It’s episode 6 of the Visceral Concepts Podcast! Join Founder Michael McNew as he talks about the different tactics that make images have a great impact on conversion. You have content and you want it to convert, so you definitely need to know this.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/330232300″ params=”color=43b649&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]We talk a lot about content marketing here. It’s what we do. It’s the core service we offer. And it’s the thing we advocate all businesses do. After all, it’s the modern way of marketing. Great content marketing results come from content that’s interesting, engaging, and eye-catching. Using images in your content can increase that.
Or, if you do it wrong, make it worse.
Contents
Using Images In Your Content Can Boost Conversion
There’s only one metric in marketing that truly matters. If your site visitors, content readers, social media followers, and viral views don’t convert, that content (no matter how loved) is a waste of money and time.
Images, especially when used correctly, have proven to have a huge positive impact on conversion.
Beware: Using Images Incorrectly In Your Content Hurts
I have to throw a word of caution out there. You can’t just go throwing random images all willy-nilly in to your content. Using the wrong images or using them the wrong way can drive down conversion. You’ve got to make sure you know what you’re doing.
Getting the right information first is important.
There Are Three Keys To Using Images In Your Content
Rather than give you a massive list with all sorts of great image techniques, I want to stick with the most straightforward advice I can give. This stuff isn’t about cliché advice. It’s about benefitting from the actual psychology behind images that help increase conversion.
Bigger is Better
Yeah, I know, that sounds crazy. However, using larger images in your content will improve conversions. According to a study done by Econsultancy, bigger images created better conversions every time.
The crazy part about it was, in some cases, the improvements didn’t even look better. They were simply upsized images. The most striking example was for Skinner Auctions. Check out the side-by-side below.
The design team at Skinner risked the chance that only 20% of visitors would scroll down to read the description of the product. What they got instead was a 63% increase in visitors who decided to start the bid process, and a 329% increase in bidders!
Larger images entice people to spend more time looking at them. More time on the page equals better odds of a conversion action. There’s a bonus, too. Your SEO score goes up because your bounce rate goes down.
Backgrounds Matter
There are two ways to make sure your pictures capture attention, and both require that you take charge of the background. Yeah, that’s what I said. Backgrounds are just as important as the subject of the image. If you use images in your content of a Ferrari, but it’s in a junkyard, it’s not going to be as appealing. Move that same Ferrari to a Miami street party, and you’ve got the feeling of luxury. Put it on an empty background and suddenly it feels like something exclusive.
Check out the Apple home page. Their products are placed against solid color backgrounds, monolithic and product focused. You can’t deny that the focus is on the luxury and simplicity that Apple brands itself with.
Yet there is a value in using a background image at times. Check out the header of our home page. We use a high-quality photo that drives users to engage, stay, and convert.
Smiling Faces
Ok, maybe smiling isn’t required. It totally depends on the tone of your company, product, and message. However, using images in your content that include people is important. Majorly.
There are a couple of key reasons that people make your message. First off, people are drawn to faces. Researchers from the University of Vienna and the University of Oslo did a major eye-tracking study and figured that out for us. Every heatmap you could look up revolving around images of people on the web backs their research.
Secondly, faces build trust. When you look at our home page, under the “About” section, you’re going to find a picture of me. At the top of this article is my face. Below this article, another one. When you see my face, you begin to build a level of trust with me. I’m real, I’m human, and I’m definitely no model.
Third, you’re going to be curious as to what people are looking at. When you use faces, you can choose to point eyes at something on the page. Doing so is going to get your viewer to look there too. Logically, you want to point the eyes on that face towards your call-to-action. That way your visitor is more likely to convert on it. That’s what the image at the top of this article is about.
Makes sense, right?
Using Images In Your Content Is Powerful
Think about it. Your world is filled with images. They draw your attention, they inform you, and they make you feel. And when it comes to your content, they can make or break you, too.
Choose your images carefully, use them correctly, and watch your conversions soar.
