The Frugal Attorney’s Guide to Headshots

Some professions, such as social media influencers, attract image-conscious people who enjoy making genuine or false displays of wealth; pharmaceutical reps tend to be hired on the basis of their good looks, too.  On the other hand, librarians and computer programmers tend to be introverts who don’t care about their own image or anyone else’s.  

Making a good impression, with the appearance of professionalism, is part of your job as a lawyer. However, as any client who is still struggling financially after filing a lawsuit knows, it is easier to find lawyers who are good at looking like lawyers than it is to find lawyers who are thorough and thoughtful enough to help clients get a successful outcome and even harder to find lawyers who can do this for an affordable price.  The things that make you stand out as a lawyer do not come across in a picture; professionalism is on the inside just as much as beauty is.  Despite this, your legal marketing content is not complete without a headshot on your law firm’s website.

Headshots Are Not Just for Photogenic Lawyers Anymore

If you think that prospective clients care more about whether you can help them resolve a probate dispute or car accident claim or modify a parenting plan than they do about how you look, you are correct.  Despite this, you need a headshot of yourself somewhere on your law firm’s website.  It can be on your attorney bio page instead of on one of the pages of your site that you regularly visit so that, if you don’t like looking at pictures of yourself, you don’t have to worry about your own face staring back at you every time you look something up on your own website.  It is important for clients to see a picture of you because the conversation at the initial conversation begins in the client’s mind before the client even fills out the contact form; prospective clients need a face to which to address their imagined discourse before they meet you in person.

If your law firm operates on a shoestring budget, you don’t have to get the picture taken professionally, but it should show you look your most professional.  You should use a picture that someone else took of you when you were standing in front of a blank wall at a conference while dressed in a business suit, for example.  Google will recognize this as a picture of a lawyer, even if your town and your practice area lend themselves to casual dress so that when you meet clients for the first time, you are usually wearing jeans and a T-shirt of your favorite sports team.

You Only Need One Headshot, but You Should Update Your Blog Frequently

A headshot is just one component of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.  The professional law firm content marketers at Law Blog Writers, LLC can create custom-written blog posts that show your true personality more than your headshot does.