A picture is worth a thousand words. Well, almost … We’ve listened to this phrase for life, so why do so many companies still do not take advantage of the visual appeal of the photos to give color and life to their content online?
To go a little deeper in these aspects, we can highlight some points about the relevance of the images and photographs in a content marketing strategy in an attempt to answer and clarify how content managers of companies manage this element as An integrated part of its communication, highlighting its importance in order to improve the attractiveness of more users to the contents that are produced.
For this, we can list 10 factors or key aspects to take into account and consider when we decide to use this type of graphic elements and photographs in order to increase the effectiveness of our content strategies.
Photographic content and its quality
Quality and quantity are sometimes at odds, and as marketing budgets are not infinite it is important to make “make vs buy” decisions. That is, we have original photography well thought out and executed for certain content that we want to highlight or we look for more affordable options such as banks of photographs with use rights, Fotolia.com .
Context of visual content
How many times has it been difficult to select the right photo for the right content? If it is not possible to pay the services of a company that offers an image bank or a professional photographer, then you can also consider the option to take the camera and the team to take specific photos for the specific activity. If in the end the time spent far exceeds the cost of the other options, it may be worth paying for professional photography
Creativity
In a world where millions of photos are uploaded per day to the Internet, it is increasingly important to differentiate. A bank of images with rights of use may not be the best option for a company looking for example to impress the user with photos on their website, or for a creative agency that wants to show ideas from an innovative point of view.
Personalization and access on any device
Future trends in content marketing lead to greater personalization of content consumption by each user, as well as access to content from a greater number of devices. It is therefore important for brands to offer users on the Internet several possibilities to consume the content that interests them from the devices to access the network. For example, can a user with an iPad see well the photos we uploaded on a web carousel that changes photos every 2 seconds? And for smartphone users?
Publication and dissemination
In this section there is to take into account the platforms of online publishing and dissemination that you will use, with questions such as: on what platforms do these content appear and are disseminated? Have you ensured that the photos you uploaded to your blog fit perfectly with the background of the blog? Have you uploaded any great photos to the blog? Are you spreading photos on Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Facebook, Google+, etc?
This social network requires a separate mention, since its use continues to increase it can be very powerful to spread content and generate traffic to websites that sell certain products with certain character and personality such as design garments, travel themes, gastronomy, collecting, etc. Have you rated what Pinterest can bring to your company?
Came
Recently we talked about how new tools, methods and content distribution channels are constantly coming up and Vine, from the Twitter guys, can be an example. What must be considered? Well that in addition to being able to upload video of up to 6 seconds in length, you can do a photo montage that lets you publicize several of your products, offer a preview of a new release, try to increase the visibility of your brand, or simply say To the user, hey, I’m around here too. Why did not you expect me? A priori, innovating with content in new channels and tools is one of the areas of most uncertainty not knowing very well what results will be obtained at the beginning, but is equally refreshing and stimulating for restless minds.
New professional profiles
Let’s go back to the “make vs buy” concept. If your company has to create many photographic contents, it is necessary to reflect on whether having an in-house photographer or a multitasking professional who is capable of researching and performing the journalistic work of writing, photographing and editing the contents for publication Online, or outsource to experienced photographers who resolve the ballot when necessary. I see more and more universities that offer students a double or triple degree in journalism, audiovisual communication, PR, etc. And this can be a sign of the times that come in the field of training.
Best results
According to Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute content marketing guru in the US An image content can double the number of page views of an article. So what are you waiting for to use more photos in your content?
And you know how to provide your website with photos?
If the answer is yes then my congratulations because many still do not know how to deal with this issue from legal, technical, optimization of Internet positioning, etc. If after reading this article you have doubts or do not know where to start when integrating impact photos into your content, then I suggest consulting with specialists in marketing of photographic contents.
In conclusion, photography is a topic that is not always seriously considered when creating content, and the results show that it not only improves the attractiveness of web pages and profiles in social networks, but also generates better results.
