How to Choose Images for Your Press Release
Images and visuals are an excellent way to add interest to your press release. Journalists will use them in their research and their stories. Your audience is attracted to them, and content that contains images is shared more often. There are many different visual formats to consider, including infographics, photos, and videos. Choosing the best ones for your press release will help you achieve better results.
- Don’t use stock photo sites for your press release images. They generally don’t do anything to improve your material. Instead, opt for original images. If you have an on-site photographer, that’s excellent. You can ask them to take photos that match the material in your press release and provide visual support and interest. If you don’t have a photographer on your team, that’s still okay. You can take photos yourself and use free image editing software to enhance them. You can also hire a freelancer to take photos for you.
- Make sure your images support the information in your press release. It’s tempting to use beautiful images to grab attention and to motivate shares. However, you’ll lose credibility and trust if your images don’t support your information.
- Use high quality, high-resolution photos. In your pitch emails, include an image preview that downloads quickly so journalists don’t have to wait for images to load.
- Save the image with a name that describes what the photo and press release are about using four to five words, including keywords.
- Add a caption for the photo that credits the person who took it, explains what it is about and includes the correct spelling of all the people featured in the photograph. Journalists can use the photo as a resource.
- Videos are powerful. And they don’t need to be professionally done. An off-the-cuff Instagram[1] video filmed with your smartphone can be just as effective and may better represent your company.
- Keep your videos short and simple. Videos that are less than three minutes work better for press releases.
- Host your video on YouTube or Vimeo instead of your server. It helps them load faster, automatically generates previews when sharing on social media[2], works on all devices and you’ll receive better SEO[3].
- Infographics are an excellent way to share a story and clearly explain your data. Keep them simple. Make sure the takeaway is apparent to your reader.
- Edit your photograph before adding it to your press release. The size should be more than 200 x 200 pixels. It should also be in jpg format with at least 72 dots per inch (dpi).
Keep the images that you use for your press releases. Make them available for the media and include them in your other marketing materials for constancy and branding[4]. In today’s market there’s no reason to not use captivating and relevant visuals in your press release marketing.