Making sure that all of your marketing is properly localised will help you build trust and authority in an instant. Images are a very important part of localisation and that’s the focus of this blog post. Let’s take a look at an example of less than optimal image choice and its potential impact.
Recently on LinkedIn, we saw a post by a British recruitment company offering job opportunities in Birmingham. To help make their advert more visible, they included an image which should increase engagement.
The post was great. It had a nice call to action, contact details and a great image. Why wouldn’t you click through if you were looking for a job in Birmingham?
What an attractive skyline Birmingham has. We can see that from the picture above. Unfortunately, the picture is not from Birmingham in the UK, it used a picture from Birmingham in the United States.
Were the recruitment company looking for anyone living in the US? No, the contact number is from Birmingham, UK. Were they looking for people that wanted to relocate to the US? No, their client is a leading UK recruitment company based in Sutton Coldfield.
To natives of the region, the image clearly is not Birmingham in the West Midlands. For anyone not familiar with the city, this type of mistake is easy to make.
Images Build Credibility
Choosing the wrong image could create problems for you. Perhaps not so much in a LinkedIn post, but certainly on a website, where visitors can take just a few seconds to decide if they want to do business with you or not.
When operating in an industry that requires great expertise, you can lose all credibility by allowing the incorrect images to be used on your website or social media.
If your marketing agency has no experience in your industry, this is something you will need to check for yourself. Remember, trust is something that is difficult to build up but can be broken very quickly.
Your Marketing Actions
It’s still important to use images as much as possible in everything you do. A simple LinkedIn update with text only can be missed easily.
Be sure to choose the images you use carefully. For your social media outreach, it only takes a few seconds to check that the image you’re using is the correct one. For your web projects, be sure to check the work your agency does for you as mistakes are easily made; especially if they don’t specialise in your industry. The same goes for location, as they may not be familiar with your local area.
- Use images to make you more noticeable
- Check your images before you use them
- Make sure your mistake is not what makes you stand out
Potentially, people from Birmingham and the West Midlands may have glossed over or ignored the recruitment consultant’s post because the image did not match what they were expecting to see. A recruiter wouldn’t be expected to be an expert in geography and because there are always people looking for a new job, there was probably no lasting harm done.
For you in your business, you can’t afford to make the same mistake; especially not with technical or safety critical areas. Make sure you check the images you use and where they’re placed for best results.