Pictures. Put Them on Everything.

by | Feb 26, 2015 | Content | Social Media | Email, Blog

Photo of collage images on a laptop pictures on everything

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have an OH SO MEMORABLE video from their days of “You’re Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley’s” series called “Gimme Pizza.” Naturally, this video needs to be re-watched and remembered by all of us millennial girls (click here for “Gimme Pizza” gold).

If you don’t remember it or don’t have time to watch, the main idea is if something is in the fridge, why not put it on the pizza? That is exactly how I feel about using pictures and other images in your online marketing.

Pictures, ranging from photographs to designed graphics are so readily available. Use them to help tell a story and keep your viewers visually engaged.

From blog posts and newsletters to social media and slide shows, there’s a new tagline to embrace image inspiration. Instead of “(insert item)… put it on the PIZZA”, I’m giving this tagline an update by saying:

Pictures. Put Them on Everything.

Now make Mary-Kate and Ashley proud by putting pictures on each of the following platforms:

Blog posts

A beautiful and bright photo header is exactly what your blog needs. Use photos on your blog roll page to make each post come to life, as the main header to pull the reader into a post and integrated into social media. Blog pictures do not have to be original, there are lots of free and paid stock photography sites where you can find the perfect image to encapsulate your writing.

Pictures are everywhere, but you can’t just download any image you find on the internet to use in your marketing. There are copyright laws protecting photographers, so be sure to choose images from sites that offer approved free images or buy low-cost images from sites like iStock.com, and for more premium images, our favorite is Getty Images.

Email newsletters

Why not? Make a standardized header with appealing colors to match your brand and integrate a photo into the stories on your newsletter. These photos do not need to demand all the attention or space within the newsletters, but it’s a nice supplementary visual to mix up the content for readers.

Just remember to title the images with a descriptive alternative text. Not everyone will download the images when they open your email so you need to tell them what the image is about.

Social media posts

Is it cliché to ALWAYS post a picture on Twitter and Facebook? To an extent, yes. But it’s a nice way to mix up your feeds and catch a few more viewers. Especially on Twitter, it’s very easy for your readers to skim through the newsfeed and skip the written posts. A picture has the power to convey exactly what you wanted to share, even at a glance.

Just remember Twitter will only display photos in the timeline if they were uploaded from the Twitter application. If you share images from other applications like Instagram or Hootsuite, all people will see is a link to the picture and not the picture itself.

Slideshow

In case you missed the memo… slideshows are about YOUR voice, not continuous slides full of writing. The show itself is a way to better explain your point through short bullets, videos, and pictures. Put visual aids into your shows. It’s nice visual stimulation and offers a lovely depiction to coincide with your speech.

Now don’t run out and create a Presi or newsletter which looks like it was made by attendees of the Mary-Kate and Ashley sleepover party with everything thrown in. Be selective to create visually appealing content.

Pictures will catch your viewers’ eyes much faster than the funny tag line they must read through to understand. Let your images continue to tell the story, whether your viewer has read your entire written content or not. So remember your new motto, when in doubt: Pictures. Put Them on Everything.

#210 - Pictures Speak

A picture can covey so much at a glance. The research shows the human brain can process and understand a picture 60,000 times faster than the written word. Are you using images in your blog posts to get the message across? You’ll need to make sure you’re blogging before jumping into a visual strategy.

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