You only have 13 milliseconds to capture your target market’s attention online. How can you do that AT FIRST SIGHT? [Thursdays: FYO!]
Humans are naturally visual creatures.
According to an article from the US National Center for Biotechnology Information, as we learn to interact with the world using visual cues, our brains react to visual information in increasingly effective ways.
This is one of the reasons why using images for online marketing is important: They relay your brand’s uniqueness in an instant.
In fact, neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that it only takes a person 13 milliseconds to process an entire image.
This means…
If you want to connect with your target market “at first sight,” then captivating photos that represent your brand should be part of your digital marketing strategy list!
In other words, Photography Marketing!
―a marketing strategy that uses attention-grabbing images to advertise your brand online.
Why do you need to use images to promote your business in the first place?
It’s because photos are your first visual introduction to your prospects, customers, and business associates.
In a study conducted by cloud-based analytical platform BuzzSumo in 2015, articles that contained an image once every 75 to 100 words doubled their social media shares compared to articles with fewer or no photos at all.
Additionally, social media analytics company Buffer stated that in Twitter, tweets with images get 18% more clicks, 89% more likes, and 150% more retweets than plain text tweets…
… Facebook posts with photos get 53% more likes and 104% more comments than those that are just plain words…
… and web pages with captivating images record 94% more views than their text-only counterparts.
By looking at these numbers, you can see that photos do a good job in telling stories, conveying emotions, and compelling consumers to interact with a brand!
How can you use photography marketing in building your brand’s online presence?
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By getting creative with your brand’s photos.
While using images in marketing are common among different brands nowadays, you have to find a way to stand out in the online marketplace.
Don’t just take a photo of your products, office, or staff just for the sake of posting pictures online. That won’t do the trick!
Various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. are popular with lots of consumers across the globe, providing businesses with a lot of opportunities to tell compelling stories and establish relationships.
Use these platforms strategically to connect with online users through attention-grabbing photos!
If your target market visits your website or social media pages and sees that your images are low resolution and not appealing, they might lose interest with your brand and jump to another website or check out another business on social media.
To prevent that scenario from happening, put a style to your photos and give viewers another reason to click, like, share, and talk about your brand online.
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By communicating your brand’s identity through images.
In using photography marketing, one of the questions you have to keep in mind is this:
“Does the style of the photos I post online complement my brand’s identity?”
It’s important that in utilizing photos to build your brand’s online presence, you also remain consistent with the nature of your business.
If you’re positioning your brand as a fun and friendly enterprise, then you have to make sure your photos reflect these characteristics. Go for vibrant images that help create a lively online presence!
Your business’ attributes will guide you towards a certain visual style.
By being consistent with your branding, you’ll have a higher chance of communicating with your target market and connecting with them.
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By personalizing and humanizing your brand using pictures.
Sharing stories is one of the effective ways to make your target market want to buy your products or services.
One of the things you can use to tell stories about your business?
Photos!
Examples:
– Captivating photos of your products or services.
– Pictures of a staff event.
– Images of your brand’s Christmas party or other holiday gatherings.
All these can do wonders for your business’ online presence!
By sharing good quality images on your website, blog, or social media pages, you personalize and humanize your brand.
Consider the ways you and your team can interact with your target market through photos. Illustrate the positive impacts your brand has on your lives.
By doing so, consumers will want to be a part of that too and engage with your business through likes, shares, comments, etc.
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By showcasing your brand’s originality through photos.
In other words, avoid using stock photos as much as you can.
While these images are of good quality, that doesn’t mean you should just rely on them and not exert effort in producing your brand’s own photos, designs, or layouts.
The photography you use in digital marketing should be about YOU, your BUSINESS, and your PRODUCTS or SERVICES.
It should give consumers a peek into your brand’s world. As opposed to simply using stock photos, having your own images will help you establish your brand’s authenticity online.
Not just that!
Through original photos, you’ll also be able to stand out from other businesses and show your target market what your brand really is like.
Tip: If your marketing budget allows, you may want to hire a professional photographer to make sure the images you post on your brand’s online channels are of good quality.
Global coffee chain Starbucks is one of the brands that creatively use photography in online marketing.
While the company is known for selling different coffee products, Starbucks positions itself as a brand that sells more than that on social media.
By using photography marketing on its social media pages, the company communicates with consumers that there’s also a lifestyle, story, and aspiration behind its products!
See how captivating and appealing Starbucks’ posts are?
Through vibrant images, the brand is able to spark conversations with consumers.
Aside from that, Starbucks also encourages customers to share a photo of their coffee on social media and tag the brand so it can like, comment, and share the user-generated content.
This creative use of photography enabled the brand to engage with its target market.
As of now, Starbucks has a total of 35 million followers on Facebook, 18 million followers on Instagram, and 11 million followers on Twitter.
Imagine how far the brand’s reach can be with just a single post!
Plus, followers might also share these visual content on their own social media, which means another set of online users reached.
That really gives Starbucks an edge in using photography marketing!
Just like Starbucks, you can also be creative in advertising your products and establishing your brand’s online presence through photos.
Depending on the industry where your business operates, you may use either of the following:
- Product Photography
- Fashion Photography
- E-Commerce Photography
- Food Photography
- Lifestyle Photography
- Travel Photography
… and other types of photography that’s available!
Using images in advertising is a key to building and marketing your brand online.
Focus on your business’ characteristics and niche to craft a unique and engaging visual campaign.
In summary, use photos in your digital marketing to:
- Be creative
- Communicate your brand’s identity
- Personalize and humanize your brand
- Be original
- Establish your brand’s online presence
With high quality and creative images, you’re guaranteed to capture the interest of your target market and give them a brand to talk about.
Consider photography marketing in promoting your business online and let your pictures speak a thousand words!
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Thursdays: FYO! Find You Optimization”
Why should you stop thinking SEO and start thinking FYO?
We’re not saying that you should abandon Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Don’t get us wrong, of course, we know this is something very important, especially in today’s digital marketing age.
The internet landscape is vast, and a world of its own. You really need to distinguish yourself and make your brand/company/website known and easily searchable.
Better yet, get to the top of page one for Top Results on Google or any other search engine.
However, what is the purpose of SEO? It’s that customers Find You!
That’s what matters. So, while SEO is one factor of FYO… it really is only one, and we ought not to abandon all the myriad of ways digitally and offline for improving your FYO.
How can we look at this from a different and better perspective?
Let’s say you have it in the bag! You and your team are experts in SEO. Awesome. But did you ever wonder what else you could do to push it further and give your SEO skills a boost?
FYO! Find You Optimization!
You need your target audience to FIND YOU—your brand, product, service, or offer. This is SEO plus other tools that increase visibility online (and offline).
Every Thursday, we publish content on how you can get your target market to find you, beyond the typical “type and search.” There are other things you can do along with your SEO to give your online advertising process a boost.
Try considering other tactics beyond it—WOMO (Word Of Mouth Optimization), RO (Referral Optimization), and “All-Other-Means-Of-Getting-Your-Target-Market-To-Find-You” Optimization (AOMOGYTMTFY, if you’d like a long acronym).
Part of a great marketing strategy is knowing how to adapt new methods and make use of different types of marketing and promotion that best fit your business goals and which give you the results you want.
Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Thursday’s FYO!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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