As marketers, you know that visuals are everywhere, and they're becoming increasingly important in today's digital age.
Visual content is a powerful way to communicate with your audience, engage them and get your message across. In this blog post, we'll be talking about why visual content is a must-have for your marketing strategy and how you can use it to reach more people, build customer loyalty and increase engagement.
Ready to make your visual content stand out? Let's dive in and explore the potential of what visuals can do for your business.
The Importance of Visual Content
It's no longer enough to put out text-heavy pieces – visuals are key for grabbing attention and helping your message stand out.
Whether it's an eye-catching infographic, an interactive video, or a stunning image – visual content can have a huge impact on the success of your marketing efforts.
According to recently acquired data, 84% of consumers think that watching promotional videos has influenced them to buy a product or service, and 91% prefer visual content over written content.
These numbers show that visuals are a great way to communicate complex concepts quickly and are more often shared on social media than text-based content.
Different Types of Visual Content
Visual content is one of the most important elements of digital marketing. It can capture attention, promote a product or service, create a brand identity or drive engagement with an audience.
Here are the five types of visual content that provide an excellent way for businesses to engage with their audience in a visually stimulating and interactive manner.
Short Form Video Content
An emerging format of digital media that typically ranges from one to five minutes in length and focuses on storytelling, often using existing texts or footage as a jumping-off point for creative expression.
This type of content has become increasingly popular, especially with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Short-form videos allow users to quickly consume entertaining stories or ideas without wasting time watching a longer video.
Almost three billion internet users watched streaming or downloaded video at least once each month in 2022, according to Statista. And this number is expected to rise, eventually reaching around 3.5 billion by 2023.
Infographics
It is an effective way to present data-heavy content in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand format. They can help you quickly educate people about complex topics without overwhelming them with too much information.
Here are some of the data from Demandsage that proved infographics are popular and will help you build a strong digital marketing campaign:
- Visual search is preferred by 62% of millennials.
- Images in posts increase engagement by 650%.
- An infographic has a 30x more significant chance of being read than an article with the same subject matter.
- The use of infographics increases reading motivation by 80%.
- A reader's comprehension and attention span might increase by 82% when using coloured infographics.
GIFs
It quickly becomes the go-to expression of emotions and reactions online. They are easy to produce, widely shareable, instantly recognizable, and perfect for conveying humorous or emotional messages without saying a word.
GIFs also allow viewers to express themselves in an enjoyable and eye-catching way that regular text simply cannot match. Additionally, short looping videos can be used to demonstrate how something works (such as a recipe or tutorial) in a concise yet visually stimulating format.
Memes
Simple yet effective visual content pieces that can help you quickly capture the attention of your target audience. They're great for creating engagement and conveying a message in an easily understandable format, which makes them particularly popular on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter.
Photos
One of the most popular types of visual content due to its immediacy, versatility, and accessibility. Photos capture the moment quickly, allowing viewers to feel like they were there in person even when they weren't. It can also be used to illustrate stories and evoke emotions more effectively than other forms of media.
Moreover, photos have become increasingly important in social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, where users can post pictures showcasing their lives, interests, and stories. This has further increased the popularity of photos as a form of visual content as people can express themselves increasingly visually.
How to Create a Visual Content Strategy
If you want to stand out and impact social media, websites, and other marketing channels, then it's time to plan and create your visual content strategy!
- The first step in creating an effective visual content strategy is identifying the goal of your visuals—what do you want to achieve? You should also consider your target audience and what they find appealing or attractive.
- Next, decide how often you'll be posting visuals. A consistent posting schedule can help keep your audience engaged and build brand recognition. You should also determine which platforms you will use to distribute your visuals, as each forum may require different types of content to be successful.
- Finally, creating a social media calendar that outlines when visuals should be created and posted for maximum reach is essential. Be sure to include deadlines for each visual component so that everyone involved in the creation process knows what's expected from them.
Following these three simple steps and planning can help you create a compelling visual content strategy that will resonate with your target audience and help build brand recognition for your business. Once you've established a plan and created visuals that reflect your brand's goals, you'll be on your way to standing out in the crowded digital landscape.
