Visual content marketing extends beyond pretty pictures embedded in blog posts and popular infographics. It’s a powerful tool for communication that leverages the visual system to deliver data in a compelling manner, making it an extremely effective way to tell the story of a brand and achieve content marketing goals.
Over the past 10 years, businesses have lived and breathed content marketing on the visual level. Thanks to evolving publishing and technology platforms, visual content marketing is now one of the most valuable tools for marketers, irrespective of company size.
What Is Visual Content Marketing And Why Is It Effective?
This describes the images and graphics seen when reading and interacting with media. It’s unique in the sense that the human brain processes visual instantaneously in comparison to any other stimulus due to the fact that it is far easier to consume. Visual content utilizes stylized design to present data in a format that is engaging and attractive. What’s presented is seamless to synthesize and pique the interest of the viewer. It grabs attention and helps brands stand out from their competitors.
The visual processors of the brain are more efficient and faster than other forms of communication, meaning that people are able to interpret visuals with the least amount of effort. In 2014, a study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered that it takes only 13 milliseconds for the brain to process an image. Consequently, visual content is more enjoyable for the purposes of engagement and is far easily understood.
Furthermore, the human visual system works directly with long-term memory, connecting images with data already stored in the brain. Therefore, visuals are the most memorable stimuli in comparison to other mediums.
How Does Visual Content Marketing Help Businesses?
In the past, publishing a brand meant press releases, sales collateral, and traditional advertising. However, in the modern-day, content marketing is the ultimate paradigm. People do not desire content that’s designed to sell something.
Instead, they prefer valuable content that inspires, educates, or simply entertains. Videos, infographics, and e-books, all serving as visual communication, serve such a purpose perfectly and achieve a wide gamut of marketing objectives.
Awareness
New and old publishing platforms are placing more and more emphasis on visual content when trying to engage and attract the masses. Delivery of content through such channels helps businesses reach audiences well beyond their owned properties, and this is especially crucial for search engine optimization (SEO). In addition to content that is written with quality, visual content offers material that is craved by the audience and represents things that they actively seek.
In accordance with data issued by LewisPR, content that is rich in imagery gets close to 100% more views than content without any relevant imagery. Moreover, a study published by Hoosh Technology and ISDIA research, more than 60% of visitors that click on a Google image will find themselves navigating to the site.
Engagement
Visual content is most engaging on social media channels. Users have statistically proven to spend significantly more time with it and, as a result, are far more likely to share. A simple image alone can substantially boost social engagement.
Research from Twitter has demonstrated that tweets containing photos get an average of up to 35% of a boost in retweets, with videos receiving close to a 30% boost. To no one’s surprise, a growing number of social platforms are making moves towards visual content.
Lead Generation
High-quality content designed to add value is the best way to develop a relationship with an intended audience and convert them into long-term customers. Infographics, e-books, and videos are just some of the many helpful ways in which to use visual content to establish credibility and knowledge.
Retention of Employees
The most successful brands are able to succeed with a solid team of committed, engaged employees. In competitive job markets, there must be ways to connect with potential employees as well as current employees. Visual content allows the showcasing of a company’s values, personalities, and culture in a variety of creative ways.
Solving Challenges
In addition to aiding in the previously mentioned goals, visual content is the best solution for many of the challenges that marketers have noted as being roadblocks.
Due to the extreme versatility of visual content, there are a number of formats to try experimenting with. In addition, the content created can be divided into microcontent for use in blog posts and social media in order to extend the reach. For instance, a single infographic visualization can be used as a social media teaser or in an e-book.
As visual content lets businesses repurpose more material, they are able to get significant mileage and value out of everything created. Furthermore, there exist today more tools for content creation than ever before.
Visual Content Types
Many different formats exist for visual content and can easily serve a brand in unique ways, either by enhancing content that has already been produced or adding on new formats to a given strategy.
Annual Reports
An annual report is a brand story’s ongoing representation. Making content engaging is not only essential for capturing the attention of audiences, but also to build loyalty and trust in what a business is doing along with its identity.
Infographics
This has been the bread-and-butter of the category for several years. They are highly sharable and visually stimulating, making superb tools for the communication of a message. Furthermore, interactive infographics are the best because they invite audiences to actively engage. Even something as simple as a slideshow to something as sophisticated as a complex set of data, interactive infographics represent one of the best ways to welcome an audience into the story of your brand.
Presentations
A sufficient presentation helps establish brand authority, communicate information, and make the greatest possible impact on an audience. Data visualization can be utilized to support an argument, graphics can break down concepts, and videos can introduce a sales pitch. Regardless, you must always design presentations well for them to be effective.