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Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing

Need a budget-friendly visual edge in your small business marketing plan? Learn how you can utilize stock photos to boost engagement and pull in your audience.

A stock image‘s purpose is to be flexible enough to fit a wide variety of topics. With small business marketing, this could be as much a blessing as it is a curse if you don’t take the time to personalize the images.

You could get lucky and hit on something that fits you perfectly, or you may struggle to find the right stock photo that represents your small business and the products or services you sell. You certainly don’t want to market to local customers with anything that looks generic, or lacks authenticity.

That’s not to say that stock photos won’t work for you. As a marketer or business owner it all comes down to how you use them, and work those stock photos to make them your own. It’s important to use stock photos in a way that they will add to the engagement of your content and represent your business in a way that feels genuine.

Why Authenticity Matters with Stock Photos

Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing — Authenticity Matters
Image via Undrey.

You want to build a close relationship with your local customers. Many of them choose to do business with you because you have great service, you’re authentic, and they feel like you care. They also know you and your business personally.

So, using images that aren’t authentic can be a challenge.

Consider what Simon Sinek says on authenticity:

“Instinctively we’re constantly evaluating the words and actions of others. We’re assessing if they can be trusted. To the end, the more we sense that our values and beliefs align with the values and beliefs of others, the more apt we are to trust them. This is the reason we are drawn to people who are ‘like us.’ The trust we feel and the relationships we form with another person or with a brand are exactly the same.”

Your current and prospective customers are make snap judgements based on the content and images you share. Don’t just use stock photos the way you find them if your own image won’t suffice. Find ways to make those stock photos your own by tweaking and adjusting the content.

Here are some ways to revise and edit stock content so it best fits your brand and your messaging.


Add Text to Your Stock Images

Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing — Add Copy to Your Images
Image via wavebreakmedia.

One of the easiest ways to make your stock photos more relevant to your small business marketing is to use text. This helps draw the parallel between your key message and the images you’re using. There are a number of popular brands who rely on stock photos for content marketing, and will overlay text to give those images more branded impact.

For example, Buffer regular uses stock photos as the featured images for their blog posts, with a title text overlay to add more context.

You could use the same tactic in social posts, email marketing, or your blog.


Trim Stock Photos to Focus on Relevant Aspects

Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing — Crop Images for Focus
Image via Rawpixel.

There be a single element of a larger stock photo that really speaks to the nature of your campaign. Something within the broader picture that could make your small business stand out.  Try cropping it to highlight the element that caught your eye.

Trim off the excess that could be distracting and zero in on the elements most likely to benefit your small business. Smart cropping allows you to change the emphasis or slant of an image to fit whatever local marketing campaign you’re doing.


Change the Color of Your Stock Photo

Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing — Change the Colors
Image via wavebreakmedia.

There have been extensive studies into the use of color, in everything from staging and selling homes to marketing entertainment media and social media engagement. Color can inspire, capture attention, convey the emotion of something to a viewer, shift the mood and even set the atmosphere for something. Color is such a powerful thing, it can even ignite emotional experiences and force the recall of someone’s memories.

Consider the colors you use in branding, and experiment with ways to create a color overlay for a stock photo so that it feels more closely tied to your brand and more authentic.


Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing — Find Related Images
Image via Tatevosian Yana.

Don’t settle on the first image that you think looks nice or “catchy.” You know your audience better than anyone, and you know what is likely going to get the best results in your small business marketing.

Take the time to find a few options that will best compliment your marketing rather than settling on something that looks vaguely similar to your content and dropping it in.


Adjust the Image Contrast

Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing — Adjust the Image Contrast
Image via JP Wallet.

Every stock photo you use for your small business marketing has a purpose—you want to add that eye-catching visual element to grab reader attention. If you feel like the stock photos and images you’re working with aren’t doing that, then adjust the contrast to make them a better fit.

A great example of contrast being used in marketing is Apple’s infamous iPod commercials and ad placements. The iPod and earbuds were a stark white in contrast to the dancing silhouettes in the commercials. It put the attention on the product.

Try low and high contrasts to make certain elements standout, from text to those visual elements within the image most relevant to your brand or products.


Lastly, Use Simple Tools to Make Editing Stock Photos Easy

Get The Most Out of Stock Photos in Your Small Business Marketing — Use Editing Tools
Image via yougoigo.

You don’t need to make a huge investment in photography or graphic design software to tweak the stock photos you select for marketing. There are a number of great platforms available that make it easy to edit images and make them your own. Most will let you add border elements, fonts, overlays, and transparencies to customize the image. Save it when you’re finished and your image is ready to use in your next marketing campaign.

Cover image via Tatevosian Yana.

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