Marketing is about more than simply conveying a message to your customers; it is about connecting with them on a deeper level and understanding what it is that they want and need. It is about creating a relationship built on trust and mutual respect.
It also involves emotions, needs, and desires. To get consumers to have strong feeling about your product, you need to use images in your marketing and advertising.
Ad copy without images tends to be boring and unexciting. This also applies to text-only ads, blog posts, website pages, and so on.
Are you sure that your message is getting across to your intended audience, and leaving a lasting impact? Probably not.
That’s why you need images in your marketing. This guide provides an overview of the benefits of incorporating images into marketing campaigns, including suggestions for types of images to use and how/where to use them.
Benefits of Using Images in Marketing
Images are memorable.
We remember images we see more than we remember reading something. We remember more of what we see rather than what we hear.
Images communicate faster.
We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with advertisements. The average person sees over 5,000 ads a day. Images are important in marketing because they are processed more quickly. It takes readers about 10 seconds to process and decide on the value of the written text, and even more time to actually read it.
images have a mental and emotional impact that happens almost instantly
Images keep readers around.
Images encourage readers to stick around. Time reports that most people who visit websites or blogs only stay for a maximum of 15 seconds.
Images that are interesting and engaging can help to keep visitors on your pages for longer.
Images boost open and engagement rates.
If your content has either images that illustrate a text or just go with an article, readers will want to see what you’re talking about. Articles that contain images are viewed over 90% more than those without images. After conducting a study, it was found that press releases see a 45% increase in views when a photo or video is included.
The same goes for social media. Tweets with images are retweeted 1.5x more often than tweets without images, and Facebook posts with images get 2x more engagement than those without. Articles that feature images every 75 to 100 words were shared twice as much as articles with fewer images, according to BuzzSumo.
Images help make sales.
Although online shopping is more popular than ever, buyers still wonder what their product will look like when it arrives. Don’t you?
That’s why quality, accurate product photos are so important. Most consumers consider product image quality to be important when choosing and buying items. The majority of customers believe that product image quality is more important than product information, a detailed product description, or customer ratings and reviews.
Types of Marketing Images
There are several types of images you can use for marketing purposes, which can be obtained from various sources. Below we cover a handful of the most popular.
Stock Photos
The most convenient type of marketing image is a stock photo. You can find free and paid stock photos on a variety of sites. Pexels and Stocksnap.io are my two favorite free stock photo sites. Paid stock photos can be found on Shutterstock and Getty Images.
Here’s how to navigate the legality of stock photos:
- Creative Commons means an image can be used for free, and attribution is heavily recommended (if not required)
- Editorial use means an image can only be used for editorial purposes, not commercially such as with a product description or on a print ad
- Public domain means an image can be used however by whomever, and attribution is appreciated but not required
- Rights-managed means an image can only be used once per purchase (i.e. if you use it in a video, it can’t be used on a blog post)
- Royalty-free means an image can be used for any purpose but can’t be edited or resold
While it may be convenient to use stock photos, they don’t always accurately reflect your brand. I recommend taking some on-brand photos that you can reuse in your marketing and advertising efforts if you have the time and resources. Think about using stock photos, but only for your own use… With today’s technology, it’s easy to take high-quality pictures with your smartphone.
Branded Images or Graphics
Marketing images don’t always have to be real photography. Adding visual content to your writing can make it more engaging and help your readers understand your message. Images which are either animated or digitally designed are also known as “graphics.” Many companies make use of them to illustrate blog posts or to incorporate a piece of their brand into the written text.
There are many images that HubSpot has that don’t use actual photographs, but they are still able to be beneficial to pages or posts that contain a lot of text.
Graphic design software like Canva makes it easy to create graphics like this for free. Shifting to a more complex design might require an investment in professional software, such as Adobe InDesign or Photoshop. Canva is a great resource to start with, though.
Infographics
Infographics are images that use text and other information to create a visual representation of data or concepts. In other words, they tell a story or provide information using pictures and symbols.
Infographics increase web traffic by 12%. They also make life easier for your readers. The study showed that people who follow directions that have both text and illustrations do 323% better than those who only have text to follow.
An infographic is a graphical representation of data or information. It is a good way to accompany an in-depth blog post, how-to article, or important report because it provides a visual representation of the information in the text. There are various software options available that allow users to create infographics for free. Some examples include Canva, Venngage, and Piktochart.
GIFs
A GIF is an animated visual that features either moving parts of an image or a snapshot from a video, TV show, or movie. Although GIFs were invented in the 1980s, they have only recently become popular among brands and companies.
You can use GIFs in your marketing in a few different ways. In order to create an animated GIF, you can use a graphic or visual. There are a lot of tools that can help you do this cheaply or for free, even if you have no experience.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content is created by customers and shared or published online. This could include videos and images of your products or services. Since UGC is word-of-mouth marketing, it is effective in driving purchase decisions, which account for 50% of all marketing.
If you want more customer engagement, try using UGC, which stands for user-generated content. This involves your customers capturing images and visual content that you can then use. Many brands use user-generated content on their websites, social media, and even product photos because it is very authentic and reflects how products and brands are used in real life.
What is Product Information?
The data a company has about the products it manufactures and sells is product information. The product information includes the product’s technical specifications, size, material, weight, price, photos, videos, schematics, etc. This is the information that is used to help potential customers learn about the product and make a decision about whether or not to purchase it.
Why is Product Information Important?
When people are considering buying a product but are unsure about it, they will look up information about the product. They will want to see specific details about the product, such as the price, specifications, and images, as part of their research process to see if it can meet their needs.
If shoppers cannot find answers to their questions or the product information is inaccurate, they will view the shop as untrustworthy. If shoppers feel that a particular product or shop is not credible, they will find another product or shop to buy from. And that is the loss of a potential sale.
Do you have a solid foundation of product data to support all of these activities, before you decide to invest money in SEO, advertising, organic content promotion, or influencer deals? It is necessary to have good product data management so that team members can easily access information about the product.
The product information should be easily accessible and adaptable for different channels. If you don’t have a reliable database of product information, you will have to start from scratch every time you need to create new content.
You’ll need to come up with creative ideas, develop a content format, and make sure you don’t miss anything important about your product — and if you’re human like us, mistakes are hard to avoid.
The solution? Product Information Management can help take the stress out of creating product content. Instead of always starting with a blank page, use Product Information Management to help with the process.
Excellent Customer Experience Starts with Great Product Content
In brick-and-mortar stores, everything is pretty simple. Customers come in, look at the products and decide on the spot whether they want to buy them or not. This buying method is known as impulse buying.
We want to be able to get as much information as possible about a product when we’re shopping online so that we can make a decision about whether or not to buy it. The way we shop online is mainly influenced by how well a product is described and how clear the images are.
This point is illustrated by a McKinsey survey from 2020 which found that 56% of U.S. consumers consider complete product descriptions and accurate imagery to be important when shopping online.
Since online shoppers can’t examine products in person, they have to depend on product descriptions to make a buying decision.
In order to increase online sales, it is important to include all of the necessary product information that your shoppers will need. Here is how you can start:
Craft Unique and Original Product Content
The average consumer visits three websites before making a purchase. The more expensive the product is, the more time people spend comparing alternatives and merchants.
Many ecommerce stores use data and assets that are provided by vendors in order to save time. If they publish their products in bulk, they can save time, but if the product content on all platforms is identical, how can they differentiate themselves from competitors?
By crafting your own unique and original product content!
For the product description, highlight the product’s features and benefits. Talk to shoppers about how your products can help them solve problems or fulfill a need. Make your patients feel important by using language and a tone of voice that inspires confidence in them.
How about photos? Take multiple shots of the product from different angles. Plan an everyday object beside it to illustrate scale. Adding lifestyle images to your product pages can give shoppers a better sense of how the product would fit into their lives. This can be especially helpful for products that are difficult to visualize, like furniture or home decor.
If you create original product content for your online store, it will improve your ranking on Google, which will result in more organic traffic and potential sales.
If you have unique and interesting product content, it will leave a lasting impression on shoppers and they will be more likely to come back to your store.
It can take a lot of time to write content for your product. When you feel overwhelmed, you may need some inspiration, not just when you’re dealing with a lot of products! When times are tough, it’s reassuring to know that AI is making great progress, and that there are writing robots that can help content marketers. (See also: labeling products based on pictures using AI.)
You should use technology to deliver complete, unique, and engaging content that will make customers happy.
Work with High-Quality Images and Videos
There is no denying that images and videos are extremely powerful marketing tools. They help shoppers to form an immediate impression of your product, which is essential for developing a strong eCommerce brand.
Although you may put a lot of effort into your product pages, they may go to waste if they are of poor quality, for example if they are blurred or pixelated. This can result in shoppers losing interest immediately.
An image of high quality provides the potential buyer with a clear idea of what they will receive if they purchase the item. It gives the impression that the product is high quality, that the brand is professional, and that leaves a good impression on shoppers.
A low-quality image will not give shoppers confidence in the product or even the store. In other words, if a store doesn’t care enough to upload a good quality image, shoppers might think the store doesn’t care about product quality either.
This means that you should only use images and videos that are high quality and high resolution. The most important factor in an online sale, according to 90% of online buyers surveyed by Etsy, is photo quality.
B2B customers typically have a better understanding of what they need than B2C customers, and they are more tolerant of a poor user experience. But B2B customers are people, too. We as consumers are more likely to buy products that make us feel an emotion. You can achieve exponential growth in B2B simply by investing in high-quality content, such as videos, photos, and in-depth attributes. This will give your customers more than they are used to.