Holiday Photo Ideas for Your Personal Branding Session
Have you started planning your holiday content? Or better yet, the real question should be how are you going to capture that content? That’s where your friendly personal branding photographer can come in handy! I love it when my personal branding clients incorporate the holidays into the branding sessions. And no matter your niche or business, there is a way to create holiday-inspired content for your brand. Read on for some holiday photo ideas for your personal branding session.
1) For product-based brands
You may think that it’s easy to come up with holiday image ideas for product-based-business, but you need to go beyond your typical product shots. My client Stephanie founded Sukeban Creative, a personalized gift-box company that does a large amount of their yearly business during the holidays. It was obviously important to grab flatlays of her gift boxes, but we added some festive decorations and details to jazz it up.
I also made sure to grab photos of Stephanie in a Santa hat which are so fun and festive, but also these images really help build that “know, like and trust factor” (which helps buyers make their buying decisions) by getting in front of the camera!
2) For the Influencer
Q4 can make or break a business, and the same goes for influencers. The holidays provide a huge opportunity for influencers to generate revenue with brand deals, affiliate marketing, and other collaborations so their holiday content needs to be on point. Last year for her Q4 shoot, my client and frequent collaborator, Kate of Fashionably Kate & Co., focused her entire session on her holiday content.
One thing that was super helpful is that she knew in advance of our shoot what brands she was working with and had her props like shopping bags, baking supplies, and gift items all ready to go. We were able to grab photos of her wrapping gifts (mostly travel related which works for her brand), curled up by her Christmas tree, baking with her little girl, hanging stockings, doing some online shopping, and letting her little one open a few presents. (Side note: if you want to know more about how Kate preps her holiday content, check out our latest episode “How to Prep Your Holiday Content” over at the Cocktails and Content Creation Podcast.)
“How to Be Gracious about Getting Gifts” on Fashionably Kate & Co.
Holiday emails from Fashionably Kate & Co.
From our session, she had almost three months of content for her blog posts (especially gift guides and gift-themed posts), social media accounts and email marketing. You can see just a few examples of how she used her images for all three outlets above.
3) For the Digital Marketing Business
Obviously wearing something in a holiday color can inspire those festive feelings, just like Chelsea of Royal Horizon Media did during our shoot near Christmastime. That cozy red scarf and top, and how she played with it for the camera, gives off all the holiday vibes without specifically being Christmassy. But you can also use your space and how it's decorated to make it clear that you’re celebrating this time of the year. We shot at the Newburyport Studio when it was all decked out for the holidays, making it super easy to capture holiday photos.
4) For the Team
My client, Blakely Interior Design, requested a team photo for their holiday card, which is always a great way to thank clients for their business over the past year. So we discussed outfits and were able to come up with a cohesive theme for the whole team - red, black, and cheetah print. Then we broke out the bubby and some gold confetti for a New Year’s shot and I just love how they both came out.
On top of the team shots, they already knew what they wanted to capture for blog content for the season, particularly sharing holiday decorating tips. So they staged up a festive tablescape and the team sat in as hosts and guests, giving the shoot a personal touch. You can see how they use these photos on their blog!
Obviously this scenario is perfect for their business because they are an interior design firm and may not work for your brand. However, they took the time to look forward at their holiday content and planned their shoot around it - which you can do too!
Ready to capture that holiday content? Click here to get in touch and let’s get planning!