6 Tips on How to Be a Whiz at Searching Stock Images

Finding images for websites, blog posts, or social media seems as easy as it has never been. Content marketers have a comprehensive toolkit to do this task quickly. Modern smartphones allow them to take high-quality pictures. The apps they use can enhance these pictures. They have many resources for finding stock images, buying them, or downloading them for free.

But when it comes to visualizing abstract topics, the task becomes more challenging. While thinking of finance, insurance, blockchain, the most typical associations come to your mind — coins, handshakes, or a hand holding a tiny house. Sounds familiar?

In this post, I’ll dive into how to improve the process of searching images and show you how to make visuals on your website and social media look fresh.

1. Avoid search queries directly related to the industry or general terms (e.g. ‘finance’, ‘logistics’, ‘blockchain’, etc.)

Search results will probably offer you the most typical and boring concepts. All the possible clichés you can think of will be there. Look at this example:

All these pictures look so identical, don’t they? Even the color scheme is almost the same. Meanwhile, the Color Trends report, recently published by Everypixel, suggests that blue shades in business and technology stock images are becoming out of date. Think about stepping out of familiar concepts, styles, and color schemes, and pick up something totally novel:

2. Divide the general term into niche topics

If you’re looking for images on ‘insurance’, make it clear what type of insurance you need: life insurance, home insurance, or health insurance. Relying on this, think about situations related to your topic. For example, for a ‘home insurance’ topic, it can be a family dinner in the kitchen.

3. Portray the detailed profile of your target audience and put this character in a real-life situation

Let’s assume that you have a business offering financial management to small businesses. Imagine your potential client. Let it be a restaurant owner. Consider placing a similar character in your visual assets — pick up photos with a person sitting in her/his cafe and working on a laptop.

4. Keep tabs on changes and innovations in your industry

This principle should be one of the top marketer’s priorities. Running a project for your client, you need to take a deep dive into the industry you’re going to work for. For instance, if you use images of a warehouse for the website, keep in mind that the logistic processes of many businesses have become automated. You may see loads of computerized systems out there, and a tablet with a barcode scanner is the primary tool used by warehouse workers.

5. Look at ‘copy space’ images

The multiple day-to-day activities and business processes went online. We’re working online, interacting with banks and insurance companies online, purchasing groceries online. Almost every operation can be provided via devices at your home. It gives a space to customize standard content. For example, you can find a picture of people with gadgets and use it as a starting point when creating your visuals. Put your unique content on the blank screen to meet your goals. Here is an example from a digital agency that modified a stock image to suit their website:

6. Be curious, save and ‘pin’ images you like — even if you are not seeking this particular image right now

Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms can serve as a good source of inspiration. Don’t just scroll your feed, be curious instead. Pay attention to what you look at, what you like in images, and what you dislike. Examine how other brands leverage their marketing communication and visual presence. These exercises will help you boost your visual expertise — you will become more critical and understand which colors and visual techniques are trendy and which are not. Besides, after a while, you will have several mood boards full of stunning images you liked and a list with a bulk of ideas and insights to implement into your content marketing. It will definitely help you with your further projects.

To sum up

It seems that you can find a relevant image on a topic, whatever it is. Not to reach a dead-end in attempts to find a perfect picture, think outside the box. Make your search area detailed; visualize situations and activities instead of concepts. Do not be afraid to modify the content for your needs (if the license allows this), and keep track of what is new on your partners' and competitors' platforms, stock photo websites, and social media.