Hey folks, let’s welcome my friend Razwana Wahid to the blog today!
A picture may speak a thousand words, but if the words aren’t the ones you want your audience to think, the picture’s wasted a valuable marketing opportunity.
So what to do?
Do you go on a hunt on multiple image sites, searching for the perfect image, that both reflects your brand and the message you want to convey?
Failing that, do you pick the next best thing that kinda reflects your brand but isn’t quite hitting the mark?
Then do you progress to pray your audience get the message?
Sounds like an impossible-to-repeat task.
But what if you could dictate exactly what the image was saying?
Or better still, use an image you like, even if it doesn’t reflect what you want it to say, and plant words in the mind of the audience anyway?
Enter: text overlays.
The saviors of our image woes.
Text overlays are the words you add over the top of an image.
The biggest mistake I see bloggers making with their text overlays is assuming they always have to be inspirational in some way.
Usually in the form of motivational quotes.
That pop up in my Facebook feed.
And make me want to kill myself.
Let’s not make that mistake. Instead, let’s write something of meaning.
Can’t think of anything of meaning to write? Here are 14 ideas to get you started:
1. Use the headline of your post
See how to optimize your title images for Pinterest
2. Pick a strong quote from your post
How to easily create image quotes
3. Give ready-to-apply instructions
4. Celebrate a huge achievement
5. Ask a question
6. Introduce your twitter chat, podcast or other event
3 Ways to Enhance your Blog Posts with Canva
7. Introduce your product
8. Share the details of your webinar
9. Write your tagline
How to Write a Kickbutt Blog Tagline
10. Promote a Twitter chat hashtag
11. Simply overlay your company name or logo
12. Countdown your launch
13. Promote a contest or giveaway
14. Focus on one key point in your blog post
See more posts on photography for your blog
Since there are so many words to read online, having an image to support them ups your game as a blogger.
They not only boost your brand image, but have been proven to increase click through rates and shares on social media.
You can even go crazy and have a specific font to use on each image, to increase brand consistency.
And finally, if you’re struggling to find free images to use, here’s an excellent resource to get you started.
What are your favourite sites to get images from? Let us know in the comments!
About Razwana WahidRazwana Wahid: Killer content copywriter and founder of Relentless Movement – A copywriting service for entrepreneurs who want to write bold and sell big. Lose the headache of writing your Home Page, About Page and Services page and get the no-brainer templates here.
Thanks for a wide variety of ideas and possibilities. Gets my creative mind working.
It makes me smile to read this, Virginia 🙂
Beside just overlaying text, I feel that learning photography, and taking your own photos can increase the professionalism of your site. The image really sells the product. I should have focused on taking more enticing images of my products, but now I’ve learned my lesson. To really sell online you must sell it through the right photos. Thanks for sharing your article btw.
Wise words, Jenny. I’m working on photography skills too.
There’s a lot to learn about lighting and composition – and this becomes even more important when you’re selling physical products.
Thanks so much for including our #OWSchat graphic! We are in love with our graphic designer, Christie!
🙂