B2B Website Imagery: Should I Use Custom or Stock?

Here’s one thing we can all agree on: Visuals are crucial to successful content. Without some type of imagery, color, or generally creative content, one will be hard-pressed to truly capture the attention of the audience and influence them to act accordingly. The process of uploading imagery can be as simple or as difficult as you decide to make it. It may take five seconds – a simple download. Conversely, you may decide to spend several hours taking the perfect shot and altering it with the appropriate levels of editing. Let’s discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages to using both custom imagery and stock photography.

Custom Imagery – Why You Should

There are plenty of reasons why custom imagery can be the way to go. The first is that you put yourself in full control of your content. Imagery can demand attention. The manner in which you frame your shot can dictate the message it’s conveying. Additionally, you’re making use of a photo that has never before been used and one that no one else can use without your profession. When viewers see your beautiful and authentic custom image, they’ll know your business is authentic, as well.

Custom Imagery – Why You Shouldn’t

Of course, not all aspects to custom imagery are favorable. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage to it is the investment of time, energy, and money. If you aren’t a fantastic photographer, you’ll need to hire a trusted professional. Even if are excellent with the camera, you’ll be required to cut out portions of your day to set up the perfect shot, adjust lighting, crop, and make any other desired edits. There is also a chance that one specific custom image won’t apply to other situations. That means you’ll have to take different shots often rather than reusing one specific image all the time.

Stock Imagery – Why You Should

Let’s take a look at the alternative to using your own custom imagery. Even though stock photos aren’t as unique to your content as custom images would be, you’ll enjoy some of their benefits. You should use stock imagery in some instances because it saves so much time. Not only that, but there are several sites where you can find stock images that are of excellent quality, so you’re giving up almost no quality while saving hours of your day. Also, while you probably won’t find stock photos of your manufacturing business, the wealth of stock photos out there has grown so large that you’ll be able to find imagery that closely matches your content.

Stock Imagery – Why You Shouldn’t

There are some good reasons to avoid or at least limit the use of stock imagery. First, virtually all stock imaging can be used by anyone willing to pay iStock or Getty images for it. When you search for stock images relating to your content, your search results are yielding the same images other businesses using stock imagery are also discovering. When you end up posting these to your website or platform, the same people researching will see identical photos across multiple sites, and they’ll be able to tell stock photos were used. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is important to stay original.

Another reason to avoid stock imagery is that there is a cost to use the image(s) and, depending on the image, that cost can be hefty. If you’re using your own image, you’re sure to never run into that issue.

The best way to approach pictures is to include a solid mix of both custom and stock imaging. Publish your own imaging on some platforms and use stock photos when you need to publish content quickly.

Need more advice on this discussion? Reach out to us at RedMoxy. We have the professionalism and expertise to make sure your website is publishing top-notch content. Click here or call (262) 303-4238.