Stock images are an excellent resource, especially for small businesses or projects on a tight budget. Almost everyone nowadays prefers to use stock images that are available for free or at an affordable price in online libraries.
The best part about using Stock Photos in branding and marketing is that individuals, businesses, or organizations that use these images are not at risk of copyright infringement.
Thinking of using stock photos? Then you have come to the right place. This article discusses the types of stock images, how using them can benefit you, and alternative ways to avoid using poor-quality stock photos.
So, without further ado, let’s get straight into our discussion.
Types of Stock Photos
The Stock photography industry has a vast library of photographs of every genre and theme, including technology, business, nature, food, lifestyle, etc.
However, the images are categorized into different licensing models that determine how and for how long users can use the photographs.
Let’s learn about different types of stock photos based on their licensing models.
Free stock photo websites
Free stock photos refer to images that can be used without restriction or payment.
These photographs can be used for any purpose, be it personal, professional, or commercial.
However, the drawback of using these images is that they are widely used, so you cannot use them to make your content unique, and the quality is not as high as that of paid images.
Right managed (RM)
Right-managed photos are premium quality paid images that have usage rights for a specific purpose, time, and geographic region.
This is the most expensive category of stock photos, as users must renew the license every time the license period expires.
Moreover, the images have other limitations, such as not being applicable for every purpose or location.
Royalty-free (RF)
Royalty-free images may appear to be free based on their name, but they actually require a one-time fee for unlimited use.
These images have very few restrictions, such as not being shareable with other users, networks, or locations, not being resellable or redistributable, not being used in adult-related content, not being used in a defamatory manner; and not being used as part of a trademark or logo.
Other than these, images can be used for any purpose and for a lifetime.
This type of image gives the user more flexibility and opportunities to make their content stand out by using high-quality images.
Are you concerned that buying stock photos will cost you a fortune?
No worries; you can cut costs using a Shutterstock coupon code when purchasing stock photos from Shutterstock.
The Importance of Stock Photos in Branding and Marketing
Let’s learn the importance of stock photos in branding and marketing.
- Grab your customer’s attention
- Readily Available
- Tell your brand story
- Relatively Affordable
- Customer access to difficult subjects
- Reflect on your key brand traits
- Stick to your brand messaging
- Brand consistency
- Global reach and versatility
- Diverse Range of Subjects
now let’s understand each point in detail to improve marketing using stock photos…
Grab your customer’s attention
Visually appealing, high-quality, vibrant images that are relevant to the content help customers connect with your content.
Customers are drawn to unique and interesting stock images that are relevant to the content used for branding or social media marketing.
As a result, they are more likely to interact with the content by liking, commenting, and sharing it with their community.
Readily Available
There are numerous business stock images that are ready to use. These readily available photographs save time and effort for marketers as well as designers.
There is no need to brainstorm ideas for a custom photoshoot or take on the hassle of arranging photographers, models, and so on.
All you have to do is look for stock photographs that are relevant to your topic or content, and your marketing campaigns are ready to go.
Tell your brand story
Stock photos can be a great way to tell your brand’s story.
You can use these pre-made images to visually describe or represent the elements of your brand story, such as the brand’s history, values, goals, achievements, or unique selling points.
Also, use stock images that evoke specific emotions related to your brand story to help your customers connect with your brand more deeply.
Relatively Affordable
Stock photos for branding are relatively affordable compared to creating your own photographs through photoshoots.
Hiring a photographer or model, as well as traveling to locations for outdoor shoots, can be costly.
However, similar or better results can be obtained by using free stock images or purchasing stock photo rights at a low cost.
Customer access to difficult subjects
Stock photos can be used in the content as a visual representation to make difficult subjects accessible to customers.
The images can be used as contextual references, real-life examples, or metaphorical representations.
It can also be used as a visual aid to clarify abstract marketing ideas that are challenging to comprehend through text alone.
Reflect on your key brand traits
Brand personality is the unique characteristic of every brand that sets it apart from other brands.
One of the cost-effective and easy ways to reflect your brand’s key traits is by using stock images in your marketing campaigns.
For example, select stock photos that effectively convey the core values of your brand, such as creative, funny, lovely, or energetic.
Stick to your brand messaging
Stock images can help you stick to your brand messaging by helping you reflect your brand values, enhancing emotional appeal, showcasing brand personality, and more.
You have the freedom to select images that resonate with your target audience.
Moreover, thoughtfully selecting stock images can enhance the overall impact of your branding and marketing communications.
Brand consistency
Stock photos are an excellent way to maintain brand consistency.
You can choose images that complement your brand’s visual identity and style and use those images across all marketing materials to strengthen brand recognition.
Selecting images, themes, colors, and other elements that show consistent visual language across diverse markets and platforms helps maintain a consistent brand image.
Global reach and versatility
Stock images can help you achieve global reach and versatility in your branding and marketing efforts.
Images have the power and ability to convey messages and emotions across different cultures without the need for translation.
Therefore, you can use stock images in your branding to make your ideas and content more accessible to people who speak different languages.
Diverse Range of Subjects
A wide variety of subjects are available in stock photos that may not be available in custom photo shoots.
For example, you can choose a model, a cheetah, or a blue whale from stock images, but you cannot work with all of these subjects in real life at any time and from any location.
So, no matter what type of subject you require for your marketing campaign, you can always find it through stock images.
When to Use Stock Photography
Stock photography provides a diverse range of high-quality photographs suitable for almost any project.
It can come in handy whether you have a large or small project, a heavy workload, or a lack of time.
Here are some common situations when using stock photography is the best solution.
Low Budget
Hiring professional photographers or organizing a photoshoot requires a large investment.
If you are working on a project that has a limited budget, then using stock images can be a cost-effective solution.
Time Constraints
Sometimes companies need to launch sudden promotional offers or marketing campaigns.
Usually, these projects have time constraints that prevent them from arranging a photoshoot or hiring a photographer.
Message more important than image
If you want to keep the spotlight on the words of your content, use stock images to support the ideas.
This will make the content look visually appealing as well as maintain the focus on the words.
So, why waste your valuable time and energy creating new images when you can achieve your goal with pre-existing photographs?
Avoid the stress of legal issues.
Using either free or paid stock images provides users with peace of mind.
Purchasing stock images grants the buyer the right to use them. Hence, no one can file a claim for copyright infringement, and the user is free of concern.
What to do instead of using bad stock photos
Photographs enhance the visual appeal and engagement of content, making it more appealing and engaging to readers.
It has the ability to evoke emotion, set the mood, and create a story that resonates with the audience, making it a powerful storytelling tool.
On the other hand, cheesy, low-quality images can make content unappealing to readers and drive them away from the website.
So, what should you do if you do not want to use stock photos that are not good?
Here’s what you can do instead of using bad stock photos.
Look for better images on various websites
Instead of relying on just one or two websites, look for multiple stock image providers.
Try to use stock images from renowned and top sites. While searching for images, try to use specific terms that represent your ideas rather than abstract concepts.
This will help you find images that best suit your content.
Retouch images to make them unique
Retouching images using Photoshop or other editing tools can make not-so-good photographs unique and usable.
Not all images will have the color tone or elements that match your content needs. You can try the editing technique if you have stock images that can be used by making tonal adjustments, cropping, repositioning, or overlaying text or graphics.
Make sure the stock photo allows you creative rights to make changes to the images.
Create your own photographs
If you do not have any stock photos that can be used in any way, try making your own.
Arrange a photography session and hire a photographer. If needed, you can use models too.
This way, you can create images that exactly fit your purpose without going through the hassle of searching for stock images or worrying about copyright issues.
Use illustrations and graphics
Photographs are not the only way to visually enhance your branding and marketing content.
Using illustrations and graphics is one of the effective alternatives to photographs. You can use custom illustrations and graphics that are entirely unique to your brand to set it apart from competitors.
Moreover, they can be easily tailored to fit any type of marketing material, such as a social media post, infographic, brochure, or website banner.
So why take the risk of ruining your marketing campaigns using bad stock photos when you have such a great alternative?
Final Verdict
Images are an extremely crucial part of branding and marketing. The more engaging and visually appealing the marketing content, the more likely it is to generate customer engagement.
Using stock photos is a better alternative to make marketing content or branding easy and cost-effective for brands.
In this article, we have discussed the types of stock images, when to use these images, how using stock images can benefit your branding and ways to avoid using bad stock photos.
Hopefully, the insight you have gained from this article on the Importance of Stock Photos will help you use stock images for your marketing campaigns.
Feel free to share it with your friends so they can also learn about the amazing benefits of using stock images.
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