Do you want to make your LinkedIn profile stand out? One way to guarantee that is by creating an eye-catching LinkedIn cover photo.
Are you looking for new ways to increase your LinkedIn visibility and open up new business opportunities?
LinkedIn now has over 740 million active users, according to a report published by LinkedIn in January 2021.
Your LinkedIn profile comes with a default LinkedIn cover photo. This default image displays a blue gradient with lines.
A quick survey of several LinkedIn users’ profiles reveals that many users, including professionals, have not seen a need to change this default cover photo.
Do you find this image too bland but are not sure what to do about it?
Then this article is for you.
In a couple of minutes, we’ll show you some basic things you need to know before uploading your LinkedIn cover photo and provide 20 examples to inspire and guide you.
If you’re in haste, here’s a quick outline:
- What should your LinkedIn cover photo be?
- LinkedIn cover photo tips
- Top 20 LinkedIn cover photo examples
- How do you add a cover photo to LinkedIn?
- The perfect LinkedIn cover photo size
NOTE: This article is a comprehensive guide for any sales and marketing team that needs better online visibility on LinkedIn.
With that said, let’s cut to the chase.
What Should Your LinkedIn Cover Photo Be
When building your LinkedIn profile, do you consider what your cover photo should be?
A LinkedIn cover photo or background banner image is an excellent way to leave a great first impression of your brand.
So, what should your LinkedIn cover photo be?
Your customized LinkedIn cover photo should be an image that reinforces what your brand represents. At first glance, it should tell visitors what your identity, values, and skills are. It is also a great place to showcase your achievements and certifications.
Some great ideas for your LinkedIn cover photo are:
- Tools of trade
- Workspace
- Products or services
- Motivational quotes
- Nature
- Abstract designs
- City landscapes
- Your clients
- Mission statement
- Certifications
- You at work
Above all, it should be straightforward and relevant.
LinkedIn Cover Photo Tips
A study states that only 3% of LinkedIn users create content on a regular basis, let alone on a daily basis. This invites our attention to the fact that, at least 97% of all users on LinkedIn don’t care about the platform, let alone the cover photo.
Therefore, we have compiled the best tips for the Linkedin cover photo. You will find these four tips very helpful to optimize your LinkedIn cover photo, also educate people in your network.
#1 Define your purpose
Before you create a cover photo, make sure it goes in line with your goal and objectives. In addition, it should be able to speak to your target audience.
#2 Make the image more personal
You should not have to explain your cover photo as one look at it should tell your connections about your line of business. The image you choose has to send a message.
#3 Connect the image to your profession
In LinkedIn, your cover photo must connect to your profession or your passion. It should be an expression of what your interests are.
#4 Tell a story
Whether you choose to use text or graphics, make sure your cover photo is meaningful and tells your agency or business story. In addition to adorning your LinkedIn profile, it should relate to your career goals.
Top 20 LinkedIn Cover Photo Examples
The process of creating a good LinkedIn cover photo may not be so easy to start. However, we have 20 LinkedIn cover photo examples that can get you inspired.
1. Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman at LinkedIn
- Internet executive and CEO, Jeff Weiner, is one of the top SaaS CEOs and LinkedIn influencers. His beautifully designed cover photo shows a quote that reflects LinkedIn’s mission as a top social media platform. He uses a brown cover photo to reflect the earth-like simplicity, stability, strength, and comfort that the LinkedIn platform offers. With the touch of blue, he is trying to relay confidence, trust, security, and dependability in users.
2. Neil Patel, Co-founder at Neil Patel Digital, Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, KISSmetrics & Quicksprout
- The orange background of this top influencer and marketer screams vitality, creativity, friendliness, and adventure. Note how he appeals to visitors who need more traffic to their website by asking, “Want more traffic?” He then goes ahead to list the services he offers to meet their traffic needs.
3. Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO at HubSpot
- This is another brilliant LinkedIn cover photo example from an inbound marketing expert with 1,004,060 followers on LinkedIn. In a creative mixture of style, graphics, and colors, he introduces himself, his brand, and mentions his three favorite topics without sounding boastful.
4. Marcin Treder, UX Design and Product Leader
This cover photo is designed to catch the eye of potential clients. He uses his banner to summarize his skills and experience as a design and product leader. His choice of the classic and sophisticated black background is meant to make other elements of his brand identity stand out prestigiously.
5. Richard White, Founder & CEO of UserVoice and Stealth Startup
Here is another brilliant example of a SaaS influencer using his banner to offer his services in a subtle yet precise manner. In addition, he uses a blue gradient background to put his connections at ease so that they can trust his brand at first glance.
6. Jan Zajac, Founder, CEO at Sotrender – Social Media Marketing, Analytics, Startups
This is a perfect example of a brand that knows how to use text, graphics, and colors to pass its message across. The laptop screen goes in line with the simple text to depict his company’s major service – social media analytics. It is a simple, result-oriented design that passes an obvious message to his connections.
7. Michal Sadowski, Founder & CEO at Brand24
This SaaS CEO is tapping into the feelings of freshness, calmness, and peace associated with the color green to appeal to his connections. His banner speaks simply of what he can do for his clients and includes a relevant image to drive his message home.
8. David Cancel, CEO at Drift
This CEO has successfully told us what he specializes in and how he goes about it in just a sentence. Everything about this banner is dignified and straightforward.
9. Promise Phelon, Silicon Valley CEO, Author, Investor, & Mentor
This Silicon Valley CEO and growth warrior, Promise Phelon, gives us another beautiful example of what an ideal LinkedIn cover photo should look like. In this short but well-targeted banner, she gives a face to her brand and simply states her mission – to fund and scale your business. In addition, her choice of colors gives off a friendly and confident ambiance that will encourage more people to do business with her.
10. James Kaiser, Customer Success Director at Botify
James has succeeded in adding a touch of royalty and elegance to the Botify brand by using the purple color both in text and in the background. In simple terms, he is encouraging visitors to use his platform to grow their business. The message is concise and boldly written to attract the attention of their target audience.
11. Brad Feld, MD at Foundry Group
One of the great things about your LinkedIn cover page is that it provides an avenue to advertise your products and services. In this example, Brad is passionate about his co-authored book, explaining why he uses an attention-grabbing red color for the entire background. Also, he doesn’t neglect to state the purpose of the book.
12. Soumyadeb Mitra, Founder & CEO at RudderStack
In this beautiful banner example, RudderStack’s boss doesn’t stray from the matter at hand. His banner is tailor-made to attract developers. He simply states his company name and what they can do for their clients. Also, mentioning his partners will increase customers’ trust in his company and boost his credibility. Smart move.
13. Jonathan Pogact, VP of Marketing at Seamless.AI, LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups in America
A LinkedIn cover photo is a perfect place to display any awards you have acquired. It advertises the brand and showcases the recognition it received for its efforts.
14. Marissa Mayer, Co-Founder, Sunshine
This particular example is colorful and organized. The color scheme is a good reflection of the brand’s name. In addition, the banner showcases the significant benefits of using their contact manager without making the cover photo look crowded.
15. Liam McIvor Martin, Remote Work Advocate. Time Doctor – Running Remote – Staff.com
Do you have an upcoming program or event that you want your connections to know about?
You can display it as your cover photo, just as Liam did. The placement of the date will make the audience aware that he is advertising an event.
16. Yazan Sehwail, CEO & Co-Founder at Userpilot
A great LinkedIn cover photo should not make viewers start guessing what services you render.
This is another excellent example of a banner that no viewer will find confusing. It is concise and outcome-driven.
17. Jaspreet Singh, Founder & CEO at Druva, Inc.
This goal-oriented banner example uses a unique color scheme to grab the attention of potential customers. The mysterious shades of purple combine beautifully with the calm blue color to evoke feelings of luxury and trust.
18. Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, Co-founder & CEO at Nektar.ai | Re-imagining the future of B2B Sales!
Do you want to trigger feelings of warmth, optimism, emotional strength, friendliness, and confidence in your target audience?
Then use the yellow color in designing your banner. In addition, the word “friend” is included in the text to emphasize the friendliness of Nektar’s CEO further. These are subtle hints that you will have an enjoyable experience doing business with his company.
19. Jayant Paleti, Co-Founder at Darwinbox
It is possible to include as many elements as possible in your LinkedIn banner without making it look disorganized.
Jayant includes his company logo, company name, a recommendation, services they offer, and an image showing a mobile version of his software, all in one banner.
20. Eric S. Yuan, Founder & CEO, Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
Last but not least is Eric Yuan’s LinkedIn cover photo. In this example, Eric simply states the latest achievement of his SaaS software, Zoom, and supports it with a relevant image. He has succeeded in passing across the message that his brand is globally recognized and dependable.
We’ve come to the end of our top 20 LinkedIn cover photo examples. So let’s move to the next stage.
How Do You Add a Cover Photo to LinkedIn?
Then it’s about time you added a cover photo. You can create LinkedIn cover photos that will attract your target audience in five easy steps:
1. After you log in to LinkedIn, go to your profile page.
2. To access the photo upload box, click on the pencil icon at the top right-hand corner of your desktop or laptop screen.
3. Select “Upload photo” and choose your desired backdrop.
4. Edit the photo by using crop, adjust, filter, and other photo editing options.
5. Click on “Apply” to upload the picture.
It’s that simple!
The Perfect LinkedIn Cover Photo Size
Well, you need to upload it on LinkedIn so that everyone can see it.
However, there are guidelines you must follow; otherwise, LinkedIn may reject your cover photo.
Here are some of the LinkedIn cover photo size guidelines you should pay close attention to:
- The recommended LinkedIn cover photo size is 8MB or less. You can choose a larger size if your preferred picture looks blurry or compress the background image before uploading it on LinkedIn.
- The LinkedIn cover photo dimension is 1584 x 396 pixels.
- The recommended aspect ratio for your cover photos is 129:8.
- Your LinkedIn cover photo should be in JPG, PNG, or GIF file formats only.
- Make the cover photo long but narrow.
After checking these boxes, it is essential to look into the quality and layout of your cover photo for any device.
Choosing a cover photo with high quality and resolution will impact the way people assess you and your business.
Also, a cover photo with a good layout will look great on both desktop and mobile. After uploading your cover photo, make sure you check it on several devices of different sizes to make sure you don’t miss any critical detail on some devices.
Get Creative With Your LinkedIn Cover Photo
Now that you have decided to seize this opportunity to attract your target audience and increase your visibility on LinkedIn, it’s time to get creative. Hopefully, the tips and examples provided in this article are enough to get you started on creating a winning LinkedIn cover photo.
If your sales and marketing team needs help increasing your agency’s visibility and generating leads on LinkedIn, our experts at TexAu are at your beck and call. Contact us!
