The Business Case for UX-Enhancing Stock Photography
For content creators, sourcing quality stock images for a website, landing page, social media channel, or other marketing collateral is extremely challenging.
You need to pick photographs that buyer personas and leads will relate to, and source aesthetically pleasing, high fidelity, subject matter appropriate images — usually on a budget. Beyond that, you’ve got to consider where the photo will live on the page, how it will fit amongst other content blocks, and how well it works with existing color palettes, typeface, and assets.
YOUR CONTENT NEEDS BETTER IMAGERY
In the B2B space, buyers are frequently subjected to those weird “Candid, Corporate Moments” that simply never happen in most office environments. We’ve all had to stare at an unnaturally postured team of executives folding their arms and smiling directly into our souls.
These stock relics may have been novel to buyers who didn’t have easy access to sophisticated cameras (let alone camera phones) and weren’t used to seeing any alternatives. But times are changing, and a recent study from Forrester spells out the writing on the wall — a whopping 73% of Millennials are “involved in B2B purchasing decisions” today.
Translation: the era of punctuating long-form content with poorly executed images is over. The visually-inclined, digital native decision makers of today closely scrutinize your UX, equate image quality with brand trust, and cautiously clutch their brand’s purse strings.
Of course, B2C buyers certainly haven’t been spared from bizarre or unappealing imagery, either.
Aesthetically pleasing and professionally produced product photography is absolutely necessary for brands looking to sell directly to consumers. But, when the use of stock imagery is appropriate, remember that today’s customers are often motivated by the intangible benefits your product will bring into their lives.
According to a Boston Consulting Group survey:
“59% of Millennials reported that the brands they bought reflected their style and personality” and 40% said that they were “willing to pay extra for a brand or product that reflected the image they wished to convey about themselves.”
Generic photos of staged social gatherings or images of Susie Laughing With a Salad simply won’t cut it for the B2C browsers of today. What gets people to stop scrolling is a real person in an authentic environment, experiencing a genuine emotion. That’s the reflection your buyer wants to see.
It’s certainly entertaining to recount the ways in which stock photography can be used poorly, but we shouldn’t overlook the importance of utilizing quality visuals. If you want to keep visitors engaged, build your reputation, earn trust, and turn leads into loyalists, you can’t ignore the aesthetic appeal of your B2B and B2C communications.
GETTING STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY RIGHT
Salted Stone has spent over a decade designing websites, branded flyers or one-sheets, interactive content, and social media ads. We typically use stock photos in the inspiration-gathering stage of our client engagements. But, if an image is high quality and we get a chance to work the necessary Photoshop magic, it will sometimes appear on a website or a piece of marketing collateral. Our creatives have learned a lot about the ways imagery can make or break your domains and materials, and with the help of Unsplash’s co-founder Stephanie Liverani, we dive deep into the world of UX-enhancing stock photography.
Read Using Stock Photography to Enhance UX and get in touch with Salted Stone when you’re ready talk about marketing, sales, business development, customer success, or creative initiatives.
