A guide to the best stock photo sites for credit union website design

Imagery is one of the most important parts of credit union website design. The stats below really drive home the importance of images:

  • Articles with images get 94% more views
  • Including a photo and a video in a press release increases views by over 45%
  • 60% of consumers are more likely to consider a business when an image shows up in local search results
  • For an ecommerce site, 67% of consumers say the quality of a product image is “very important”
  • In an online store, customers think the quality of a product’s image is more important than product-specific information (63%), a long description (54%) and ratings and reviews (53%)
  • On Facebook, the average engagement rate for photos is 0.37% where text alone gets 0.27% (i.e., photos get 37% higher engagement than text)

(Source: jeffbullas.com)

Taking time to select the perfect images for your website, promotions, and blog can have a high impact on your marketing. But we know credit union marketers wear a lot of hats. And all those hats means you’re juggling a number of responsibilities, with image selection being just one item in the mix.

Fortunately, there are many, many images available online through stock photo websites, but it takes digging to find the good ones. We’ve spent hundreds of hours scouring the web for images for credit union website designs. Based on our experience, we’ve compiled “A Guide to the Best Stock Photo Sites for Credit Unions” (which includes both paid and free sources), so you know exactly where to look the next time you need some visual spice for your site.

Get the Guide: A Guide to the Best Stock Photo Sites for Credit Unions

While scouting for images, remember that not all stock photography is created equal. Keep these five tips in mind while searching for that perfect pic.

  1. Beauty Matters: Don’t just grab the first picture you see. Try to find something beautiful in every picture you choose. After all, people don’t trust credit unions with ugly websites.
  2. Be Authentic: Avoid staged, artificial stock photos. Authenticity fosters trust with customers, so try to find pictures that look natural, candid, and real.
  3. Prioritize People: The images you choose are part of a narrative you are creating. Including people helps to make that narrative more concrete. A picture of a piggy bank alone, for example, is just a generic icon for banking. A picture of a little girl excitedly holding her first piggy bank tells a story about family, parenting, and growing up.
  4. Be On-Brand: What makes your credit union stand out? Emphasize your unique qualities in the pictures you choose. Also consider what landscapes, props, and activities might speak best to your membership demographic.
  5. Check the Copyright: We’ve all heard horror stories about accidental copyright infringement. Don’t let that happen to you. Make sure that you understand the licensing for every photo you use.

Happy photo hunting!

Derik Krauss

Derik Krauss

Derik is a cofounder of BloomCU, an award-winning website design agency for credit unions. His agency's design work has received recognition from CUNA (Diamond Award), TheFinancialBrand.com, and others. He ... Web: bloomCU.com Details