Concept Photography: Boost Response Rates with Photographs that Convey Benefits
Whether or not a picture is worth a thousand words, photos certainly draw attention. As a result, adding just about any photograph to your email will improve response rates. Having said that, emails with compelling, concept photographs will outperform emails with ambiguous photographs.
As an example, imagine that your role is to increase consumption of cow milk. Your target audience is parents and your headline is: "Milk: The Nurturing Your Child will Love." (The veiled implication is that: "If you serve milk, your child will love you for it.) Given that headline, which of the following three concept photography images would you choose for your email to subscribers of Parenting magazine?
ADEQUATE
BETTER
BEST
- The "cow" photo is barely adequate: it draws attention but is only vaguely related to the headline and does not illustrate the benefit.
- The "milk glass and container" photo is better, because it clearly relates to the headline, but also does not convey a benefit.
- The "mother and son with milk moustaches" photo is best, because it relates to the headline, identifies with the audience, and conveys the benefit, "You will be loved if you serve milk."
Note: Concept photographs used in emails don't need to be expensive. For instance, the royalty-free licenses for the pictures used in this example cost just $1 each. The supplier is iStockPhoto: http://istockphoto.com/
I find that the quality of concept photography at iStockPhoto is good (and sometimes very good) but not great. For instance, did you notice the problem with the "better" and "best" pictures? Unless set-up by a highly-skilled photographer, white milk on a white background doesn't reproduce very well, especially when printed, or when viewed on a computer screen set to high brightness or high contrast. (I learned this lesson early in my marketing and advertising career when a professional photographer moaned and complained about having to photograph bubbly white soap against a white background. The white background was required to convey purity and cleanliness, but that made the photoshoot very challenging.)
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