Words often aren’t enough to truly engage your target audience. The most amazing marketing campaigns are going to leverage a variety of mediums to get your message across. Increasingly, people are drawn by all things visual.
Sharing valuable ideas is still essential, but you can set yourself apart from the crowd by creating images, videos, and infographics that communicate as well as engage visitors. Here is why you should put some focus on a visual content marketing strategy and some tips to get started.
Visual content marketing refers to anything that isn’t primarily text-based. Some examples include:
Humans are visual learners and are more likely to engage with content that includes visuals. PR Daily reports that visual content gets 94 percent more views than content with no visuals. In a 2018 study, B2C marketers chose videos (45 percent) and images (29 percent) as top content marketing methods for achieving company goals.
Some of the ways that visual content can help your business meet its goals include:
Research shows that visual content behaves differently than text-based content. Some of the reasons that visual content outperforms textual content are that it can get your message across faster and is easier to remember.
This doesn’t mean you should ditch the words completely. A good mix of both is vital to your success. So, brands that haven’t placed an emphasis on visual content in the past are encouraged to give it a closer look.
Hopefully, you’re convinced that visual content is something you should make a priority. But where should you begin? Fortunately, there are plenty of tools available to help you get your message across visually. Here are nine ways you can kickstart your visual marketing strategy:
When you use photos or illustrations in your content, they can break it up as well as add context. A concept that might be murky through text alone suddenly makes a bit more sense with a visual. Plus, no one likes to look at a wall of words on a screen.
Some of the most powerful visuals are those that combine images and data. Called “infographics,” (see the illustration above), these are eye-pleasing and shareable visual content that includes statistics on top of or alongside some relevant images or illustrations. You can include these in a blog post or your website content, or post them on social media.
If you can find a quote that will help you get your point across, make your audience smile, or add some other value, combine it with an image and use it. You can use an image of the person you are quoting if they are famous or an influencer or choose something else appropriate.
The importance of using video in your digital marketing strategy isn’t something you want to ignore. More than half (53 percent) of consumers engage with brands after watching a video on social media, and 93 percent of businesses state they’ve gotten a customer thanks to social media videos.
Video is incredibly effective just about anywhere. Sure, people like to watch videos on social media, but they also do well on company blogs. You can create a video to complement your other content or as a different form of content to spice things up for your visitors.
Not everyone loves GIFs, but these moving images can certainly make an impression. They can quickly convey emotion and share the human side of your brand. As a bonus, they are simple to consume. If these visuals fit your brand, you should give them a try.
People still pause to read memes. This is because they are bite-sized content that only takes a few seconds to consume. If it doesn’t bring value, the consumer hasn’t lost much. But, if it does, both the creator and the consumer gain something.
You can use a meme on social media, provided it is in good taste. You can also add them sparingly to your blog posts.
Another simple way to create visuals for your blog or social media page is with screenshots. When you’re surfing the web and find something that you’d like to “share” with your audience, take a snip of that information.
You can save your screenshots until you have a relevant blog post. Or, you can put them directly on social media with a few thoughts and drum up some instant engagement.
Some consumers get a bit annoyed when they select a blog post or story that requires them to click through multiple pages of visuals. (These are often used with Listicles). Interestingly, however, they’re incredibly effective, and people will click through page after page all the same.
Slideshare presentations are an excellent tool to show off a list of product features. They also work well as instructional pieces. Another benefit is that users can often download them as a PDF for future reference.
Believe it or not, some brands have been using custom print magazines for a few years. The online version of the print magazines, called Flip Books, is a unique way to market your products and services. You can use an online tool like Flipsnack to create digital brochures, catalogs, and magazines to share with your visitors.
Written content such as blog posts and web pages is still an essential part of your digital marketing strategy, but you need visual elements to reach and engage your visitors. If you’re ready to take your online marketing to the next level, Connection Model’s results-driven solutions can help.
Contact us to begin a discussion about how Connection Model can support your marketing strategies today.