Whoever came up with the phrase, “a picture’s worth a thousand words” knew what they were talking about. This is especially true when it comes to the marketing world. In every top marketing campaign, you can see the utilization of great images. We live in a visual world, so not just any image will do.
They need to be optimized for the web, and with the advent of GIFs and memes, a regular stock photo will not do. With content marketing being one of the successful trends of digital marketing in 2017, it’s best to start utilizing this strategy as soon as possible. Here’s how you can make the most of your images in your next marketing campaign.
Image Optimization
Optimizing your images makes your content much more searchable, with search engines reigning supreme in helping people find you. However, search engines need to find you first. By taking a few extra SEO steps with your content, you will make it much easier for machines and potential customers to see your images, which will ultimately drive up conversions.
First things first, your content needs to be original. Search engines always give priority to the original photo or graphic image, so if you decide to use a stock image, you can likely lead people to someone else’s site instead of your own. It’s also important that the images you use are relevant to what your site is about or what your content is describing.
Search engines determine relevancy be taking into account the words that surround the image as well as the image’s filename and alt text. That being said, the filename should be descriptive and the alt text even more so. Use keywords you’re trying to rank for to improve your standing in the search engine results page.
Your images should also be sized appropriately so that they do not affect load time. Long loading times are deemed low quality by search engines, so taking the few minutes to resize an image is well worth it.
GIFs
GIFs have taken over the internet and are looking to expand into marketing campaigns. GIFs are made from either multiple images stitched together or short, repeating video clips.
These animated shorts can easily be made through the use of an online GIF creator or even your own webcam. Once made, there are several ways to use GIFs in your marketing strategy:
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Story Time: GIFs are a great way to tell the story of your company. These clips are easy to consume and enjoyable to watch. In depth about sections are great, but if people can learn everything they need to know about a company in a few short (but interesting) videos, you are more likely to garner people's attention. GIFs can also be used to demonstrate how certain products work as well their different uses, making buyer’s remorse a less likely occurrence.
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Product Promotion: You can take product promotion one step further with GIFs by being able to highlight more features. Videos can only use so much camera time on a certain aspect of a product, while individual clips can let viewers take their time focusing on several important features you want to showcase.
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Social Media: Sometimes it can seem like an impossible feat to attract the attention of social media scrollers. However, GIFs break up much of the static content on social media and are more likely to cause further investigation from your target audience. If the GIF is interesting and funny enough, you have the chance of your clip being shared and reaching an even broader audience.
Video
Video marketing is an art in its own respect. This medium is a fantastic to use when you need more in depth content than a GIF can provide. Websites that use videos have been shown to have higher rates of customer engagement as well as conversions, especially when the videos are how-to in nature or include customer reviews.
The bottom line, though, is that the videos have to match the brand of your company. An incongruence between the video and the company’s brand image will cause confusion to potential customers and may push away possible conversions instead of promote interest.
Memes
Everyone loves a good meme, and marketers should capitalize on this. It’s fairly easy to acquire an image and add a funny caption to it. However, the real work comes in deciding if your niche is really appropriate for this kind of marketing material. First of all, you need to determine who your target audiences.
If your product or service is for younger or college aged individuals, then memes are definitely for you. This medium offers a unique way to spread positivity and separate yourself as different from other businesses. You can also create memes about your own company and form a customer community around them.
Infographics
If you have statistics and data that involve your company, product, or service, then infographics are the way to go. This medium is an excellent way of turning number heavy information into a visually pleasing and easy to read display. Your infographic is describing your brand, so make sure it looks like it can fit in the universe of your brand image.
Use fonts, colors, and a style that you use for your brand already. It also doesn’t hurt to brush up on your Photoshop and Illustrator skills to effectively use this marketing material if done yourself. Also make sure the data you're citing is accurate and from a reputable source and that the information is relevant to your company.
When sharing on social media, post a smaller image and include a link to the full size infographic to increase readability. Lastly, less is more. Don’t overwhelm people with too many graphics that they can no longer clearly follow the information that’s being provided.
Images can make or break a marketing campaign. With so many visual media to choose from, it can be hard to make a decision. However, if you research which marketing materials will fit the best with your company and who your target audience is, it’ll make the choice much easier. Remember, if an image is worth a thousand words, make sure that each one counts.