How many times have you heard the expression, "A picture is worth a thousand words"?
If you're an integrated marketer looking for a way to hook your website visitor, a picture that adds something extra isn't just worth a thousand words, it's worth more clicks, more time spent on the page, and more conversions. Photos brings your story to life and make a powerful appeal to your audience's emotion.
Get the Kens Burns Effect
Ken Burns is a famous documentarian with a very distinctive style: even using older photographs, he creates a sense of motion and even animation by zooming and panning across the images. ( This short clip illustrates his famous style.) Zooming creates a feeling of intimacy with the subject, and the overall result mimics the feel of a unique story unspooling.
Who they're best for: Businesses that need to communicate humanity and trust (think business services, insurance, health)
When to use them: Whenever you need to grab your customer by the emotions
How to make it: For web image, there's CSS but if you want to create for a video, there's an effect in Apple's iMovie that's conveniently called "Ken Burns Effect."
The Magic of Cinemagraphs
Another way to add interest to you web images is with a cinemagraph -to paraphrase Britney Spears, the cinemagraph is not a still image, not yet a video. They're the high-end cousin to an animated gif, presenting just enough movement to fool the eye into thinking it's watching a video. Even though cinemagraphs long been declared the NEXT BIG THING by industry publications like , you still don't see a lot of them-which is exactly why you should use them.
Who they're best for: Brands or companies that want to appear youthful, energetic, and vibrant, including fashion, retail, automotive
When to use them: They give your landing page the enhanced converting power of a video, for a fraction of the bandwidth.
How to make it: In addition to free and low-cost stock cinemagraphs, making a cinemagraph is like producing a video, except you only need about 10 seconds or less
Master the Art of Imagery
Back to that "picture is worth 1,000 words" idea: when integrated marketers use them correctly, pictures can telegraph your brand value, and much more. Here's how to use images and video to drive results.