Personal Branding Photographer Video, 3 Easy Wins

Most of these case studies come from emails my readers send me. With their permission, I share them with the names changed. I do this so that others can learn from what worked and what didn't. Have a story of your own? Share it with me.

11% to 52%watched to the end
1 to 6calls a month
55 secondsher new video

“I watched your video,” the coach said. “Well, the first minute.”

Ingrid smiled and said thanks. Her intro video was almost three minutes long, and almost nobody watched it.

Her personal branding photographer video played on the top of her homepage in Duluth, Minnesota.

It began with her name, her gear and a long story about her first camera.

The numbers told her what her visitors wouldn’t. Only 1 in 9 people watched it to the end.

Then she filmed a new one that took 55 seconds.

Within two months, more than half of viewers finished it, and her calls had gone from 1 to 6 a month.

The problem

Ingrid photographs coaches, authors and small shop owners. She’s funny and warm in person, and her clients say so.

She had made the video years ago, when she was new, and never looked back at it.

Like many photographers, she assumed that having a video was enough. Nobody told her the video also had to work.

It didn’t sound like her at all. It sounded like a speech, delivered from behind a desk with a window glaring behind her.

She saw three problems once she looked at where people stopped watching.

At 10 seconds

The video opened with, “Hi, I’m Ingrid, and I’m a photographer based in Duluth.”

Then she talked about her camera and lenses for another half minute.

Viewers who didn’t care about lenses left right here. That was most of them.

At 40 seconds

The window behind her turned her into a dark outline. Her face was hard to see, and her voice echoed in the empty room.

There were no captions, either. Anyone watching with the sound off saw a silent, shadowy woman.

At two minutes

By now, only a handful of people were left.

She was telling the story of how she became a photographer, which was lovely, and had nothing to do with their needs.

She never told viewers what to do next. The video just stopped, and so did the visit.

The solution

Ingrid didn’t need a better camera. She needed a shorter, warmer video that started with her viewer, not with herself.

She made three changes.

None of them needed new gear. They needed a different order for the same story she already told every client.

Five lines, not five minutes

She wrote five short lines, one for each job. Their worry, who she helps, what changes, a tiny story and one next step.

When she read them out loud, they took about 55 seconds. That was exactly right.

Captions on, always

She turned on automatic captions, then fixed the mistakes by hand. She also added a short title on screen, saying what she does.

Now the video made sense with the sound off.

One step at the end

She ended with a single line. “If that sounds like you, book a free planning call below.”

There was a button right under the video.

Before, viewers had nowhere to go. Now they had one clear place.

The process that worked

Ingrid did the whole thing in one weekend. She used her phone and a spare shelf, and she spent no money at all.

The test take

She started with a 10 second test, to check light and sound.

The first clip showed a lamp reflecting in her glasses and a loud refrigerator humming behind her.

She moved the lamp, switched off the fridge and tried again.

She also did one silly practice take, just to hear her own voice in the room. It made her laugh, and the real takes came out easier.

The window

She turned her chair around so she faced the window. Soft daylight fell on her face, and the glare vanished.

She also put a photo of a favorite client next to the lens. Talking to one person made her voice relax.

The edit

She filmed three takes and picked the second. Then she trimmed the start, cut a few long pauses and added captions.

The whole edit took about 15 minutes in a free phone app.

She saved her caption style and her title card as a template, so next time would take five minutes.

The homepage swap

She replaced the old video on Monday morning.

She kept the video at the top of her homepage and added it to her About page and her booking emails.

Her web helper also added video structured data to the page, which helps search engines understand what the video is about.

She followed a simple five-line script for the words, and she changed each line to sound like her.

The personal branding photographer video, version two

After two months, she compared the numbers. Viewers finishing the video had gone from 11 percent to 52 percent.

And people who watched it were far more likely to book a call. She went from about 1 call a month to 6.

What we learned from here

A personal branding photographer video works when it starts with the viewer’s worry and ends with one easy step.

Ingrid’s old video wasn’t unkind or sloppy. It was long, and it was about her. Viewers didn’t know why they should care.

Once she turned it around, they stayed.

Move	Kept them watching	Lost them early
Opening	Their worry in 5 seconds	Her name and her gear
Length	55 seconds	Nearly 3 minutes
Light	Facing the window	A window behind her
Captions	On, and checked	None at all
Ending	One next step	The video just stopped