Say My Name, Say My Name; Baby It’s My Brand

People like to hire people – NOT big companies. Use YOUR NAME as your business name.

To steal a line from pop star Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child, “Say my name, say my name!” You want people to know your name and use your name. It’s all about building a brand.

When someone hires you to photograph him or her, they are hiring YOU. Not your business. They are hiring you because of your talents and abilities and because after speaking with you or meeting you they like your personality and feel that you are a good fit for their project.

Names like Joe Edelman Photographer, Joe Edelman Photography, or a simple variant, Joe Edelman PhotoGraphicS are much more effective and to the point than something like The Third Eye Photography or Studio 3 Photography. (I am embarrassed to admit that I actually used those two names when I was a teenager getting into the business. Fortunately I gave up on them very quickly)

Don’t feel that you need a creative name to prove that you take creative photos. The two are not mutually intertwined.

Your potential clients want to know who will be the person to photograph them…the person that they will allow into their lives for a brief time…the person that they will trust to shoot their modeling images… the person in front of whom they will wear seductive outfits to shoot a boudoir portrait… the person that they will trust with the most important day of their life… the person that they will allow access to their children and their homes. Do you get my point yet?

This philosophy applies for ALL photographers in all fields. It doesn’t matter if you are shooting kids, seniors, weddings, models, commercial advertising, food or architecture – YOU are the key to the business and it is YOU and your TALENTS that your clients hire.

I recently did a Google search for the following terms: “creative moments” + photography. Google served up over 110,000 web sites using the phrase creative moments to market their business. Additional Google searches turn up names like Sacred Images Photography, New Visions Photography, Picture4ever Photography, A Magic Moment Photography and you know the list goes on. These names are cheesy, old school and totally impersonal. (Go ahead… now you can email every one of them and get me in trouble for taking a shot at their name. It’s ok – I stand by my opinion and my advice.)

The business of being a photographer is NOT a business where you find success by giving people the impression that you are a big operation. Come on… when was the last time you went to Olan Mills or Sear’s Portrait Studio? Heck, in today’s economy people don’t have a lot of money to spend so why give them another reason to think that they are going to get department store photography or overpriced work because of the size of your company?

Next up for Photo Marketing Posts: Tag Lines and Domain Names