Planning a Fall Brand Photoshoot? Start Here

For most small business owners, fall is a busy time regardless of your industry. While it might look different from business to business, many are gearing up for Q4 launches, preparing holiday promotions, and working on end-of-year marketing. Everyone wants to end the year on a high note. With all this in mind, waiting until October to plan and schedule branding photos is not the best strategy. You need time to plan and prepare. More importantly, you need time to actually use the photos before the season is underway. If you find yourself in October realizing you need fresh photos for all your holiday promotions and Q4 goals, you’re already behind. The key is to plan a quarter ahead. So if you’re thinking about planning a fall brand photoshoot, now is the time to act!

If you wait until October to book your branding session, you’re trying to schedule your photoshoot while also deciding what to wear, determining what photos you need for Q4, figuring out how you’re going to use the images, coordinating with your team, and then waiting for your final gallery to be ready before you can actually use everything in your marketing. The turnaround timeline might be a few weeks which means at best you’re getting your images late October, the worst mid-late November. Then, you still have to select which images you want to use for what and launch each campaign and promotion. Booking your session early allows your photoshoot to become something you prepare for intentionally instead of something you squeeze into an already packed season. 

You Need Time to Plan a Strategic Session

Rushing into brand photos at the last minute doesn’t give you enough time to plan a strategic session. You need time to think through what photos you need and why and how you will use the photos, as well as what content you’ve been missing, and what are you launching, promoting, creating that you need photos for. Branding photos should never be just showing up for headshots. There should always be thought and planning behind it, with storylines, goals, and intentional images attached to it. The earlier you book, the more time you have to create a session that is actually useful for your business.

Your Q4 Content Needs to Start Before Q4

This is one of the biggest reasons I encourage business owners to plan their fall branding sessions early. If you wait until October to book your branding session, you’re creating the content while you’re already supposed to be using it. 

By October, you should already be advertising for Q4 launches, specials, promotions, and holiday offers. Taking the photos you need for those campaigns during the same season you’re trying to market them isn’t an effective strategy. Instead, use August and September to get your brand photography in place. That way, when Q4 arrives, you’re executing your marketing, not scrambling to create it.

 A well-planned session now provides you with an intentional content library that you can use the rest of the year for all your marketing, holiday promotions, website updates, speaking engagements, product launches, EOY of messaging, New Year offers, and so much more. The goal is to have the right photos, ready to use when you need them. 

Don’t wait until you need the photos to create the photos.

When you plan ahead, you have time to think through your goals, prepare your wardrobe, coordinate your team, choose locations, and create imagery that actually supports what your business is doing next, and all your goals for the quarter ahead. Get ahead of the game and plan your fall brand photoshoot now, so you have a fresh image library ready to go ahead of Q4 allowing you can hit all your EOY of goals.    

If you’re a Nashville or Franklin, TN business owner whose thinking about planning a fall branding photoshoot to prepare for a busy Q4, now is the time! Reach out today to create a strategic image library that gives you the content you need to finish the year strong, and start the next one prepared.