People are inherently visual beings and they are more likely to remember the stuff they see rather than the stuff they read. That’s why people prefer photos, infographics, and videos over just plain text. If your blog post or news article is long but lacks visual material, people will either skip it or just scan it for a few seconds and then move on. They need something to catch their attention and keep them interested. The good content strategy is important, but a good visual approach combined with useful and educating content will set you apart from the others. Designers usually make a mistake by randomly selecting few website images that go best with the brand. Content marketers focus too much on text (however, not saying that content isn’t relevant) and usually include a few less engaging images, leaving the reader wanting more.
Here is some advice for selecting the right website images that will make your visitors stay and potentially convert them to future customers.
Relevance
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The main thing you should keep in mind while choosing pictures for your site is the market of your business. The importance of knowing and understanding your product or service is crucial. To market your goods and service successfully, you must know your customers: who they are, what they do, what type of content they consume and where they spend most of their time.
Images represent your brand and who you are. You should choose images that go well with your mission – let images speak for you. Then, website visitors will begin to associate specific images with your brand.
If your website is dedicated to people that go through addiction treatment or are having mental health problems, calming images that show nature, landscapes, and the ocean would be a great addition for your website. When it comes to color, green is a good option. The color green is a color of nature and health, and it represents safety, progress, and stability.
Quality
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Once you’ve made a decision about what kind of images will fit your brand the best, it’s time to pick the specific images. Strive for quality, not quantity. Good quality images tell a story about your brand better than hundreds of words. Today, it is almost impossible to imagine websites without high-resolution images. High-resolution images will make any website look professional and attractive. Also, they get more views, keep visitors on the site longer and increase engagement. High-quality images are an indication of your effort, dedication, and knowledge. More importantly, it will make you look serious and thoughtful, which means that website visitors will be more likely to choose your product or service.
Originality
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Being original and different requires creativity and thinking in advance. Companies are borrowing each other’s ideas when it comes to website structure, content, and even visual material. If it’s working for them, shouldn’t it be working for us? Hardly. Someone else has already done it. Chances are, the customer has already seen that layout somewhere else.
Check Internet presentations of your competitors to get familiar with their visuals, but don’t copy them. Search for images that are authentic and rarely seen. Be inspired. Explore websites of professional photographers and stock photo websites. Authentic and original images are usually a little pricey, but consider that as an investment. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, but you have a very good idea, hire an experienced freelance photographer. Freelancer’s will often cut you a better deal and offer a potential ongoing business partner.
Product and service images
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Website images of products or services is a great solution when you want to inform your customers more about what you offer. Images of products or services can be helpful if a customer is indecisive or needs more information. If your product is strictly physical, always include few pictures on your website. We cannot imagine e-commerce sites without pictures of products.
However, if your offer some service, show a picture of people in action performing that service. Finally, if you offer software or any other application, include screenshots of the software or visual step-by-step manual. Don’t forget, infographics are always an option to highlight your success rates, interesting facts and more that a picture itself can’t demonstrate.
People
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It is established that photos of people on websites increase conversion and sales. When you’re deciding whether you want to purchase a product or service, the main factor in the decision-making process is trust. Have other people bought this product? Did they enjoy it?
It is psychologically proven that photos of humans increase trust. Human photos have a positive effect on the visitor’s first impression. Avoid using stock photos, because photos should be real. Visitors can easily detect if you’re using stock photos.
Feel free to put pictures of your team members on your website. While at work, take pictures of yourself and your co-workers in the weird and exciting situations. Those spontaneous embarrassing photos are even more trustworthy. Also, giving people an idea of who is serving them makes the experience more personable, which also increases sales and conversion rates.
Emotional appeal
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Have you ever wondered how people make an emotional purchase decision? Building emotions into your website should be your priority. An emotional appeal uses emotion rather than the logical and rational explanation to win an argument.
Emotion is often the most important part of the purchasing process. One of the great ways to do it is through website images. Different feelings and emotions can be expressed on photos. What kind of emotional response you want to evoke depends on your goal. Most businesses show images of happy, thrilled and satisfied people using their product or service. On the other hand, big high fashion companies usually show pictures of models who pose with serious and haughty facial expression. A non-profit organization that tackles issues like abuse usually have a website that shows pictures of sad and worrisome people feeling isolated and depressed.
The common goal of all these organizations is to evoke some emotion from their target audience.
Testing
Testing your visual content is crucial for your brand’s success. Finding the right visual content takes time and much effort. Change website images from time to time, measure results and make conclusions. And always learn from mistakes. Sometimes even minor changes can have a huge impact on your sales. Customers behavior changes drastically, so what works today may not work tomorrow. The good thing would be to test several different visual strategies for your website and then pick the one that brings the best performance.
