The pain with cheesy stock photos in marketing (and what you can do about it) 10+ helpful resources
I can’t help it, but I hate stereotype themes from stock archives.
Okay, you don’t see “thumbs-up grins” so often anymore.
However, marketers haven’t fully freed themselves from stock material yet.
If you browse your LinkedIn timeline, you still witness the dominance of visual platitudes (if you haven’t gone blind by now).
Yes, it really does exist, the “stock blindness” that destroys all efforts of marketers to decorate their content.
As a consequence I try to avoid decorating my content as far as possible.
If necessary, I use stock archives that support authentic visual language.
Here are some archives, which provide cool stuff for free:
Unsplash / Pexels / Rawpixel / Pixabay / Gratisography / Morguefile / Stockvault / Picjumbo / Pikwizard / Reshot / … just google for more
Some of these platforms even offer video footage to use for short clips. Some of them charge money, but that’s ok if the stuff they provide is cool…
Cheesy stock images are ignored by your audience, eye tracking studies confirm this.
Moreover, it takes you an eternity to research suitable image motifs.
So why bother?
Unfortunately pictures attract more attention than text. Therefore, as a marketer you have to live with pictures for better or worse.
If visual content is necessary, then please add your own touch!
What about creating your own material, for example small illustrations?
Anyone can do this and there are tools that make creating graphics very easy.
Here are some tools that make creating infographics a breeze:
Excalidraw / Canva / Visme / Infogram / Snappa / … just google for more
Infographics are the powerhouse in social media because they provide a huge information value.
You can reach a lot of people with it, if you manage to creatively visualize data.
Take away:
- Outstanding content needs no visual decoration.
- If visual content is unavoidable, create value with it.
- Get creative yourself, instead of chewing up other people’s stuff.
The more value you give the more value you get.
I use LinkedIn every day to share value and engage with inspiring people.
If you like, join me there
