Sourcing images for your content marketing
This seems to be one of the biggest problems many small businesses and self-employed people have. It seems everything you produce for your digital content needs accompanying imagery: Instagram is the obvious one, but Facebook and Twitter posts also get better engagement when they include images, your blog needs at least one image to catch attention, and that’s before you get to your newsletters and website. But good images can also be hard to acquire if you don’t happen to be a professional photographer. But it can be done. Here are our 5 top tips:
Get a decent camera phone
Most of us already have one of these, but if you don’t and you create content for your business then it’s definitely worth getting one. We know they can be expensive, but you can claim it as a business expense if that’s what ours using it for and it really will make your life so much easier. Another option is to get yourself a cheap digital camera. The main thing is that your photos should be high enough definition not to look fuzzy and unprofessional to your audience.
Learn some basics of good photos
Unlike our magazine photographer, I personally have no natural talent when it comes to snapping images. I have no sense of what it in the frame and quite frequently end up with a pink blob at the top because I’ve allowed a finger to stray over the lens. But I’ve worked on it, with the help of a few simple instructions from Nathan, and now I can actually get some pretty decent shots. )For me that is.) The main tip that really transformed my amateur images for the better was to make sure there was a leading line in the images, drawing the eye into the photo. Photos of people or animals with their eyes looking at the camera also work well. My other big tip to better photos is just to take your time and make sure what you want is both in frame and in focus.
Take some snaps when out and about
We are so fortunate in Perthshire that beautiful scenery is everywhere we look and we don’t have to go out specially to find something worth photographing. So just make it a goal that every time you get out and about you will snap something with your phone camera. It could be a lovely view, or the first snowdrops, a frosty leaf, a red phone box, a funny sign or an interesting building. Think creatively and make it a habit to capture something, however small. Even if you don’t use it straight away, it’s always useful to have a library of images.
Set up some indoor scenes
Indoor photos can also work really well, they may just need a little more work. Don’t be shy of showing your home office or studio, showing what you’re working on that day or a photo of your coffee break. You can do a little bit of staging, such as moving a bunch of flowers and a business card into the shot, using your best china or getting the lighting right. But these can be an invaluable way of showing ‘behind the scenes’ and talking about what you do.
Use a good stock image site
If all else fails, excellent photos are available online. For our magazine we often use the stock image site Pexels, which is free, but you can also buy a subscription to something like ? Other options include design apps like Canva or Adobe Spark — even the free options include some graphics.
Hopefully that’s given you some ideas on sourcing images for your digital content marketing. But of you still struggle, you could consider employing a photographer like Nathan! His stock image library of Perthshire is also available to anyone taking out our social media packages.
Article originally appeared in The Perthshire Magazine. Find the latest issue at: https://www.theperthshiremagazine.com/current-issue