A picture is worth a thousand words. That’s how that old saying goes. When it comes to telling your brand story, this old-school catchphrase is right on the money. According to the latest studies, we remember 10% of information we heard three days later, but we remember 65% of information we saw.

There is no way to deny that images are an important piece in your marketing strategy. You simply can’t tell your brand story without them. So, how can you go about doing that?

Cement Your Style

When creating your brand standards, you should determine the style of images you plan to use. These could be for your web design, blog headers, social media posts, email marketing, and even print pieces.

Determining one specific style and sticking to it will help you craft a cohesive brand that’s immediately recognizable by your target audience. Some brands may choose to use illustrations rather than photography. Others have a specific photography style in mind (and might even need a photo shoot with a professional to attain the images they need).

When you’ve decided on your style, place that in your brand standards outline so that you never stray. Any creatives you work with in the future will be able to refer back and match your brand at any time. Here’s an example of how you might outline your brand style:

Acquire Your Images

Photography and illustrations can become quite costly, especially if you’re working with a graphic designer or video producer for proprietary images and video. Even stock sites can get expensive if you plan to use imagery a lot in your marketing. Subscriptions for monthly payments can cut down on these costs when you work with sites like iStockPhoto or Adobe stock images.

There are also several free options available, like Pexels or Burst. These free options may be limited, but you’ll find dozens of different styles to suit your needs. If you enter into free options with your brand standards firmly in mind, you’re sure to find photography that fits your brand story.

Crafting Your Message

Here’s where things start getting good, right? You’re ready to tell the world what your brand is all about, and you’ll use these images you’ve worked so hard to curate as visual aids. What will you say? How will you say it? Perhaps most importantly, where will you say it?

With your buyer personas firmly in mind, select the images that match your message. You can create videos, slide shows, infographics, or just use still photos along with your copy or voiceovers to great effect. Keep in mind that studies show readers spend more time on images than they do on page text, so images with the relevant information included in text could garner more views. (That’s why our blog headers always include the title, and not just a relevant image.)

Those images should most certainly be used in your social media marketing efforts, too. Did you know that tweets with images receive up to 150 times more retweets than those without? And Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without.

Have you been using imagery to tell your brand story? If not, it’s time to get started. As always, our team at Marketing Initiative Worx is here to help you with your branding and marketing efforts, so give us a call.