An ounce of image is worth a pound of words!!!! Images, pictures, visuals can have a significant impact on the success or failure of your business. The interesting part is that images can help you grow more traffic, clicks, and conversion like never before. And there is no denying in the fact that Photos, videos, or infographics grab user attention much faster and more effectively than text. Image and video posts on social media receive more likes, shares, and engagement than text updates. Yeah, you are getting the gist- Visual Marketing!
Generally, visual content marketing refers to all types of visual media used in the content market. Yes, I am talking from infographics to data visualization, interactive content, images and photos, videos, webinars, presentation, and the list goes on. At present, we are living in an era where nearly everyone is competing for attention through the use of images and videos, so how can one be sure of getting noticed.
Let’s get acquainted with a few Visual Marketing Statistics, the facts speak of themselves!
Anything claimed or predicted without any facts or figures is useless and crap. According to HubSpot, 32% of marketers say that visual content is the most important form of content for their business, beating out blogging at 27%. 80% of marketers are using visuals for their social media marketing, and video has already surpassed blogging when it comes to its popularity as a content marketing asset. Including a relevant image can also make people 6.5x more likely to remember the information it’s presented beside. Meanwhile, superstar marketer Jeff Bullas has shared some metrics from his blog that show that articles with images get 94% more views than those without. And studies have shown that including video content can increase conversions on a landing page by 86% and that posts with videos receive almost 3x more inbound links.
Why Should One Invest In Visual Content?
It is a safe bet to say that visual content has been used as one of the finest ways to drive traffic, conversion, especially among B2B business and digital marketers. So, if you are looking around for certain ways to improve online presence and visibility online, one must shift or improve on their visual content marketing strategy before it becomes too late.
#1 Visual content grabs your attention– the Internet is overloaded with information, as well as relentless competition working double-time to get their market share. To generate more traffic, you can convert textual information into visual presentations. And this is the time when you get creative and innovative when planning your content arsenal. And everything turns out to be a pure bliss for your end users. Creating a user experience with stories told through visuals In addition to this, it generates twice the average engagement.
#2 Visual content is easier and faster to process– One of the key element in visual content marketing is to be able to communicate data at a faster rate that any average text version. The human brain can prove a limited amount of information at any given time, so visual data that can be processed faster than the rest takes precedence in grabbing a person’s attention.
#3 93% of all human communication– Like I said before a picture is worth a thousand words. Sharing one visual piece can guarantee engagement and virality. In a nutshell, the more engagement there is, the more people will view your post and get acquainted with your brand.
#4 Video and interactive content– Visual content marketing is a concept that generates even more favorable results than ordinary images and graphics. All this I am saying is in terms of getting the targeted audience’s attention and generating engagement. However, you have to balance the trade-off of the significant amount of time it takes to create videos versus creating interactive pieces such as infographics and interactive presentations, also posted on Social Media.
#5 Improves social engagement– Social media platforms are constantly evolving the user experience by working on features that would improve access to videos, images, and other visual content forms, such as social walls to display social content on your web site & digital signage.
#6 Targeted online visitors stay longer– Again, engaging visuals help generate audience interest in your brand, particularly because they stay longer on your pages when they view videos or get engaged with your content.
How to Carry Out Visual Content Marketing?
Step 1- Choose images that are easy to understand
Stock photos can be used at its best, but there are times when they appear very artificial and impersonal. So, make sure that you use an impressive amount of photos and images that add a certain value to your content, and that simplify and convey your message in no time. Trust me on this, images and videos are great storytellers so do try your hands on a short documentary video or a funny meme, or an emotional photo with a quote can tell your story, depending on the context in which they are used.
Step 2- Use a variety of image types and formats
There is no cookie-cutter pattern or solution while you are presenting something visually to support your content. So try a variety of image types and formats.
- Turn facts and statistics, processes, and procedures into graphs and illustrations.
- Create photos of the products you mention or illustrate processes and include them in the appropriate context of your post.
- Add screenshots or screencasts to your tutorials to show how to do it.
- Summarize the most important facts and stats in a compelling infographic.
- Create a graphical checklist or a visual summary of your post.
Step 3- Do not abide by copyright laws
Like I said before, there is ample of content around in the world of WWW. Every content, whether in the form of text or visual requires to be protected by copyright? Even if done unknowingly and inadvertently, sharing copyrighted images is always subject to infringement. And the penalties for illegal use or distribution of images can be quite costly and can get you into legal trouble.
Step 4- Keep SEO in mind
If you are operating a website, than SEO without a doubt has to be kept in mind. Over a span of a few years, Search engine technologies have evolved to get a better understanding of the components of images, resulting in more reliable results. So make sure you are able to optimize your images, and videos with keywords and descriptions makes your visuals ready for visual search in search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Don’t forget that publishing your own social media content & your UGC on your web site is also very good.
Also, index images using the so-called ALT tag in the source code. Make sure you always include the ALT attribute to describe your image using a strong description and your keywords.
Step 5- Social media buttons & social walls
Last but certainly not the least, start using certain social sharing buttons in your posts and on your website, you should also make it easy for your blog or website visitors to share your images on social media channels. This is especially useful for your infographics and other shareable images and graphics. Apart from this, you can also think of displaying such content on your homepage or create a dedicated page for it- Something like a social wall. In addition to this, you can also aggregate all the Tweets, Instagram photos & Youtube videos posted by end-users (UGC) on a smart social wall on your website & on TV screens. And the best part is it is compatible with any CMS or custom back office.
Author Bio:
Olivia Diaz is working at eTatvaSoft, an Enterprise level Web & Mobile Application Development Company. An avid reader and a passionate writer, She shared her ideas on path-breaking IT solutions, current IT trends and much more. Please visit here for more details about the company.
