This is the third post in our “Media Monday” series highlighting the different ways publishers can optimize their products’ presence in the AQ Catalog – presenting the information that dealers, consultants and reps want to see. This week’s topic deals with pictures and images. It’s a cliché to say that a picture is worth a thousand words – but clichés stay around for a reason. In our digital age, we need to update the old saying to “a high-quality picture...” More and more, the quality of images and the presentation of products within the images can make the difference between a customer quoting your product or moving on to another manufacturer. The following guidelines will help you get the most out of your submitted images.
Ownership:
Images have to be yours – they must be your property. We do not allow copies or reproductions unless you have a written release from the owner to use the image in the Catalog.
Formats:
We accept JPG, TIFF, PSD, BMP, PNG and EPS formats, and any other formats compatible with Adobe Photoshop. Do not embed images in Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs or other types of documents or sheets.
Quality:
High-resolution images will automatically trigger AQ Catalog’s zoom function so that customers can get a close-up look at the products they plan to quote. A recent survey by a consulting firm found that “customers are 25 percent more likely to make a purchase if the product's images have zoom capability as provided by high-resolution images.” Our recommended image size is 1300 pixels on the longest side with the highest resolution you can provide. This gives our media team maximum flexibility to crop and resize as needed in order to create the best possible image for the product.
Presenting the product:
The image should accurately represent the product in its stock, normal configuration, with minimal or no propping. Do not show options or accessories that you do not include with the product. The product should fill 85 percent of the image, vertically and horizontally aligned.
Submitted image:
The image should have a white background and exclude watermarks, captions, descriptions or any type of text or logo (unless the text or logo is actually on the product itself).
Identification:
File names for images should be descriptive and correspond to product or model numbers as shown in the AQ Catalog (or include a spread sheet with file names and references). Poorly organized and/or badly named files are the number one reason for delays in uploading images – turning submissions that might take hours to publish in the AQ Catalog into one that would take days to finish.
Delivery:
You can send images via email attachment, using file-sharing sites like Dropbox, or giving us direct access to your network via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). You should send images to your AQ Content Manager.
So, focus on these guidelines and see how high-quality images may help develop more quotes and sales for your products.
For questions on this post, email catalogmedia@aqnet.com.
To submit images, contact your AQ Content Manager.