We spend months analyzing the user experience for our travel sites and writing SEO-friendly copy, but when it comes to photos - as long as we think that the imagery is gorgeous, we think we are done.
But it's more complicated and nuanced than that.
NB: This is a viewpoint by Andy Yang, CEO of 500px.
The importance of regularly refreshed and unique imagery in a world where more than two billion photos are shared daily on social media cannot be underestimated.
Travel sites are not just competing with other travel sites. They are in attention competition with every Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat account and need to have an imagery plan in place.
Harris Group research indicates that, since 1987, the share of consumer spending on live experiences and events as a proportion of total US consumer spending increased a whopping 70%.
This has been great news to the travel industry as these wanderers, particularly the Millennials, crave intensely personal, off-the-beaten-path experiences, where they can feel like a local.
Travel industry marketers have benefitted from this huge segment of travelers whose constant image-rich documentation of their adventures generates more interest in travel.
The logical response to this dynamic is to invest time and dollars in making sure the imagery you use to sell your travel experiences is not only abundant but also original and customized to your audience.
Stand out from your competitors and keep it fresh
Your brand is unique. Your images are your brand in this industry, so you must create custom briefs and reshoot often! Why?
Because we are all consumers of thousands of images a day, and even a couple of visits to your site or too many retargeting ads featuring that tired old image will leave your desired customer bored and clicking elsewhere.
Know your audience segments and serve up different images to them
Not long ago, Airbnb carried out a huge rebrand and invested in thousands of intimate images of locations and host rooms that gave their customers a sense of being in a room.
Cultural expectations and attraction to different types of images for the same destination can be very different.
For example, our own research shows that Americans much prefer scenes of a tiny bistro in Amsterdam, whereas those in Asian countries seem much more responsive to a well-lit and busy city street.
It takes a deep knowledge of your audience and some testing, but when you decide to change the imagery often enough, and test the response, you will hone in on what really works for your customers.
Treat top funnel imagery very differently from the lower funnel
Align with your goals - depending on the buyer journey, you’ll need different imagery. Upper funnel images (those on the front page of your site or destination page), at the very start of your engagement process, should bridge the “imagination gap” with your users.
For lower or bottom of the funnel marketing, get more creative to close that deal. In these areas, use more images containing very intimate and personal views of a local experience, a cafe, a busy street, or even an inside look at tourist destination.
360º photography, video and VR
A perfect example of powerful lower-funnel image planning is to start experimenting with 360-degree photography and virtual reality. 360-degree imagery is on the rise.
Yes, it is new and it relatively expensive, but just like those companies who understood and jumped on mobile responsiveness for smartphones a few years ago, first-mover advantage is important.
In our own OTA tests, 360-degree photography increased time on site by a whopping 34% — some staying for more than two minutes.
Magnifyre research found that 29% more people viewed a 360-degree video than the same video in a traditional format.
Beautiful nature shot? Ditch the people, please
Featuring people in images can increase conversion, but it truly depends both on the culture you are targeting and the subject. For example, in one experiment, for Havana, pictures with people had twice the conversions.
Conversely, for images of nature — waterfalls, mountains, and beaches — photos with people in them actually performed flat or worse.
The inference would be that the more majestic the nature view is, the more we want to imagine ourselves in that shot, not become distracted by someone else.
Imagery and video planning should be included in your integrated marketing campaign, and become a priority. Compare your brand imagery to your competitors, test your audiences and the images you are using, and keep a steady pipeline of unique shots in rotation.
Paying attention to your imagery plan will yield actionable insights into your customers which can feed into your bottom line.
NB1: This is a viewpoint by Andy Yang, CEO of 500px.
NB2: Credit: Copyright 500px/Matt Anderson