Images are becoming increasingly important for online marketing. On social media, content that includes interesting and attractive images gets 94% more views than content without images. And with sites like Pinterest and Slideshare popping up, images are king.

But there’s more. When people are searching on Google, 37% say they are more likely to click on a link when there’s an image associated with the link.

When you sell online, images are even more important. According to a study by The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, almost half of the participants said that a website’s design is the number one indicator of credibility. In other words, if your website is visually appealing visitors will find your business to be more credible.

But what can you do if you are a small business and don’t have a big budget for marketing? How do you get quality images for your marketing?

You can pay for them. Google “clip art” and you’ll find a number of sites where you can purchase images for use in your marketing.

Flickr is a image-sharing social media site. Many of the images are licensed through Creative Commons and are available for you to use for free or for a small fee. There are some great photographers on Flickr but understanding which images you can and cannot use can sometimes be a challenge.

The cheapest and easiest way to get images for your marketing is to take them yourself. Just about every cell phone now has a good quality camera. Get in the habit of taking photos on a regular basis. I now have a stockpile of nature photos that I can crop and edit for my marketing. They are great for inspirational quotes.

I also will take targeted images. When I write a blog post I often put together some objects from my house and take a photo to accompany the article. Sometimes I use them as-is, other times a little Photoshop goes a long way.

In any case, if you haven’t been using images in your online and social media marketing, now is the time to start.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Where do you find quality images for your marketing? Leave a comment and share your sources.