How and why, you should use photography and images in your advertising and marketing to engage and inspire your audience.
Think of the most powerful photographic images and logos that you have ever seen next to adverts. My bet is that you could easily list at least ten of them!
Now can you remember the last time that you saw an advert without an image? That’s a bit harder, isn’t it? They are out there but they are rare, in fact images have been used alongside persuasive texts for over 100 years now.
The statistics show that articles and media with images get 94% more views and that 60% of customers are more likely to contact a business if the information that they provide is accompanied by a related image.
The key here is balance and not overloading your leaflet with images-you want to enhance your information and entice your customers and not present them with a photo album.
To start with have a look at some other leaflets within your industry. Which images work well with the text? Contrastingly, think about which images you would change or not use and why. List down all of the images that you could use that would connect to your product and your customers. It could be that you already have some, already taken. Now that you have researched other similar leaflets think about what you would do if you had to retake that picture. Whatever your service or industry think about light and bright colours that symbolise positivity, happiness and ease of use and contact to you. You might want to refer back to our previous blog about the colour use within your leaflet to remind yourself of the key messages that certain colour’s give to your customers.
The best images illustrate both to the product and service that you are offering whilst also giving your customer a positive feeling. We have all heard the saying that ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, and you will find that a carefully selected image could mean less text for your customer and a stronger, streamlined and more memorable image being implanted in their recent memories.
Any image that will cause your customer to feel in some way is good. Think about the following:
- Using compare and contrast photos to make you customer want the preferable outcome that comes from using your service.
- Taking a picture of your product in the best place possible to show it being used and to show what the product does and how easy it is to use.
- Taking real-life (not staged) pictures of your product or service in use will show your customer that you are confident and take pride in your work.
- Don’t forget to include an image of your company logo too!
If you are not confident about taking your own photos then don’t worry you are able to access a plethora of copywrite free images, just have a look online at the iStock, Shutterstock and Adobe stock photo websites but note that the most successful images will be authentic, real life images of your product or service.
Happy snapping!