Your content may speak for itself, but there’s no question that the message becomes amplified when paired with an excellent visual aid. Having a great image to accompany your content, be it a white paper or blog post, also gives you the ability to use it to promote your content through visual mediums. It goes without saying that finding bright, clear, hi-res images is essential, but here are four approaches to keep in mind when searching for the perfect image.
Creativity
Straightforward imagery works well, but sometimes it’s fun to break out those Photoshop skills and take a creative approach to your visuals. In the above example, we took a literal approach to the idea of cleaning up social media accounts, giving it a fun and unique visual aid. Simple, but it intrigues potential readers by offering something other than the same old overused stock photo.
Nostalgia
Taking a retro or vintage approach can give your content a fun spin and make it stand out from current, trendy stock imagery. Nostalgia-inspired shows like “Boardwalk Empire” and “Mad Men” are hugely popular, so use that to your advantage. In the above example, we traded last year’s Times Square scene for a vintage New Year’s Eve party and it helped the piece stand apart.
Clarity
There’s something to be said for using a mysterious, intriguing image, but using an image that clearly communicates the message and subject of your post or document. The article referenced in the above example dealt with bringing more clicks and ‘likes’ to Facebook ads, and a reader would be able to pick up on the general theme of Facebook and ‘likes’ simply by looking at the picture.
Relevancy
No matter what imagery you choose, you always want to make sure it’s relevant. Sometimes, it means choosing or creating an image that spells out the purpose of your post. We created the above image to accompany our Landing Page Guide 2013 white paper and clearly lay out our approach to creating the perfect landing page for a brand’s needs. So, what better image to accompany the post on our blog and in our social media outlets than that graph itself?
Choosing the right image goes beyond blog content, of course. Learn how to pic the right images for your pay-per-click ads and Facebook ads with our helpful guides.
