I recently met with a group of marketers and public relations specialists from Europe last week. Our meeting was an excellent opportunity to look “outside in” at how I operate as a marketer. One of the lessons learned was the importance of including pictures with my marketing communications.
Now, don’t get me wrong … pictures have been a part of my communications for some time now, especially in blog posts such as this one. You can definitely increase your readership by including an image with your blog post – this has been proven by those who do research for our industry.
My “aha” moment was the level of importance that a picture can play with your communications objectives. Here are three take away points I gained from my recent trip:
- Today an increasing share of your readers have English as their second language; when English is your second language, not only can subtle nuances of the language be lost, but sometimes main points as well; a picture or two can really help convey your message
- In the “sea” of marketing communications pushed to various reporting, magazine and other online venues, our eyes quickly scan through headlines for clues to see if an article is worth reading; having a picture gives you a much greater chance of being seen by a “scanning” eyeball
- From a cultural perspective, other countries place an even greater emphasis on images that you might expect … beyond the benefit of simply standing out from the clutter of content we are bombarded with on a daily basis; there is a credibility perspective that is lost in some cultures (ex: German) for content that appears without an image
So the next time you are writing a press release, white paper or business plan, and you are focused on ensuring your message and communications objectives are covered, take a few extra moments to consider what image can support these objectives to actually increase the likelihood that your content is first found so it can actually be read.
Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.