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Promotion: How photos can engage your readers

While a written blog certainly relies heavily on well-written and nutritious content in order to keep its readers coming back regularly, they also benefit greatly from the inclusion of a few great images.  Confront your readers with a sea of words and you’re guaranteed that plenty of them will be overwhelmed and skip to the next page or out of your blog altogether. A healthy sprinkling of images courtesy of even the most basic of digital cameras will break up that text and can even complement the content really constructively, grabbing your readers by the shoulders and urging them to read on.

Visual learning

Ever heard the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, it’s actually true, because studies have shown that 60 per cent of your readers learn and retain information more effectively using image as opposed to text.A picture just makes us sit up and helps us remember a story.

Metaphorically speaking…

You can describe a comparison you’ve made as much as you like in the hope that your readers will know what you’re talking about, but a photo will instantly paint the picture that lots and lots of words might not otherwise be able to.

So if, for example, you’re talking about the power of something (a business, a car, whatever), then you could choose a photograph of a big cat, perhaps. Similarly, if you’re talking about, say, government cutbacks and austerity measures, a big, shiny red axe would do nicely.

A good photo is magnetic

Your photo can either be straightforward or it can be cryptic. A straightforward picture will compel the reader to continue reading about the interesting topic they’ve just spotted, and a cryptic picture will play on the reader’s curios side (we all have one), again compelling the reader to find out more.

For example, perhaps you’re going to cover the latest celebrity scandal – a good picture summarising what the article is about (e.g. a post about an affair would benefit from a photo of the cheating couple in question) will work wonders. If your article is about something a little more photographically inexplicable, then focus on a more abstract focal point of the article. You could even choose a photo that’s saying exactly the same thing as your title (i.e. taking it very literally).

Photos convey personality

Your blog’s photos will set the tone of your blog – they can be funny, outrageous, informative, or sober and serious. It’s up to you as to how you want your readers to perceive your approach.

If you’re a pretty straightforward businessperson talking about industry news, events and developments in a fairly sober tone, then it may not work for you to insert the odd wacky, humorous or cryptic photograph throughout your posts. Besides being a little off-tone, it’s quite simply off-topic and might confuse the reader and discredit your well-written and otherwise authoritative copy.

If, however, you’re an artist documenting your projects and promote yourself as an interesting, proactive person, then it probably wouldn’t do to have a sanitised photo of a paintbrush alongside you in a suit on your blog. It’s that simple.

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