One of the pet hates we have here at Think Big Online is when we visit websites and find images placed across the site, which are not relevant. Not only that, but images which have no intended purpose, they don’t communicate a message, they don’t build brand and they just seem “out of place”.
It’s important to understand that your whole website, every page is part of your marketing message and you should be ensuring all content and images are working together to generate your result. Now this is also an important part of your site, if you don’t know what the purpose or “desired result” is from your site it’s almost impossible to design images and text that drive your results.
Creating A Site With Purpose
To ensure that your images have purpose the first step is to create a site with purpose. Now for an ecommerce the purpose is obviously sales, but this is not the only style of site, you may have sites generating leads, building user engagement or even developing your brand.
Once you’ve defined your sites purpose then you need to define the purpose of each page and how that helps to build to your sites overall purpose. For example, an about us page can help build credibility and build trust with your potential buyer therefore increasing buying behavior.
Creating Images With Purpose
Now that you’ve got your sites purpose defined it’s important now to use images with purpose. Let me give you a few examples:
Example #1: If you’re selling physical goods online and you have a warehouse, then including an image of your warehouse is a great idea. By including this image you can prove you are a real business with a real warehouse and you’re ready to ship the product.
Example #2: If you’re accepting credit cards and you have security encryption on your page then including an image that represents this security encryption adds confidence to the buyers.
Example #3: If you’re inviting the visitor to register for a consultation with you then an image of you in your work environment is important. This allows them to visualize who they are working with and creates a greater connection with your customers.
As you can see just from these 3 examples, using images can help to build trust, confidence and connection with your customers. Not only that but it can help to illustrate the point you are making to your customers as well.
When creating images for your site make sure they have a purpose, don’t just add them because they “look pretty”. To help you out, I’d suggest you leave a comment below with a link to your site, so our readers can do a review of the images on your site and tell you what they convey to them.
