It has been said that your website and brand is only as good as your photography, and we couldn’t agree more. First impressions are lasting impressions, so make it count with visually appealing imagery.
Before your customer even considers reading your text, they are drawn firstly to your photography. Check out the picture above of a recent website we completed for Waterford Walls. The photography across this website is top notch, and definitely makes you want to take a look around their site.
Below are the reasons we believe that high quality photography is so important in all of your digital marketing efforts:
Grabs Attention
Humans are visual by nature, we are visual creatures. So much so, it is said that 90 percent of information transmitted to our brains is in fact visual. We respond to, and process visual data better than any other type of data. When someone skims a news feed, or a social media feed, an image attracts the human eye much more than a standalone block of text.
We are exposed to approx. 4,000 – 10,000 ads a day!! A crazy stat, we know. Of course, we can’t take notice of all of these ads, so we start a screening process to block out the majority of these ads. In fact, we only register about 100 of the ads that we see. So the question is, how can you stand out from the crowd and be seen by your customers? We feel the best starting point is strong imagery!
Increase Reach & Engagement
The clear directive is that using well-designed, compelling images in your social media publishing will greatly improve your readership, and help engage your audience. If users are interacting with your pictures, this will give you a much broader reach across your social media platform. With Facebook’s most recent algorithm, Facebook is now all about meaningful interactions and will reward your post with broader reach if people are interacting with it.
According to Buzzsumo, posts on Facebook, with a picture, attract 2.3 times more engagement than those with no images. I have no doubt that as we evolve, this figure is going to increase, and rapidly.
Good pictures provoke users to engage with your content, they capture users attention… think of yourself as a website or social media user. Do you pay attention to pictures that aren’t of high quality or are taken badly? I know I don’t! For this reason, it is easy to see the impact that visual content has on reach, engagement, and sales.
Builds Trust
If you saw a social media campaign or a website with poor quality pictures, would you be willing to buy their products or services? I know I would seek alternatives for a more aesthetically pleasing website. People will judge you on what you present to them. If your customers see low quality images, they are more than likely going to associate your brand with low quality products and services… not the ideal start with your potential new customer!
Improves Understanding of your Brand
High quality pictures can bring your brand to life. It can be difficult to describe the features of benefits of your product/service. This is especially true on social media platforms, where you are limited with the amount of information that people are willing to read.
By using imagery it allows you to make your product or service real. Why not take your product or service out of the box and show it in the working world?
Drives Sales
High quality images are the hook that catches a potential customer. It can make or break your online marketing efforts. As we said above, good photography will grab your customers attention, build trust, and increase engagement. What will this to? Increased sales!! We can’t stress the importance of good photography enough!
Professional Photography
We recommend investing some of your budget into getting professional photos taken. Although it is the more expensive option, it is definitely worth it. Your photos will be unique to you and your brand. It also allows you to highlight your USP’s and have some involvement in the pictures that are produced.
Stock imagery is also an option, but you are risking a lot of other businesses using the same image. However, we would definitely opt for this, over bad imagery that no one else will have!!
The imagery on your website is one of the most important factors to a good looking, engaging site. It is the aspect of your site that will encourage your customers to look through your site and learn more about you and what you can offer them. Get in touch with us today for any queries you have in relation to your photography and your website.
