This presentation is based on the original blog post How Images Drive Conversions: 15 Ways Images Can Improve Conversion Rates. You can view the original post here: http://blog.topohq.com/how-images-drive-conversions-15-ways-images-can-improve-conversion-rates/

1. How Images Drive Conversions
15 ways images improve conversion rates
TOPO
© 2013 TOPO
www.topohq.com

2. Introduction
• Images can dramatically increase conversion
rates when used correctly
• In spite of their importance, images are often
an afterthought for marketers
• This presentation contains 15 guidelines to
help marketers use images to improve
conversion rates

3. 15 ways images drive conversions
1. Tie images to your product
2. Tailor images to your audience
3. Use high quality images
4. Feature the customer
5. Make images evocative
6. Humanize web pages with faces
7. Show detailed images
8. Use images to guide the
customer
9. Consider the context of
consumption
10. Place images carefully on your
web page
11. Don’t use confusing images
12. Use larger images
13. Use image priming
14. Buttons are images too
15. Don’t forget about color
psychology

4. Tie images to the product or service
• Marketers should tie images to the product or
service that you’re offering
• To use a simple example, ecommerce companies
should display product images using a catalog design
metaphor
• A slightly more complex example might be a for-
profit educational institution - the company should
show a successful, happy person because that’s
really what the school is selling

5. Tie images to the product or service

6. Use images that target your audience
• Tailoring images to your target audience is another
best practice
• Gender and age are among the demographic traits
that determine how someone will react to a
particular image
• A recent eye tracking study focused on online dating
profiles found that men examine a woman’s profile
picture first and foremost, while women spend the
most time on text-based profile details and other
women

7. Use images that target your audience

8. Use high quality images
• Historically, landing pages have been the home of
low quality images - low quality stock photos are the
most common example of this
• In recent years however, a handful of internet
companies have really pushed the envelope on using
high quality images as part of their marketing efforts
• The reason is simple – high quality images create the
perception in the mind of the customer that the
product being offered is high quality - that in turn
leads to higher conversion rates

9. Use high quality images

10. Feature the customer
• Images are also more effective when they show the target
customer
• One of the more effective image-based conversion tactics is to
show the customer using the product or service because it
allows a prospective buyer to visualize using the product
• It’s an extremely powerful psychological cue and it creates a
form of social validation where the prospective buyer is more
inclined to buy because they believe that other people are
already using the product

11. Feature the customer

12. Make images emotionally evocative
• The emotion that someone feels at the point of
conversion is often the driving force as to whether
that person will convert or not
• Marketers should use images that bolster the
emotion that the product or service the company is
offering is designed to evoke
• For example, technology security companies often
use imagery that’s associated with fear or threats to
drive higher conversions

13. Make images emotionally evocative

14. Humanize web pages with faces
• For a few years now, good designers have
understood that displaying faces next to key calls to
action improves conversion rates
• Adding a headshot of a customer service
representative to the “contact support” button or 1-
800 number on a web page can increase conversion
rates by up to 20%
• Marketers should use pictures of people and
headshots in particular to humanize their calls to
action and conversions

15. Humanize web pages with faces

16. Show detailed images
• When a conversion depends on a customer
understanding the details of a product or service,
images can play a critical role
• In some contexts, using a zoom feature or digital
loupe can be an effective technique for displaying
detailed images
• Even information products such as books and white
papers are well served by detailed images - in this
case, providing a detailed table of contents and
excerpt can improve conversion rates substantially

17. Show detailed images

18. Use images to guide the customer
• Marketers can use a carefully placed image to
improve conversions by literally guiding the
prospect’s eyes to the point of conversion whether
that be a product placement, button, or form
• This is often accomplished by using a photo of a
person (the “hero shot”) and having that person look
at certain part of the web page
• In a well known eye tracking study, marketers
determined that having ababy look at the product
greatly increased the number of people who looked
at that part of the page

19. Use images to guide the customer

20. Consider the context of consumption
• Most marketers think of images in the context of a
web page such as a landing page that they control
• Increasingly, images are being used on third party
sites to drive traffic to the brand’s site
• Facebook Ads are a prime example of this - data
shows that photos of human faces, cats, and beer
result in improved conversion rates on places like
Facebook where consumption is much more fun and
social

21. Consider the context of consumption

22. Image placement is critical
• Marketers should also pay attention to image
placement on web pages
• For example, if a product has a temporal component,
people prefer to view the “before” image on the left
and the “after” image on the right - it’s just how
people are accustomed to consuming this type of
information
• Moreover, marketers shouldn’t put too much space
between these images, as pictures that are closer
together create the perception that the product is
more effective

23. Image placement is critical

24. Avoid confusing images
• Hard-to-understand images tend to confuse
customers and actually create the perception that a
product or service may be difficult to use
• It should come as no surprise that a number of
studies have shown that we prefer information that
is easy to consume
• For example, subjects who read an exercise routine
in hard-to-read font estimated that the workout
would take almost twice as long as those subjects
who read the instructions in the Arial font

25. Avoid confusing images

26. Larger images work
• In many cases, larger images increase conversion
rates
• This appears to be particularly when it comes to
“hero shots”, a landing pages central image, and call-
to-action buttons
• A large image provides many benefits that contribute
to higher conversion rates - they tend to be higher
quality, easier to understand, and evoke a stronger
response

27. Larger images work

28. Use image priming
• Priming involves using subtle cues, often in the form of
images, to influence a person’s future behavior
• Although it’s the subject of some controversy in
academic circles, there have been numerous studies that
show image priming can impact conversion rates
• A study by Stanford professor Brian Knutson showed that
mildly erotic photos of men and women caused
heterosexual men to take greater financial risks than
subjects who were shown images of office supplies or
spiders

29. Use image priming

30. Buttons are images too
• Many marketing teams think equate images with
photos - it’s important to remember that there are
other types of images as well
• Buttons that represent a call to action are an
example of a critically important type of image
• When properly designed, they have the potential to
generate triple digit improvements in conversion
rates - using the right color, large buttons, and a
strong call to action are proven techniques for
improving click through rates

31. Buttons are images too

32. Don’t forget about color psychology
• The primary color of an image can have a material
impact on conversion rates - certain colors evoke
particular reactions from people
• For example, green and red are two popular colors
for buttons on landing pages - both evoke strong
reactions from site visitors and provide marketers
with two great options to test for effectiveness
• In fact, Hubspot recently tested two nearly identical
landing pages where the only difference between the
pages was the color of the submit button - the red
button outperformed the green button by 21%

33. Don’t forget about color psychology

34. 15 ways images drive conversions
1. Tie images to your product
2. Tailor images to your audience
3. Use high quality images
4. Feature the customer
5. Make images evocative
6. Humanize web pages with faces
7. Show detailed images
8. Use images to guide the
customer
9. Consider the context of
consumption
10. Place images carefully on your
web page
11. Don’t use confusing images
12. Use larger images
13. Use image priming
14. Buttons are images too
15. Don’t forget about color
psychology

35. How Images Drive Conversions
15 ways images improve conversion rates
TOPO
© 2013 TOPO
www.topohq.com