Great marketing and advertising strategies are all about evoking emotions, desires and some strong “I want me one of that” moments in people. A great ad will definitely have persuasive text and some brilliant pictures to lure customers. Marketing image is like the garnishing on a dish which tempts you and beckons you to taste the dish.
The present era of digital marketing relies heavily on the use of images in their articles and advertisements. Viewer engagement increases by 94% when images are included in the digital marketing strategy. Online ads have just the 2-3 opening seconds in which to grab attention of a potential customer. A powerful or captivating picture is vital to capture interest of your potential customer and make them pause to view your ad rather than just scrolling through.
To exist online, you need to use relevant marketing images to increase brand awareness, viewer engagement and increase conversion rate in your favour. A convincing image can make your advertising campaign a major hit.
Why Use Pictures/Images
Headlines and text are important in advertising. However, a picture grabs attention swiftly and is more easily devoured. Brand recall is also higher with the use of marketing images.
Timeless and true – A picture speaks a thousand words! Research shows that the best Facebook ads which see 84% more click-throughs all carry effective images. Also, when you add a photo URL to a tweet, retweets are boosted by 35%.
Images encourage a clear visualization of the product or service being advertised. They help to boost sales with an accurate picture of the product and a need being fulfilled by a service.
Sparks brand desire. Visuals showcasing products and experiences ignite a similar desire in viewers to possess and experience your product or service.
Digital advertising space is costly and you have but a few seconds to get the interest of a potential customer and stir emotions and need. A beautiful and relevant picture is the temptress that hooks their attention.
Why Social Media Marketing Images Work
Emotional impact of a relevant image in the right context and setting is almost instantaneous. Vision is a primary sense and half the human brain works on vision. It only takes the brain 150 milliseconds to absorb an image and only 100 milliseconds to process its meaning and retains 80% of what we see. This means that the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text. You really need not be a math genius to understand these numbers!!
Images use color. Color evokes moods. Color brings to surface many emotions. Color increases attention and recall by almost 82%. The psychology of colors says that Red can help you stand out, increase urgency and even stimulate appetite. Blue implies trust and reliability.
Images are self-explanatory and simple. It is easy to assimilate information when pictures are used. That is probably why road signs use images and not lengthy text. One glance as you are speeding along the road and you understand what the road sign is telling you.
Memory is tied to images. Recall or remembering is almost always related to visuals. Pictorial superiority Effect says that when text is presented with relevant images, we are 65% more likely to remember it.
A creative ad style will undoubtedly help scale the sales of your consumer goods online. If you wish your ads performed better, netted more sales, and drove more engagement, you need to create ads that speak to the specific platform that you are on and stand out.
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Snapchat, Tumblr, are some platforms that work well with image creatives. Check out what ads your competitors are coming out with, take notes and then go ten up on their strategy and create better, different and unique ads. Remember the adage, pioneers get slaughtered and the settlers prosper. Therefore, be a settler.
What is the Ideal Picture to Get Best Conversion Rate?
Okay, we now know that a picture carries immense weight in digital advertising. Does this mean that a picture of the sweetest baby in the world can sell a car? Hold your breath, it can! If the contrast is made interesting, relevant, and it is well placed, it will surely work. The very uniqueness of this idea will grab and hold attention of the viewer, even before the further creativity of the ad comes into play.
Clever use of well placed, alluring images drive interest, encourage social shares and win customers. It improves your click through rate (CTR) which is essential for your price per click (PPC).
What Constitutes a Stunning Image?
An ideal balance should exist between the subject, correct composition, quality of lighting and use of color. The actual shoot, the complexity of the shoot and the angles used in photography are all essentials of a great image. The most effective images are also those that have originality, speak passionately with the viewer and deliver creativity.
Types of Marketing Images
Infographics: Reports, blog posts, how to articles, can successfully use infographics. An infographic uses a combination of text and illustrated images to explain concepts, statistics and to simplify information. Information is broken down into digestible format in a fun and simple way. Infographics educate and it is easier to follow directions when text is accompanied by clear illustrations.
Piktochart, Canva and Venngage are some of the popular software which can help you create infographics for free.
Product Images: Accurate and high-resolution product images enable consumers to visualize and gauge the product well. Cut out images of shots taken from various angles give an almost lifelike feel to product and are quite popular.
When combined with shots of the products being used in real life situations by real people, they evoke a powerful response in the mind of the viewer.
GIFS: An animated visual or a moving image from a video or movie is a GIF. GIFs can either be customized through sites like GIFYT or VideoScribe to suit your message, or you can use one from an existing GIF bank like GIPHY.
Memes: A meme is “a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users”. An effective meme combines a right image with an apt slogan. Memes are a rage and an extremely cool way to share humorous content online.
Stock Images: Convenience, lack of resources and a small budget are the usual reasons for resorting to the use of stock photos. Many companies today are profitably using stock photos that they find on sites like Shutterstock to create their ads because it is an affordable way to create images without doing photo shoots.
Stock images have the drawback of being cheap, contrived and often used by many brands before you. The stock pictures available to you may not depict your product or brand accurately.
User Generated Content (UGC): Any kind of content – text, videos and images – created, shared and published by people, is loosely termed as user generated content or UGC. UGC are powerful social media marketing images and drive about 50% of purchase decisions.
How to Add UGC in Social Media Marketing
Social Media Platforms: Posts on social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are image heavy. Some of the best Facebook ads also rely heavily on images. It has been observed that most Facebook ads that convert, use UGC to optimum effect.
Different networks recommend different image dimensions. Hence, care should be taken while sizing images for social media sites.
Blog Post and Article Images: Traditionally, blog posts and articles are text based. Some images are added to break the monotony and tedium of lengthy textual content. This makes it more interesting for the reader, engages him and illustrates the topic of the article.
Infographics, cover images, product images and screenshots are some of the visuals that work well with blog posts and articles.
Email Images/Solo Ads: Emails are an effective tool to nurture leads and then convert them into customers. Solo ads are advertisements on made on an email list which is not your own but belongs to somebody else. It is a kind of rented email list where you can do targeted promotions of your brand.
Images help with emails and solo ads that convert. Fun GIFs, product images, memes and lifestyle pictures are some of the best visuals with which to get the person open your email and then continue to read on about your offer.
Why Use User Generated Images
Stock photos are boring. In a market inundated with advertisements vying to engage the viewer, stock photos inspire resistance. ‘Been there, seen that’ feelings are evoked as stock photos have probably been used by thousands of brands before you.
Shutterstock, the most popular online site for stock photos, has 1.4 million users. Imagine using the same set of images that 1.4 million marketers are already using. It defeats the very purpose of advertising – to be different from the crowd and to be noticed.
Brands are known to be selfish. The authenticity of the content they put out is viewed with suspicion at least 50% of the time. Consumers perceive UGC as authentic at least 2.4 more times.
UGC works as a recommendation and builds trust. People look for reviews, testimonials and pictures shared online. This provides them with social proof before they decide to try the brand themselves. UGC is unbiased and without ulterior motives and this strikes a chord with consumers.
80% of people make purchasing decisions based on UGC. Sharing and flaunting associations with brands and products on social media profiles and stories, sooner or later, sways people into walk the same path.
UGC is economical and helps to stretch a small marketing budget. It is a cost-effective way of acquiring authentic and impactful photographs and other visuals.
User generated photos humanizes your brand because they are original, real, authentic and trustworthy. Click through rates, which every business strives for, see a three-fold increase on using UGC.
Tips to Optimise UGC at Minimal Cost
Many creative directors are doing a fantastic job of creating high quality stock style photos for their brand. However, this is an expensive process.
We, at ATTN Agency, have a very unique strategy that we like to deploy on all image platforms. We prefer to look for interesting and out-of-the-box user-generated content and use that to make ads. UGC is an affordable way to get content and a way to break through the noise in a image heavy digital advertising medium.
We find that blurry, uneven images, or images showing a lot of movement or having some mystery or action, get much better engagement. People tend to stop or pause in their scroll because they might think that they know that person. It captures attention they invariably give a second look and ask, "Do I know them?"
Once they see the shoe, coat or whatever it was that triggered recognition, then they look up at the handle. It is then that they realize that it is an ad.
The ad so far has already got their attention. It has got them intrigued by what they see. They have paused and seen your brand. They may or may not have engaged with the brand but it will have hooked a tiny place in their memory.
Reach out directly to people who own the pictures that interest you and say, "Hey, we love this picture. We would love to promote it. Is it okay with you if use it in an ad?” 99% of them will agree and feel honoured to turn it over to you at no cost.
Even influencers, are happy to have you promote a picture in an ad. Most times they will not expect any money. In the rare case when they ask to be paid, just pay them a nominal amount like $50 or $70 and they will give you permission. Needless to say, it will be much cheaper than having a photo shoot with professional actors, photographer, equipment, location, etc.
Undoubtedly, these pictures will lack high quality image. It will not give pristine, perfect images but it will showcase that real people do buy your brand and use it.
An ideal balance would be to have a dynamic campaign, with many high quality, perfect photos. This can be a part of the remarketing campaign so people are not just seeing user generated content and engaging with it, but now they are also getting hit with really high quality, cool creatives that you've put together. This will establish a premium brand in their mind. They will realize that the brand is real, genuine and trustworthy because real people like them are buying.
Any campaign with UGC definitely needs to be split test. Split testing is the best way to boost conversions. Marketers should compare two different versions of the same image to determine which gets a better click through rate. Ideally, to split test there should be only one difference in the two images so that you can know the reason behind the change in the performance level.
You need to find which image and what kind of image which performs best. In the practical world, a set of variations will be made and the split test done. Find the winner based on the test and then proceed with it in your campaign, to succeed.