Product companies (like yourself) often turn to influencers or friends of many levels to promote their product, get reviews, and photos of the products in action.

W

hile they’re doing you a huge favor, don’t forget it’s okay to set some ground rules to ensure you’re getting exactly what your brand needs. Here are 5 ways to educate your influencers for better visual branding!

1 – Set Guidelines

It’s completely fine to list a few do and don’ts of how you want your product used in a photo. For example, if you design a pillowcase meant for indoors and preferred it not used outside, say so. The good ’ole saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know” rings true here. The influencers you work with can’t read your mind. Layout the ground rules as clear as you possibly can to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding. Otherwise, your product will be used in a completely different way than you want it too. Collaborating with an influencer is a great way to put your product in front of new eyes. But in the end, it’s your product, your brand, and your business name that’s being promoted. Don’t shy away from setting guidelines if you need to.

2 – Review Their Style

Like anything, do your research first before working with an influencer to promote your products. Review their style and see if it aligns with your business and brand. Don’t assume they will shoot or edit the same way you do. You want their audience and yours to relate to the influencer, what they stand for, and their message. Putting your products in front of new audiences is a great way to reach new customers. It does you no good to collaborate with an influencer with no similarities to your brand message or mission. Their audience won’t get it, and neither will yours. Be sure you’re working with people that have the same style as your business and brand.

3 – Require Quality

 It’s your product that you’re sharing with the world, and it’s a reflection on you how it comes across to an audience – whether it’s you, a friend, family member, or influencer who is promoting it. Ask about the camera they use or what version of the iPhone they have. Always require quality as a business owner. A product photo is the first impression of your business. Whether the picture is of high quality or not, it reflects you and your brand. Although the image may be a fun one, it’s still a business that you’re running, and the product photo needs to be somewhat professional. A quality image also shows that you and the influencer care about the product. A blurry image may come off like you don’t care and ultimately isn’t as reliable as one that is clear.

4 – Save Image Quality

When you’re working with others who are promoting your product and taking photos with it, you’ll want copies to add to your portfolio, website, social media, etc. To save the image quality, have the person you collaborate with send you an email or upload the images to dropbox to avoid diminishing the image quality. The bigger file you can work with, the better it will be for you to make any additional edits. The digital journey is just as crucial as the photoshoot itself.

5 – Stay Consistent

Even though someone else may be taking photos with your product and you plan on using them for your personal use, you still need to keep consistency in mind. The more you’re consistent across the board with your photos, the more you build brand recognition with your ideal audience. Consistency is key, so feel free to add your own tweaks to the images you receive to keep your social media feeds consistent. Your audience then begins to realize your brand just by looking at a photo.

Conclusion

Don’t be shy when it comes to educating others on how you want your products showcased in photos. It’s your hard work on display. Collaborations are a great way to reach a wider audience, but be sure that you team up with someone who aligns with your message and mission. Ideally, the influencer will have an audience that knows, likes, and trusts them and would be more than willing to check out your product if they’re promoting it. If you’re trying to find a better way to educate your influencers for better visual branding, check out my favorite Mind Map Tool. Get your ideas in order and better communicate with someone you want to collaborate with. If you have any questions or concerns, you can leave me a message. I’d love to help get you on the right track. You can also find me on Instagram.

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