Images are one of the most effective ways of communicating knowledge and meaning. The examples exist throughout human history with cave paintings in France, hieroglyphics in Egypt and indigenous art in Australia all showing that communicating stories and ideas through images is a universal trait we all share.
Just because websites can host an unlimited amount of text, it doesn’t mean that they should. In fact, website experts say most websites could be greatly improved by paying far more attention to images and visuals.
We’ve identified the most effective ways of communicating through images and broken them down below to give you a solid overview of the different ways you could add these elements to your website to reach your customers better.
Logo Familiarity
Your logo is the ‘face’ of your business. And just like any relationship, you want people to remember your ‘face’. The simplest way you can do that is to make sure that your logo is present on every one of your web pages, and also in the footer of each page.
Sliding ‘headers’ that stay pinned to the top of the screen while browsers scroll through your pages can accomplish this goal as well.
Another neat trick you can use it to add a ‘moving’ element to your logo by animating it. Google does this to good effect to highlight important dates, holidays and people but even something as simple as having the logo unfurl as the page is opened for the first time can accomplish the job.
Photos
Good quality, high resolution photography can’t be underestimated for its power to convey ideas. But their key strength is its ability to set a tone and create emotional reactions and connections. Instagram and Pinterest are both multibillion-dollar businesses built on this concept.
Once again, a slider element on a web page that automatically scroll through some well-chosen, high quality photographs that match your brand and product can do a great job in getting your message to readers in an easy to digest, minimal way.
And of course, for those that sell actual products or ‘results’ (e.g. renovators, trades-based businesses) photos accompanying a ‘product’ page or testimonials of past work are crucial for the ‘show the potential customer what they’re getting’ angle.
Illustrations and Infographics
Sometimes to sell a product or service you need to first inform and educate a customer about a potential problem, then offer them the solution to that problem. This is especially true if the problem is not an obvious one. For example, a leaking tap or roof is an obvious problem. But the long-term cost benefits of insulation or solar panels, or the long-term advantages of regular dentist or optometrist appointments are less easy to ‘sell’.
This is where a visual element like an infographic or a series of illustrations with limited text attached can do a lot of heavy lifting. Rather than being confronted with a large ‘wall’ of text, browsers encounter a short, sharp set of images and graphics that tell the story instead. Good infographics or images series’ can convey the same information as an 800 word blog post with a quarter of the words