Lesson 47: How to ensure your images don’t reduce response

All about killing your inner influencer

Most professionally designed landing pages, and many others, suffer from a crippling, conversion-crushing affliction I call “image smother.” This is a phenomenon where the copy is dominated by photos and graphics which unintentionally stifle it — a common affliction, since conventional wisdom says that photos and graphics are a great asset to a page.

This is seldom true. Rather, images draw attention away from the primary selling content of a site: the copy. And since nearly all the popular types of images on landing pages don’t sell, this means fewer prospects being persuaded to convert.

This doesn’t happen just on graphics-heavy pages. Any image is a likely culprit for smothering your copy like a ten-dollar hitman.

There is only one valid reason to include any image on your website at all: it must increase perceived value. If they doesn’t, get rid of it.

Ways to increase perceived value with images

Obviously if your images do increase perceived value (there is not really any other kind of value, of course), they will increase desirability — the third component in FRODO.

Used correctly, images convey desirability with great force — it’s just that in most cases, copy actually does it better. But there are times when images convey value more effectively than copy ever can...