Stock photography produces licensed photos that can be used for a specific purpose, used often for digital marketing and advertising. Images enhance marketing efforts, and stock photos are widely attainable to license for creative use. They have been around for almost 100 years and are now available all over the internet. According to Shutterstock, some of the most popular stock photos include people, travel destinations, animals, and food.
While there’s nothing wrong with integrating stock photos into your marketing collateral, it is important to know when it makes sense to purchase the rights to legally use these professional photographs, and when using stock photos should be avoided. To help you establish best practices, we’ve compiled the following pros and cons. Since investing big bucks and hours on sourcing a single photograph is not feasible, stock photos offer high-quality and non-cheesy visuals to your content. Stock photography libraries offer a vast array of subjects, covering everything from people and technology to nature, architecture, business settings, creative abstracts, and more.
Instead of investing time and money in hiring a photographer for custom projects, you can easily find unique and effective imagery through stock photography websites. Just be sure to source your stock photography from a reputable source, and keep in mind that the effectiveness of stock photography depends on how it’s used throughout your marketing content. Purchasing stock photography ensures that you have a valid license to use the pictures in any manner you desire. You can see several examples of branded stock imagery above that I created for my clients during their Signature Personal Brand Photography Experience here in Austin, TX.
Stock photos can be a valuable resource, but they shouldn’t be the sole source of visuals on your website. The content on Stock Photo Secrets and associated channels is for general information only and doesn’t constitute advice related to stock photography agencies or their services. Using eye-tracking technology, studies have shown that people skip over stock images and ignore stock photos of generic people. You’re only granted seconds to capture your audience’s attention, so be mindful of the first impression stock photography makes before implementing it in your marketing, and always strive for something unique.
Stock photography is a valuable resource for individuals and businesses looking to enhance their online presence. Using a stock image source like Desygner gives you access to many photographs, regardless of what you are looking for.