When coming up with a budget for headshots, it’s mostly gathered in the same way as anything else… A quick google (or probably an AI search nowadays) and once you have a gauge of what people charge, decide where on the scale you’d like to sit and start to make your decisions from there (at least, this is what a lot of clients tell me).
One thing that I hear very few people factor into their decision, and this is most likely because of a lack of available information, is the effect it’ll have on the overall income of their business.
Everyone knows that it’s beneficial to have your face(s) on your company’s website, especially where the service you provide is personal and human centred, but frequently it’s spoken about as more of a “nice to have” as opposed to a genuine tool for increasing income.
Simply having real photos on your page of you and your team has been shown to increase conversions anywhere from 45-160%* as seen across multiple studies. That’s far more than just a “nice to have”.
For a lot of the clients that I work with, even ¼ of the increase on the bottom end of that scale would pay for your company headshots 10x over.
There are some things to consider, such as, in the studies, the photo they ran the test with was on a landing page directly talking about a service they provide and a CTA next to that. So, simply having a separate team page with your photos might not carry quite the same impact, but for any businesses that have more than a one click sales process, it’s very likely that people will look at your team page and therefore have a significant impact.
A separate study showed that having trust signals next to a call to action can increase conversions by 34-42% of which team photos or the founders portrait would be included.
This is just what the data shows from what I have available, as there is no large headshot photography corporations (due to us headshot photographers being a largely solitary species) there isn’t vast amount of research being done on their effectiveness across all areas of a business.
However, with what there is available, all evidence points to it being a strong way to add credibility and trust at key points where potential clients interact with your business.
In a former life I was in sales and spent a considerable amount of time looking through grids of corporate headshots on the team pages of companies in order to find the right person to speak to. The appearance of the photos would give me a really strong impression about the company, before I ever picked up the phone. I would always have an idea about who was going to pick up the phone and the type of response I would get.
A study done by 6Sense showed that 69% of the B2B buying process happened before buyers engage with sellers, which means your clients have also already decided what they think of you before they’ve even picked up the phone to speak to you.
If the first impression is good, then amazing, you’re over halfway there. If it not, then you’re fighting off the back foot.
Very often when I was calling people I would be wrong about what I had in mind and the person would be either a lot more friendly, or straight to the point than I was expecting, but the only information I could base that on was often a job title and a photo.
And this is the point.
If you’re trying to give your clients a certain impression of you, then they have very little to go off of so, the things you do show them are all the more important.
Which is where the right photos, not even just “good” photos are vital. If you want to be seen as friendly and approachable, but everyone has a very stern look, then that’s not going to do you any favours. If you want to look competent and trustworthy, when everyone pulling a funny face probably isn’t the best approach – these are quite obvious examples, but it’s surprising how far from the target “vibe” people can be.
Surprise surprise, the photographer is telling you how important photography is… which is why I’ve provided receipts where possible, but I think this is all stuff that we know intrinsically. It’s just sometimes hard to articulate or provide evidence for because a “nice” photo can mean so many things.
So…
If you were thinking about getting some headshots that work for you and your company’s bottom line (and I’m not sure why you would be reading this article if you weren’t), then here is the reasoning behind it being a good and worthwhile investment.
And if you were wondering what I can do to help you in the pursuit of great headshots then you can find some more information on my corporate headshots page or pop me an email.
