Finding an engaging photo to accompany your upcoming blog post often feels like a scavenger hunt. You have to scour stock photography sites, finding yourself in a rabbit-hole of awkwardly-staged models and corny concepts. You want your audience to be greeted by your blog by something authentic, appealing, and bold. Not a visual that’s run-of-the-mill.
So why not create blog images that are custom and unique to your brand?
Frequently, the reason is lack of time.
But what if we reminded you that your target audience will remember only 20 percent of what they read, but they’ll remember 80 percent of images they see.
Wouldn’t you want to capitalize on that statistic and use your blog post graphics to engrave your brand into the minds of interested viewers?
Blog images are one of the most powerful pieces of online visual content your company has in its arsenal. One carefully-selected and well-executed blog post image can exponentially increase your click-through rates and take your post from okay to an online sensation.
So, how do you create one that conveys the message you want to send out into the world and that produces the results you’re looking to generate?
Here are some tips:
Use a template
Most blog image creators include a library of templates that designers can use to make their graphics. This is particularly helpful when making a blog post title photo. These photos appear at the top of your blog and immediately display your branding to anyone who views your post.
Very important! The more consistent these images are, the more memorable your brand will be to anyone who sees your content.
When selecting a template, you’ll want to make sure you have room to accommodate the following:
- The blog title
- The sub-title (optional)
- Your logo
- Your URL
- Any other imagery you may want to include
There are many design elements and techniques that can be used to create a visually-appealing blog title image for your business.
Some people choose to keep it simple, like Max Louise Creative, a creative agency in London, England. They only include the blog title and category on each of their blog title images, and use the same square design to keep consistency strong. This helps to easily divide up blog posts as viewers scroll and increases brand recall!
Others, like Sweetie Darling Cakes, choose to include the blog title and their URL (in small text at the bottom). This ensures that no matter where this image is shared online, it will be attributed to their website. It also is a fantastic opportunity for them to display delicious-looking images that entice internet users to click through to their recipe or article.
Design Wizard is a useful tool for blog image creation. It has a wide library of templates. When you have selected your blog image creator, browse through the available library of templates to find a header design that works for you.
Then, customize the image to make it your own.
When you’re happy, save your image and upload it to your blog! Voilà!
Pinterest-size an image
Pinterest displays images in a unique, vertical and rectangular format. One intelligent way to ensure your image gets engagement is to optimize it for sharing on specific platforms. Pinterest is a great social platform for businesses to gain traction and increase their views, especially if they are in the home decorating, fashion, beauty, food or lifestyle industries.
Including a Pinterest size photo in your blog isn’t difficult. All you have to do is to size the photo appropriately.
For Pinterest, the correct image sizing is 735 pixels wide by 1102 pixels high. However, the height of your image can be as high as 2061, as long as the width remains the same.
After you have created your image, you will have to log into your content management system and make sure your photo is set correctly. You can do this by installing the Yoast plugin in the back end of your website and using the Rich Pins function.
Once installed, you can use this widget to pre-set which photos should appear when your blog post is shared on various social media platforms. You can also set information to appear when a Pinterest user hovers over your image. Great for attracting more clicks!
Make it mobile-friendly
Images are not one-size fits all. Where your visuals are displayed will determine how you should size them. If you want your images to appear correctly on mobile devices (without looking cropped or pixelated), you’ll want to be sure to optimize your blog post images for mobile.
Since many of your potential customers will view your content on a mobile device, you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to connect with them through your visuals. If they aren’t able to see what your image is, they will move onto the next recipe, product, or post.
Don’t let that happen!
We recommend reading this blog by WordPress Hero for a complete guide to sizing images for various devices.
Don’t be shy
One of the most detrimental decisions you can make when it comes to your blog post graphics is not using enough of them.
In fact, Hubspot recommends bloggers include one image per 350 words.
Why? Because the world is changing! People consume more visual content than they ever have. Long, endless blocks of text get tiring quickly for users who are accustomed to stimulating video and photo content. You need to put more effort into capturing the attention of viewers! Providing your audience with one-of-a-kind, high-quality visuals will allow them to absorb more information at a faster pace, strengthening their familiarity with your brand.
Canadian fashion blogger The Chic Canuck is a great example of a blogger that uses ample imagery when posting to her site. Notice how the text doesn’t seem as long at first glance due to the abundance of visuals? This is effective blogging!
Choose the right tools
There are numerous online graphic design platforms that you can use to enhance, crop, or change your blog images. Choosing one that includes all the features you need is essential to creating consistent, branded photos that speak to your business and the message you are trying to communicate.
While many online graphic design tools have capabilities like cross-platform syncing, premade themes, and a variety of different photo effects to give your pictures an extra pop, not all of them offer a user-friendly interface or the amount of customization that some business owners are looking for.
You’ll want to find a tool that makes creating graphics for any purpose less time consuming, without sacrificing quality. Whether you’re making a meme or designing the cover of an eBook, your online graphic design tool should be able to meet your needs. After all, blog post images are just the beginning!
