Blogging remains one of the most important content marketing tasks for businesses.
Unfortunately, it’s also one of the tasks that is either neglected entirely, or rushed.
Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to the use of photography or imagery.
Be honest: if you’re in charge of the company blog, how often have you simply reached for stock images or just not bothered at all? The result is a post that few people will want to engage with.
One of the main reasons imagery often gets such short shrift during blog creation is because it’s usually viewed as a hefty job.
This is because there are too many supposed experts out there who will tell you that blogs need to be drenched in original imagery.
That simply isn’t true. One eye-catching original header image, for instance, might be all you need.
To illustrate this, we’ve used just one on this post and, we hope, it caught your attention pretty quickly. And you know what? It doesn’t need any more, because we’re going to let the words do the talking now we’ve got your attention.
Here are five reasons your blogs need original photography.
A photograph can convey your mood and stir emotions among your audience.
If the photo is original, they won’t have seen it before. And it’s by far the best opening to your story.
Whether you include brand elements in your photographs or not, they will enhance your business in the eyes of onlookers.
The more original photography you use on your blog, the more you’ll develop a visual identity for your brand and content.
This is vital if you want people to instantly recognise blogs that come from your business. It’ll act as a magnet by drawing them in each time and encouraging shares.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) benefits significantly from images.
Once again, you don’t need a shed load to appear at the top of specific search results, but a well-placed image with some alt text including keywords will go an awfully long way to helping your SEO strategy.
Your blogs are a joy to read, right?
So, why ruin them with stock photography everyone else has already used a thousand times?
A unique, well-conceived photo will demonstrate how talented your business is at creating content and set the tone for what’s to come with the words.
Take one look at your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn feeds; they will doubtless include tonnes of images.
Some will scream “scroll past me, please”, while others will demand your eyes. It’s the latter which are probably original creations.
The more you use original photography on your blogs, the more awesome visual content you’ll have to enhance your presence on social media and encourage more people to like, share and follow you.
The good news? You don’t need to invest in the services of a professional photographer to get original imagery for your blog. You can either shoot it yourself with your phone, or buy the best work from our brilliant photographers on Content Director!