Product Images That Sell

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Does your product image lose you customers? The importance of selecting the right images in marketing cannot be overstated. This article explains what customers are looking for in a product image (with an emphasis on digital goods) and shows you how to create product images that sell. Summary They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in marketing, a great product image is worth a lot more than that, and if you don't have your image nailed down you can forget about that award for marketing genius of the year. No amount of polished sales copy is going to make up for this fundamental omission. The good news is that you don't have to be the least bit artistic to come up with great product images that sell (like the one on the left here). This article will teach you how to assess your existing product images. Brace yourself, you might discover that you're badly in need of a product image makeover! Introduction Finding sites on the web that hope to sell us something is not hard. Finding sites that we are willing to buy from is much more challenging. One of the essential requirements of any site that I am likely to do business with is that it clearly identify the product it wishes to sell to me. That sounds simple enough, but while surveying thousands of ClickBank merchant websites during the research phase required to build ClickBank Hotshots, I was amazed at how often a merchant was unable to quickly convey to me the essence of their product--and in most cases they were trying to sell me just a single item! Those who did consistently catch my attention, and made my visit to their site straightforward, used an eye-catching product image near the top of an uncluttered page, not unlike the approach I have taken above with an example ebook cover (had I been promoting the website for the Key Lime Heaven Cookbook I would be off to a good start). In the sections that follow we shall see which considerations should be kept in mind when attempting to create product images that sell, and what to do when you realize your existing product images are in need of a makeover. The Essence of a Great Product Image Take a look at the product image shown above for the Key Lime Heaven Cookbook. There are several reasons why I think this is a great product image. In this case, most of it boils down to artwork. Key limes are the theme, and the product cover artist has cleverly chosen to use green key limes as the domainant motif to fill the image. And there, right in the center of the cover, is a slice of mouth-watering key lime pie. Notice the perfect coloring scheme. Shades of green, yellow, and white. Above the dessert, the title of the book in large bright yellow easy-to-read letters. Below it, a descripton of the contents, again in easy-to-read lettering. I don't need a magnifying glass to figure out what I'm dealing with. The quality of this product image is so high that I am subconsciously convinced the same must also be true of the content of the book. In addition, the homepage for Key Lime Heaven Cookbook is a great example of how to present web pages that sell. So, what have we learned from this example? That a good illustrative artist, or photographer, is paramount to establishing a great product image? In short, yes--quality is never arrived at by happenstance. But more than that, a great product image conveys the unique essence of the product, stripped bare of any distracting clutter (like text that cannot be resolved), and convinces the viewer that they want the product, regardless of whether or not they might need it--something which the cover of How To Become A Fitness Model manages quite effectively (see preceeding image). Product Images Move Digital Goods A subject of particular importance to ClickBank merchants is the presentation of a digital goods offering. ClickBank is a transaction handler that deals solely in digital products. Therefore there is no physical product that can be photographed and the image placed on the page. Many merchants assume that their potential customers understand this fundamental truth and will be forgiving if the sales page omits a product image in favor of copious sales copy, often interpersed with calls to buy (all too often in bright red lettering). This is a mistake. Human beings are visual creatures. If they have come to your web page with the intent of purchasing something you had better put something in front of their eyes quickly that looks like it can be purchased. The average visitor only spends a few seconds assessing your homepage. If they don't find a hook fast, they'll move on to the competition, and nothing works better as a hook than product images that sell the visitor on the idea that they have found a "real" product. You must lend tangibility to your digital product. Your visitor absolutely needs to feel they will be buying more than a bit stream. Examples of this approach can be found in the following sections which consider downloadable ebooks and software. Ebooks Need Virtual Ebook Covers Ebooks are gaining momentum on the web. There is a growing market for nonfiction titles and ClickBank provides a convenient way for merchants to sell their titles without the hassle of having to set up a complicated payment gateway, and they get immediate exposure to a very large affiliate base. To meet this growing market, virtual ebook cover design services have sprung up and now there is no good reason for not providing your ebook with an attractive virtual cover, such as the one discussed above for the Key Lime Heaven Cookbook. Another example, shown here on the right, is the cover for the Super Affiliate Handbook. Most of the text on this cover is legible, but you certainly would not want to show this product image at any smaller size than seen here. And just to show you that an ebook cover doesn't always have to look like a cover, here is an example of one, for The Rich Jerk, which is dressed to look like a box instead. However, I recommend that an ebook cover be as conventional as possible--meaning the more it looks like a physical book, the better. Virtual ebook design services are offered by several companies that specialize in the area, including HyperCover.com, EcoverArtist.com, KillerCovers.com, EcoverDesign.com and HiDefCovers.com. Also see KNDesign Book Covers for (high resolution) covers that can be applied to printed books. Downloadable Software Needs A Virtual Box This brings us to the virtual software box which, if it physically existed, would look at lot like one of those cardboard boxes sitting next to your monitor which you are using to store your antivirus software documentation (you do have antivirus protection, right?). This example cover for Cbplugin isn't bad. It has simple design elements (namely the plug), but notice the text. At the image size shown here (a typical size for a product image found on an affiliate website), except for the title, the text cannot be read. Good product image design requires that the quality of the image be as scale independent as possible. Small text violates this principle, so be wary of adding it. Along the same lines, strong contrast between the design elements, any text, and the background, contributes to scale independence. So think twice before selecting a dark color scheme. Purple text on a dark blue background? Forget it. Try dark red on tan or pale blue. As another example, consider the product image for Keyword Elite. In this case the product image is uncluttered, which is good, but there is too much emphasis on the magnifying glass to the detriment of the product title and subtitle. The wording should be larger for reading ease. I know the product has something to do with keywords, but I might know more if I could read that illegible subtitle (in fact it says Your Keyword Research Solution which is exactly what I wanted to know). Don't rely on your affiliates to show your product image at full size. Plan on making the image work at the smaller sizes it is likely to be shown. If your software comes with high quality documentation (as all good software should) another possibility is to provide this documentation as a freely downloadable ebook, just as the vendor for Seo Elite has been able to do. This is a very good ecover--readable text, simple design, good contrast. Not surprisingly, it is associated with one of the most popular pieces of software found in the ClickBank repository. Once again, for virtual software box design services, I recommend you check out the sample designs on display at HyperCover.com, KillerCovers.com and EcoverDesign.com. Considering the value that a great product image adds to your sales page, the cost of these services is surprisingly low (around $100 or less). Does Your Site Need A Product Image Makeover? Having your product images designed from scratch when you know what you want for the final result is the optimal scenario. But what if you already have an existing set of images whose production you had nothing to do with? Is it too late to do anything with these if you now realize there are problems with them? Not necessarily. Take a look at these examples of background and unwanted object removal. A lot can be done to clean up an image.   Backgrounds should generally be removed.     Objects can be excised from a photograph. So, if you are not completely happy with your existing product image (or images), consider a "product image makeover". Use a professional service that specializes in image manipulation techniques, such as those offered by Online Digital Images. You should generally refrain from carrying out this kind of work yourself, as the quality of the end result will be all too apparent to your site visitors.