Planning a Brand Photo Session (or Sessions) to Coincide with Your Marketing Plan

Psssst stick around until the end where we’ll provide a real client example of how they planned their subscription accordingly

How Far in Advance Should You Be Taking Your Brand Photos?

Planning a successful brand campaign requires more than just a great idea— it needs to be executed with thoughtful timing, especially when it comes to photography. Whether you’re shooting seasonal content or preparing for a special promotion, understanding the timeline for brand photography is crucial to ensure everything aligns with your campaign launch. Here’s a guide on how far in advance you should plan your brand photos to maximize their impact.

Plan for Seasonal Content Well in Advance

If your brand photography includes seasonal content— such as Valentine’s Day, summer promotions, or Halloween— it’s important to shoot months ahead of the actual season. For example, if you want to showcase Valentine’s Day products, it’s ideal to shoot in October. Similarly, for summer content, plan to shoot in February, and for Halloween imagery, shoot in July.

Why the early timing? There are several reasons:

• Editing and Retouching: After the photos are taken, there’s typically a 2-4 week turnaround for editing and retouching. This is a crucial step to ensure your images look polished and professional, and it can take time to get every detail right.

• Team Input on Image Selection: Once you receive the first batch of photos, selecting the best images might take another week or so, especially if multiple team members need to give their input. It’s essential that everyone involved has the time to review and finalize the images.

• Campaign Timeline: After the photos are selected, they need to be applied to your campaign. If you’re planning to launch a seasonal or holiday campaign, you may need to have your visuals ready up to 3 months before the actual campaign start date to ensure everything from website updates to social media posts and email campaigns is aligned.

Align Your Photography With Your Marketing Strategy

The timing of your photos is heavily influenced by your marketing calendar. If you’re preparing for a major product launch or seasonal promotion, having your photos ready well in advance ensures that you’re not rushing to meet deadlines. This advance planning allows you to:

• Create a cohesive marketing plan: Having the right imagery in place allows you to develop your email campaigns, social media strategy, and website content all at the same time, ensuring consistency across platforms.

• Maximize your advertising efforts: If you’re running paid ads, having the visuals ready months ahead of time allows you to launch campaigns and test different creative strategies for maximum impact.

What Happens During the Turnaround Time?

Once your brand session is complete, the process of turning your raw images into polished marketing assets doesn’t happen instantly. Here’s what to expect:

• Initial Editing: After your shoot, the photographer will start editing and retouching the images. This typically takes 2-4 weeks, depending on the complexity of the shoot and the volume of images.

• Review and Selection: After receiving your edited images, you’ll need time to review and select the ones that best represent your brand. If multiple team members are involved in the decision-making process, this step could take up to a week.

• Image Application: Once you’ve selected your images, they will need to be applied to your marketing campaigns. This includes incorporating them into your website, email templates, social media posts, and other promotional materials. This stage can also take several weeks, depending on the scope of your campaign and how many assets need to be created.

Don’t Forget About the Lead Time for Campaign Launches

Campaigns are often planned months in advance, and the visuals you capture during your brand session should be ready to go when your campaign is about to launch. For example, if you’re planning a summer campaign that needs to go live in June, it’s a good idea to start shooting and finalizing your imagery by February or March.

A 3-month lead time from shooting to launching your campaign allows enough time for all the logistics to fall into place:

• Creative Development: You’ll have time to develop content, create posts, and write ad copy that complements your brand imagery.

• Scheduling and Promotion: With your photos ready in advance, you can schedule social media posts, email campaigns, and digital ads well before the campaign launch, giving you more flexibility and a higher chance of success.

Flexibility for Last-Minute Updates

While planning ahead is key, you should also allow some flexibility for last-minute adjustments. In some cases, campaign timing may change, or new trends may arise that require updated imagery. Working with a photographer who understands your brand and has a quick turnaround time can help you respond to these changes without disrupting your schedule.

If you’ve planned ahead, even last-minute tweaks are easier to manage because you’ll already have a solid base of images to work with. Plus, your photographer will know exactly what you need and can work with you to create fresh content if required.

Conclusion: Plan Your Brand Photography Well in Advance

Brand photography plays a crucial role in setting the tone and identity of your marketing campaigns. By planning your brand sessions far in advance— sometimes up to 5 months before a campaign launch— you ensure that your visuals align perfectly with your marketing strategy. From choosing the right shoot dates to factoring in editing time, selecting images, and preparing for campaign launches, understanding the full timeline will help you avoid stress and last-minute scrambling.

Pssst here’s where we want to show off a real client subscription plan with us; when we shot, what we shot, gallery turnaround, and how long they had to implement the images before they launched for their intended use

When done right, advanced planning allows your brand to shine with professional imagery that tells your story and resonates with your audience at just the right time. So, whether you’re shooting holiday content in the fall or preparing for a summer promotion in February, the time you invest in planning your brand session will pay off in a successful campaign.