Should You Get a Professional Headshot?

If you’re new to my website or just dropping by, I’m a specialized headshot and branding photographer in Charlotte, NC. That means that day in and day out I’m working with business owners and team members to create branded photos that tell their brand story without words. 95% of the time that includes headshots.

So businesses are beginning to recognize the competitive edge in today’s marketing trends due to simply having a professional headshot of the business owner and any employees.

Marketing in this digital era is almost entirely visual. Even the copy-based marketing strategies heavily lean on the visuals to gain the attention of the target audience.

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Even if your face isn’t tied to your brand in an obvious way, trust me that it will impact your audience in a positive way to see a real human being when they interact with your business. That’s true whether you’re a fashion blogger or a CEO of an insurance company, or a mental health professional, or an architect, and on and on.

So, what are the benefits of having a headshot?

1. It’s Your First Impression

In today’s business world, your professional brand headshots are your first impression. And the fact that you can control this first impression is entirely too powerful not to take advantage of. Every detail can be worked to your advantage—your pose, your expression, the color of the shirt you’re wearing, where your headshot is taken—all of those details are inherently part of the first impression you give to your audience. That’s why it’s important to hire a professional photographer who understands the nuances of all of these working parts, and who also has the experience to know what story to tell YOUR audience in YOUR headshots.

2. People are Googling You

Recruiters, clients, and potential employers are going to google you before they meet you. Make sure the first image you see—and ideally the next 5—is the image you intend to put out there. The people you connect with in business are using google, linkedin, facebook and instagram to scour your content for images of YOU. There are absolutely advantages to having a polished, well-branded professional headshot in place of a blurry, average, or outdated one.

3. Your Headshot Tells your Brand’s Story

You are tethered to your brand, and your brand is made of visual material, whether you’re acutely aware of it or not. What I mean is that every element of your headshot is saying something about you and the brand you associate with. People are going to use your headshot as a springboard in their discovery of your business AND yourself on a personal level.

They should be able to see what kind of industry you work in, whether it’s serious or more laid back, whether it’s feminine or masculine or ambiguous, whether you appreciate minimalism, what your brand colors are, and on and on. A great extension of this is having a headshot actually show you in the context of your work. For example, an architect would be very wise to have a headshot in front of a drafting table or a wall of drawings. Those elements do not need to be in focus, they just need to subconsciously provide viewers with a little gold nugget of context.

4. It’s Investing in Your Business

When you make the decision to hire a headshot photographer, you’re choosing to invest in the future of your business. Not only does it make you look more qualified than your blurry or unbranded competitor headshots, but the confidence you will exude from having a polished and well-planned first impression at your fingertips will have impacts well beyond your email signature. What if you really are just a headshot away from success? Are you going to let a quick headshot session stand in between you and your next client, career, or opportunity?

5. You May be Unexpectedly Published

I have seen it firsthand, where my clients are invited to speak at a conference, mentioned in an article, or talked about by their company in a newsletter and they are asked to submit a headshot of themselves. Sometimes they aren’t even asked, and the person publishing them will simply take and upload whatever that first image is that they find. Is that first image a selfie in front of a brick wall? Or will it be an image you’re proud to show in front of thousands of people? Take control before the opportunity passes. When people are interested in publishing you, it may be too late to get in the books of that professional photographer you’ve been eyeing for some time. Get it done before being published is even on your radar. If success is what you’re after, it’s going to happen.

The bottom line is this:

If you aren’t investing in professional brand headshots, your competition is. If you don’t take control over what photo is shown when people are searching for you, it will fall on an outdated, non-strategic image of yourself. If you do make that choice to invest in professional photography for your business, you will be rewarded for that choice again and again.