How To Use Image Search To Enhance Marketing Strategy
Online search is a routine practice among consumers and marketers alike. Need some information on a product? Just "Google it": A phrase that people say as easily as they use the word “Kleenex” as a generic term for a product.
Yet advances in search algorithms are creating nuanced search options, tailored to varyious digital media. Among those nuances is image search, with contextual tactics becoming as valuable to digital marketers as real estate to a New York City realtor.
The latest image search innovations from Pinterest, Google, and Amazon, are aimed at helping users find relevant information through contextual association. By picking information related to images interest to the users, a visual search becomes a discovery engine for products and services, encouraging conversions as a result.
The image search landscape
Pinterest, for exampled, introduced Lens, an app feature that allows users to aim a camera at an object, and find pins and pinboards related to it. This is a significant catalyst for consumer sales, since many Pinterest users swap images of products.
Another app, from Amazon, added a similar feature for Prime customers, called Spark. Users view a feed of product posts and photos shared by other Prime customers.
Customers can respond by clicking on the shopping bag icon, or interacting with people by commenting or "smiling" on their posts. The feed allows customers to learn more about products through the images that customers comment on and share, much like a social media platform.
Meanwhile, Google introduced its own features to its Image Search engine. Query results now provide navigational highlights such as text that clarifies the action you can take, and badges that indicate what sites or links are associated with the image. These highlights can direct potential customers to associated materials and aid research behind a product or service image.
