Utilizing Images for Marketing
Everyone knows that a picture speaks a thousand words, and good imagery used in marketing can tell potential customers everything they need to know about your brand. In the same breath, poor quality imagery can really put someone off you and your product without knowing anything else about your business. Here is how you can best utilize images for your marketing content.
Get organized
It’s not good enough to find images as they are needed. This puts a lot of extra stress and pressure on your team and can lead to some shoddy quality work going out due to not having enough time. Ensure you have all the digital assets you are likely to need in advance and use an image management system to make them easy to find for your employees. The more straightforward you can make this process, the better work they can produce and the more impressive results you will see.
Take your own photos
Taking photos of your own products, your team, or your services, gives you the freedom to create a feel for your brand and have a bank of images that says precisely what you want them to say. Once you have fully decided on your branding, hire a photographer to capture this in some stock images that you can utilize in your marketing efforts. Think about the campaigns you have coming up (for example, August is not too early to start thinking about planning Christmas sales and marketing material!), and get images that you can use for promotional purposes – whether that is social media content, paid ads or something physical like a catalog.
Use royalty-free options
There may be times when you don’t have an image that fits a post, and you need to look to the internet to provide you with something. Be sure to look for royalty-free options, such as Pexels and Shutterstock, for high-quality images that you can get the license to use. It’s not worth risking using something you’ve found on Google. It’s also essential that the photograph or image is still entirely on the brand and looks seamless from other content you have used in your marketing.
Get the balance right
There is a delicate balance to strike between text and images. For example, social media sites, such as Facebook, are more likely to give your content an audience if it uses images and text combined, rather than just images. Although a picture does speak a thousand words, sometimes you need to spell things out, too, as images are open for interpretation. You don’t want a leaflet or poster to look too text-heavy, but at the same time, the images need to complement what is written and not distract from it. It needs to be relevant and add something to the work.
Images are a potent tool in your marketing strategy and used right, they can do wonders, but it’s not as simple as just placing a picture into a document and hoping for the best.
