Pictures and marketing, an important combination!

Pictures are a very important aspect of marketing. Because one pictures tells more than a thousand words. And what is marketing? Marketing is the communication of the values that your company has to offer, which hopefully makes people want to buy your product. So, if marketing is about communicating with your customers, and a picture is ideal to use for all sorts of communication, than you will understand why pictures and marketing are such a great combination. In this article you will read what the benefits of pictures are, and how you can use them in the best way.

Why are pictures so important? They are easy to understand

The answer to this question is really simple, people adore pictures. Humans are visual creatures. They are not created to read texts, looking at visuals is a more natural experience. That’s why people like it. So, when you have a lot of text, a picture pops out and grabs the attention.

A picture also tells you what a text is about, in a fast way. People need less than a second to understand what a picture means. They immediately understand which message you want to send. They understand the essence of a picture, faster than that of a text. Therefore, pictures are very useful to send a message. Make use of them!

Search engines like Google, and Social Media platforms understand human behavior. They know that people prefer pictures, or maybe video. Therefore, they reward companies that offer great pictures. So, using great pictures is helpful in numerous ways. It improves the customer experience. Furthermore, you get rewarded by all sorts of technical platforms. This way people will find you quicker, which leads to more website traffic and customers.

Pictures convey emotions

The best way to sell something is to appeal to the emotions of your customers. If you use pictures this becomes way easier. With a picture, you can tell an emotional story. Pictures convey emotions and all sorts of associations. It’s a lot more difficult to touch someone’s emotions using texts. If you make a picture with people on it who are laughing, people who will see this and will feel happy as well. That is because we are social creatures. However, you can also express and evoke emotions in other ways. When you have a picture of an enormous landscape, people will feel awe. There are also a lot of techniques that you can use to change the emotions associated with your pictures. You can for example change the lighting, to change the emotional feel. A light picture can feel happier and freer. However, a dark picture, can convey a cozy image. You always have to ask yourself, what brand image to I want to have, and how do the pictures that I take add to that.

Why are emotions zo useful? People are not so rational as one might think. A lot of decisions we don’t make because we think it’s right, most of the time we decide to do something because it feels right. So, if a picture makes people feel a certain way, they are more willing to take action.

You will not forget pictures

Another huge benefit of pictures, they are easy to remember. There has been a lot of research which tried to find out if pictures have a positive effect. The results are spectacular. It turns out that a text with a picture has 65 percent more change to be remembered. It is very important that people remember you. A lot of people need a lot of persuasion before they start buying one of your products. If they can’t remember you, it’s just like they see your advertisement for the first time. They will probably not respond positively.

Pictures cause customer engagement

Another benefit of pictures, they lead to more engagement. Research show that customers are more inclined to respond to you when you make use of pictures. Customer engagement is always positive because this leads to loyalty and you can also tell how people feel about your brand.

How do you create an excellent picture?

There are numerous ways that you can use to create an excellent picture. However, there are some essential techniques that you should always use. Firstly, you should always think about your brand. What is your brand image? What associations do you want people to have with your brand? Only if you know this, you can start creating the right pictures. Your pictures should convey these brand associations. This way you create a consistent and powerful brand. If you, for example, sell very luxurious cars, you want to have a luxurious brand image. You want people to have these associations with regard to your brand. You probably also want to have an adventurous and ‘cool’ image, if you sell sportscars. So, when you create a picture, for your website or for an advertisement, these associations should be present. How do you do this? You want to have a picture of high quality, because high quality represents luxury. Furthermore, you want to capture luxurious products, not just the car. Make sure that the people that drive the cars look rich, they preferably wear something like suits with ties. The composition can also be used to portray speed. For example, film the car from down below, and tilt the picture a little bit.

Be original!

Also important, use original pictures. People are overwhelmed by information. All day long, they see videos on their smartphone, watch pictures on Instagram and more. You have to stand out. They only way to do this, is to be original. Of course, this is easier than done. But, if you make your own pictures instead of pulling them from the internet, you are already more original than most other companies. Also, don’t copy other social media channels. Think of your own content. If you just copy ideas of others you will never be truly original. This only works if they way you do it is much better than your competitors but these can be difficult and expensive. It’s better to stand out and try things for yourself.