Boost the interest, appeal, and effectiveness of your marketing strategy with visual content
People like pictures. This is just a basic fact of human nature—our brains are hardwired to process visual information 60,000 times faster than text. So when it comes to your online marketing plan, it should come as no surprise that visual content should be a fundamental building block. Here’s five reasons why.
Visual content is snackable
Let’s face it. No one—except you and maybe (hopefully!) your employees—wants to read an essay about your products and services. Because marketing efforts often target consumers who are not actively interested in your business, you have to rely on your content to quickly and effectively generate this interest. With visual marketing content, you can feed potential customers or clients small, snackable “bites” of content related to your business. Once someone swallows a few bites, they’ll be more likely to respond well to a bigger pitch.
Visual content communicates instantly & precisely
Reading a product description takes time. And even if a potential client or customer reads the whole thing, they may still be left with questions. Product photos, on the other hand, inspire consumer confidence because they show instead of tell exactly what is on offer. In other words, they save consumers with trust issues from having to take your word for it when it comes to the features and benefits of your product. For best results, make sure your visual content is clear, zoomable, and shows products from different angles.
Visual content is good for SEO
Including photos or graphics on your website gives you more opportunities to practice good SEO. Every image has to be tagged with search-friendly captions and related metadata, so the more images you create and tag with search terms relevant to your business, the more this activity will help your rankings.
Visual content plays well with social media
If you need further proof that people love visual content, just take a look at some of the fastest-growing social media platforms of the past two years—Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat. All of these platforms revolve around images rather than text. Even Twitter is getting on board with the rollout of image tweets. By basing your online marketing strategy on visual content from the very beginning, you can easily incorporate social media into your efforts.
Visual content supports branding efforts
Visual content is a great way to enhance your brand. You can build credibility by posting photos of your employees and facilities, and you can support your brand identity by choosing lighting, staging, content, filters, etc. that support your company “personality,” whether that’s refined and professional or fun and creative.