It is so true that a picture is worth a thousand words. Effective use of photos on your website can enhance the overall quality of your presentation to potential customers. Whether you buy photos or take them yourself, good, high quality photographs that speak directly to your products or services can not only increase sales, but enhance your overall business efforts.
Of course, it comes down to the effective use of photos in your marketing efforts that will help maximize your success. A good mix of stock photos and photographs that you have taken of your products and business can make a world of difference.
Tips for Using Photos in Marketing
Use Photos that Augment your Content:
Basically, photos can convey information in manner that is far quicker and more direct than text or audio. For example, in the medical industry photos of your awards, patients who approved of your services, virtual tours of the office and so forth can help your audience relate better to what you do. Photos that relate to what your business emphasizes will reinforce your brand as well as offer more direct information that customers can relate.
Consistent with Branding:
All the photos that you use on your website should be consistent with the purpose of your business. They should augment your branding and enhance your business in some manner. In addition, they need to be consistent in tone as well if you choose a vintage, modern or corporate look for example. Photos that are out of place will only confuse visitors who may develop a negative impression of your business.
Be Simple:
All too often, graphic designers will get carried away with Photoshop effects and fancy graphics when a simple, clean presentation will work much better. You don’t always have to Photoshop and quite often a simple, clear photograph will speak volumes to your company.
Don’t Forget the Technical Stuff: Photos do take up space on your website, so they will need to be optimized properly. While 300dpi for printed pictures is fine, 72dpi for web is recommended. By optimizing your photos, you’ll speed up the loading time of your website so customers will not have to wait as long. Plus, you should search engine optimize your photos as well, naming them with a keyword and placing an Alt Tag or alternate text that will appear if the viewer has images turned off of their browser.
Remember that you cannot just grab any old photo off the web because it may belong to someone else. The last thing you need to is owe photo royalty payments if you are using an image that does not belong to you.
The photos that you have taken for yourself need to be clear and of good color composition in order to work for your website. You can always buy photos from stock photo sites as well, such as Transform Design which offers a wealth of photographs perfect for many online businesses.
Do you use photos on your website? If so, what type of photos would you like to see sold by stock photograph companies that will enhance your business efforts?