We wrote a blog on how you can use and reuse your video content, and so we thought it would be helpful to share what we’ve heard/seen our clients do with their brand lifestyle photos. We’ve written about how brand media can help with you customer acquisition as well as recruiting, and also about five key attributes of good brand photos and videos. You can also read a bit more about why you might want brand photos and videos on our FAQ about that.
But to summarize, brand photos and videos help the customer understand your service or product, as well as understand how your brand fits into their lives. So wherever your target market might interact with your brand would be a great place to put this content. As our colleague David Royer, from Dream Rocket Media (a graphic design and branding company), puts it “they are ABSOLUTELY crucial when telling a brand’s story and taking about the company.”
However, we’ve noticed that once we do these kinds of shots for people, we don’t know if our clients get the most out of them. So we wanted to supply our customers, and the world at large, with a decent list of ways that they can use what we make for them. Of course I can’t guarantee there aren’t other ways to use photos, and also, not everyone will be able (or need) to do all these things. But it’s a good start!
10+ Ways To Use Brand Lifestyle Images
On your website
Well taken brand lifestyle images on your website are helpful to make it visually appealing and engaging, and also to let your target market know they’re in the right place, by helping people see someone like themselves using your product or service. So they would be more inclined to inquire or buy! It’s also really great for your SEO to have images unique to your business and page, not stock content. The search engines are ranking unique content much higher in organic search results.
Of course the shots can be used on your main page, as well as on any and all of your landing pages. The shots you use on any particular page can be determined by the subject matter of that page.
Brochures, handouts, takeaways, cards
This is a very traditional way to use brand lifestyle images, and it’s basically any small printed thing that could attract your key target market to learn about you. They can be used at networking events, trade shows, in mailboxes, or anywhere else where you or your service could be seen by someone
Social Media Posts
Many business get a tonne of leads from their social media. And having great visual content that engages or inspires viewers, regularly posted, can help with that. You can find new hires, or remind your past clients to hire you again!
Social Media Advertising
While some shoppers are wary of sponsored or boosted posts, it certainly gets your product or service to show up on the top of people’s feeds – and if the shots are beautiful and planned for your specific target market, this can really work. And there are lots of people who aren’t bothered by a sponsored post if it happens to be what they’re looking for. And images that shows what they’re looking for is key!
In A Newsletter
While newsletters are great for reminding people on your list of your existence, it’s even better if they are engaged and actually read the material. Well made brand lifestyle picture can make sure that your message is clear, and encourage them to read and learn more.
Programmatic Online Advertising
What is programmatic display advertising? Programmatic display are the banner ads you would see on a news website or other website that has advertising built into the page. Like the following:
In the words of our colleague Mitchell with Catmo Media, programmatic display can leverage contextual targeting, placing the images next to articles about your target market’s interest. It is for pure awareness. Basically once you know what your target market consumes, you can put your lifestyle pictures beside the articles they are reading, and thus you may have a lead you’d never have had before!
In Blog Posts
Pictures are like the b-roll of the text world. What do I mean by that? The photos serve to illustrate to your reader the concepts you are trying to explain. So when you are writing a blog post about how your service is used, or what are its benefits, lifestyle pictures can encapsulate and summarize the words of your blog post into a couple of images, to complement and augment it. It’s also really great to help your blogs rank for SEO.
In Outdoor Advertising (so-called Out Of Home (OOH) or digital OOH)
Out of home advertising are things like billboards, transit ads, benches, etc. The visibility for this kind of thing is huge. If you think about the ads that the huge brands do (like Apple, Nike, etc), on billboards, bus stops, on and in buses or trains, etc., they are typically not pictures of the founders or the members of the board of directors. They are pictures of the kinds of people that use their products! Those companies understand their target market, and share and promote images of how that target market enjoys what they offer – so that they can see themselves using that too.
While it can be expensive, and you have to have a really dialled in campaign, website, systems, processes, teams, etc., to make sure that you can capitalize on it, the visibility and brand awareness you’ll get can be worth it – depending on your product or service that is.
In website popups to encourage signups to newsletter or other download
Email lists are still the king of marketing – at least according to most marketers I’ve spoken to. But getting people on that list is a different story. Great images that are unique to your business that illustrate the kind of people that might want to read that newsletter could attract people to learn more, when they see that pop-up on your site.
Other large format printing:
Brand lifestyle images can be used in a variety of other large formats, like
- Window Prints
- Popup Banners
- Vehicle Wraps
These are hugely visible, and can be relatively affordable ways of getting eyes on your product or service. Engaging photos that people can relate to can leave a positive memory of your brand.