The smart approach to stand-out headshots for your business website

The oft-derided professional company headshot has had something of a renaissance in the last years. Perhaps as a reaction to pandemic-era homemade selfies (not my favourite era) quality and style are the new standard. When you’re refreshing your company’s online presence, headshots for your business website and LinkedIn aren’t just decoration, they’re one of the first visual cues people notice.

Much more than a ‘rogues gallery’, a well-executed set of headshots reflects your culture, values, and attention to detail. For marketing directors, this is a chance to shape the first impression, which makes it sound rather daunting to get right. The good news? Change is afoot in how you can approach the shoot, but more of that in a moment.

Regularly cited data from LinkedIn says that profiles with professional headshots receive 21 times more profile views and 36 times more messages. I’d suggest that this same principle applies to your team page: polished portraits equal higher engagement.

• Skip to a short-format downloadable checklist on corporate headshot best practice at the end of this piece if you’re short on time

Let brand identity lead the way

Before we start discussing the logistics of a shoot, let’s begin with what the photographer sees through the lens and how the end result will come together. Even if you’re after something really simple, it’s important to figure out a sense of direction. So I’d suggest first stepping back and asking: what should your brand actually feel like?

For instance, are you ‘bold and modern’, ‘professional but smart casual’ – or ‘classic (with a twist)’? It may surprise you to learn the flexibility and options within these often minimal images. If your firm has distinctive branding, your headshots can tack to that, and speak with your chosen visual language.

We suggested that our AI tech client Skyral opted for bright, relaxed shots with a range of poses in different settings, wearing informal attire. We art directed the shots to support Skyral’s ethos: serious-minded innovation delivered by smart people, styled in a clean, confident, and unpretentious manner.

The fact is that colours, backgrounds, poses – even the cropping – can all combine to echo your brand tone. To achieve the right feel, our clients regularly ask us to collaborate with their photographer, offering art direction to ensure the headshots for your business website ‘just work’. They have a second life beyond just the website too: invariably these shots are used on the sales decks we design, giving a human touch to often data-heavy PowerPoint slides.

One more thing – and this isn’t really specifically to do with the headshots themselves, but a good point to raise with your web designer: can the gender balance (and reality) of your firm be displayed on the site by including support and admin teams as well top execs? They have a vital role in the running of your firm, so why not include them – as our legal client Nautica Law chose to do.

Prioritise consistency and quality

Not everyone can achieve it, but everyone loves it when they see it. I’m talking about visual harmony… and the human brain is immediately calmed when it sees consistency and order. Many websites we’re asked to redesign display an ugly jumble of styles, for instance some people in office settings, others in front of brick walls; some shot professionally, others at home with a phone. When aggregated over a period of months or years, in many locations the result unfortunately sends out all the wrong signals. A general implication is that ‘you are as your headshots’ and if the look is messy and inconsistent, that’s not great.

Resolving this isn’t complicated – in fact, I’d suggest deliberately starting simple.

We tend to look around at what other firms in an industry are doing and review options with our client. If the wider sector isn’t that inspiring, we aren’t tied down by other people’s bad ideas and look beyond that. We know the shots need to strike the right tone, but how about looking at an ‘editor’s letter’ shot in a magazine or a creative director’s LinkedIn shot? Chances are those people were pretty demanding (hello, Anna Wintour). Now you can be too.

If that sounds like it might not be a good approach for your firm, I suggest going back to basics. Create a simple visual framework: same lighting, same background, same crop. Provide some simple guidelines for a photographer and your team, such as:

• Dress code – a shirt and a jacket for everyone is a great start
• Framing and orientation – passport style shape works best
• Background colour or texture – for many reasons, just white is best practice
• Retouching preferences – with a professional on hand to help (not an app)

For our larger clients with offices in several countries, such as private investment firm Veld Capital, exactly this sort of guideline proved vital. A consistent background is the best approach, and for Veld this was their stylish office library, sometimes dropped in during post-production by a photo studio. In summary, the choice of a contemporary interior as backdrop as well as the team in open-necked shirts paired with jackets worked particularly well. The combination felt approachable while defusing any sense of stuffiness, a smart idea for the new wave of smaller, more nimble finance and legal firms.

Turn the team shoot into a brand-building experience

Things have really changed in the world of the company portrait. In recent years we’ve moved away from improvised studio setups in a boardroom. Our new approach is to embrace a warmer, more inclusive experience where everyone has their moment, and can feel their best.

The fact is, unless you’re a supermodel, nobody loves standing in front of a camera. Some actively hate it. If the mood is wrong and the shoot feels rushed, awkward, or overly formal, it’ll show. The result will be flat, forgettable photos and a doubling down on negative assumptions about having the shoot in the first place.

I suggest reimagining the entire experience. Why not set your team up for success with these simple steps:

• Give people a heads-up on what to wear and what to expect
• Suggest a couple of options on clothing so they feel in control
• Offer light grooming or makeup touch-ups before the shoot
• Create a relaxed environment on the day
• Allow your team to check the shots – and if they aren’t happy, take a few more
• Build in a re-touch for everyone – in terms of contrast, exposure or to remove blemishes

You want people to step out with the best look possible and come across as the best version of themselves – not like they’ve just endured root canal.

A great example of an incredibly stylish shoot is our credit investment financial services client NorthWall Capital. Working with a single studio, they opted for a highly polished series of shots against a dark background. The end result is that their team appears against this backdrop seamlessly, with all the positive implications this offers.

One final thing: if you’ve organised all this well, ordering shots of new team members as they join, or if an existing team member needs a new shot (for whatever reason) will be swift and easy. Organising headshots today means thinking two steps ahead as the staff lineup evolves.

A final argument for prioritising headshots for your business website

I realise all this might seem rather trivial. Many might think that headshots are a small detail in the grand scheme of a website redesign. However I think this is to seriously understate it: when you have great team shots, the difference is palpable.

These photos are doing powerful work. A good, consistent team conveys three magic qualities: confidence, cohesion and character. In a B2B world where trust is built online, whether on your site or LinkedIn, the impression and mix of people really matters.

If you’re in charge of the process, whether as marketing director or practice lead, rethinking the entire process makes a profound difference to people who’ve worked their whole career to be on your team. It also shows an eye for quality and a commitment to brand integrity.

I’m going to end with a beginning: your first step is to source a great collaborator. Seek out a good headshot agency or experienced photographer. Invariably they will know a talented makeup artist/stylist. Hire them both, brief them well (with the assistance of your agency if needed) – and deliver a great looking team.

Our approach to corporate website design

I believe that commissioning the full scope of content, visual and verbal, required for a digital project requires experience and vision. Each aspect of such a piece of work comes with its own specific requirements, and headshots for your business website are important because it gives a face to your firm, usually reminding clients of their key contacts. We live in a ‘people business’ world where those alliances and long-built trust invariably makes the difference in sealing a deal.

We’d love to talk to you about reworking your digital presence. Whether you’re in the UK or work across EMEA and beyond, we can work on designs from the creative to the corporate, depending on your brief and budget.

Call us on 020 7351 4083 or email us direct.

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I’ve drawn up a checklist based on the key points I raise in this article which is available as a free download below

• A checklist to help deliver great headshots for your business website