Good content writing is essential regardless of any marketing role you may be in. It is a key indicator of one’s ability to communicate effectively, getting the right message across. So much so that it could very well determine the success or failure of a marketing campaign. However, contrary to popular belief, the first touchpoint of any advertisement or marketing content is not always the copywriting but rather the image that goes along with it! And it’s hard not to why when our mind processes images faster than we do for words. We tend to be attracted to bright color images first before a paragraph of text!
Much like creating a first impression during a sales pitch, images help people better visualise the product that you are selling. In this article, we will be sharing some tips and tricks on how you can effectively use images to attract people’s attention and some royalty-free sources that you can get them from!
1. Color Coding and Image placement
Ultimately, you want to use an image to enhance the content that you have written. It is should be obvious enough to capture a person’s attention but not too glaring that it hinders the message that we are trying to convey. Color coding can be useful here, choosing colors that are opposites of each other can help create a contrasting image which can highlight our ad copies. Placement is also an important factor in sending the right message. For example:
- Spamming images can be very dull and may even irritate readers.
- Placing an image AFTER the text can help to emphasise our original message.
- Placing an image BEFORE the text sets the tone and helps people visualise our message.
- Placing an image BETWEEN the text creates a “break” in the article. This is especially useful when we have a lengthy paragraph and want to avoid our content being “dry”
2. Where to find good images 
There are plenty of resources out there for royalty-free images but here are some that we at OC Digital personally use!
Pexels
Freepik
Unsplash
Another site to take note of is Canva. Not exactly a website for images, think of it as a beginner-friendly designer tool where you can choose from thousands of their stock photos or upload one of your choosing. You can design your images with hundreds of their template fonts, frames and logos. There are even features to add in music, photos and videos! It’s our go-to all-in-one design application.
3. Infographics
Infographics are a visual representation of information that is usually presented on a chart or diagram. As mentioned earlier in the article, rather than solely using walls of text to describe and present data, infographics help break the monotony and is easy to read. It is especially useful in presenting statistical data and facts in point form. For example, say we are presenting some statistics of age groups in a workplace.
Rather than say “12% of the workplace are aged 20 – 30, 30% of the workplace are aged 50 – 60, etc” which would be very bland and long-winded, we could use a pie chart and add the data in point form next to it: 12% – 20 to 30, 30% – 50 to 60. This would make it easier for people to absorb and understand the statistics
4. Image optimization
Last but not least, optimising the image! Your image size also affects the loading speed of your website, too large an image and people need a longer time to load, too small an image, although the website loads fast, the image quality is low and makes your website look cheap. The key is to balance between image quality and loading speed!
One additional tip is to not neglect the alt text, this allows Search Engines to understand the image and enables your website to rank better on the results page. This is a best practice which all marketers should incorporate into their everyday workflow.
Now that you know all these, we hope you’ve learnt a thing or two about the importance of images in content marketing!
Speaking of which, have you checked out our other articles about digital marketing like How to be a Successful Content Marketer or Your Phone is Listening.
Like what you see? Interested in trying out digital marketing to drive more traffic for your business?
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