How to Use Images on Your Company Site to Increase Sales and Conversions

The way you present information on your website is crucial to its success. This is especially true for businesses, where the way you convey information can affect your sales and conversions. There are plenty of ways to communicate with your visitors, but one of the most effective is by using images.

As the saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This idiom is as true for websites as it is for art. Using images enables you to communicate and explain concepts more effectively than by just using text. In turn, this will lead to increased conversions and improved sales.

In this post, I’ll introduce you to the importance of using images on your company website. I’ll then share five ways to use images most effectively, as well as five tools—including a WordPress gallery plugin—you can use to improve your site’s images. Let’s get started!

The Importance of Suitable Images on Your Company Website

Your site probably already contains a fair amount of images, but it’s important that you’re using them right. While images can be used to break up content and offer context, they can be used for so much more.

Optimizing your image usage comes with several benefits. Most importantly, they can improve the user experience of your site, as they offer context and improve the flow of content.

Images can also be used to highlight products and steer users toward important areas of your site. They’re also great for communicating complex concepts in a way that’s easily understandable.

As you can see, the way you use images on your site can have a significant impact. In turn, a growing audience and improved user experience will ultimately result in increased sales and conversions.

Image Tools to Use on Your Company Website

Before we get into how to use images effectively, let’s discuss some key tools for displaying them.

Here are 5 of the best image tools for websites:

1. NextGEN Gallery
2. TinyPNG
3. Smart Slider 3
4. Landscape
5. Regenerate Thumbnails

1. NextGEN Gallery

One of the most popular WordPress gallery plugins available, NextGEN Gallery provides you with practically everything you need to add beautiful images to your website. Once installed, you can create eye-catching image galleries and add them to any page or post.

The plugin includes 12 gallery display styles, a full collection of tools to help with eCommerce, and even social options, such as commenting and sharing.

The plugin version is free, and it includes two gallery display types and album styles. There are also two premium versions of the plugin to choose from: NextGEN Plus and NextGEN Pro. At $79 and $99 respectively, you’ll gain access to premium support and unlock all gallery and lightbox extensions. With Pro, you’ll also receive access to extended eCommerce and social features.

2. TinyPNG

TinyPNG is a popular web tool that enables you to compress your images, which helps to improve site speed. As a result, you’ll improve UX for all site visitors, while providing them with crisp, beautiful images.

While the website is a great tool to use, the TinyPNG WordPress plugin makes the optimization process even simpler. This will automatically compress all uploaded images with no file size limit, so you can upload original images and let TinyPNG take care of the rest. Even pre-uploaded images in your Media Library can be optimized with the bulk optimization option.

The website tool and plugin are free. However, the plugin includes a monthly limit of 100 images. To increase this, you’ll need to purchase extra “credits.”

3. Smart Slider 3

There are various ways to incorporate images onto your site. Using a slider enables you to display several images in one space in a visually striking way.

Smart Slider 3 is an image slider plugin that creates beautiful and functional slideshows. You can create sliders in minutes with the use of pre-built designs, which you can personalize with background animations and transitions.

With sliders, you can group your images together and display them wherever you want. For example, you can create a slideshow of product images that you display on each landing page. This enables you to share a variety of images without cluttering the page.

The free plugin includes an array of premium-style features. However, for just $25 you can upgrade and expand its functionality.

4. Landscape

Using images on your social media platforms is just as important as employing them on your website. With Landscape, a free web tool created by Sprout Social, you can do just that.

Landscape is a social media image resizer. You simply upload your images and choose the social platform you’re using. Landscape will then resize the images appropriately, and help you crop them.

This is a great tool to use for your social media. By uploading pre-sized images for each platform to your website, your readers can easily share them without hassle.

5. Regenerate Thumbnails

Thumbnails are reduced-sized versions of pictures that are automatically generated when you upload an image.

With Regenerate Thumbnails, you can create new thumbnails from your existing images. This ensures you’ll see the best version of your image attachments in the WordPress Media Library, and it even optimizes your post and page feature images. This plugin also enables you to delete unused thumbnails.

5 Key Ways to Use Images on Your Company Site to Increase Sales and Conversions

Using quality images on your site is important. How you do so, however, will impact their effectiveness.

Let’s take a closer look at five ways to use images on your company site to increase sales and conversions.

1. Evoke an emotional response from visitors
2. Draw attention to your products
3. Increase consumer (and brand) trust
4. Guide your customers to specific site elements
5. Promote your brand effectively and consistently

1.  Evoke an Emotional Response From Visitors

While many would like to believe otherwise, we’re often ruled more by emotion than logic. In fact, emotions are a key factor in our purchasing decisions, and as such, it’s an important tool to leverage.

Written content is a great way to evoke emotions, but images can be just as effective (if not more so) when used correctly. For example:

• Use human-focused images. Humans are essentially trained to interpret the facial expressions of other humans. You can use this to your advantage to set the tone and make your site seem more friendly and personal.
• Use images that highlight your target audience. For example, if your target audience is 20-something woman, include young women in images on your site where possible. This will help your reader relate to your brand.

When choosing images for your site, it helps to consider the emotions that have compelled you to make online purchases in the past. By putting yourself in the place of your consumers, you’ll get a better idea of what works best.

2. Draw Attention to Your Products

Products and services are your company’s bread and butter, so it’s important to draw attention to them. By using well-placed images, you can draw the eye of visitors to your products and increase the chances of a conversion.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Use various image placements. Utilizing different image placements—such as hero images—can help guide your visitor’s eye where you want them to look. As humans can process images very quickly—as quick as 13 milliseconds—this enables you to take advantage of multiple placements on one page.
• Incorporate context. Show your products in their natural element, as they’re likely to be used. Highlight its uses by featuring your product in contextual settings.

In short, we’re naturally attracted to visual elements. By using them on your website (and, more specifically, on your product pages), you can make them more desirable to your visitors.

3. Increase Consumer (and Brand) Trust

The trust consumers have in you—and your brand—plays a large role in conversions. After all, consumers will never buy from a website they don’t feel they can trust. By enabling your consumers to put their trust in you, you’re giving them a reason to buy from you over your competitors.

There are many elements that influence consumer trust, including ratings and website security elements (such as HTTPS). Images can also be used successfully, however, to boost trust. Here’s how:

• Use images in your customer testimonials. Consumers trust their peers. By using their images alongside testimonials, you can increase their impact and effectiveness.
• Include images of your certifications and awards in your site footer. These show visitors that trusted industry associations have verified your company

Simply put, you need consumers to trust you, which is something you need to build over time. By following these steps, however, you’ll help speed up the process.

4. Guide Your Customers to Specific Site Elements

As a website owner, there are certain things you want your visitors to do. This usually includes signing up for your email list or clicking a button. By subtly guiding your visitors through your site, you can lead them where you’d like them to go, such as to a product landing page or sales campaign.

A Call To Action (CTA) and guided tours are one way to do this. Images can also be used, however, to complete this task. Here are just a few ways to get you started on the right path:

1. Use heat mapping. This will show you how visitors react to images on your website, as well as how you can improve their placement.
2. Utilize contrast. Contrasting colors naturally draw the eye. By adding high contrast images to specific areas of your website (such as next to a “Purchase Now!” button), you increase the odds of visitors seeing it.

It helps to think of any images on your site as additional navigation. With appropriate placement, you can ensure your visitors are following the path that will yield you the most conversions.

5. Promote Your Brand Effectively and Consistently

As mentioned previously, how consumers perceive your brand plays a critical role in conversions. With images, you can also market yourself to visitors who may not have heard of your brand.

By promoting your brand, you increase awareness. This can drive more targeted traffic to your site, which is great for sales. To achieve this, there are two main steps you can take:

1. Use themed images. For example, use images with your website’s color scheme or that include your logo. This will let consumers know—as soon as they come across your image—that it belongs to your brand.
2. Create and use a mascot. This helps create a unique brand identity. Many companies, such as MailChimp and Geico, have done so effectively.

This also requires you to share these images on places other than your website. Social media platforms—especially Instagram and Pinterest—are ideal for images. However, you should share them on any platform that your audience most participates on.

Conclusion

Images are used frequently on websites, but not all take advantage of them effectively. By improving the way you use images (such as with the help of a WordPress gallery plugin), you can do more than just boost your website’s quality. You can also increase sales and conversions for your business.

In this post, I’ve discussed five ways to use images on your company website. To quickly recap, you can:

1. Evoke an emotional response from visitors.
2. Draw attention to your products.
3. Increase consumer (and brand) trust.
4. Guide your customers to specific site elements.
5. Promote your brand effectively and consistently.

Do you have any questions about using images to increases sales and conversions, or how you can use any of the tools mentioned to do so? Let us know in the comments section below!