Headshots are often overlooked and usually half-assed, but a great headshot can make a huge difference and it's one of the cheapest and easiest ways to stand out from a crowded online world.
As a marketing tool, great headshots can be incredibly powerful to put yourself and your brand out there, it's a simple way to tell your network, friends, family, and other coworkers that you are here and ready for business.
These are a few of the ways headshots all around the world are making an influential impact on how people grow their personal brands and businesses.
Headshots are the logo of your brand
Increase recognition and relatability
Creates brand consistency
Builds trust and authority
Shows your commitment to quality and other important values.
Headshots are the logo of your personal brand:
When trying to consciously establish your personal brand, (I say consciously because even if you haven't been trying or put any effort at all into your branding, everyone has got a personal brand, and personal growth is mutually linked to how carefully we communicate our competence and authority).
So, when it comes to making the conscious decision to establish your personal brand, one of the first important investments you will make is on yourself. As I previously said, personal growth and personal branding are deeply linked, the goal is to discover your uniqueness, minimize your weaknesses and optimize your strengths, while also making sure you are communicating your values and presenting your expertise to the world.
A headshot will always be one of the main introductory cards of your online presence. Whether you already have got a headshot or not, getting a great professional headshot of yourself (preferably on a solid neutral background) will show that you are taking seriously what you are doing and it will become the differentiator of your brand.
Increase recognition and relatability
How humans process visual information:
90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, that's huge!. In just 40 milliseconds, we are able to draw conclusions about people based on a single image. This might be the moment people decide if you are worthy enough to trust your content and maybe continue learning about what you've got to offer.
These images are so powerful that they speak directly to our brain, making an influential impact on how people will interact with you and your content. But you already know that you are an expert at filtering out non-relevant and uninteresting content on your feed *most of the time*.
Brand consistency
As a young entrepreneur, connections are everything and creating a consistent profile across your social media platforms and your website is one of the keys to building trust and authority in your field. Having the same look and feel throughout your social platforms and marketing funnels is immensely important when targeting cold audiences that are unaware of you and you've got offer.
Headshots with a solid neutral background are the best choice for personal brands and businesses. It focuses on just bringing out your best features and personality that are the special ingredient for a relatable and trustworthy first impression.
Since this is an indoor studio photoshoot, a controlled space allows for more precision and sharpness that results in higher-quality images.
If you are a more outdoor type of person, I still recommend you to have your main profile photo be an in-studio headshot. You can play with a more colorful approach that doesn't distract too much from your face and have as part of your content a series of personal branding portraits that showcases your lifestyle and personality in a more creative environment.
Build trust and authority
As a business person or professional, your main goal shouldn't be just to make a sell and move on. The goal is to ensure that you as the core of the company can represent the quality and important values in the service or product that you are providing and that no matter the experience they have, they can count on you to do your best to make it right.
Commitment to quality and other important values.
Quality isn't an end product, it's an experience that competent and passionate business people are committed to providing from the first glimpse of connection with their audience, evolving into an endless cycle of nurturing and innovation.
A great headshot shows how committed you are for quality and professionalism, a photo of a good-looking smiling face is one of the easiest ways to make your client feel comfortable with your content in seconds.
It creates a positive connection in their mind that reflects your responsibility, experience and expertise. Your headshot has the ability to say all of that, and all has to go along with you core values and your skills, like Forbes says in one mood of their articles "Clients want passion and expertise to radiate off the screen as they explore your website"
I hope this short blog helps you see the importance of a quality headshot and how it can help growing your business and influence your industry. Images are just processed faster but something so simple like a headshot, can be more memorable than the written or spoken word. But what truly strengthens your brand is combining your skills and passion with your distinctive personality.
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