You’ve carefully worked on your ideal client and what their biggest pain point is; you’ve done in-depth market research to discover just the right messaging to use in your website copy; you’ve put together a beautiful mood board and painstakingly chose your brand colors and fonts. All of this to create just the right aesthetic and feel when prospective clients visit your site. Now what’s the one piece missing? The photos on your site! While, depending upon how personally branded you want to be, there will definitely need to be photos of you on your site to connect with visitors but there should also be some stock photos that reflect your branding as well. So let’s discuss!
What feeling do you want to convey on your website?
Depending on your business and your personality you may want to convey:
- health and vibrance
- cozy chic coffee shop vibe
- boldness and luxury
- family and the #momlife
- laidback carefree lifestyle
You need to choose stock photos that also reflect this same atmospheric messaging. You know the old saying that a picture is worth a 1000 words. Choose yours carefully and keep them consistent throughout your site (and social media too!).
For example, if you’re going for the work from home mom life vibe then pictures of a woman in a fancy cocktail dress sipping champagne in a fancy hotel room is not going to help your client to connect with you and your brand. Yes you want photos that reflect the hopeful aspirations of your ideal client and the transformation they desire but not such that they can’t relate to them at all!
Choose photos that match or complement your brand colors.
Again we are going for consistency so as not to confuse or distract the site visitor. The photos should subtly complement the copy on your website to amplify your core brand message.
If your colors are a vibrant hot pink and neon green then photos with baby blues and blush peach colors are going to be jarring to a website visitor!
Choose photos that evoke emotion.
People make decisions to buy based on emotion – later they choose to back it up with logic. Use pictures of people when you can – people connect with people. Are you a parenting coach? Use an image with parents and thir children in a loving embrace. Are you a virtual assistant or project manager? A picture of a happy smiling entrepreneur sitting at a well organized desk or even a powerful image of someone breaking free of the “chains” to tying them to their desk could be very effective.
Let’s be honest – not all stock photos are created equal. In fact, some of them out there are downright pretty terrible. Thus some people’s aversion to even hearing the word ‘stock photo’.
Luckily there are some good quality stock photos out there if you are patient and know where to look.
Here are my favorite sites for free stock photos:
And here are my favorite places where you can buy stock photos without breaking the bank:
Conclusion
Stock photos are not the be and end all part of your website branding but they are important for creating the “vibe” of your site. This is especially true if you don’t have alot of pictures of you to put on your site and you’re not ready to invest in a branding photoshoot quite yet.
If you’d like a professional designer’s expertise for your website then let’s chat! BOOK A CALL WITH ME HERE
