5 TIPS FOR LAUNCHING YOUR BRAND
Launching or relaunching your business is an epic-move! It takes grit, courage, and a whole lot of work behind the scenes to launch your brand and put yourself ‘out there’.
Editorial Sessions by Lei Lei Clavey is my content and education workshop series. My first workshop Villa Alba was incredible and I can’t wait to do it all again this coming week at The Trust. If you want to shoot luxury content for a rebrand, you must join me! My workshops are in my signature editorial style with high-end vendors, designers, and professional models. I curate all the ‘moments’ including ceremony and reception styling, fashion details, editorial bridal portraits, and couple portraits so that you come away with luxury content to share on your website, client guide and socials.
Below, I share actionable steps to launch or relaunch your brand after attending one of my editorial content workshops.
In a bonus post, I share BTS content of what it's like to attend a workshop as well as my 10 favourite images from the Villa Alba workshop.
Lei x
Villa Alba Editorial Content Workshop by Lei Lei Clavey Education, Melbourne
5 TIPS FOR LAUNCHING YOUR BRAND
Launching your own wedding photography brand is so much more than a logo, website and keeping up with posts and reels on social media. Launching a successful personal brand, means launching your image and personality out into the world with the intention of building deep connection with your audience. The stakes are high, so make a plan.
Profile your Ideal Client Avatar (ICA)
Get to know your ICA by deep-diving their needs and desires, lifestyle, relationships, attitudes, affluence and traditions. You want your brand to speak directly to your ICA, so share content that sparks their sense of desire, deliver value and use language that resonates with them. Profiling your ICA before your launch, means you’ll have a clear vision of what content you want to plan into your launch content calendar.
Pro-Tip: A confused brand will attract a confused client. A brand, with a clear message on the type of client they serve, will attract the client they want and dream of. As part of your ICA mind-mapping, list out other wedding vendors they would love to work with and look at how those vendors are positioning their brands to attract that kind of client. What kind of imagery are they sharing online? What kind of customer experience and value do they offer their clients? These vendors should also become your Recommended Vendor list.
SET A LAUNCH DATE
Set a launch date and announce it to the world, even if it’s only to a handful of followers. You’ll be surprised how putting it out into the universe will inspire you to keep your promise and launch on time. Research launch marketing and plan out your calendar to make space for a pre-launch, launch and post-launch period. Post-launch champagne is encouraged :)
GET CAMERA READY
Emotion and connection are huge influencing factors when making any high-value purchase. Research shows that consumers are more likely to buy when they feel an emotional connection with the brand or person they are buying from. Think about the closeness you feel towards influencers on social media; by being let into their lives, you’ve probably subconsciously added products they endorse to your lust-list or cart!
Your ideal client needs to see who you are, feel your ‘energy’ and decide if you resonate with them. By putting your face to your brand, you allow your ideal client to build a relationship with you from afar. Then by the time they are ready to send an enquiry or book a date, they already feel connected to you. People buy from people, so sharing your face on socials from the get-go is a game-changer.
If you are more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it, I suggest getting professional head-shots so that you have ‘about me’ content for your website and socials. That way, you are not under pressure to turn up on IG stories but still create connection with your audience by sharing your face and persona.
Pro-Tip: Bring a few different outfits to your session so that you come away with a variety of content.
DECIDE ON A LAUNCH OFFER
Everyone loves to be a winner! Come up with a launch offer that is both limited and of high value. Example; The first 2 couples to book will receive $500 off your wedding package. By limiting the offer to 2 people, it creates scarcity and an urgency for people to buy.
CURATE, CURATE, CURATE
Social Media is a wedding photographer’s best-selling tool and so I always put a lot of effort into how my Instagram feed looks. I like to think of my Instagram as a portfolio and so I am regularly posting, reposting top performing content and archiving any content that is doesn’t perform well with my audience. It’s been a successful strategy with my Instagram following growing from 6 to 12k in 12 months and now 60% of my leads and enquiries come from couples who have found me on the platform.
Pro-Tips:
Engage across Stories, Reels and Posts as different users will spend more time in one area of the platform than another person. My goal is to always have fresh content each week and add value to my ideal client
Repost top performing content
Archive content that does not perform well OR no longer fits with your brand aesthetic
Be consistent with the type of content and how regularly you schedule content. A content calendar will take a lot of stress out of scheduling social media posts.
Consider the variety of images you share and aesthetic balance. I try to convey mood and editorial style, rather than focus only on couples. I use later.com for social media scheduling and the preview function is a godsend!
Perform a social media audit. What do the last 9 posts say about you? What message are you sending to your audience? Do they know who you are?
Put yourself in your ideal client’s shoes and explore your social media presence from their perspective; What does your feed look like? When I journey through to the website, does it have the same ‘feel’? Do I know who I am enquiring with (face to a name)? How easy is it to enquire with you?
Lei x
