Your face could generate more business for you, it did for our client in a recent experiment.
We ran a test on a mortgage broker’s website, comparing a photo of an adviser vs leaving it out. Two identical web pages except one showed a mortgage adviser’s photo and one didn’t. 50% of visitors saw the photo page and the other 50% didn’t, our software randomly assigned a page to each visitor.
The page with the adviser photo generated 11% more leads than the page without. As leads converted to application at 15% this meant that the advisers face generated an additional mortgage application for every 967 page visitors.
The experiment showed that using an iPhone photo of an adviser on a webpage, a cost-free action, increases leads and mortgage applications.
Why does it work?
Ambiguity aversion is where people tend to avoid making choices with uncertain outcomes. Like requesting a call back when they don’t know who will call them. Just as you wouldn’t want to discuss your private financial matters with a stranger, your clients feel the same.
The science shows that our brains are uniquely optimised to assess the trustworthiness of faces. Something we’ve gotten really good at over thousands of years to help us survive. While logos can build reputation and signal competence over time, the human face is the most powerful and immediate trigger for trust.
They can’t help but look
Eye-tracking studies have shown that when a user lands on a page, their eyes are immediately drawn to a human face. Another result of our evolution, we’re hard wired to look for other human faces.
Not just any face
Stock Photos vs. Real People: Another experiment found that users largely ignore generic stock photos of people because they are easily recognisable as filler content. However, when the images were of actual team members or subject matter experts, the photos significantly improved credibility and conversion rates. This suggests the benefit is not just any face, but a perceived authentic face that represents the company or the offer.
Do other brokers agree?
We asked our instagram followers “Where should people see your face on your website?” 56% said every page and only 25% chose Homepage and the about us page.
Our Linkedin audience had a similar response, we asked “What do you think would generate more leads?” The majority chose an adviser photo:
- An adviser photo (67% of votes)
- Displaying your location (24% of votes)
- A more professional logo (3% of votes)
- BOLD HEADLINE IN CAPS (6% of votes)
A chance to stand out
We checked 15 landing pages of brokers (who we don’t work with) Google Ads campaigns and none of them featured a photo of an adviser. Good news for you, if you make this change you can stand out.
What can you do?
Show your face, it’s a personal service! Don’t just hide details of your team on an about us page. Don’t assume everyone enters your website via the homepage or will go to your team page. Every page is an opportunity to meet your team.
Book a photoshoot?
It doesn’t have to be a super professional photo shoot, our test was just a black and white photo taken from an iPhone. A professional photographer could capture some excellent additions to your website but don’t delay when your smart phone takes quality photos. iPhone photos are better than no photos.
Black and white or colour?
Should you opt to use your smartphone for taking the pictures yourself, consider using a black and white filter. This can help create a consistent look across all your photographs. It might be difficult to get all your team together so it’s a quick and easy option. If you book a photoshoot, a pro photographer will take some stunning photos in full colour. They’ll normally recommend which ones to use too.
Use AI?
An iPhone photo that looks genuine will do more for you than an AI generated picture that doesn’t look real. Don’t forget that we’ve evolved to easily spot genuine faces, if your image looks fake it might as well be a stock photo.
Where to put the photo(s)
Our photo was underneath the headline just before the main body of text. Our aim was to position the adviser as the author of the text on the page. This positions the adviser as an expert in that particular mortgage scenario.
Not a silver bullet
Remember, while people buy from people, it doesn’t work on its own. While showing your face online is incredibly persuasive you’ll be disappointed if that’s all you think about. The pages in our test incorporated a variety of elements, like recent 5-star reviews, persuasive copywriting, a clear call to action, content tailored to the specific mortgage scenario and a user-friendly layout. The adviser photos acted as a boost, but it needed a solid foundation to generate results.