Whether it’s attracting top talent to your organization or simply making sure you’re putting out the best first impression you can, professional staff photos are integral to your business branding for a variety of reasons. Your staff are the backbone of your business and presenting them in the right way is essential to making sure your business as a whole is presented professionally. If you’re unconvinced of the value of staff photos, read on to find out why professional photos of your team can improve your branding.
First impressions count
People don’t want to put their time and money into a business that doesn’t care, and when you put out the impression of neglecting your own business, it sends a poor message to customers and clients. Staff photos show that you not only value your team but that you’re willing to invest in your business, and that instills trust in others to do the same.
Through playful or creative images, you can provide a clear representation of your brand which helps people identify your business and comprehend what makes you different as a company, especially if you can create staff images that are consistent with the rest of the visual imagery you use across the business.
Makes the content you create more authentic
People are far more likely to trust a business if they can put a face to a name, and when they can see the employees that are advocating for your business and celebrating all it does, it encourages consumers and clients to place their trust in the company too. The content your business puts out will come across as more genuine and authentic when coupled with the genuine voices of your employees, adding credibility to the work you do.
Professional photographer Darron Palmer believes that “when someone is looking up a product or service on the internet, being able to actually see the people who they will potentially be interacting with naturally draws them in. It adds that human element that would otherwise be missing from a website or a social media page with just a load of words”.
Improve employee engagement
Including staff photos doesn’t just encourage an emotional connection from people visiting your site, but for your staff too. When your team sees themselves presented in a professional, valued manner, it can influence how they feel about the company and their role within the business. Employees are typically an underutilized resource for brand advocacy and simply by getting them involved in the branding and marketing of your business can be really effective in harnessing that advocacy power. It inspires company pride and encourages engagement from your team.
Use staff photos to give your team a voice on social channels, in blogs and interviews on your site, or even in marketing collateral. These images are a chance to celebrate your team, and in turn your staff are more inclined to celebrate the business as well. After all, who better to shout about what you do as a business than the people working in the company?
Promote your company culture
Photos and visual assets are a great way of showcasing your company culture and portraying how your business operates. From headshots to group photos or ‘behind the scenes’ images of your team working, there are various ways to use photos to enhance and celebrate your positive company culture. Through images, you have an incredibly effective storytelling tool at your disposal and you can create emotional connections far more easily with visitors to your business or website.
In an interview with MPB, commercial photographer Bronson Farr explained that “Creating joyous or emotional photography doesn’t always have to be through the lighting that you choose. It can also be through the wardrobe, the props or what you decide to put in the foreground of your images”. With this in mind, businesses have the opportunity to really think outside the box and create fun staff photos that showcase the values and core message of the business.
An effective recruitment tool
Staff photos can often be found on about pages, and with good reason. They show the faces and personalities behind the brand, and that can be really useful when it comes to attracting like-minded people to work for your company. When someone is interested in a brand, they want to learn more about the values and mission behind the business, as well as what it’s like to work for the company. Photos and visual assets are incredibly powerful in showing this.
Your team is a large part of that and how those values come across to other people, especially potential applicants. As the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words so you have the opportunity to support the narrative of your business and its culture through professional, creative images of your employees and the work they do day to day.
From complementing your recruitment strategy to boosting employee engagement and company pride, staff photos have a lot of potential. You don’t want a potential applicant or customer to get the wrong impression of your business due to drab, uninspiring photos or, worse still, not be able to get any idea of your business at all due to a lack of images. With professional imagery that’s consistent with your branding and how you want your business to be perceived, you have a storytelling tool available to you to sell your business effectively.
About the Author
Mike James is an independent writer based in the UK, Mike writes content for the B2B market. He covers a broad range of topics including technology, cybersecurity, HR, marketing, design, co-working, and business start-ups.