Every marketing team eventually finds themselves outsourcing creative content like stock photos, vectors and videos. However, searching through millions of images and videos can be a challenging task, especially when you take into consideration brand standards, changing trends, audience preferences and content context.
As marketers well know, bad choices in creative content (especially when it comes to brand collateral like social media and website content) hurt overall business objectives and devalue the importance of a brand’s goal or mission. So, what steps should marketers take to find the highest quality photos and videos for their marketing content?
Start with the right provider
The most important aspect to consider when shopping for content isn’t volume, it’s context. Your goal as a marketer is to find a content partner with a targeted selection of images and videos that fit your niche. While most stock creative platforms offer a large selection of files to choose from, the best creative platform for marketing teams is one that offers superior quality over generic quantity.
When you’re shopping for marketing imagery, every image you choose is a reflection of your brand. Photos and videos of poor quality can diminish your brand’s value, leaving a bad impression on your audience. Make sure you work with a vendor that has a content review team, ensuring each piece of content meets a high level of quality.
Consider budget and usability
It’s critical to have access to a well-designed dashboard where you can easily view saved and previously used content. Ultimately, you’ll want every image you use to be fresh to your audience. Since you’ll be using a search engine within the platform to find the content you need, you’ll also save a lot of time with search filters that can toggle the aspect ratio, recency, subject matter, and more. A platform with features like these will help you find the right image for each deliverable faster, and keep your content organized with minimal effort.
Next to ease of use, pricing structure will certainly be on your list of considerations. We’re all being more careful with spend these days, so cost will likely be a big part of your decision. The best platform is one that provides a great selection of free stock photos, videos and vectors at the best value.
Keep up with trends
Marketing is all about keeping up with the latest trends in customer experience, social media and communication channels. The strength of your marketing collateral is largely measured by how relevant and impactful your creative is. Now more than ever, the photos and videos marketers use in their content need to reflect reality with consideration to new social norms and changes in consumer behavior. In 2020, for example, we saw a massive shift in image preferences related to the coronavirus. With COVID-19 disrupting our routines, marketers from top brands were on the hunt for authentic images showcasing the realities of our world today.
Consumers are searching for content focused on relevant societal issues and we expect this trend to continue beyond 2021. Marketers have the opportunity (and the responsibility) to do a better job representing diversity in marketing campaigns. You’re looking for content that celebrates being unique and pride in personal identity. A stellar example of such marketing is Apple’s 2020 holiday ad featuring Tierra Whack, which juxtaposed the reality of an overwhelmingly dark year against the spark of human resilience via creative expression.
The impact of 2020 has provided marketers with immediate, actionable insights on how campaigns should look and feel as we move into 2021. The pandemic has ushered in a realness in visuals we haven’t seen before. If content doesn’t align with people’s actual, present-day experiences, it’s going to look outdated and tone deaf. As consumers become increasingly mindful of the waterfall of media headlines, the call to action for marketers is simple: turn to a content platform that makes finding beautiful, relevant stock images and videos easy, fast and affordable.
About the Author: Shawn Rubel is the founder and CEO of Vecteezy, one of the largest creative marketplaces in the world with millions of stock photos, vectors and videos that are free and safe to use for personal or commercial use.