Marketing Using Watermarks

How can you leverage included watermarks on your photos to help make sales?



Most know the basic need for visible watermarks in your pictures. They discourage image thieves, displays the copyright of your image/product, and, as this article will hopefully show, can offer you a free way of advertising.


Post some of the product photos to popular/ free picture hosting and photo sharing sites , taking care that a visible watermark is included.

Why? Google and the other search engines make use of sites such as these to populate their Image Search option. If your product's photo is determined to be relevant to the search, it possibly might show up as one of the results, and since your watermark is included you are giving yourself some advertising at no cost. Its a bit manual, but can also give nice results.

A fine choice for this method would be Photobucket.com.
Name your photo identical to your product before you upload it to the site (as the name will be part of the URL that a photo sharing website gives). When you have uploaded the picture, you further label them online by using choices such as "Name", "Tags", and "Description". By filling these fields in, your photo will be even easier to be properly indexed and searched for.
Simple ideas
Name = Use the product name or a strong keyword
Tags = Use relevant/ targeted keywords
Description = Quick blurb about the item or something about you


Post a portion of the products to social shopping sites , making sure that your visible watermark is included.

Why? Websites like these not only expose your product online, but are traffic magnets and are often free to sign up for and make use of (imagine facebook meets google shopping). If you have a watermark included with your pictures, you will be advertising not only your product for sale, but also yourself as a source. Some websites can be a bit more manual to use than others, but for the most part, they are a fast and easy to take advantage of.

A good example of this, and the one I use most, is kaboodle.com. If you haven't started leveraging websites such as this one, you are really losing many potential sales.


Upload to sites like eBay with your watermark included.

Why? Looking around eBay, you will see a large amount of the ads for the same products also use the exact same image. When you have a different looking picture for the same product, especially if it is of high quality and has your watermark on it, buyers are not only more likely to notice your item, but your watermark and thus you as a seller at the same time.

eBay (which we all know) is not free to use, but there is nothing stopping you from selling on a site such as ecrater.com that actually is free to advertise on. Also worthwhile knowing is the fact that sites such as these are also used for results for their image searches results as well, so including a watermark if you are trying to make sales anyways makes perfect sense from a marketing prospective.


Here are my ideas as to what you can use for your watermarks, and the ways they will expand your marketing

Your name/company. Using a name that's catchy or easy makes people likely to search for you online. Example, Mobiles From Morpheus, or MobTech Torches

Email Address. Providing your email address in a watermark means that if somebody wants to ask questions about buying, or the product, they easily can (can be risky though).

Website Address. Just like an email address, it will make it easier for people to find you. Also encourages people to visit your site, and possibly buy different products.

Logo. Logos are good to create a branded feel for your phones.


Gregory Mulford lives and works in Shenzhen, China, and has a deep interest in all things electronic.

Quad-Band-Phones offers personalized watermarks for your own product photos at a very low price. See it for yourself.

QBP