Visual imagery is a powerful communication tool. Chances are the imagery you encounter in everyday advertising triggers memories and emotions. These images leave you with impressions about the brands and products they’re associated with. Problem is, these impressions can be positive or negative. Image quality and relevance is key.
In healthcare, choosing captivating yet realistic imagery that reflects your brand value can help you stand out. It builds awareness and credibility across your target audience. So, it is important to align your marketing imagery with the art of your industry.
Stock Imagery
Stock imagery is an excellent way to gain fast and inexpensive access to a wide variety of high-quality imagery. You can use images for a variety of marketing purposes. For example, in social media posts or adorn the walls of your booth at an upcoming trade show.
Keep in mind, companies and contributors to stock image repositories are likely not familiar in the healthcare industry. It’s easy to fall into the trap of selecting staged photos that may not represent your product or end users.
At-a-glance, this image shows a radiologist deep in thought, while he reviews a series of CT images. Today, it is unlikely he would be reviewing these images on film. And even less likely he’d be doing so holding the film free-hand (not using a light box) while measuring with manual calipers.
This example may seem obvious, or even humorous. But misrepresentative imagery like this is prolific in the healthcare IT space. Stock imagery should represent your target audience’s way of working. Misaligned imagery can damage your credibility. For instance, images that:
- propagate stereotypes (e.g. all physicians wear white lab coats and carry stethoscopes)
- wrongly represents their way of working (e.g. all nurses travel hospital corridors carrying folders of paper records)
When selecting stock imagery be sure to consider the greater healthcare context and your product’s use. Here are some tips for selecting and adapting stock imagery:
- Choose accurate, relatable imagery. Be sure to not only consider your own product and how it will display in the healthcare context. But, also your target audience and what would be most relevant and relatable to them.
- Edit images where appropriate. In some cases, it may be possible to edit stock imagery to make it more relevant to your personas and product. For example, you could remove a stethoscope from around the radiologist’s neck. Or, overlay a screenshot of your product onto the radiologist’s workstation.
- Consider the medium. It is important to ensure imagery is of proper quality to support the medium. For digital media, use the lowest resolution that displays clearly according to the required display size. This reduces image size (in MB) and prevents long load times. Print media requires the highest resolution possible. Especially when considering larger mediums like posters or trade show displays.
Using Imagery to Stand Out
It is also important to select imagery unique to your company and product. Imagery is a powerful memory association tool. The idea of using imagery in marketing is to stand out in a way that sticks in people’s minds.
Look at the imagery your competitors are using. Try to find a unique angle you can connect with your own brand in the minds of your target audience.
Instead of using images of your direct end users or products, try imagery that depicts care settings and consumers.
Marketers tend to overuse literal imagery like physicians, radiologists, or nurses using a radiology PACS or EHR. Instead, try finding alternative imagery that captures attention and complements your messaging. For example, when discussing migrations, consider a flock of migrating birds or butterflies.
Another way to stand out is to consider a completely different style of imagery that is unique to your brand. For instance, instead of using photography, consider cartoon or line drawings.
The Importance of Domain Expertise
Selecting accurate and relevant imagery requires a solid understanding of the unique workflows and personas involved in the care setting. Generic marketing agencies lack this depth of healthcare industry knowledge. It’s likely they won’t pick up on the important nuances of healthcare related imagery or know what’s appropriate.
A successful marketing strategy starts at the top with an experienced product marketing manager. So, too, does imagery selection. A product marketing agency that has direct experience in healthcare IT will better understand your target audience. They grasp the workflows and subspecialties your products support. This results in more relatable and accurate imagery.
An experienced product marketing manager can ensure the style of imagery is consistent across content and mediums. This makes it more memorable and leads to stronger brand association and recall.
Incorporating Imagery into Your Product Marketing Strategy
Imagery is a powerful marketing tool that can help build brand credibility and brand awareness across target healthcare IT audiences. Working with a product marketing expert with direct expertise in healthcare IT can help to ensure the imagery used in your marketing campaigns is relevant and accurate.
Do you think your imagery could be more effective? Our product marketing experts can help you augment your product marketing content. We’ll aid in selecting unique, impactful imagery that complements your company and product messaging and builds brand awareness and strength. Contact us to learn more.
