Honest Styled Stock Society Review: Pros, Cons, & Sneak Peek

This post may contain relevant affiliate links. These give me a small commission at no additional cost to you if you make purchases with them. Please see my disclaimers for more information.

In this Styled Stock Society review, I lay out all the reasons why I recommend this stock photo membership over everything else out there. I also breakdown how this ONE membership is the most essential marketing secret I have to share.

A few others have blogged about why they love this stock photo membership for female entrepreneurs. But when I first added this post to my blog’s content calendar, I wanted it to become the most in-depth exploration of WHY content creators and entrepreneurs truly need to consider it for their business.

There’s a few of these memberships out there. All of them have their own positives and negatives, which I’ve extensively laid out in this Styled Stock Society review. So let’s unpack why I continue to choose this stock photo membership year after year.

This post is all about my honest thoughts about the Styled Stock Society membership.

Is the Styled Stock Society membership really worth it?

Before we go any further, I want to stress that this isn’t your average affiliate review. Over the last two years, I’ve spent more than $600 on this membership. Every single penny since my first 30-day trial has been my personal money.

I don’t want to spoil this review too much here, but I believe in total transparency. Styled Stock Society is a membership I believe in so much for my own business. But let’s get into my in-depth review:

What is Styled Stock Society?

Styled Stock Society is a visual marketing membership that provides female entrepreneurs with thousands of feminine stock photos and gorgeous, converting marketing templates.

This membership is perfect for:

Elle Drouin, the founder of Styled Stock Society, and the team behind the scenes actively put so much effort into curating the perfect collection of photos and templates. I’ve bought into several stock photo memberships, and none of them compare to what Styled Stock Society consistently offers, which is:

• New marketing resources (stock photos, templates, etc.) are added each week
• Feminine, brandable templates that save you so much time
• Inclusive, stylish, and professional photos captured for your brand
• Beautiful visuals shot and designed for results and conversion

How the membership works

In case you’ve never joined an online membership, I wanted to go over exactly how they work. The Styled Stock Society membership works in five simple steps:

1. Step 1 — Choose the membership plan that best fits your budget and needs.
2. Step 2 — Set up your account and recurring billing info to gain access to the perks and content.
3. Step 3 — Explore what’s on the inside via the member dashboard. Styled Stock Society has a convenient site tour video that shows you how to navigate the entire membership site.
4. Step 4 — Start adding stock products and templates to your favorites to keep them handy when you need them.
5. Step 5 — Stay in the know about all the latest stock content and templates by receiving Styled Stock Society’s weekly emails packed with updates on what’s being added to the member library.

How I use the Styled Stock Society membership in my business

For the last two years, I’ve used my Styled Stock Society membership in so many ways. When I first signed up for a free trial gained from purchasing a massive bundle back in the summer of 2020, I thought for sure I’d never actually keep this month-to-month.

However, I pretty much use this the same way I use my Canva Pro account: every. single. day!

Here are just a few of the ways I’ve used this feminine styled stock membership:

• Blog post featured images
• Social media posts
• Pinterest pins
• Facebook ads
• Visual client work
• Sales & landing pages
• Lead magnet imagery
• Visual branding on my website

As you can see, there are so many ways you can use these stock photos and templates! All you need to have is a little bit of creativity with a dash of vision to craft up beautiful visual branding for your business.

WHY YOU SHOULD PAY FOR STOCK PHOTOS?

There are so many reasons why you should consider paying for stock photos. Among them, here are the few that really sold me when it came time for my trial to end:

• For legal peace of mind — Sites like Unsplash aren’t always a good place to look for photos. You end up wasting time searching through the tons of images that don’t work or inspire you just to find the good ones. Plus, anyone can upload photos onto this site. There’s no real guarantee that all of the imagery you use is actually legal.
• More exclusive visual branding — On the subject of Unsplash, so many content creators and business owners use photos over and over again. Same for the stock photos you can find with the Canva Pro subscription. Fewer creators will be using these photos than those two options. This can help give you the luxury of a better user/customer experience.
• Better focused photo collections — Each new collection the team releases perfectly compliments ones they’ve posted in past. Your projects won’t look like you’ve Hodge-podged random images together. Instead, they’ll have a cohesive look to them.

The Best Features of Styled Stock Society

This feminine stock photo membership site has so many things I adore. Here are my favorite features you can expect to find inside:

It has a little something for everyone

Styled Stock Society has an impressive collection filled with more than 3,000 images of searchable/filters to find the exact visual look you need. This is so important because it saves you so much time.

You don’t have to sift through all the crap you don’t need just to find the images that best fit your project. Here are all the niche categories the membership offers as a search feature:

You can easily search & find exactly what you need

One of the biggest benefits of subscribing to these kinds of memberships is the ease of use. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve lost searching for that *perfect* photo. With Styled Stock Society, there are several options for me to choose from all in one convenient place!

So here are all of the options aside from the niche category that you can use to narrow down your search results to find exactly the photos you need:

COLORS

You get to choose from 21 different colors, so your photography always matches your brand imagery standards perfectly!

Having this option might not seem like it would be a huge help. But when you’re looking for a specific color to match your project’s scheme, you’ll end up appreciating having this as an option.

I really enjoy the different options given.

ORIENTATION

This search option is the one I personally use the most! The amount of time I save every month being able to slide into the dashboard and find the exact orientation I need is so helpful.

• Vertical
• Square
• Horizontal

I always end up looking for horizontal and vertical-oriented photos, but having the square option can be a huge help when you’re looking for Instagram-ready images.

PEOPLE

Out of all the filters, I think this one is the most important one! Whether you’re a strictly no people brand or you enjoy the friendly, inviting feel of people in the shots you use, there are literally so many options for everyone in between.

For me, diversity and inclusion are a must. The information I share on this blog isn’t just for a specific type of person. I want it to be accessible to everyone who aligns with being frustrated with the online marketing world or an introvert.

• No People
• People
• People of Color
• Hands in Frame

No matter your preference, you’ll have hundreds (if not thousands) of options to choose from!

MOCKUPS

If you sell digital products, the mockups filter might be the one you use more often for your sales pages, websites, and product pages. Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever used this filter, but it’s so nice to have.

• Computer
• Stationery
• Phone
• Tablet
• Mug
• Frame
• Other

Side note: I do wish the membership library had more mockups. The perfect example would be for authors. Having the ability to take full advantage of Styled Stock Society’s feminine vibe as an author online would benefit them so much!

Unfortunately, there is sadly a gaping hole when it comes to book mockups inside this stock photography membership.

BACKGROUND

Another very thoughtful inclusion is the background search filter. Out of all of them, I can confidently say I’ve never had a use case for this one. But that’s one of the best perks of the Styled Stock Society membership — versatility!

Here are the options they offer their members:

• White Background
• Solid Color
• Grey Marble
• Wood
• Cement

Curated content ideas with photo ideas

If you’re ever stuck on what to post on social media or what content to plan for the month, Styled Stock Society has an impressive curation of resources gathered for you.

Each time you log into the site, you’re greeted with an amazing, helpful dashboard packed with:

• Monthly caption guide
• Days to celebrate in the month
• Trending collections & templates
• What’s new
• Quick list of helpful links
• Featured member profile

More visual content exclusivity

When I log into Pinterest, I literally see the same 10 workspace, mockup, and feminine-ish images regurgitated across several accounts. Even if you don’t have Pinterest in your marketing strategy, standing out in the sea of bland images is still a huge boost for your brand.

Keeps your brand identity intentional & cohesive

Even though Styled Stock Society’s theme caters to the feminine, light, and minimal aesthetic, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your projects will look as polished as possible. Visual brand cohesion can add to your buyer’s experience as they sign up for your freebies, buy your digital products, or invest in your high-ticket programs.

I’ve seen so many websites that have crazy, bright neon pink images that clash with the more muted brand colors or vice versa. You don’t want to distract your buyers when they’re scrolling through your website or sales pages.

That’s where visual cohesion is so important!

Tons of gorgeous marketing templates

The Styled Stock Society team adds templates weekly. As a member, you’ll get access to a broad range of more than 1,000 feminine, brandable templates to use in Canva.

Right now, the core categories to explore and download include:

• Social media templates (Instagram, Facebook, & Pinterest)
• Marketing templates
• Digital product templates
• General business templates
• Client experience templates

Perfect collection of bonuses

With every Styled Stock Society membership comes the convenient, time-saving pool of handy bonuses. Let’s explore what you can find inside:

MAIN BONUSES

The following bonuses are the featured ones you’ll see at the top of the bonuses page:

• 365 Instagram Prompts — A prompt for every single day of the year – so you never have to worry about what to post!
• Done-for-you Graphics — 200+ professionally designed graphics that are ready to post on Instagram.
• Instagram Resource Guide — A guide to the tools you’ll need to create, edit, and schedule IG content.

MARKETING TOOLKITS

Each of the following kits comes with a workbook template or launch guide, email + social media swipe copy, Instagram post templates, Instagram story templates, and Facebook templates:

• Service Launch Toolkit
• Challenge Toolkit
• Webinar Toolkit
• Content Planning Toolkit

BRAND TOOLKITS

Each of the following kits comes with 30 customizable templates, pre-made logos, social media templates, business cards, and more:

• Petal Brand Kit
• Sarah Brand Kit
• Bianca Brand Kit

Unlimited access to membership content

Simply put: You get unlimited, unrestricted access to every membership content for the life of your subscription. That means every template and photo collection is ready for you to design beautiful projects as you need them. Download as many photos each month to your heart’s content.

Beautiful branding for a few bucks

Brand designers are expensive, and not everyone is in a position to invest in theirs — especially when they first start their business or are trying to grow it on the cheap.

Styled Stock Society gives every business owner the opportunity and access to a beautiful visual brand that impresses clients and boosts sales.

The bottom line is that your brand is more important than you might give it credit for. It’s not just a logo you pay someone on Fiverr to create, either. Your brand is like your buyer and leads’ first impression of your business.

Make it count for less by signing up with the Styled Stock Society membership.

What it’s missing

Styled Stock Society isn’t perfect. In the spirit of full transparency, there are a few things that grind my gears about this stock photo subscription site —some much more than others. Let’s get into them:

There’s a lack of stock videos

As important as video is for the future of social media these days, there’s a severe lack of stock videos. But that doesn’t mean they’re not updating their collection!

Back at the beginning of this year (2022), they maybe had between 2-4 pages. Now, there are 7 full pages of stock videos to choose from.

In the seven months since then, they’ve been consistently adding new and more videos. It’s just still not quite as quickly as I’d like it to be.

This con really isn’t a huge deal if you have an active Canva subscription. You can animate photos to create videos for your social media content. I’ve found that’s the best workaround for me, personally.

Imagery is typically intentionally generalized

If your niche or business steers toward something very specific, this feminine stock photo membership is simply not for you. There is a ton of variety and diversity in the stock photos you find inside; however, the content and themes are supposed to fit a broad range of niches and businesses.

No more lifetime membership option

Back when I first joined, I was really excited about their lifetime option. It was honestly something I always kept on my business goals sheet. But with it officially gone, paying for it month-to-month will simply be the norm from now on.

Some photo categories are updated more frequently than others

The two core categories most frequently updated are lifestyle and workspace. This makes sense since their core customer demographic happens to be entrepreneurs after that beautiful feminine aesthetic. However, if you’re banking on finding a huge library of other categories, you might be disappointed.

Here are the number of pages of stock photos each category currently has as of the time I’m writing this Styled Stock Society review:

And yes…I manually counted each of those!

Too many social media/Instagram templates

As of writing this review, Instagram templates remain the queen of their template library. I’ve mentioned a few times how I’m giving up on Instagram for now to prioritize Pinterest.

Some of their templates are great, but I’ve found the majority to match the style of most other template sellers. I hope in the future that they create more Pinterest-oriented resources and templates!

Another point to mention is that there are a few non-social media templates in the membership, too. But there are not nearly as many as there potentially could be!

I mention this as a con because there are other memberships out there that may have a better variety if this is something you are prioritizing for your membership needs.

How much is Styled Stock Society?

At the time of writing this blog post, Styled Stock Society only has two plans available for new members: quarterly and yearly. Both offer their own pros and cons; however, you’ll end up saving $91 USD if you opt to go with the annual plan.

Compared to the alternative of hiring a costly professional brand photographer to shoot a personalized brand photography session for your business in the upper hundreds or thousands, this membership gives you access to fresh stock photos you can use to boost your visual brand and marketing.

Final thoughts

Overall, I think Styled Stock Society still has a few areas they could improve on. But don’t let that stop you from investing in your brand with an affordable, feminine aesthetic.

Your visual brand is so important for your business. As a business owner, it’s up to you to attract the leads and clients you need to get or stay profitable.

I get results as a tiny blogger barely on the map. Right now, I only have 113 followers on Pinterest. I don’t get tens of thousands of impressions organically yet.

I’m simply a micro, humble blogger who’s happy with the results I’m seeing.

But by having beautiful imagery on my pins, I’m attracting several people who actually click over to the blog post my standard pins promote.

I’m in a lot of Facebook groups with other bloggers. Inside, there are hundreds of people with barely 10 impressions on each of their pins. That’s no shade to anyone. It’s simply hard to break out on platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and even the Google seearch engine.

Growth is an investment and a commitment. It takes time, patience, and a LOT of trial and error. With the help of Styled Stock Society‘s unique collection of photos and marketing templates, I’ve found a way to stand out and attract leads, email list subscribers, and a real audience for my infant blog.

This post was all about my Styled Stock Society review.

Ready to get your copy + content to that *chef’s kiss* status — fast & easy?

Inspire your buyers with copywriting & content strategy services for intentional brands & wanna-be energetic masters. I pack my posts and content with value and strategies I’ve used in my own business. But nothing quite beats working 1:1 with the copywriter to create custom copy that goes beyond a single conversion.

Let’s inspire your buyers!

Just want the free goods? I gotchu!

Join The Copy Sloth Society!

Receive regular copy and content strategy updates as well as access to my free resources.