In today’s cluttered digital marketplace, it’s getting harder and harder to attract and maintain your readers’ attention. What people are looking for now is authenticity. People want something that’s genuinely relevant to them, and absolutely avoid any financially driven content. And one proven way to achieve relevant authenticity is through storytelling. Stories draw your readers’ attention and nothing tells a good brief story like smart use of styled stock photography for business.
Storytelling is simply translating your marketing content in a quicker, relatable and entertaining way. And a good photo breaks through all the noise and is able to grab your reader’s attention against all the other competing voices.
Satisfying a Visual Culture
A photo will break or make your marketing campaign. Statistics have shown that articles or content with relevant photos have 94% more view compared to content without. But it’s not enough to just stop at having photos, high quality photos are the ones that will get you more eye balls, 67% of consumers say that the quality of your photos matters a lot as they speak louder about the quality of your product or service.
This applies to all your content across the web, be it social media, blogs or just the business website. A good image will get more shares, likes or retweets.
With all this said, it’s obvious to anyone that has used styled stock photography that finding a perfect relevant image that will resonate with your readers or audience is not an easy task. However by the end of this article, you will definitely be better placed to maximize these stock photo libraries.
Source: Jeff Bullas
So, How Does Stock Photography for Business Work?
Decent photos come at a slight cost and require a good talent as well, but at times the money or the talent may not be available, and this should not stop anyone from getting some decent pictures to complete their content. This is where styled stock photography comes into play.
Stock photos are simply ready to use pictures that are found on specific stock photography sites. Some may be free, but the best quality photos have to be purchased.
How this is made possible? through collaboration between authors or stock photographers and stock photography businesses. The authors submit their original images, illustrations or video clips to the agencies; the agencies display this content on a digital catalogue from where buyers can select the photos that best suit their needs. Once the photos are sold, this revenue is shared with the author or photographer that owns it.
Royalty free images to use are available on many sites such as Pixabay or Unsplash.
Important Terms to Understand
As said above, this article is to help you understand all you have to know about using stock photography for business. So, here are some key terms to understand:
i. Rights Managed
This is a one-time charge for use of a picture that is going to be used only once. If the user is going to want it again for another project, a fresh licensing has to be issued.
ii. Royalty Free
Unlike how most people assume that royalty free means free photos, it actually means that once you buy the photos, you’re free to use them on more than one project. (e.g. you can use it on a banner campaign as well as a brochure). Royalty free photos have fewer restrictions compared to rights managed.
iii. Creative Commons
These types of stock photos allow you to use them in any manner that you want, as many times as you may want. Be it personal or commercial, they have absolutely no restrictions; however, attributing the owner is always encouraged and appreciated.
iv. Attribution
In simplest terms, this means giving credit. These are styled stock photos free of charge, with no licensing whatsoever, you’re only required to give credit to the creator of the image and acknowledge the source.
When Can Stock Photos Work for You?
Time and money are the main determiners of whether you want to use styled stock photos or not. You may be short of time in terms of getting a photographer, location and even editing time, so you go straight to the ready to use photos where you’ll only need seconds to download and use.
On the other hand you may not have the budget for the said requirements of hiring a professional photographer, so it would be cheaper to buy or even get them for free!
What Are the Advantages of Using Styled Stock Photography for Business?
a. Saves You Time!
Would you have time for a styled photo shoot each time you needed an image to boost your content? Most people wouldn’t, but stock photo collections make it easy for you by putting together millions of professional photos in one catalogue and all you need to do is spare a few minutes to search and download. That’s it.
b. Boosts Your Professionalism and Creates a Cohesive Brand
Give your content legitimacy by utilizing the professionally created commercial use stock photos that are often done with the business aspect in mind. You can strategically pick images that blend well with your logo and brand color; this consistency builds color cohesion in all your posts and blogs and helps your brand stand out at all times.
c. Scales Up Your Sales
People cannot buy something they can’t visualize. Marketing went visual centuries ago, and this has not changed. Images show your viewers that you’re a real business and you’re excited to interact with them. Use of quality images captures their attention and this promotes your sales because you have given them a genuine feel of possibilities.
d. Saves You Dough
By any means if you could afford a shoot each time you needed an image then it could be great! However professional photographers don’t come cheap. Styled stock photos on the other hand come in very cheap or even free (but of course, free means free and one cannot expect top notch quality in this case). And with the myriad of platforms that offer millions of photos, you are guaranteed to find great quality photos that will almost appear custom made.
So, having understood what stock photos are about and why they are a great idea, let’s dig deeper in this styled stock photography tutorial and find out what to look for in a stock photos catalogue.
What to Look for in a Good Stock Photography
i. Brand Blending
The first question you should ask yourself when picking an image is does it fit within your brand voice and look? As said earlier, the pictures you pick must have the same color scheme as your brand colors.
But it’s not only about colors; your images must bring out the emotions your brand is all about. It must portray what you represent as a brand, what you believe in and what values you uphold. For instance, if your brand is about a vegan lifestyle, you cannot use photos of grilled chicken laced with honey or a happy person enjoying a medium rear beef steak. No matter how good the images may be, they will only give a very conflicting message. So pick pictures that blend with your brand.
ii. Your Pictures Must Relate to Your Content
This is a key component for your digital marketing. You have probably spent a good amount of time and effort creating stellar content that scores high on SEO. Your images therefore must do the same job, they must first tell the same story your content is saying, and secondly they must be search engine friendly. This means the description you give them must go along with the content SEO for Google to be able to pick them up easily due to the extra index-able content given, therefore raising your ranking.
So you see how it’s more than just looking good.
iii. Must Resonate with Your Target Audience
Hopefully by now you know that understanding your audience is the first step in content creation. This is what will guide you not only on the type of content you create, but also on the images you use. They must be the kind that elicits a certain specific tone that gets your audience to node and agree with you.
They need to feel that you understand them; they need to trust you and this is what builds loyalty and passion for your brand. You can achieve this by picking images that are specific on the topic, emotional and also humorous.
iv. Must Be Editable
Generally most stock photo agencies will allow you to edit the photos; however, it’s always advisable to check the licensing agreement before you start retouching or even buying them. It’s also very important to note that these license agreements vary from agency to agency. So read through it to see if there are any restrictions. It’s also key to note that what an agency may consider as: “editorial” may vary from agency to agency, so understand what your agency says about this.
What you need is a photo that you can alter in terms of colors, compress, resize and other similar things.
Finally, you cannot edit a styled stock photo and make is obscene or immoral or defamatory. Don’t get sued.
Having seen what to look for when picking styled stock photos, how then can you use them effectively?
How to Effectively Use Stock Photography for Business
1. Give an Authentic Feel
As said earlier, authenticity builds a connection between you and your audience. Thus, use images that will seem as authentic as possible so that they can tell the story you want to illustrate. Authenticity brings out emotions in people, they see themselves or can easily relate with your content. This is what you should be looking for. How do you give that authentic impression?
· Use images that elicit certain emotions
· Use images with certain relevant actions with scenes that users can relate to
· Don’t use obviously staged photos
· Consider the editor’s picks or collection
· Try and depict the actual experience
2. Un-stock Your Styled Stock Photos. Customize Them
Can you use stock photos on Instagram? Why not? It’s possible to find a perfect image for your content, but then the color may not blend with your brand, so what do you do? Customize it. Remember this whole process is about making visuals enhance your story, in your way but for your audience. So, here are a few ways you can un-stock your stock photography for business to make it more like your brand.
· Try the black and white effect; you’ll be surprised at how it can turn your stock photo into elegance in a split second. You can also overlay a different color to blend in with your brand.
· Alter the orientation by zooming, rotating, cropping or flipping the image. This repurposing will give it an original feel. This works best if the image is high resolution.
· Add text overlay to give it more intention; the text can be your content title, testimonials or relevant quotes. Make it more recognizable that when anyone sees it anywhere they can quickly associate it with your brand.
Extra Tip
There are various methods you can use to customize your styled stock photos such as Adobe Photoshop or various tools that are free on the internet like Canva or DesignWizard. The important factor is to be as consistent as possible. Make it easy by creating templates that comprise your style and colors.
Source: Youtube
3. Remember It’s All About Your Audience
All elements in your website must work together in order for you to reach your goal. When working with images, it’s easy to pick the ones that you like as opposed to what your audience might want to see. Your approach should have your audience in mind, assuming you already know who your audience is and what they’re looking for. Consider the following:
a. Does this image enhance my message or is it a complete distraction?
b. Does it help my readers understand my message?
c. Am I truly excited about this image or does it add value?
The effectiveness of your campaign or message will highly be affected by your images. Don’t populate your blog or website with random images just because you find them cute, be strategic on the image to use and where to place it. If for instance you want to boost sales, use real images of happy customers. You can couple this with a testimonial to give that authentic feel.
4. Use High Quality Images – Resolution and Clarity
As earlier indicated, customizing your stock photos is one way to ensure effectiveness, but for this to be achievable, they need to be of high resolution and clarity. Unsplash and Pixabay are good sites that offer high resolution styled stock photos. But these are free collections and everyone uses them, so you will see these photos literally everywhere.
Avoid very tiny images where a reader has to squint or zoom in to be able to see. Also, avoid blurry images. Here’s why you need high quality stock photos:
· They will boost engagement because users will spend a little more time on your site
· You’ll get more views and this will increase your chances of conversions
· You’ll have lower bounce rate because great images enhance on the quality of your service or product
· You are more likely to create loyalty because you look authentic.
5. Test Your Images
Just like most elements that you’re going to use on your site, images too have to be tested to find out which is their effectiveness. Instead of listening to voices telling you why you shouldn’t use stock photos, keep trying out new images to see the ones that get more shares and engagement rate, these are the ones that will give you high conversion rates. Testing is a continuous process, don’t test once and settle. Try testing frequently for each post to find the most effective stock photography.
Bonus Strategies
How to Optimize Your Styled Stock Photography for Business for Maximum Effectiveness
a) Use Titles and Alt-Text in Your Images
When your audience hover over your image they will see the title, but the alt-text will be read by the search engines and this is something that you want. So, always use smart and catchy descriptions for the title and a full description of what your stock photo contains in the alt-text in order for the search engines to index and pick it up, but it must relate to your content.
b) Take Advantage of Social Sharing Buttons
Nothing can boost your exposure the way sharing buttons do. For instance you can use feminine styled stock photos with great quotes that relate to what your content is advocating for. Adding a sharing button will encourage people to want to share them on social platforms and this gains you more exposure.
c) Use the Right Size of the Image
Large images slow down your site and this affects your search ranking. So, find out the size of the stock images you upload and resize them accordingly. Full HD images may be too large to load, crop them and resize or compress them before using. Remember this is all about maximizing the effectiveness of your stock photography.
Conclusion
There you have it, a complete styled stock photography tutorial with all the important things to consider such as legality of usage, why they’re a good deal and how you can use them effectively for maximum benefit.
With the extra tips on how to optimize styled stock photos, you’ll be on your way to offering quality content that will sell itself.
