When it comes to creating a marketing strategy or developing online presence for your business or your organization, there are going to be many different choices that you have to make. Strategies matter and you need to make the best choices for you and your marketing schematic. Yet, unfortunately, sometimes the content falls through. Specifically, the design and aesthetic pleasure of the content gets left behind. You may more often than not ask yourself, “why even bother with visual content?” The truth is, though, that bad visual content can greatly damage your reputation, your affect, and your overall presence online.
Visual content should be handled in the appropriate way, for several reasons. You want to make sure that the content you use is visually enthralling because it can
turn a visitor off as quickly as they clicked on your site. If you struggle with understanding the value of visual content to your internet and marketing success or if you want to learn more about the strategies that can be lucrative to your business be sure to continue reading. You will find the information you need to make a beautiful and aesthetically interesting page that will draw more traffic in instead of sending them away.
What Is Visual Marketing?
As may be suggested by the title, visual marketing is any marketing material or approach that is used to entice users and promote a product, business, or service through the use of visually appealing designs. Visual marketing can be utilized in print materials, but more and more individuals are using visual marketing strategies through their internet presence. This is because visual methods can be so much more varied online than in the tangible world. For instance, visual marketing materials on a website include anything that is graphically designed or requires viewing, like videos and GIFs. Though this article will not focus solely on the internet based design opportunities, it will be heavily slanted in this direction because of the importance and the popularity of this method of marketing in today’s world.
What Types of Visual Marketing Options are There?
Now that you have a base level understanding of what visual marketing is, it is important to understand what specific types of visuals that you can use in your marketing campaigns. The following outlines a few of the choices that you have and may wish to incorporate into your marketing schematic. Though not all-inclusive, they are popular and should—at some point—find their way into your visual marketing plans.
Photographs
Photographs are a great item to use in your content because, as they say, a photo can speak a thousand words. You can say a lot in a singular photo, more than pages and pages of text can convey. Further, posting a picture or sharing a great graphic will grab your viewers’ attentions—if done right—and does not require a great deal of writing on your part. While that is not to say that you do not write information or share it, including photographs can be a great way to visually enthrall your traffic.
Videos
Another great visual to use in your marketing and visual content plan is a video. Videos are a great way to create what is essentially movement of your story in a graphically exciting way. You will find that there are numerous different sites that have topical videos or you can always make one yourself. These videos can be basic to advanced and they will all help to share your message in a quick and easy way. Therefore, if you are not using your video opportunities, it is time to start.
Memes
Memes are photos with interesting texts that can quickly tell a story, share a joke, or send a message. Often times, memes are highly topical and usually have some humor behind them. These can be a great way to stay relevant and garner shares which help to spread your brand or organization presence quickly. Memes can also evoke emotions, too. Therefore, make sure that you are using memes at some point in your visual marketing strategy.
Infographics
One of the other visual content strategies that you can use on your social media—or even print marketing campaigns—are infographics. Infographics are essentially pictures or graphically designed words that are used in order to send information quickly. Common types of infographics include things like charts, bar graphs, or lists that share information rapidly but do not offend the eyes in the process. Infographics are great to use on social media sites where the audience is often moving quickly and may not read a long blog post or long and drawn out paragraphs. If you are not using these, do so immediately!
The Do’s and Don’ts
Okay, now that you have a basic idea of the ins and outs of visual content and visual marketing, you need to know why it matters. In order to convey this message, this article focuses on the strategies that you can use to accomplish your end goals. Below, then, you will find a list of the do’s and don’ts of visual content so that you can do it well in your business’s marketing strategy.
1. Don’t Use Too Much Text
There are many different options for text and content on a website. Between the tabs and the different links, as well as your social media page, you can share thousands upon thousands of words with your consumers and web traffic. You will likely go through phases where you want to type and type and type…and type… all of the information that you want them to have so as to provide your traffic and clients with everything they could possibly want to know. But, this is a hugely bad strategy and can be a quick way to run off your web traffic.
Too much text on a page can drive away viewers. While your traffic will want the information you have to share, they are not likely to read volumes in order to get it. They expect you to condense and create more easily digestible nuggets of info that they can walk away with and use. This is where visual content strategies come in to play. For instance, you can say what you need to say in pages of writing with a great video placed upon your site. You can also use a meme or web graphic in order to send the information you want to your traffic without bombarding them with words. Further, you can break up your written text with some greatly placed photos that will make what they are looking like more appealing and less monotonous. Don’t, then, use too much text without some level of visual diversity.
2. Do Understand Brains Love Visuals
Another reason that you will want to use visuals, and use them well, is because individuals are much more likely to retain visual information as compared with written text. It is amazing, but the human brain will retain 90% more information when it is in visual form than when it is in written. This fact cannot be ignored by your marketing or web development team. Know this fact. Understand it. Implement it. Your page and your clients will thank you for it!
Also, not all of your web traffic will learn about your page, your business, your organization in the same exact way. Some individuals learn better by reading, but an amazing sixty-five percent of the population relies on visuals in order to learn. Rather than ostracizing this group, do incorporate the more visually appealing content into your page and provide great infographics instead of the traditional, run on content that many pages use. Your clients will notice and they will be all the better for it. Your business will, too!
3. Don’t Ignore Your Customers and Traffic’s Wants
One of the things that is important to remember when you are developing a marketing plan is that your customers—future and present—want to be involved. They want to know that there is a dialogue between you and them, if never spoken in actual words. Therefore, visual content is essential to creating a conversation such as this. But why?
Visual content is over fifty percent more likely to be shared than stagnate copy or print. It is eye catching to your traffic and, therefore, likely to be eye-catching to others. That is why your traffic is much more likely to share this content than any other type. More than just allowing them to share quickly, sharing such information allows them to feel a part of the conversation. If you are only giving them boring copy, they are not likely to share and, therefore, they are not likely to feel as if they are a part of the conversation. For that reason, know and understand that you have to give your clients a chance to get involved and that comes from the use of visual content. It is important and it matters, so do it well!
4. Do Save Your Audience Time
Visual content, as aforementioned and reiterated throughout this article because of its importance, allows individuals the chance to share information quickly and absorb it at an even faster rate. Therefore, by providing your audience with great visual content, you are giving them the chance to allow their eyes to take in the information at a much faster rate than if they had had to read it all themselves. This saves a great deal of time while still sending the same message about your brand, business, or organization.
When you save your audience time, there is both a conscious and subconscious appreciation that is returned. Individuals, even if they do not verbalize it, appreciate that you are not drawing out the learning process beyond what is necessary or needed. A more thankful or appreciative feeling among your traffic increases their likelihood that they will return to your page. Therefore, it is important to remember to incorporate visual content because it will save your clients and web traffic time and the appreciation will be returned to you over and over again in many different ways.
4. Don’t Avoid Social Media Graphics
One of the largest and most populace locations for garnering clients is via social media sites. Social media sites vary in their followership, but they are ripe for growth, potential, and client recruitment. If you are not using these social media sites for your business and organization, you need to be! They can be great recruitment tools and help you to gain new clientele while reaching out to the established.
When it comes to social media sites, you may wonder what type of information is best to share. While blog posts and text can be great, visuals are much quicker and can share a lot in a short amount of time. Also, just as mentioned above, you are more likely to send your message quickly with the use of graphics such as infographics. Social media participants tend to have a short attention span. Grab your audience quickly with a great graphic. If you are not using social media, use it now and make sure that you are utilizing graphics when you do.
Make It Yours
Now that you know the different strategies and reasons why visual content and visual marketing matters, it is important that you make it yours. The above are great suggestions on how to make your site and social media pages presentable and engaging—as well as why you should do so—but it is worth it to make it your own. Do not use stock photos that any page could have. Nor should you use generic images and graphics that say nothing about your business and your organization. You need to make sure that the visuals are appealing and that they say something about you, your mission, and what your business stands for. By so doing, you are ensuring that any viral or highly shared infographics or other graphics will relate back to your page at every turn, spreading your message in a positive way.
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