Including high quality photographs and videos within your website is becoming increasingly important in a transient digital age.
Photography and video on your website form part of your brand identity and are a quick way of communicating your message and values to potential customers.
With more than half the visitors of a typical business website leaving a website within 15 seconds you have just a small period of time to catch their attention and showcase your businesses products and services.
The famous phrase is that ‘a picture can tell a thousand words’ and this is particularly apt when applied to your website in the modern digital landscape.
An image has the ability to create tone, infer information and educate visitors to your site in a fraction of the time that putting that into text would take.
Studies suggest that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.
Therefore, making sure your website has the right balance of images and video will ensure you make the most of your 15 seconds.
Product Based Media
Visual media is particularly important if you are selling products or services directly from your website, the photography and video here may be the only chance you get to convince potential customers to buy from you.
These images and videos are a key aspect of your branding and have far more power than pages and pages of description ever can. Quality photography for eCommerce websites is even more important as you want to represent your products in the best way possible.
An example of how carefully thought-out photography can make all the difference is for a site that we are currently working on for Financial Advisors. Their current site uses boring, generic library shots and their staff biography images don’t paint too good a picture. Their company values are giving friendly, honest advice with a personal touch so we commissioned a photographer and briefed him accordingly. The result is a fresher, more creative approach that matches their brand.
The Rise Of Video
Whilst images have been a key part of marketing websites throughout the internet age a lack of connectivity limited the potential of video. However technological advances and faster connection speeds have made video one of the most consumed forms of media online.
Video is a powerful engagement tool and is therefore given a high SEO ranking by the major search engines.
In the Jigowatt-produced website for Metropolis Motorcycles, video is used to demonstrate the Module 1 training course. It gives a professional feel to the company and shows in detail what you get for your money (using the endorsement of a well-known or industry professional is obviously a bonus).
By 2017 video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic, video is powerful as it is easy to digest and engaging. Complex ideas can be broken down and outlined in a fraction of the time of text and in more contextual detail than an image.
The demand for video in marketing across all levels of the business community is set to grow, no longer is video the sole domain of the large companies producing TV advert style posts.
Therefore establishing a content strategy for your business that includes video and/or commissioned photography can be a powerful way to tell your story.