The Pentera Blog
Good Photographs Can Help Market Planned Gifts, but What Makes It a Good Photograph?
Everyone's heard the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words," but is it even close to true? And should you be striving harder to include good photographs in your planned giving marketing materials and on your Web site? Well, let's start by listening to one of the world's experts on the impact of visual imagery:
"The printed word is very convenient, and it's worked very well for us for 5,000 years; but it's an invention of human beings," says Marcel Just, the director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, in an interview with Harvard University's Nieman Foundation. "By contrast, Mother Nature has built into our brain our ability to see the visual world and interpret it. In many cases a picture is worth a thousand words. I think it's inevitable that visual media are going to become more important in conveying ideas."
But not just any photograph will do
Many studies have shown that photographs and graphics enhance the readership of articles across all media. But you do have to select your pictures with care. Russell James, planned giving researcher from Texas Tech University, found that photographs of donors are effective when the donor appears to be close in age to those viewing the photograph—but can actually have a negative impact when the donor appears to be from a different generation than the viewer.
However, using photographs depicting younger members of a generation can be especially effective: other research has found that Baby Boomers—currently ages 52-70 and soon to be the largest group of planned givers—perceive themselves as 10-15 years younger than they actually are. So they are likely to respond better to photographs of youthful-looking Boomers who might be in their early 50s.
Key characteristics of a good photograph
In addition to meeting technical specifications, these qualities make for the best pictures:
- People: Pictures of people tend to attract more viewers than pictures of objects or buildings—though an iconic structure that many donors recognize can be effective. Real people associated with your organization are preferred—when you can get them. Possibilities include your workers, the people you serve, and your donors. Sometimes donors don't have a current photograph, and it's fine to use one from a few years ago. Universities sometimes use the donor's graduation photo.
- Faces: Human beings are drawn to the faces of other human beings. So a close-up tends to be better than a full-length photo or a group shot.
- Color: It's not surprising that eye-tracking research shows that color pictures will be noted before black and white photos.
- Captioned photographs: Research shows that captions are the third-most viewed item on a page, after headlines and photographs. The caption is a marketing opportunity that can do more than just describe the action: For instance: "Nearly 80 percent of these happy hat-tossing grads received scholarship assistance; your planned gift could make it even more."
Here are some more tips on photographs derived from eye-tracking research studies:
- A sequence of pictures will be noted before individual pictures.
- Action illustrations will be seen before still pictures.
- Children will attract attention before adults.
- Most often a larger group of people will gain attention before a smaller group.
- With pictures of people who are looking to the side, the picture should be placed so that the person is looking toward content rather than off the page.
