10 Do's and Don'ts for Using Stock Photos in Your Marketing [SlideShare]

How does stock photography work?

Stock Photography websites are directories of photos that can be purchased for use on your own site. Stock photos can add visually interesting and compelling content to your marketing without the added design or outsourced photography needs.

Stock photos get a lot of hate. Most of time, the annoyance makes sense. Stock photos get super expensive if you’re going to use them everywhere; there are lots of weird and creepy photos that leave you wondering who the heck took them – or would want to use them; and then when you see them thrown in randomly in someone’s blog post or website, you cringe a little inside.

But really, stock photos aren’t all bad if you can use them in the right way. They can add visually interesting and compelling content to your marketing. They take out some of the design or outsourced photography you might need to build into your budget. And they can be pretty quick visual content solutions in a pinch. (HubSpot customers -- get access to 60,000 totally free Shutterstock photos right within your portal by clicking here.)

Unfortunately, most post aren’t talking about how to properly use stock photos … so our social media manager, Brittany Leaning, decided to help. Flip through the SlideShare she created below to get a few do’s and don’ts for using stock photos in your marketing:

See? Using stock photos the right way can be effective. Now that you know the do's and don'ts of using stock photos in marketing, want to show the world your skills? Download three free sets of stock photos (general, business, and holiday) and get to work!

What other stock photo best practices would you suggest? Share your ideas with us in the comments below!