The Power of Visual Marketing

Standing Out From the Crowd

There’s a lot of “noise” out there. Everyone has something to sell, and often, lots of people seem to be selling the same thing you are. How can you stand out from the competition? Savvy marketers know that images have big impact. Sites like Pinterest and Instagram are built on that truism. Google and Facebook are constantly tinkering with the way they display photos, showing that they, too, cater to the emerging preference for larger, more eye-catching images. And think about print ads. Only in the virtually obsolete Yellow Pages do you see print ads dominated by words.

The Visual Is King

Research by marketing firm MDG Advertising tells us that articles with relevant images have an amazing 94% more views than those without images. With a number like that, there can’t be any doubt that a marketing campaign needs images to be successful.

A full 60% of consumers reported that they’d be more likely to consider or contact a company with great images, and they want to see product images, not just a logo. In fact, according to MDG, a high-quality image of a product had more impact on consumers than ratings and reviews of that product. Think about that: even with input from someone who has used the product, consumers put more faith in images than in words. You can’t afford bad images.

Marketing You Don’t Have to Pay For

Here’s the awesome part: when you have great images, and you use them wisely on social media, you achieve the Holy Grail. Viral marketing. Sure, you might have to pay a bit up front for those high-quality images. But once you have them, social media sites – think Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest –  provide free or very low-cost accounts for businesses. And every re-tweet, share or pin puts eyes on your stuff. Though social media can’t be the only hook you hang the success of your business on, you can’t ignore its worth, either. Think how much easier your sales job becomes when you are reaching the friends of friends of current customers – without paying for call lists or demographic studies or mass-mailings to every “postal customer” in a 20-mile radius. Gorgeous, shareable images make that happen.

It Doesn’t Get Any Cooler Than This

By now, you’re probably wondering what all this has to do with ice cream. The answer involves one of the coolest gigs we’ve ever had. Beyond cool, really. Frozen.

King Kone in Merrimack, NH has been serving up frozen treats – and other yummy stuff – for more than 40 years. Imagine: something that existed before the internet. Recognizing the value of an online presence, George Soffron, who has owned the ice cream shop since 2002, is creating a website to round out his marketing strategy.

Says Soffron, “I am a big believer in good imagery being good marketing. When I decided to create a website, I knew that we were going to have to have a professional photographer come in so that we could have that good imagery.” Seems he knows marketing at least as well as he knows ice cream. His objective was “to make the product look irresistible.” Of course, that’s easier when you have a great product to photograph. And as the mercury finally creeps out of winter temperatures and starts inching up, the hard work of Soffron and his crew grows more irresistible still.

When you’re planning your marketing strategy, don’t forget the power of a great image. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These days, we measure the worth of a picture in likes and shares – in its ability to create some buzz. In its potential to catch the eye and make the busy brain of its viewer stop and say, “hey, I gotta have that.” Don’t you want to take a drive to Merrimack right now?

Walter Schnecker, CPP, CPC, CCH

Walter Schnecker is the owner of C1M Photography, LLC, in Amherst, NH. He specializes in clean, high-impact commercial photography.