In today’s digital age, it’s more difficult to reach consumers than ever before. Consumers are very savvy, very good at finding quality informative content online, and also, perhaps more importantly, good at filtering out content they deem to be irrelevant.

But you know that because you are a savvy marketer! Your potential customers are out there looking for answers to their search queries. You know the importance of getting in front of them and providing remarkable content to earn their trust. After all, that is what the inbound methodology is all about.

Attracting qualified customers is the first stage of the inbound methodology. You’ve created a buyer persona and you’ve started to curate inbound marketing content that your persona would be interested in. You’ve worked hard to write an informative blog post, come up with catchy title, and even added a compelling call-to-action to move the customer to the convert phase.

But you aren’t ready to publish it to the digital world just yet.

You need a compelling image.

The Importance of Images

The importance of an image cannot be overstated. With so much content on the web, consumers are looking for something to grab their attention. You could have the best content in the world, but if the visual aspect of the blog isn’t an attention grabber, you might not get the leads you deserve. But we have your back!

Here are our 3 best practices for choosing blog images so you can maximize your digital marketing ROI:

1. Be Consistent with the Title

The title of the blog post is created to draw readers into your content. The blog image should complement the title to pull the consumer to click on the post. A picture is worth a 1000 words so the image should tell the story of what your post is about.

This is a perfect example. The title of this blog, “New Data: Why Your Fans Aren’t Following You on Social Media” draws the buyer persona in by promising them an answer about their social media strategy. The image complements this title with an image of a man speaking to an empty auditorium.  This blog post will be about how you can increase your social media ROI and reach your audience through that channel.

2. Be Interesting

With so much clutter on the web, marketers need to earn the right to get qualified visitors. Images can contribute to this by using photos that inspire thought and get people to click. An image should spark an interest and resonate with the consumer. It should intrigue the consumer to click on the article.

A boring image that doesn’t resonate won’t get clicks because it doesn’t spark curiosity.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Show Your Funny Side

With the rise of social media, consumers love to share posts with their friends, family, and colleagues. Content that is helpful and informative will get you a long way — but having a humorous tone makes for a great shareable post. Your customers will love that funny side and be itching to share with their colleagues, which in turn will bring more traffic to your website and increase your opportunity for leads.

Visuals are Key

Inbound is about creating and sharing content with the world. Marketers spend so much time creating targeted, relevant content with the goal of answering questions and, ultimately, attracting the right traffic to their website. A blog image can either make or break great content.  Implement these blog image selection best practices and more eyeballs will see your remarkable content you worked so hard to create.