How To Use Photos Effectively On Your Blog

Asian businesswoman stumped about which photos to use for her companies' blog post

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Why Use Photos On Your Blog?

Do you often wonder how to boost engagement on your blog or social media site? Visually appealing, easily digested photos are key as our brains react to images better and faster than text. Psychologist Albert Mehrabian proved that 93% of communication is nonverbal. Ninety percent of the data that our brains process is visual and our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text. Images affect our emotions quickly, and our emotions affect our decision-making. So if decisions are based on quick intuitional judgment and emotions, then imagine how many decisions are influenced by visually engaging photos.




Asian woman thinking about optimizing blog post

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Tips On How To Use Photos On Your Blog

Choose photos that are relevant to your blog or social media site, whether literal or conceptual. Keep your audience in mind, and use images they will connect with.

Do you spend too much time wondering what images to use in your blog posts?

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Your lead photo should be carefully selected. This is the main image on top of your blog, and will probably be the image that appears when your blog is shared on social media. It should show the reader what the blog is about and motivate them to click and share it. If your blog is under 500 words, then only a lead photo should suffice, but if you have a longer blog, use more images between blocks of text to make it easier to read and to add more visual appeal.

Colorful photos can add visual appeal to your blog, website, or social media campaign

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

 

Make sure you own the license with the right permissions before using a photo. It's easy to find images on Google, etc but most are not legal to use, so you could wind up in trouble.


Woman relaxing with a cup of coffee after finding the right photos for her blog post

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

The Psychology of Color in Marketing

Color is not only a visual aesthetic but also a powerful psychological trigger.  Visual appearance strongly influences buyer's decisions and color improves comprehension, learning and readability. A recent survey showed that 85% of consumers purchased a product based on color.

This is the first in a series I am doing about the psychology of color. I am first focusing on how important color is in branding and marketing. I will follow up with entries on how it relates to photos.

 

Different colors evoke different moods and emotions. So selecting a color for your website or marketing an important choice as it has a huge impact on your potential customers. This is because our subconscious assigns common characteristics to different colors and associates them with different things.

Understanding the psychological connotations we have with certain colors can significantly increase the effectiveness of your marketing, advertising, and branding by appealing to your target market on a subconscious level.

Orange represents a friendly and confident brand while green is associated with nature, wealth, and tranquility. Green is used by places like organic food stores to show a connection to nature. You may notice that most social networking sites, such as Facebook, Skype, LinkedIn, and Twitter, use blue for their images and logos. Blue creates not only a relaxing atmosphere for people to socialize, but also a sense of security and trust.

Knowing the psychological power of color can help designers, art directors, and consumers make better decisions.

The people at WebpageFX put together this handy infographic to show some of the psychological connotations that different colors have.

Infographic by WebpageFX