How to Create a Hero Image for a Marketing Campaign
In some recent articles, we’ve learned how to Create a Marketing Campaign That Boosts Sales, How to Develop Your Brand Photography for Stronger Marketing, and showed you A Simplified Guide for Building Marketing Campaign Assets. The last bit of information that we need to touch upon is how to create a hero image for your marketing campaign so that you can use it to build all of your assets.
Hero images differ from product shots in that they are made to be more creative and eye-catching and a little over the top – we are going for the “wow factor”. Although some product shots may look more creative than typical product shots, a hero image takes the product’s features and magnifies them on a grander scale.
Befunky’s Photo Editor can help you edit your photos with powerful tools like the Cutout Tool, and then create your hero image graphics with BeFunky’s Graphic Designer.
Hero Images Vs. Product Photos
Take a look at the difference between a product shot, a creative shoot, and a hero image. A creative shoot makes the assets you will use for the hero image.
Once you have the creative shoot finished, then you create the hero image from the assets you just shot.
You can either choose to create a hero image during your shoot by creating an entire set, or you can take the photos and doctor them up like in the image you see above. You can see some other examples of this in a recent article we did.
Hero images stand out and can either be a single product or a collection of products with a similar attribute. If you choose to do a group of products, make sure that the features you promote have some similarities such as flavors, product features, or just a general sale. Consistency in communication is key.
Motion in Hero Images
Whether you've gone the product or creative route, you'll want to think about how you want the product to make your customers feel. Your goal is to take the qualities of that product and bring them to life – and that may involve adding motion to your images. The way you approach this is going to depend entirely on your brand personality. Is your brand funny, playful, or serious? You need to take your brand into account when brainstorming your creative shoots.
Let’s say that you have a ski product that you are wanting to sell. Imagine the different kinds of shoots you can produce if the emotion you are trying to evoke is freedom compared to adrenaline. If one of your brand’s personality traits is humor, you could even go the sexy route and make your ski imagery enticing to your audience. Check out this adrenaline shoot to tell their audience that you can mobile shop their sale! Do you see the difference between taking photos for a creative shoot and then bringing them to life for your hero image?
The Process of Creating a Great Hero Image
Never underestimate the power of a hero image to boost sales! As stated in a previous article, a few brands I’ve worked with who have seen sales dip have been surprised by their increase in sales of those same products once a creative marketing campaign was put in place to sell them. The main driving force in these campaigns? A creative photoshoot to make hero images.
After I am finished with my shoot, I use photo editing software like BeFunky’s Photo Editor to achieve the perfect edit! I will also typically use the Cutout Tool and then use BeFunky’s Graphic Designer to design the hero imagery. Here is the process I go through when I need to create a hero image.
1. Choose a Product or Service That Needs Marketing
First and foremost, you will need to choose a product that needs marketing. This could be a product that hasn’t been performing well, or it can be a new product that you want to launch in your lineup.
2. Create a Mood Board for the Shoot
As another example, let’s say that you have a fun fitness brand that you want to shoot. You want to have a creative shoot for a pair of leggings that you want to do. The first thing that I do is create a mood board. A mood board is simply a collection of inspirational photos that you put together to give you an idea of what you need for your creative shoot.
Knowing the direction you are going for helps you prepare for your shoot. In this case, we are taking a photo of french fry leggings. Do we want to bury the leggings in french fries to make them look tasty? Do we want to have the shoot at a fast food joint and make it look vogue? Remember, develop your photo shoot based on your brand’s personality. Since this brand is fun and quirky, we want to plan a shoot that has that foundational element to it.
3. Shoot the Product Creatively
Once you have chosen your product and created a mood board for it, it is time to develop your photoshoot and then execute it! Going with the mood board above, we decided to stage a fun fast-food photoshoot but wanted it to have a Vogue-esque feel. This brand was fun and it was a funny juxtaposition to try and make fast food high-class. Remember, the goal is to create imagery that makes people react to it strongly.
4. Develop the Hero Image
Your hero image can simply be a photo from the shoot if you shot it in a creative scene like above, or you may need to use the Cutout Tool and BeFunky’s Graphic Designer to complete a design that pushes your messaging – like in the example with the ski photo above.
The goal is to use these images for marketing purposes. When you are finished creating your main hero image, it is time to develop your campaign assets! Check out this article for help in developing marketing campaign assets.
Create Hero Images to Boost Your Marketing Reach
Creating hero images can be a game changer for your business. People online are seeing thousands of images per day and you need to stand out to be seen by them. The goal with anything you post online is to "Stop the Scroll." BeFunky’s Photo Editor and Graphic Designer are ready for any of your marketing needs!
