When you’re creating marketing or visual content, the quality of your images can make all the difference.
Poorly chosen images can hurt your brand and make it seem unprofessional. However, with some thought and planning, you can choose images to help you achieve your marketing goals.
This article will discuss the dos and don’ts of choosing images for your marketing content.
Visual Marketing Statistics
Before we get into how to choose the perfect images for your marketing content, let’s look at some statistics that show how important visual content is in today’s marketing environment.
Did you know the following?
- Adding images to your posts will result in a staggering 650% more engagement than having text only.
- According to studies, people are 85% more likely to buy a product or utilize a service after watching a video about the said product or service.
WIth these stats in mind, it’s pretty clear how important visuals are for marketing.
How to Choose the Right Images (The Dos)
It’s important to spend time selecting the right images for your marketing content.
Here are 5 steps to help you choose the best images:
- Step 1: Understand your audience
- Step 2: Outline your brand guidelines
- Step 3: Define a marketing goal
- Step 4: Don’t be afraid to be out there
- Step 5: Get down with colors
Let’s go over each step to give you a better idea of how to choose marketing images.
Step 1: Understand Your Audience
When it comes to choosing the right images for your website, blog, or social media post, the most important thing to remember is to understand your audience. What are they interested in? What do they want to see?
If you’re not sure what your audience wants, do some research.
Try reading comments on your social media posts or blog articles to get an idea of what people are talking about.
Or, use a tool like Google Trends to see what topics are being searched for more frequently.
Once you have a good idea of what your audience is interested in, you can start thinking about which images to use.
For example, if you know that your audience is interested in travel, you might want to use images of beautiful landscapes or interesting cultures from a site such as Africa-images.com. If your audience is mostly made up of business professionals, you might want to use images of successful people or cutting-edge technology.
The most important thing is to be mindful of your audience and choose images that will interest and engage them.
Step 2: Outline Your Brand Guidelines
In order to create an effective and cohesive visual branding system, it is important to develop brand guidelines. Brand guidelines are a set of rules that dictate how all visual elements associated with your brand should be used.
They can include information on logo usage, color palette, typography, and photography style.
When creating your brand guidelines, it is important to keep the following in mind:
- Keep it simple
- Identifying your target audience
- Stay true to your brand identity
- Be consistent
By keeping these points in mind, you can create a set of brand guidelines that will help ensure your images are consistent and cohesive.
Step 3: Define a Marketing Goal
When it comes to choosing images for your marketing, it’s important to have a goal in mind. What are you trying to achieve with your visuals? Are you trying to build brand awareness, generate leads, or sell products?
Once you have a goal in mind, you can start thinking about the types of images that will help you achieve it.
If you’re trying to improve brand awareness, you’ll want to use images that are eye-catching and help people learn more about your company.
If the goal is to generate leads, you’ll want to use images that are relevant to your audience and that make it easy for people to learn more about your products or services.
If you want to sell products, you’ll want to use images that are high-quality and help people see what your products look like.
When choosing images for your marketing, it’s important to keep your goals in mind and choose visuals that will help you achieve them.
Step 4: Don’t Be Afraid To Be Out There
When looking for images to use in your work, don’t be afraid to be out there. Be creative, and search for images that are interesting and unique. Don’t be afraid to get a little bit wacky, or to experiment with different styles.
The best way to find good images is to simply explore the internet. There are endless resources out there, and you’re sure to find something that catches your eye.
However, it’s important to be careful when using images from the internet. Make sure you have the rights to use them, and that they are appropriate for your project.
Step 5: Get Down With Colors
When it comes to colors, there are no hard-and-fast rules. But there are a few things to keep in mind when choosing colors for your images.
First, you’ll want to think about what mood you want to convey. Warm colors like reds and oranges tend to evoke feelings of excitement or happiness, while cool colors like blues and greens are more calming.
You’ll also want to consider the context of your image. If you’re using an image on a website, for example, you’ll want to choose a color that matches the site’s overall design.
Make sure the colors complement each other. Two clashing colors can be jarring and visually unpleasant.
There’s no wrong way to choose colors – the key is to find combinations that work well together and create the desired mood or effect.
Things To Avoid When Choosing Marketing Images (The Donts)
We’ve gone through the do’s of how to choose the perfect marketing images, but what about the dont’s?
Here are a few things to avoid when choosing images for your marketing materials:
- Not knowing Your brand story
- Not understanding who you’re marketing to
- Not considering formatting/platforms
- Not leveraging search (SEO)
Not Knowing Your Brand Story
One of the biggest DON’Ts in choosing marketing images is not knowing your brand story.
In order to create a powerful and effective visual representation of your company, you need to know who you are, what you stand for, and what makes you unique.
If you can’t articulate these things succinctly, then your marketing images will likely be confusing or inconsistent.
Not Understanding Who You’re Marketing To
When it comes to choosing marketing images, it’s important to keep in mind who your target audience is. If you don’t understand who you’re marketing to, you might end up choosing images that are irrelevant or even off-putting to your customers.
Here are a few things to avoid when choosing marketing images:
1. Choosing irrelevant or off-putting images
2. Failing to consider the context of your image
3. Ignoring the power of visuals
4. Relying too heavily on stock photos
Not Considering Formatting/Platforms
When selecting an image for your marketing campaign, be sure to take into account the formatting and platforms you will be using. For example, if you are using a social media platform that requires a square image, make sure to crop your photo accordingly. If you are using a banner ad, make sure the dimensions of the image are appropriate.
Additionally, consider the file type of your image. JPEGs are generally smaller in file size than PNGs, so they are ideal for use online. If you need a high-resolution image, however, PNG is the better option.
Finally, always test your images before you launch your campaign. Make sure they are displaying correctly and that they are loading quickly. Nobody wants to wait long for an image to load!
Not Leveraging Search (SEO)
When it comes to choosing marketing images, it is important to avoid things that will hurt your efforts rather than help them. One such thing is not leveraging search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is the process of improving the ranking of your website on search engines. The higher your ranking, the more likely people are to find your website.
There are a number of ways to improve your
Show Us Some Examples in the Comments!
Now that we have gone through the dos and don’ts of how to choose the perfect images for your marketing content, why not show us some examples in the comments?
Take a photo or screenshot of how you used an image in your own marketing campaign and let us know how it worked out.
