Most clients pick five favourites and stop.
They update LinkedIn, the website About page, maybe a profile picture or two on social, and then the rest of the library sits on a hard drive. The photos cost money. The places they could be working are sitting empty.
If you haven't booked a session yet, the personal branding photography service is a good place to start. If you already have a library, here are thirty places those images should be doing more.
Where to start
The six that do the most work for the least effort. Update these and you'll already look more deliberate than most professionals in your field.
- LinkedIn profile picture. Where most people meet you before they meet you. Use the strongest portrait from your library, not a phone snap from a party.
- LinkedIn banner. Most profiles run the default blue rectangle. A wide shot of you working, presenting or in your space says more than the slogan most people put there.
- Website homepage. If you are the business, your face belongs above the fold. Visitors decide whether to keep scrolling in about three seconds.
- Website About page. The second most-visited page on most professional sites. If the only photo here is the one already on your LinkedIn, you're missing a chance to show more.
- Email signature. Every email becomes a small introduction. Particularly useful when someone has just been put in touch with you for the first time.
- Google Business Profile. Often the first image that comes up when someone searches your name. Worth getting right.
The rest of your website
The pages most people forget once the homepage is signed off.
- Contact page. A face here makes the form feel less like a void.
- Service pages. Each service can carry a different image. A consulting page wants you in conversation; a coaching page wants you listening.
- Pricing page. A portrait near the prices does small but useful work. People are more comfortable buying from a person they can see.
- Blog author bio. Every article you write is a chance to remind readers who they're hearing from.
- Testimonials page. Your image alongside client quotes anchors the proof to a real person, not a logo.
- Team page. If you run a team, headshots that match in style and lighting say more about your culture than the copy ever will.
Email and lead generation
Places where a face replaces a logo and the message warms up.
- Newsletter masthead and sign-off. A small portrait in the sign-off turns a marketing email into a note from a person.
- Opt-in forms. Forms with a face attached convert better than forms with stock illustration. Use a portrait that matches the tone of what you're offering.
- Lead magnet covers. Your guide, checklist or ebook cover should carry the same face people will meet later. It connects the download to a human.
- Onboarding sequence. New clients are forming a first impression of working with you. A photo in the first welcome email is a quiet introduction.
Sales and conversion pages
The pages where the photo earns its keep in actual money.
- Landing pages. Above-the-fold images are doing persuasion work whether you want them to or not. Use yours.
- Webinar and event registration pages. People are deciding whether to give you their evening. Show them who they'll be spending it with.
- Course or coaching sales pages. Buyers want to know who they're learning from. The bigger the price, the more they want to see.
- Pitch decks and proposals. The opening or closing slide of a proposal is a good place for your portrait. Most decks skip it. The ones that don't are remembered.
Social content beyond the profile picture
- Social posts. Mix portrait shots with in-context working shots and the occasional environmental frame. A feed of stock graphics and a single headshot gets boring fast.
- Paid social ads. Faces outperform stock photography on every paid platform. Use yours, even on B2B ads.
- Event covers. Workshops, webinars, meet-ups. A photo on the cover image gets a higher click-through than a graphic.
Speaking, press and visibility
Places where someone else needs your photo and you don't get to write the copy.
- Speaker bios and bureau listings. Event organisers need a high-resolution headshot, often at short notice. Have one ready in print and web sizes.
- Podcast guest assets. Hosts will ask for a portrait. Send a strong one and they'll use it everywhere, programme graphics, social posts, transcripts.
- Press kit. Journalists who get a polished image ready to drop in are more likely to run the piece quickly.
- Award nominations. Most application forms require a photo. A weak one undermines the rest of the entry.
- Industry directories. Listings with a photo get more clicks than listings without. Worth the ten minutes to update them all.
Print and in-person
The quieter places. Still useful.
- Business cards. Still useful, particularly in industries where older buyers expect them. A small portrait on the back is a soft cue that you take this seriously.
- Conference programmes and event signage. If you're speaking, the organiser will use whatever photo you give them. Make it a good one.
Where to actually start
Three things, in order, if you've been meaning to do this and never got round to it.
- LinkedIn profile picture and banner.
- Website homepage and About page.
- Email signature.
These will already make a noticeable difference to how professional you appear online. The rest of the list is what you work through over the following few weeks, not in one afternoon.
A note on photos that have aged
If your library is more than two or three years old, or it was taken in a style that no longer fits the work you're doing now, no amount of placement is going to fix that. The fix is fresh photography.
I work across the South West, including Bristol, Exeter and Devon, and across London. Most sessions book two to four weeks ahead.
If you want to talk through what a new library would look like, drop me a message and I'll get back to you the same day.
