Your cover image or "Profile Background" is a key part of putting your stamp on your Manufacturing Network Profile. Changing it from a capability profile into something more like your own website.
The background image accounts for more than 50% of the screen coverage. By default you'll be provided with our standard blue background, so it's an opportunity to stand out without much effort, honest.
What Should It Be An Image Of?
The image doesn't have to tell the buyer or engineer what you do. What? Yes that's right. Don't try and over-complicate the image, it's in the background not the foreground.
So don't worry too much about what should or shouldn't be in the image (as long as it's not offensive).
Some Ideas...
Your logo
It may sound stupid, as you've already uploaded your logo, but your logo set onto a white background with some coloured fading over the top could be very impacting. Like the image below.
This image was created on a free application called Canva It truly is an awesome tool, and you don't need to be skilled to use it. Go to Canva.com.
Your Products
Things like machined components, bent tubes, finished projects such as structures or machines. Again, don't get too hung up on exactly what the image says or does, a well taken photo with an iPhone can be really impressive.
This image was also created using Canva. Just upload an image, position it, apply a filter and save. There are tons of filters to choose from, and if you feel adventurous you can play with the filters and tones yourself.
Your Machines
Your machines can be pretty impressive sights to many, with high speeds, sparks, fluids etc. You can even include your people, provide the human element of the skill-set and capability your business provides it's customers.
Just make sure if you do have bright sparks or images with light areas, your business name and tagline are still visible against the image. This can usually be achieved by applying a slightly darker filter or turning the brightness down on the image.
Your People
Your people may not be clothing models, but they are the human side of your business. A group photo with everyone dressed smartly is always a winner. You may have had some professional photos taken, make use of them!
Your Building or Workshop
Another example of a photo you may have had professionally taken, however, nipping out into the car park on a clear day with the sun low in the sky could be just as effective. Once again, apply a coloured filter and the image is transformed into something epic.
Where Can I Get Images?
As we've suggested, a decent photo taken on an smartphone can be more than suitable for your profile background but here are some other ideas;
- Ask around the office - see if a professional has taken any photos in the past
- Ask if anyone thinks they might have a great image on their phone
- Get out onto the shop floor and take some!
- Go to a stock photo website such as Canstock or iStock
Whichever you choose, don't get too hung up on it. You can edit or update the photo whenever you want, you may stumble across the perfect image as time goes on.
A minor warning about using stock photo websites. They are great sources of high quality images, but they are accessible to everyone. Therefore make sure you're not using the same image as someone else by checking a few of your competitors profiles. Or seek out an image which has less than 5 downloads in total - the likelihood is it hasn't been used by a competitor.
What Size Should Images Be?
As you probably noticed above, the images aren't a normal aspect ratio. The ideal size for an image is 1425 pixels wide by 550 pixels high.
If you use Canva you can enter these as custom dimensions (note the measurement is pixels, not centimetres.
Don't worry if your image is not that size, our system will enlarge the image to fill the space, then centralise it. This typically means the top and bottom of the image will get cropped when viewing your profile on desktop.
What File Format: PNG, JPG, JPEG
The ideal file format for web viewing and profile loading speed is JPG or JPEG. However, PNG files can be uploaded and used without a problem. We would advise using PNG if the image is particularly grainy or low quality (try to avoid low quality images if possible).
When using Canva you can select which file format to download your image as, in the same way you can select what format to save a file as in most Microsoft applications.
Final Tips & Advice
- Don't get hung up on picking an image which tells customers what you do, your capability profile does that.
- Use high quality images
- Crop the image to size (1425 x 550px) this can be done in something like powerpoint, but we advise using Canva - it's easy
- Apply filters - this is to make sure the white writing (your business name and tagline) are visible against the image
Enjoy customising your profile! Start Now