When thinking about how you want your brand to show up online, the first thought is always a website and I get it. Your website is where you will direct people to learn more about your company and buy your wine, so it makes sense your mind would go first. The problem is that so often, the thought stops there. And even more importantly the budget does too. But think about this: you get people to your website, only to be met with images that don’t accurately reflect your brand and a website you’ve put so much time, money, and effort into building. So while thinking about a website is an important step to improving your brand’s digital image, professional photography is equally as important.

There are different types of photos and each has its rightful place and purpose. It’s important to include a variety of images including lifestyle, commercial, and product. When thinking about which type of photo shoot you need, do a quick audit of your current photography assets available. It might be helpful to start by organizing your photos into different categories such as bottle shots, headshots, landscape shops, tasting room, and so on. Taking the time to organize your assets enables you to make the most of your photography investment and determine what types of photos you are missing.

Read further to learn more about the different types of photos and how you should be incorporating them into your marketing plan and budget.

Lifestyle Photography

The purpose of lifestyle photography is to create photos that mimic real-life events that touch on the feelings, everyday scenarios, and overall vibe of your brand in an authentic, relatable way. Think outside the box on this one! It’s more than a photo of people in your tasting room. While these are definitely in the lifestyle photography category, this isn’t the only scenario that customers are enjoying your wine in. More often than not, your wine is being consumed in the comfort of their home. Take time to sit down and think about your ideal customer. What do they do for fun? What TV shows do they watch? What books do they read? Do they lead a healthy lifestyle? Pull elements from this ideal customer into a photoshoot to curate a scene that will cause your ideal customer to think to themselves, “Hey, that could be me!” when they see your photos. Lifestyle photos are great for social media. When designing websites, we use lifestyle photos to trigger those emotional cues and connect to your ideal customer. For budgeting reference, this type of shoot typically falls in the middle range.

Commercial Photography

Commercial photography focuses on capturing photos at your winery for use on your website, in print material, and in digital advertising. Think of these photos as tools you will later use to tell your brand’s story. Examples of commercial photography include portraits of ownership and staff, action shots of harvest in the vineyard, drone imagery to get those beautiful landscape views of your property, and more. When working these shoots into your budget, know that they are typically on the higher end of the photography price range.

Product Photography

Product photography includes images where your product is the prominent item in a shot. These can be the standard white background that you often see or a more stylized image. Product photos are important for shop pages and for email marketing campaigns when promoting new releases, to name a few uses. One important piece to consider with product photos is consistency. If you decide to take the stylized route, I recommend sticking with one vendor throughout. This allows your shop page to remain visually consistent, which lends itself to a more professional feel. For flawless product photography, we recommend looking into Outshinery. They offer a variety of product photos in unique settings, with your product added digitally, which helps to keep the cost low. In general, product photography will fall on the lower end of the pricing spectrum. 

Why Quality Photos Matter

Photography is an integral part of your marketing toolkit and should not be overlooked. As younger generations continue to move into your ideal market, it’s more important than ever to have a digital profile that is visually appealing. When people are planning their trips to wine country, they’re going to pull up your website and your Instagram profile. The images they see will impact whether or not these potential customers put your winery on their list to visit. Same thing goes for online shopping. Competition is at an all time high and making good wine isn’t enough to stand out. You have to have a brand that appeals to the market. Imagery is a huge way to create those necessary emotional cues and that is why you should invest in photography for your winery. Take a look at that organized Google Drive you created with all your assets, figure out where there are gaps, and get a photoshoot on the books so you can improve your digital presence and sell more wine!

Emily Winters is the Content Director and one of the Photographers for Highway 29 Creative, a leading creative agency serving the wine industry. The agency provides many services including bespoke video and photo shoots that cover lifestyle, commercial, and product imagery. You can check out our portfolio here.  Have questions about photography or want help assessing what type of imagery your brand needs? Reach out to Emily at emily@hwy29creative.com.