Using Images in Your Small Business Marketing Blog
Having a blog on your business website is a great way to engage prospective clients, show your expertise and improve your search engine rankings. Although written text usually forms the heart of your blog post, it’s a good idea to include images as well. A blog post looks less visually overwhelming and more professional when accompanied by an image, as opposed to pages filled with nothing but text.
So the question is where do you get these images? It’s tempting to just download them from the Internet – but don’t. Most images on the Internet are subject to copyright. (Yes, even those not specifically labeled as such.) If you use an image subject to copyright, you could find yourself on the receiving end of costly legal action.
It’s safer, cheaper (and more honest) to purchase images from websites built specifically for that purpose, such as iStockphoto, Getty Images and Shutterstock. They all operate similarly – you pay to download images and agree to adhere to their use restrictions. Prices vary with image type, artist, size and the amount purchased.
Some sites offer images for free, but you still have to adhere to any use restrictions. This often involves notifying the artist and/or giving him or her credit. Examples of these types of sites are Free Images and Stock.XCHNG.
Another option is to use your own photos. Not only is this cheaper, but it can also help personalize your blog. I’m not suggesting you head out every weekend with your SLR camera and tripod. But, if you’re attending an event you plan to blog about, it’s not hard to take a few quick photos with your camera phone.
For some clients, I buy higher quality images for their marketing materials with the broadest reach (such as their newsletter) and limit free or cheaper sources to marketing materials with lower reach (such as their blog). Such an approach may or may not be appropriate for your business. You’ll need to think about your target market(s) and then decide.
Quite often you’ll need to edit images for use by cropping or reducing their resolution. I tend to use Adobe Photoshop for this, although WordPress has some easy image editing tools built into it as well.
Do you use images as part of your business blog? Where do you source them?