As the old saying goes, “First Impressions Last” – and when it comes to attracting and securing business, this couldn’t ring truer.
We increasingly interact and choose products, businesses and services online, rather than in person or via phone. This shift has resulted in photos and business imagery becoming far more important to consumers than ever before.
Images that convey accurately a business’s values and character are one of, if not the key deciding factor for any consumer looking to purchase a service or product online.
This is especially true for Builderscrack, in particular, our tradies profile images. A quality profile image that puts a face to your business and conveys professionalism, honesty, confidence and warmth can often be the difference between a tradesperson winning a job or not. The opposite is true for a bad profile image, which can unintentionally send an inaccurate message of being unprofessional, careless, too casual etc.
We understand that taking photos isn’t high on the priority list when you’re busy running your business, and even then there aren’t many of us that like getting our photo taken, let alone posing for one. But if there is one simple action you can take to significantly increase the number of jobs you successfully secure on our platform – improving your profile image would be it.
How to Take a Good Profile Photo?
To help with this, we have enlisted Alana, our in house photographer, to put together a “Do’s and Don’ts” guide to taking a quality profile image that gets you more work:
Do’s
1) Enlist help – it’s important to get another person to take the photos. Selfies are unprofessional and can be a bit awkward. It doesn’t matter if you hire a photographer or get a friend/family member to take the image, just make sure it’s not a selfie
2) Background – consider a background that is in context with your business. Homeowners are turned off, and often left confused by photos that show you doing something completely unrelated to your business, like sitting on the couch or out for dinner. The best backgrounds are either in a setting that gives context to your business; say in front of a job/worksite or in front of your company vehicle. The other option is to keep it simple by choosing a plain background, like a plain wall and let your face do the “talking”
3) Dress for the occasion – if you have branded workwear, put it on and position yourself so your logo is prominent. This gives an added level of professionalism, as well as reinforcing your business name to the Homeowners. Don’t be afraid of being in “messy” work clothes either, in many cases this is what homeowners expect and gives the message you’re hardworking
4) Don’t hide – show your whole face, no sunglasses and keep the shadows off
5) Smile – it doesn’t need to be a big cheesy grin, keep it sincere and genuine. A smile will help to present you and your business as warm, approachable and “nice” to deal with
6) Posture – a strong, upright posture conveys confidence, professionalism and that Kiwi “can-do” attitude
7) Lighting – lots of indirect light is the most optimal. Try next to a window if inside or if outside try avoid the harshness of the direct midday sun
8) High resolution/large images – make sure you take images on a high resolution or large file format. This is especially important if you’re using your phone camera. Images can be reduced in size without compromising quality but not the other way round
Don’ts
- Selfies and selfie sticks
- Inappropriate background
- Blurry images
- Badly cropped images
- Tiny, low-resolution images
- Sunglasses – don’t cover your eyes
- Overly posed – just be natural
- Dark or shadowy images
Parting Thoughts
You don’t need to go all out in terms of expense taking a profile photo. While sure a professional photographer will get a fantastic result, there are many great profile pics on our site taken by a partner, friend or workmate. The more important thing to focus on is the eight tips, follow them, and you’re almost guaranteed to have a photo that delivers a professional message, resulting in more job wins for you.
While it’s not in our kiwi nature to be pretentious or promote ourselves too much, this is a time you can bring your pride and confidence with the business you’ve built and what you do. Let that shine through your photo, and homeowners will be drawn to you.
Thanks to all the Builderscrack tradespeople that allowed us to use their profile images as examples.
