Every single day, users mindlessly scroll through Instagram to the tune of over 75 million active members. Why? Because a picture is worth a thousand words, as the great saying goes. It is far easier to imagine yourself relaxing on a beach in Bali when you can see the freshly made tropical drinks slowly dripping under the hot sun in the hand of a bikini-clad influencer.
While your nonprofit organisation may not be seeing the same audience as a young Instagramer, you certainly can leverage the same form of marketing. How you place images on your Australian organisation’s website allows you to tug on the heartstrings of viewers, reinforce your NFP’s mission, and amplify the message you are trying to send.
The trick here is to figure out how to use them correctly and where to place images the most. As a team of professional web designers, we at Web 105 want to help. Here are some quick tips for using images, photos, graphics, and other visual element resources to get the job done right.
#1 – Always Be Relevant
Step number one is to make sure your images are relevant to your cause. You wouldn’t post a picture of a juicy cheeseburger on your blog showcasing an NDIS-approved medical provider. Always ensure your photos are aligned closely with your niche market.
For instance, if your job is to help underprivileged youths get the dental work they need, you should have images of successful, smiling kiddos fresh from the appointment or team members inside your comfortable and kid-friendly facilities. Keep it simple. Keep it relevant.
#2 – Watch Out for Licensing
You are representing a nonprofit organisation. That means you probably are already aware of legal issues that can get sticky quickly. Don’t expose your hardworking team to additional challenges, and only use original, licensable, or fair-use pictures.
The best route is to take a snapshot with your phone, but you can also rely on websites like Pexels.com. There, you can use high-quality images for free as long as you give attribution to the creator. A quick little snippet in the image description will save you a ton of time down the road.
#3 – Editing is Your Friend
A great photo is often made, not found. There are plenty of easy-to-use photo editing tools that your team can use to crop, resize, colour, add contrast, or scale a picture. Options like Canva come to mind.
You don’t need to be Picasso with your visual elements. The goal is to make the user experience as welcoming as possible by having the graphics and images you use easy to digest. Also, as an NDIS-approved agency, you may have to work around privacy concerns, and cropping can help a lot with that issue.
#4 – Tell a Story
The best nonprofit websites weave a narrative through their visuals. Aim to use images that contribute to a larger story about your mission, achievements, and the communities you serve in Australia.
Like it or not, you have a brand to maintain. You want your photos and graphics to reflect the message you want to convey. Let your photos do the talking.
#5 – Lean into Emotional Images
Pictures move people more than words. Think about the last time you scrolled through Facebook or looked on a news site. Certain images of moms holding hurt babies or teens celebrating a big sporting win at their high school immediately conjure emotional responses.
You can use the same marketing. No, you don’t need to trick anyone. Be honest with your goals and allow your clients, team members, and other stakeholders to demonstrate the benefits of your organisation through the medium of pictures. This will help with online donations.
#6 – Give Your NFP a Face
People connect with other people. If your NFP doesn’t have a spokesperson, try to use humans in your photos as much as possible. You do not want a “faceless” organisation online. Having actual people in your photos breeds trust.
Leverage images that showcase your team, volunteers, and the communities you serve. Whenever someone visits your website, they should feel like they’re meeting the faces behind and in front of the mission.
#7 – Optimise for Speed
Heavy images can and do slow down the load time of a website. This will negatively affect the user experience and knock you down a few pegs on the search engine results. You want to ensure every single photo is optimised for the web, keeping mobile device responsiveness in mind.
Faster load times improve the readability of your website. There are a ton of free tools like Optimizilla that will compress your images without sacrificing overall quality. If you can, use the .WebP format as that is 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs.
#8 – Where to Use Images
Here’s the trick: you shouldn’t weigh down your website with too many images. There is a balance you need to strike between engagement and practicality. Not sure where to start? Try placing your images in:
- The header (sometimes called above the fold or hero image)
- With CTAs (helps improve action by your users)
- Staff Bios (give your nonprofit organisation a face)
- In Blog Posts (helps tell a story)
Don’t forget UGC. User-generated content are reviews and images your community shares with you (usually via email or social media). If you can, post those on your website to boost your authority and online presence. Just be sure to get written permission first.
#9 – Make Them Social Media Sharable
Speaking of social media, why not use it? All your images should be easily sharable. A great way to do this is by using a plugin, extension, or application for your platform of choice. For example, WordPress has a great plugin called Novashare that can do all this for you with easy icons your viewers will love.
To put it simply, social media marketing builds a brand’s reputation. You don’t need to cater to marketing you don’t want to do. Use tools to automate this process and save yourself a ton of digital grief.
Conclusion
Our professional team at Web 105 has worked with many clients in the NFP and healthcare fields. We understand the delicate balancing act you have to do between following NDIS-approved parameters and building your organisation’s reputation.
Let us help improve your online presence with images, videos, and other visuals that directly relate to your goals. Our website design experts are here and ready to streamline your online presence with the features you need to build a community and hit your mission goals.
FAQs
Can you use copyrighted images for nonprofit?
In most cases, you are not allowed to use images you do not have the rights to use. Even giving attribution to the creator is not going to be enough unless you have some form of written consent. Use original work or images you know are licensable.
Do images need a title?
Yes! Even more important, image titles can help with SEO. Use your page’s targeted words to give a little boost to your NFP’s website.
What image format is best for websites?
Photos should be in JPG format or go with the new WebP format for speed. If you’re using a logo or graphic, you want to stick to a PNG or SVG file format because these scale better for responsive design.