Kelly Maret, the founder and strategist behind Make Social, is achieving very interesting results by promoting change in the way businesses approach branding and marketing. Blending photography with a strategic, data-driven marketing approach in an industry often dominated by fragmented approaches. This unique method offers a cohesive solution that not only captures a brand’s essence through visuals but also drives results using analytics, creative storytelling, and personalized strategies.

How Make Social Combines Photography and Marketing to Enhance Branding

At the heart of Make Social’s approach is the seamless integration of photography and marketing, believing that these two elements should go hand in hand. “Visual content plays such a big role in marketing. By being the photographer, I can ensure that every photo is planned and executed with a strategic purpose.”, she says.

The ability to combine creative and analytical work is crucial in today’s marketing landscape to deliver higher value services to clients. The photography used in marketing isn’t just about beautiful images, it's strategically planned, shot, and implemented to achieve measurable results. For example, Maret employs SEO-optimized content to increase organic reach and traffic, ensuring that every photo not only enhances the brand’s visual identity but also plays a role in its marketing success. For one client, Make Social was hired as a branding photographer, but through her background in marketing, she was able to implement these visuals in a way that enabled the entrepreneur’s website to achieve a higher ranking and be optimized for search results, ensuring traffic and more effective lead generation. 

Bringing a Client’s Story to Life Through Authentic Visuals

Authenticity in your visuals is key according to Kelly: “To tell a compelling story, you need authentic content that reflects the true essence of the brand or entrepreneur” Maret explains. By creating well-conceptualized and authentic images that align with the client’s personal brand, Make Social ensures that the visuals truly represent the brand’s narrative.

That is why, visual storytelling is at the core of Make Social’s strategy. “It’s a common saying that people buy from people and I believe it’s true. It’s much easier to connect with your audience if you’re telling your story in an authentic way, and it being reflected in every piece of content you put out there.” So having visuals that reflect the brand’s values will ensure that they connect with the target audience and that every element, from social media posts to website banners, aligns with the client’s story, thereby fostering a strong brand identity.

The Role of Analytics in the Creative Process

While creativity is crucial, analytics play a vital role in ensuring a brand’s visual content resonates with its audience. “You can have the best creative in the world, but without data to back it up, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities to improve and grow,” she says.

Maret adopts a data-driven approach to marketing by using analytics to continually optimize the content, for example through techniques like A/B testing to allow her to fine-tune visuals and strategies to better resonate. She is also a strong believer in iterations - making small adjustments to creative outputs to see what works best with the target audience. This combination of creativity and analytics ensures that content not only looks great but also drives engagement and conversions. “I was working on an e-commerce project where iterations were at the core of our content. After many rounds of testing, we managed to find an iteration that generated over 1.5M€ in revenue, simply through a strategic approach to testing visual elements.”

Overcoming Client Challenges with Tailored Solutions

The most common branding challenges seem to include: inconsistent branding across platforms, a lack of content, and difficulty in integrating content into marketing strategies. To counter that, Maret offers a personalized approach with every project, starting with establishing a solid branding foundation and involving the client in every step of it.

“I help my clients develop a clear and consistent brand identity before diving into content creation,” she says. By identifying pain points and creating highly tailored content strategies, she ensures that clients have a cohesive visual and brand experience across all platforms. She also makes sure that content can be reused across multiple platforms, saving time and money while ensuring maximum impact. When Make Social started working with a notable law firm, they struggled with integrating content and marketing strategies. After a few weeks of ensuring consistent content creation and branding, the firm experienced an ease in the process and every content was recycled across multiple channels. This approach was only possible as Kelly helped the team get clear on the basics of their branding and content pillars, making it the foundation of everything they do.

Ensuring Long-Term Relevance Through Regular Brand Refreshes

In a constantly evolving digital landscape, the challenge is keeping branding and visuals fresh and relevant. “Marketing is all about reinvention,” she says. “You can’t use the same visuals forever - you need to refresh your content regularly to reflect how the brand is evolving.”

To keep branding content relevant over time, she evaluates the performance of existing content and discusses potential updates, seasonal tweaks, or new content creation strategies. This process ensures that the client’s content remains fresh, engaging, and aligned with the brand’s evolving identity.

Staying on top of industry trends is also crucial and understanding consumer expectations is the only way to use trends effectively. “Trends can come and go, but understanding what your audience needs and expects is key to staying relevant.”

Client Education: Empowering Clients to Co-Create

The differentiating factor of Make Social’s approach is its focus on client education. Believing that a successful partnership goes beyond just executing and that better results can be achieved through active co-creation. She prioritizes educating her clients on how to capture and represent their brand through visuals.

“I don’t believe it’s my role to simply execute tasks and implement strategies for my clients without them understanding the process,” she says. “Clients love to be involved and to know how their content is being created. This co-creation process has proven to be incredibly valuable for both the client and me., especially when aiming for long-term results”.

By teaching clients about the basics of brand representation and content creation, Kelly is empowering them to continue telling their brand’s story, even after the project is complete. This method not only adds value but also helps clients develop the confidence to create authentic content that aligns with their personal brand.

Transforming a Client’s Branding Journey

These methods have proven successful time and time again, across industries and company sizes. One notable client decided to work with Make Social as he had little knowledge of content creation, inconsistent branding across platforms, and a lack of direction in terms of marketing strategy. With Kelly’s guidance, the client’s journey began with setting clear branding guidelines and conducting a content audit. From there, they developed relevant content pillars and created a strategic plan for content creation, all while ensuring that the client did not only approve the strategies but also understood their long-term value.

Maret streamlined the process, ensuring that the client spent minimal time creating content while maximizing its value across platforms. As a result, the client’s social media presence became cohesive, and their audience engagement grew steadily. Most importantly, the client gained confidence in their content creation and felt empowered to share the brand’s story authentically and managed to achieve a full waitlist of clients through Make Social’s help and support.

Conclusion: A New Era of Branding and Marketing

Through a unique blend of storytelling, photography, marketing strategy, and client education, Kelly Maret and Make Social are changing the way small businesses and entrepreneurs approach branding. By combining creative visuals with data-driven strategies, she ensures that her clients’ story not only stands out but also evolves with the ever-changing digital landscape. Whether through personalized content strategies, regular brand refreshes, or empowering clients to co-create their own content, Make Social is setting the standard for how branding and marketing should be done in the modern age.

For businesses looking to elevate their branding with a comprehensive, transparent and strategic approach, Make Social offers an *authentic and innovative solution that delivers results.