Visual Marketing, or the images you use on social media, blogs etc, can be a powerful tool to attract new followers, drive traffic to your website and ultimately make more sales. Here are my top 5 tips to make the most of your images.
- Appeal to your niche.
Think very carefully about the customers you want to attract. You want your images to resonate with them, either reflecting their reality so they see themselves in your image or showing life as it could be so that they aspire to be there. Everything about your image, whether it’s the background for a product shot or the lifestyle shown in a portrait, needs to appeal to your customer. When your followers fall in love with your images they will share them, send them to friends and screenshot them to look back on later. They will look out for your next post. They will remember you and when you post a sales pitch they will be much more inclined to pay attention to it.
- Use Hashtags
This applies across all social media platforms, but especially Instagram. People don’t just follow other people’s accounts, they can also follow (or search for) hashtags and find new content that way. Posting an image without hashtags is like putting it in a box, very few people are going to see it. Instead use hashtags that will appeal to your target audience, provided they are relevant to the picture, and you will notice a vast difference in the number of likes, follows and engagement you get.
- Ask Customers to Share Pictures
Everyone likes to be famous for five minutes so why not invite your customers to share pictures of themselves with, or using, your product? Ask them to tag you or use a specific hashtag so that you can see the pictures and you might be surprised how thrilled they can be to get a comment from you! With their permission you can also share the pictures as part of your own marketing, giving you tons of social proof and mini testimonials.
- Include a Call to Action
A brilliant picture could be shared hundreds of times and get thousands of likes but it wont bring in any new customers without a call to action. Make sure to include a link to your website and an invitation to do something, whether that’s reading a blog post, downloading a freebie or placing an order.
- Use Your Own Images
Stock pictures can be useful but they do have drawbacks. They are, by definition, very generic and don’t have the powerful impact of a personal picture. There is also the danger of your audience recognising an image from someone else’s website! When you develop a library of your own pictures they can form part of your brand identity (link to Visual Strategy blog post) and will be much more powerful.
If you would like help developing an image library you can find out more about my services here. https://nickywestphotography.co.uk/packages/
