Your face is your business! When you own or run a business (large or small), whether a lawyer, a painter, or a chef, your face is what your clients/customers associate with your business. Knowing the person behind the business is so critical to establishing long lasting relationships, it has now become very common to see businesses of all sizes use photos to establish connections with current and future clients.That’s why it so important for you to have a high-quality, professional headshot.
Using a quick shot taken with your own camera may be perfectly fine for personal social media sites, but for a professional profile, such as those on LinkenIn, or a business website, not using the right professional photo could undo all the efforts you are currently doing to sell yourself and your company to potential clients.
Here are the top 3 reasons you need a professional headshot.
1. Your best clients want to know they are dealing with a real person, not a faceless company.
Your brand or professional identity may be what initially entices a client to contact your company, but it is you, and your employees, who establish the important long-term business relationship with your client.
It’s simply not enough any more to think that your logo or business track record alone will get you the business you want these days. An online presence with nothing more than generic images, text, and a logo, has no human touch, and will have potential clients asking the question “who” are the people actually behind the company.
It isn’t enough to have a great logo or to belong to a reputable company, the true face of any business are the people who have direct and indirect relationships with clients. That being the case, the faces of a company (i.e. professional headshots) are what clients often look for when researching a company.
2. It provides consistency to your website.
Because your business’s “About” page usually gets the most web traffic, it’s crucial it includes professional headshots of all your professional staff. Consistency is key here. When people land on an “About” page, they want to connect a business with a face and not just read a narrative about the person running the company. Furthermore, adding a headshot to a biography gives the page more professionalism, and it makes your business seem friendlier and more approachable. In this day and age, not having a headshot to help build that connection with clients and industry professionals is almost like not having a business card at a networking event. Faces help people remember, and your headshot is how you can get yourself out there. For even more cohesiveness, make sure you use your professional headshot across all of your social media presence.
3. The right headshot speaks volumes about you…instantly!
Having the right headshot says a lot about who you are. The wrong image could say that you don’t take your position seriously, or perhaps that you are not contemporary in your thinking, or you’re not too concerned about projecting your professionalism….or that you are cheap! Although these may be completely untrue, potential clients that view your business profile photo may get the wrong first impression. And we all know how important first impressions are,…after all, we only get one of them! Whether it is wrong or right isn’t the point, it’s an irrational bias that the majority of people have, and it can affect the success of your business.
Your ideal clients will connect with you through their first interaction with your headshot. It’s important you are “saying” the right thing. You can repel or attract immediately, so take the time to plan what you want your professional headshot to say.
We’ve all visited websites of one type or another and quickly formed opinions about the professionalism (or lack there of) of the company or quality of work they offer even before meeting the people behind the business. The same goes for your headshot. Present a bad headshot with poor lighting, a dated style, or even the wrong pose, attire, or facial expression, and clients or colleagues may judge you before they even meet you.
If you would like to learn more about how professional headshots are done, contact me today and let’s talk!
