What makes a good hero image. So if you had a chance to listen to last week’s podcast, I talk to you all about how you can use your brand images once you have them. And I specifically talked about creating and finding your HERO image. Now unless you are a web designer or marketer, you might be scratching your head when I say the term Hero image. So let me briefly recap.

A hero image is the single, big, eye catching image that is the first thing that pops up on a website. You can find it in any industry and it really sets your website apart. It generally fills the entire width of the screen. Many times you’ll see text or a call to action button overlaid on top of it. Now why do we like a hero image? Well...because when done right it can help immediately draw your viewer into your site and keep them there longer. That’s really what we want to do….drive traffic to our website, but then have them stay on there as long as possible. We want them to explore, learn, and connect. Whether that’s through a purchase, booking an appointment or a discovery call, right?

The average viewer decides in less than 3 seconds whether or not to navigate off of a webpage, so that’s ALL the time you have to engage them. A whole bunch of text or a small, pixelated image, or a Video that takes forever to load isn’t going to do you any good and chances are they will just nativate off of your site before they can even figure out what it is you do. A quick caveat. Video on your site is extremely valuable. It just has to be done in the right way. I’m not going to go into that now, but just like a crappy photo, crappy video is going to hurt you more than help you. 

So what makes a stellar hero image? 3 Things.

1. Great content
2. Great connection
3. Great information

You want your image to POP, connect immediately with the viewer, and provide that quick burst of information letting them know that they are exactly in the right place. If you are a personal brand, it had better be a huge picture of you and your face. And I always suggest having your face looking directly at the camera. Your viewers will connect with you when they see your eyes, so it’s super important to have you looking at them. 

If you are NOT a personal brand, then you want to make that connection in a different way. You want to showcase the outcome, transformation or lifestyle that someone will achieve by interacting with your brand.

Always make sure that your photo is high quality. That means good light, good composition, and correctly sized for web. You don’t want it to take forever to load or that defeats the purpose and you don’t want it to look crappy so that people think you don’t take your business seriously. 

Make sure that your hero image is something that people can instantly recognize what it is that you do or sell. Or make sure to add eye catching text to reinforce that. 

Okay….if you’re looking for a great example of this, head on over to my website at brittanybennionphotography.com You can check out my hero image and see what these are all about. Once you understand this, you’re going to start seeing hero images all around and really understand the purpose behind them.

Thanks for checking out this bonus episode see you next week!

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