire brand is to ask them about their process. So if they talk about strategy like I am, that's a sign that you're going to get more than just a logo or more than just a couple logos. And then also if they mention things like brand guidelines or a style guide of some sort, you can expect to get a PDF or booklet that's going to have a lot of these kinds of things in it. And there's a lot of designers out there that still don't do that. So there will be people who just provide you logo files and don't really do a strategic process. And both of those things on kind of the ends of the project, the beginning and end are really important. [00:14:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And when you're talking about the PDF or the style guide, what is it? Why would someone want that? What do they use it for? [00:14:41] Speaker C: Yeah, so there's multiple reasons to have it. One thing that I personally kind of like it for is that it's just something concrete I can give to the client at the end of the project. So there's that reality of, like, having something that I'm actually physically giving them. Kind of like, aside from the client gift that I give. Kind of like a receipt or like souvenir of the project. So there's that just small thing. But then also a lot of my clients don't actually know how to apply their brand. So they've made this big investment. They have new colors and logos. We've spent a lot of time talking and revising things and then it's just like it never gets on their Instagram or their website. So the style guide shows how to do that. It has color codes. And then in my style guide, personally I style guide and brand guidelines, I kind of use those interchangeably. But really a style guide usually is just your colors, typography and logos and then brand guidelines, which is actually more of what I provide to clients, gives you more background into the brand, like talks about your mission statement, your ideal clients, the market research that has been done. It's more of the actual strategic part along with all of those pretty assets. So what I provide is color codes for print and digital use. So like hex codes, RGB, CMyK and Pantones. And then I also explain in the guide what each of those means and in what cases you would use those. And then same for typography. I explain the headline font and the sub headline and the body. Like in what cases to use those. It's very directional, so that someone who's never designed anything could take it and create some of their own things in canva in the future or even take it to another designer. Which leads me to my other part is aside from my client being able to use it, as you're growing your business, you're going to eventually get a team. And many, many times in my career I've received brand guidelines from clients that weren't created by me. I may be stepping in to help them with some flyers or a website design. So I'm taking a look at what they already have and working with that. And that's a great kind of sop for your business. So that is a way to systemize is having brand guidelines and then it's also a way to create consistency. So going back to your branding, it's the visual voice of your business. And having consistency is such a huge component of that that I think is really underrated that people don't talk about a ton. But basically repeating your branding everywhere all the time and using the same kind of layout for everything is really important to creating a psychological connection with your ideal clients. So the brand guidelines help you do that in a really effortless way just by basically following the guide. [00:17:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that sounds like something every business should have, really. [00:17:30] Speaker C: Yeah, it is. I think it's I would say it's like a secondary thing, definitely after like getting your llc or like the, you know, the government organization set up of your business and a business bank account and having like a brand name. I think that branding is really important to invest in somewhat early on. There's like some rules, I won't tell people to invest in it right away because obviously there's more important investments in the very beginning, like getting clients, but it is something that you should definitely have set up, I think, in the first few years. [00:18:03] Speaker B: So what do you think will happen if you don't have a clear brand? If you're just kind of choosing a mix of whatever you feel like that day? [00:18:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I think there's a lot that can happen. So I think the more tactical things is that your business might slow down, you might not be attracting any clients. I often see that when people don't have a brand that is quality enough to attract any clients. So you've probably seen like all of the terrible early two thousands style websites out there and a lot of times it's not actually anything wrong with the website itself. It's more a branding problem that the website just doesn't look good and you can only fix that so much with layout and stuff. So that comes back to branding when you're not attracting any clients and then also not attracting aligned clients is something that I see too, where you could be making all the money that you want to make but you're not really fulfilled because you're not working with the right people. That can also lead to other problems, like maybe you are burnt out and overworked because you have tons of clients but they're not paying you enough, so you're not making enough money. There's that logistic also confusion in your branding that can mean so many things. Like it could mean very kind of little things, like people not understanding what you offer and what you do. Like even just from the standpoint, like they're not getting the right information on your website. And I can even mean like all the way up to people not seeing your value. So maybe they are booking with you and working with you, but they don't trust you as an expert because you're not showing that in your brand and they're nothing. Understanding that from the very foundation of meeting you, I think that's something I see a lot with photographers is I want to say it's easy to book clients. We know it's not easy to book clients, but it's one thing to book a client and then it's another to book a client who really trusts you as the expert and sees the value of your work. And I think that people who are in the first few years of the photography business will often experience like, I'm booking clients and then they're kind of like micromanaging. Like they want to change my process or have me re edit photos or they don't trust me with posing or location scouting, like all of those details. So branding and creating a more high end brand can really help with that of people knowing that when they book you, they're booking you because you're the expert and you have a really expert system. So there's that as well. And then we could probably list like 15 or 20 more things of what could happen without branding. But the last one I wanted to say is confidence. I think that's a huge one that you can't really put a price tag on. But the way that you show up, especially as a solopreneur or a small team, matters so much. And when you have a really strong brand, it is a lot easier to show up as that. It's kind of the same way that it doesn't matter as much to have like a ton of Instagram followers or a website ranking on the first page of Google, but it's a lot easier to show up as really successful when you have kind of those outward metrics for people. So same thing with branding, especially when you're connecting with the right people through your branding and creating a really authentic experience for them, then it'll make you feel better about showing up for your goals. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I think it's really important. But I am really curious about the brand assets you mentioned. What are the assets you recommend that a business has? [00:21:34] Speaker C: Yeah, so definitely at least three or four logo designs. So I usually there's a lot of different names for them, but I will tell people that I design a primary logo, which is usually what would be at the top of their website and includes their full business name and maybe some kind of illustration or icon design if that's relevant to their business. And then I also will create a couple secondary logo designs. So different formats of that same logo, like maybe a more horizontal one and then maybe more vertical just for different cases, and then a submark as well, which is often. It could be a monogram if it's a brand that doesn't have like an icon or illustration as part of the branding, or it could be like the actual just icon part of the brand. Like if you imagine a flower or like a camera or something like that. Although try not to put a camera in your photographer logo. So multiple logo designs like that, and the amount really varies for the type of business. So my clients that book like a vip day, usually we're going with three or four versions of the logo and that's enough for them. Sometimes people have more expansive businesses where, for example, they might do like wedding, lifestyle and brand photography. So I'll create a version of the logo with each of those, and then in the brand guidelines we'll have directions for how to use each of those different assets. And sometimes there's a slightly different strategy for each part of the business as well. And then sometimes it's even more complicated where there's a photography business, and then they also have a leg of their business that's education or passive income. So sometimes it's creating slightly different assets for that. So logo designs a color palette with all those color codes I mentioned typography selections, which isn't me designing the fonts themselves, that's an entirely different business and takes a lot more work and a lot more money as well. But choosing up to about three, maybe four max font selections, and they usually will have enough contrast where they look really good together, but they also pair well together. So I'll usually choose at least one custom font is what I call it, and that's one that will usually cost the client a little bit of extra money, sometimes anywhere from like ten to $50 to buy a version of the font license for themselves. And then I'll usually try to choose a few free fonts. So like Google fonts or different sites like that have some really good ones. And those are great for website design as well because they usually sync pretty well with most platforms and then other assets, I would say those are the basics I know that took a long time to get through just the basic brand assets that you need. But then other assets I recommend are things like patterns and backgrounds and textures. Those can be used really well on your website, in your social media graphics, even though it's not as sustainable. But like on business cards, tissue paper, printed items like that, and then icons too, which is something that you could technically just download from canva or like the noun project, you can always buy icons, especially if you're in an early part of your business and can't afford a designer to custom draw all of those for you. But icons are a really great way to showcase information on your website. Add a fun detail to graphics and things like that, and you can get really strategic with those too, when you're working with a designer. So it could be different iterations of the illustration in your logo, or it could be different services that you have and portraying those through icons. And then sometimes they also will do custom illustrations for clients, which is more elaborate icon, but something that might be used in the background or on merchandise, other things like that for clients. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Okay, cool. Yeah, because I think it's really important to know what you should have, again, going back to that, more than just a logo. So I think it's just nice to mention what it actually should be that you're looking to end with. I know that you said you talked about the strategy and everything that's behind it, but it's nice to know where you should end up with as well. [00:25:45] Speaker C: Yeah. If you kind of want to think of it in simple terms, it's like if you were looking at your website, I think that's one of the best things for photographers. Is every single asset on your website designed in a similar style? And tying back to that strategy, that's where you can kind of think about what you might need from a designer because it can vary. Not everyone needs patterns and icons, but you also don't want to invest all this money in new logo designs that are in one style, like maybe really high end with thin lines and really modern. And then you're adding like bold, chunky icons that you found on canva to your website. So everything should have a cohesive feel. [00:26:24] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. I agree. Okay, so let's say that now we've gone through the process and we have all our assets, then it's time to update the website. So where do we start? Do we need to have a completely remade new website from scratch or can we work with what we already have? [00:26:42] Speaker C: That depends on what you're starting with. Think that there's some cases where you can just apply the new colors and typography and everything to your website, and that can sometimes be fine for a business owner. But I think in my experience, a lot of times it requires a website redesign. Because often if you haven't invested in branding and your website doesn't look good from a branding perspective, it also probably doesn't look good from a user experience and layout perspective. So usually it's most effective to update both things at once and then also updating your brand photos and your copywriting, which is kind of something that no one wants to hear because that's even more of an investment in your business. But if you're doing everything at once, then it's more likely that it's going to be consistent and I'll be trying to reach the same goals for you. So that's why I really recommend kind of ripping off the band aid for all the services at once and making it a really big effort one year. That way you don't have to keep like dripping different things for your business. But I would say get your brand guidelines and then you could always play around. Like if you don't have the budget to hire a website designer, play around with adding those new color codes to your website. Often in my brand guidelines I'll point out like, hey, this shade of green would be great as a primary color on your website. You should use this for a lot of backgrounds and headlines. So I'll get really specific about how my clients can use their new branding on their website, even if they aren't working with me on a website design. And then I also use those brand guidelines for myself. Like if I am doing the website design for the same client, then I'll refer back to that and be like, okay, what was my intention and how was I trying to apply this to the website? So you could always play with it for a little bit and see what happens. Kind of the experimentation that we're all supposed to do in business, that's hard for me as a more analytical person. And then from there, if you aren't getting the results that you want, then I think I really time to at least get a website audit from a designer and talk through what it would be like to start that process. [00:28:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that's definitely good advice. So if they want to start the process of creating or having a website made or making it from scratch themselves, depending on budget and skills and whatever time they want to invest, what do you recommend? How would you start that process? [00:29:04] Speaker C: I've like starting the website design process after you've already invested in branding? [00:29:08] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:09] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, I would recommend. I think one of the most effective things is reaching back out to your brand designer and seeing if they can work with you. Or in an ideal world, when you are hunting for designers in the very beginning, before you even invest in branding, asking them if they provide website design. I would say about 60% to 70% of the time a designer does both. But there's also a lot of cases where they only do branding or they only do website design. So if you are in that position where you've gotten all of your assets from your brand designer and they don't work with your platform, or they don't provide website design at all, then I would start reaching out to website designers and just have a lot of conversations. I think that's really important is to talk with people about what they're able to do. One thing to ask about is the platform that they work with and there's a lot of designers who are very platform specific. In reality, I think a really great designer and it depends on the resources that they have. I think a really great designer will work with most platforms that are really good and they're looking at it more from a website design strategic standpoint versus what the limitations of a platform are. So kind of ask about that though, if they do, are they willing to work with your platform or are they really stuck with squarespace or showit or something like that, which is also okay. And then maybe talk through if you are willing to switch platforms. And one question to ask your website designer is how that might impact your SEO. I work with SEO a lot for clients and I usually try to take a look at how their websites already doing. Often my clients aren't getting any traction to their website, so it's really easy to switch them over to a new platform. But if they are getting a lot of traffic to their website and that's a standpoint where we might want to keep them on the same platform so that we don't risk taking their SEO rankings for a little while. So those are good things to ask. Also ask them if they are willing to work with the branding that you already got done, if you can provide them brand guidelines and all of the assets that they need. And of course ask about timeline and budget. It's good to have a good understanding of that and then kind of back to the branding process of how brand strategy is important. Ask them what their website process is. I think that every designer should have some kind of website strategy process as well. So even if it's not a completely custom website, some kind of opportunity to talk with a client and figure out exactly what the goals are. That way you're not just getting a pretty website with your branding applied to it, you're also getting the strategy of how people should experience your website. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that's really important to talk about how your website should be experienced because it's easier for you to use it if you made it, but it also has to be easy to use for your clients, right? [00:31:56] Speaker C: Yeah. And it is a big part of your business and it should actually be helping you reach some kind of goal. So it should be more than just pretty, it should be really easy to navigate and ideally it should also be doing something for you on Google too. Like at least basic on page SEO is what I like to see everyone get when they're doing a website design. Definitely you don't need to expect like really in depth SEO research from a website designer because it's kind of a different service. At least the basics to make sure that your website is listed on Google. [00:32:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I definitely agree. I think there are a lot of designers that will just make something pretty and then they won't really know what makes it functional and they might not have any idea about SEO. So you're left with a really pretty website that doesn't do anything for you. And I think that's a shame. [00:32:50] Speaker C: Yeah, it's like if you imagine a pretty billboard that's just like in the middle of the forest, like no one's seeing it and it's not doing anything for your business. [00:32:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. But what if you are not in a position where you can invest in a new website? Do you recommend just spending that time doing it yourself or what's the best way to move forward in that situation? [00:33:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it depends on how little you're able to invest. If you can invest a few hundred dollars. One thing that I really love is buying a website template. And for photographers, I really love showit. Probably a lot of your listeners have heard about it at this point, but a lot probably haven't. It's a lot like WordPress, but also kind of like squarespace and Wix, so it's a drag and drop site. I usually like to tell my clients that it's like canva, but in website form, which I know Canva also does websites now, which is kind of weird to me, but look into buying a show it template. And the reason I say show it over other platforms isn't really because the other platforms aren't good. You could definitely buy like a squarespace template or a WordPress template, but I just noticed for the skillset that a lot of my photographer friends and clients have, Showit is really good because they usually already know how to use canva or Photoshop or illustrator, and a lot of those components are similar. And showit. And also when you buy a template, it's pretty easy to update those things, to like switch out images and copy and colors and everything like that. And then Showit is also a really good platform for showcasing your galleries. So it's going to be a really strong way to showcase your work and just some of the little things that you can do with a showa template are like cropping your photos in very specific ways or using different types of galleries throughout your site. So if you do have like anywhere from maybe about $200 to $800 to spend, then a show it template could be a really good option. And that would be you diying your website still. But about 80% of the work will be done for you. If you did make an investment in a brand designer, you can take the brand guidelines and very easily apply the brand assets and images there. And then if you get really frustrated and find down the road that you do have the money to make an extra investment, you could always find a designer to complete that template for you. So template customization is also something that I do and it's at a lower rate than actually creating a custom website. So that's what I would say. If you have some money to spend a. If you don't even have the money for a website template right now, then I would say that you could look up some tips for websites. So I think I'm going to be offering the website checklist as a freebie in this episode. Just like a little plug, but you could at least work on your main pages. I would say like your home about and contact and just work on making those as good as you can yourself with those tips. And if you haven't invested in a brand designer, then I would say just focus on creating a text based logo, even just in canva for right now, like just a couple different versions of your logo. Make sure that you have your logo somewhere on the top fold of your homepage and then make sure that you have that sub mark I was talking about as the favicon on your website, which is that little icon that shows up in the tab when you have your website open in a browser, those are two important logos that you could diy for now. And then choose a color palette. And when you choose it, just try to stick to it until you can make the investment in a brand designer. Don't switch it every month because that's going to make you come across even more unprofessional. But just try to have some consistency and it's okay to do that for a couple years before you can make a bigger investment. The last thing I would say too in terms of branding for your website is choosing your own fonts. So again, you can go to canva for that. And I like to make sure that they have good contrast. So maybe a serif font which is something like bodoni or Dido or. I was trying to think of ones that are really popular right now, but basically like kind of like a vogue style font with a little feet is what a serif is, and then a sans serif I like to choose for the body copy, which is something like Helvetica or railway. Other fonts like that, make sure you have at least those too in some format. And then sometimes a script font like a calligraphy fonthe could be a good addition, or some other decorative font. And then again, once you choose those, apply them consistently throughout your branding. Don't just change to a different font because you feel like it. [00:37:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. That's really, really important. Makes you come across as a lot more professional if you can just stick to your vibe. [00:37:23] Speaker C: It does. [00:37:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:24] Speaker C: And I think it just makes things simpler for you too. Once you make a decision, it's like, okay, I'm just sticking with this. You can even set a goal like on your calendar. Like I'm diying my branding this month and at the end of the year I will have money saved to make an investment in a brand designer. Or two years from now, I'll have money and just do everything you can to attract clients before then and grow your business and start setting money aside for that. And don't be afraid to stick with a website template for a while too. I would say branding design is definitely top priority. Invest in that before you invest in a custom website because otherwise you might just have to to go back to the drawing table again in the future when you inevitably want to change your website. So get your brand strategy and branding done first and then in an ideal world, do at the same time as your website and your copy brand photos. But if you need to kind of do it in phases. [00:38:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I did that three years ago. I did the whole thing all at once and it was a big investment, but once it was done, it was like, okay, now I'm actually professional because it's a lot easier to make money when you're more professional rather than kind of scraping by on whatever clients you get until you're ready to do that. So I think there's something to be said for that as well. Just kind of taking that jump. [00:38:44] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. I think a good thing to remember too, about the investment is that you can do it multiple ways. I've kind of been talking about ways to like patchwork it. Like basically make, you know, an investment of a few hundred or a couple thousand here and there and get through it. But like you were saying, it was a big investment all at once. There's also the option to do that. Most designers that I see that are working with photographers or like the wedding industry or event industry are charging about ten to do everything at once, which often usually includes your brand strategy, brand design website, some kind of custom website too, where it's going to have really tailored assets and then copywriting, and you might have the budget for SEO or even to go work with a brand photographer during that process too. So that's obviously a big amount. Five figures is a lot for a solopreneur or a small team. But typically, if you're choosing the right person, that means that it's all going to be done for you. All that you have to do is fill out some forms and show up to some meetings and give some feedback. But for the most part, that means that the design agency will be handling the transition of the brand for you. So if you're changing names, there's a lot of logistics that need to be done for that. And you'll still have some work even if you outsource it to a designer, like updating your legal business name and your contracts and invoices and everything like that. But that is a lot of work on its own. So you don't want to also have to be thinking about how to announce the brand on your Instagram and how to apply everything to your new website and everything like that. So it's kind of a trade off. You could make the huge investment and have someone handle a lot more of it for you, or you could patchwork it and kind of still be diying some of it, even though you are making some of an investment to a designer. [00:40:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. And also it's an investment because if you do it right, then you'll make that money back in hopefully no time. [00:40:44] Speaker C: Yeah, especially, I think, if you're really strategic. One thing I always try to talk about with my clients is like, how much they're charging and what they want to be charging. So that makes the math really easy. If, for example, you're like, I want to be charging six k. So then if you invest in like a twelve k project, you only have to book two. [00:41:02] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's a really good point. [00:41:04] Speaker C: I'm so glad you did that process. [00:41:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:08] Speaker C: What was that like for you? The entire rebrand process? [00:41:12] Speaker B: It was really good. It took a lot of time, longer than I thought. But now when I look back at my business, it's like before and after, it was just such a big shift because I'd had different things done before, like kind of like what? You were explaining, like, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But then I was like, okay, now it's time to do everything because I was going more towards education. So I had this whole new part of my business that I've never really done anything with. And then I wanted to connect everything into one brand. So it was time consuming, but it was worth it. [00:41:48] Speaker C: That's good. I hear that a lot. It is. I feel like when you're in the thick of it, it's kind of like going through a coaching program or something. [00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. Yeah. [00:41:58] Speaker C: It's the evolution of evolving your business. [00:42:02] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Do you have any final recommendations when it comes to building a sustainable business? [00:42:09] Speaker C: I would say always go back to your why of why you're doing it and what you want most from your business, and then just think about the investments you're making and both the time and financial investments and think about if they're taking you back to that why. [00:42:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that's really good advice. Thank you. So if the listener wants to learn from you, Emily, where do they go? [00:42:32] Speaker C: Yeah, you can find [email protected] you can reach out to me there on my contact form if you want. I'm also on Instagram and Pinterest is Emily Foster creative? Kind of brand consistency there. And then also you can download my website checklist if you're looking for some tips to update your website, which we'll talk a lot about the brand strategy and branding component of that as well. [00:42:55] Speaker B: Oh, perfect. Thank you so much. I'll be sure to link to that in the show notes. Yeah. And just thank you. This was great. It was really interesting to learn so much about branding. [00:43:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It was such a fun conversation. [00:43:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. Thank you so much. [00:43:09] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:43:12] Speaker A: You just listened to an episode of sustainable photography. Please share this episode with the photographer you care about.