What types of personal branding images sell?
“What are the types of portraits that sell?”
The ones that leave the viewer with the motivation to care, connect and take action.
If there’s one thing that I’ve discovered during my time as a business owner, learning more about the needs of those you serve is a never-ending proposition.
And I’m okay with that.
During a recent chat with a speaker colleague from the NSA NYC chapter, we talked about content creation. Specifically, I asked her if she were to subscribe to my blog, what types of articles would she find valuable and useful for her speaker/consultant business.
Without skipping a beat, she responded:
“What are the types of portraits that sell?”
This is one of those cut-out-the-bullshit-and-give-me-the-goods-here-and-now type of questions.
I’m a big fan of this approach since it’s near and dear to my heart, :)
The short answer?
The ones that leave the viewer with the motivation to care, connect and take action.
Regardless of where you’re discovered by potential clients online, the first thing that they encounter are images of you - could be a social media post, a headshot on a professional trade organization page, or your website, to name a few.
These images represent conversation qualifiers for your audience.
What do I mean by that?
When someone is doing a little online research to find help to get them past whatever is holding them back in their life or business, they’re sifting through several experts in the topic and deciding which ones might offer the solutions they need.
If you’ve ever done this type of research, you’ll know that the results the Google machine and social media spit out are an overwhelming pile of potential experts.
It’s a very noisy endeavor.
But what creates a clear signal through all of that noise for the person doing the research are photos of experts that present themselves as friendly, fun, empathetic and extremely knowledgeable.
Within 7 seconds, the viewers of these images form an impression and determine whether or not they like you enough to get to know you more.
Honestly, in this day and age, it’s less than 7 seconds - more like the time it takes for them to continue their scroll, which is what, milliseconds?
Long story short, you don’t have a lot of time to make a favorable impression on those who you can potentially help.
That’s why it’s important to create an image content portfolio of branded lifestyle portraits, virtual photographs and smartphone images that present all aspects of your personality.
No, not just the wide-eyed smiley ones that show you feeling joyful and happy, or the badass ones where you’re staring into the camera as if you’re some kind of international superhero that is a really, really big deal.
That’s not enough.
Entice your potential clients to get a deeper view into who you are, who you serve and why you do what you do with a wide range of image content that spans the emotional spectrum - inspirational, confident, vulnerable, friendly, openness, and everything in between.
When it comes to hiring an expert to solve specific life-related or business-related bumps in the road, most people don’t want to work with someone that appears to be in it only for the money.
They want a friend, someone in their corner who they can count on to support them.
Position your image content to be the type of digital introduction that inspires people to want to get to know you more.
These are the types of images that sell.
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PS - If you’d like to read more strategies, insights and advice related to persuasive visual storytelling, I invite you to join my email list so that you save yourself from commuting to my blog every time I post something new, :)