If a picture is worth a thousand words, then why don’t we take them more seriously? In the startup community, time and time again you see the use of the infamous “stock” photo. It’s not just on websites, it’s your ads, your landing pages, your emails, your blog posts and all your other marketing efforts.
Pictures are an enormous part of our marketing activities - as evident in the shift of format in the design of websites. Websites have large images with a simplistic approach to them. Most sites have images with little content.
Social media sites have gone from text heavy to image, photo, and video heavy, as seen in the shift on Facebook. Even the evolution of LinkedIn has included a more prominent use of images.
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Research shows that engagements in social media, especially, skyrocket with the use of images. Retweets are 35% more likely to happen with the use of an image, as stated in a Media Blog study. eMarketer conducted a study that showed pictures on Facebook are the most engaging content by an astonishing 87%.
Some of the more popular sites in today’s culture such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat are all image-based.
Furthermore, tools are available like Canva that are free. Canva allows you to create custom images with pictures with overlaying text to grab more attention and increase engagement. Like this one:
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It has become a staple in our society. We no longer have the “time” to read when we can look at a picture or watch a video. The picture book generations are among us.
Since pictures rule everything around us, then why are we still stuck using the same shitty, boring “stock” photos in our marketing arsenal. If you visit websites, you can see the same picture across every ten sites. Ads are crowded with stock photos. Social media posts are victims, too.
We live in the sharing society. The era in which we can access almost anything. Then why are we still using the stock photo and paying an arm and a leg for it?
Simply, we don’t know where else to go to. You can Google free stock photos to find a number of resources. Even those sites are OK. The choices, however, are limited. There are restrictions.
The answer to the problem lies in Caviar Stock Photo. My business partner and I have noticed a problem in the visual content community, specifically for branding purposes. Luckily for us, Bobby, my business partner, is a wicked good photographer.
Caviar Stock Photos offers anyone an opportunity to get high quality photos for your creative needs at no cost. Try it out. Let us know what you think. More importantly, whether you use our site or you find another avenue, stop using the same old, boring pictures. PLEASE!
Take pride in your marketing. Be original. Be Bold. Be Caviar.
What do you think? Do you agree with the lame picture epidemic attacking our creative outlets?
Brandon Lewin is an entrepreneur and a writer. He is the Co-Founder of Down With The Man and Caviar Stock. Brandon lives and breathes purposeful marketing. He travels the globe sharing his ideas, techniques, and strategies by way of speaking and consulting. Visit www.downwiththeman.io and www.caviarstock.com for more information.
