Why photo editing is an important part of digital marketing
Images are important. We know this, you know this. But why?
In terms of businesses, photos get more people to engage with you and what you’re doing. As a company selling themselves, it has been proven that including photos of staff members on a website can make all the difference in helping turn browsers into potential customers.
For companies looking to improve their engagement or sales, including images in articles and press releases is a great way to get a better response. According to an article on Buffer, 40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text, with articles featuring images getting 94% more total views than those that are purely text based. Not surprisingly, however, the quality of the image is important. The higher the quality, the more it drives engagement.
Expert opinion
Our social media expert, Katie McCann, is a photography guru, and she says that having quality imagery can really make your business stand out. “It’s a great way to attract people to your website and social profiles, plus it gives your brand its own individual personality,” Katie says.
“On social media in particular, people are more likely to engage with profiles that have nice photos. It’s important to make sure that imagery is consistent across your entire online presence, however, amazing photos on Twitter are wasted if your website photography is no good.”
This is because appearances are important, and you can never change someone’s first impressions of your brand. “Bad graphics and pixelated photos have a negative impact. If your photos are poor quality, people will be inclined to click off your social profiles, blog or website,” Katie suggests. As a brand you want to be steadily building your audience, not losing vital traffic due to falling at the final photographic hurdle.
Which editing software?
It is because of this that editing photos has become so important, and why there are now so many options when it comes to photo editing software. Katie says that editing photos doesn’t have to break the bank. “At SGM we use a variety of software, from Adobe Photoshop to free online tools such as iPiccy and Picmonkey,” she explains.
Photography editing top tips
Katie’s tips for creating amazing imagery are:
- Practice – You don’t have to be a professional to create great imagery. You can even take amazing photos using a smartphone, just download a free editing app.
- Settings – Try the different settings on your camera to see which looks best. If you’re taking close up photos, make sure you change to macro mode.
- Get creative – Online tools like Picmonkey have a number of artistic filters, including stickers you can add to suit different themes. Creating festive, seasonal imagery is great for generating interest on social profiles.
Visual content can communicate elaborate messages quickly, and in the world of digital marketers and brands trying to capture the notoriously short attention span of web users, this is vital. Making small adjustments to your photos can make all the difference, and easily take your photos from pixelated to perfect.
What are you waiting for? Get editing!
Image credit: Thomas Leuthard