You can hardly find any content these days without a visual; the words are not enough to engage and delight today’s audience. And this is where visual marketing comes in.
Wherever you go, whatever social media you use does not take away from the horrifying visuals — a robust tool that allows emotions to do their job to perfection. This art of ‘selling and sharing’ has transcended the text in this generation.
There is no doubt that social media posts with eye-catching visual content perform better than those that do not contain these elements. People stop scrolling to see photos or videos instead of reading posts. Ninety percent of the information processed by the brain is visual. The human brain processes an image 60,000 times faster than text.
A visual strategy ensures that the visual content you are deciding on will actually help you achieve your goals and reach your target audience. Without a strategy, you can make choices on a case-by-case basis. It is not just more work. It also risks producing content that misrepresents your brand.
Therefore, when you create a clear visual strategy for each marketing campaign, you can actually save time and money. To learn more about how to do this, see these articles. “Visual strategy” means not only the campaign but your brand. And see examples of how different companies have used a visual strategy to create more successful campaigns. Get inspiration for your next project today.
Now that you know how important it is to have visual content – what do you think about creating it? These ten tips will help you create compelling visual content to increase your social media platform engagement.
1. Pick The Right Content-Type
Stock images are not your only option when it comes to adding visual elements to your content. For example, adding infographics or short videos can make your blog content a lot more engaging and meaningful to your audience.
For longer content such as Whitepapers or e-Books, a visual theme, such as an animated character, can bring the entire piece together to keep your audience entertained and engaged.
But if you’re really short on time or don’t have any resources to create visual content, then using stock photos is still better than not having any visual elements. Just make sure that your stock images are relevant and visually attractive. Don’t be afraid to be a bit creative and surprise (and delight) your readers!
2. Tell a Story
It is always easier to portray a story in the form of an image, fun animation, or video than words. It is the feeling that engages them for seconds, and that’s what matters.
3. Get to Know the Creative Basics
What makes a great visual scene? If you cannot answer this question, then a little study may be in order. You have to keep some basic best practices in mind. And you have to know the rules before breaking them.
Here are some basic best practices for creating social media visuals:
- Have a clear subject: It is usually best to have a single focal point in your image.
- Remember the rule of thirds: With a few exceptions, it is best not to center your subject thoroughly.
- Use natural light: If your image is too dark, it will be harder to see. But don’t acquire your images either.
- Make sure there is enough contrast: Contrast provides balance, is easy to read, works better in a black and white environment, and is more accessible.
- Choose a complementary color: Get familiar with a color wheel.
- Keep it simple: Make sure your view is easy to understand.
- Do not over-edit: Resist the temptation to press all buttons. Talking about filters and features, subtly, is a good policy. Increase saturation with caution.
4. Maintain Brand Consistency
First of all, your visuals must align with your brand’s content marketing strategy. Each piece of visual content should have a purpose within the overall strategy and be consistent with the brand presence. It includes brand color schemes, font style, logo usage, and any other style guidelines.
5. Your Visual Story is Must for Your Content Marketing Strategy
Posting a picture or video online and waiting for business proposals to start rolling in is not an effective strategy. Neither is hinging the success of your visual content when creating the next viral phenomenon.
Like any content marketing format, you must have a compelling rationale for communicating with your audience through visual storytelling, as well as a clear plan to convert ideas into meaningful marketing results.
6. Identify Your Audience
To create successful visual content marketing, you need to know who is going to see it. ask yourself:
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What kind of material do they consume?
- What level of knowledge do they have?
7. Stop Using Bad Stock Photos
Whether or not you are in the photo industry today, almost anyone can tell if you are using cheesy stock images. With the vast amount of high-quality pictures at your fingertips, choosing to use poor stock photos will give consumers the impression that your company has poor judgment and little care for the visual design of your brand.
More importantly, poor-quality, seemingly stocked images appear as disruptive and will cause a disconnect between your brand and your customer. So, what qualities does Spotify look for in stock images? The first is that the image should be clear and real. Images that are close-up and personalized are significantly more effective in triggering emotion and generating confidence in your brand.
8. Handpick the Best Media Format to Suit Your Message
As we have explained, rich media is essential for effective visual marketing. But, adding pictures, graphics, and videos to every piece of content you create is not as simple.
Instead, it is about finding the most appropriate media format for the story you are trying to tell. By choosing the most effective medium to share your message, you are more likely to make a powerful and lasting impression on your audience.
So, what does this look like in practice? Here are some examples that explain how to choose the best format for your message:
Sharing Recipes Using How-To Videos: This allows you to quickly explain the key steps of a recipe in an engaging, visual format that viewers can follow along with.
Providing actionable suggestions in a custom graphic carousel: It turns dry advice into a large piece of content that your audience can easily digest.
Explaining statistics or research using bespoke infographics: Break up your long-form blog posts with visual infographics that visualize the complex information you’re stating.
9. Use a Visual Call-to-Action
Call-to-action is essential for marketing, as they tell people what action to take next. Most marketers are used to using call-to-action in blog posts and social media updates, but we tend to ignore them when it comes to our images. Visual call-to-action may be more effective than usual, so be sure to experiment and see if they work for you.
10. Serve the Right Message at the Right Time
Timeliness is an essential factor for effective visual marketing. It means that you need to share the right content at the right time for your target audience.
This can quickly be done by reviewing your analytics on social media and when your audience is most active. Also, you can do this on all digital platforms, such as reviewing the performance insights of your Google Analytics or your email marketing platform.
By understanding your audience’s behavior, you will be able to deliver curated visual content when they’re mostly active.
Also, it is worth considering the type of content you share at different times throughout the day and matching the audience’s behavior. If you plan to share an in-depth video tutorial to teach your audience, consider that your audience will be most likely to tune into this content (such as when they arrive at home or in bed. While scrolling before).
Above all, if you want your visual content marketing to be successful, be educated and experiment often. Stay up to date on the latest trends in design, follow the above best practices, and track what works. If you need more info about visual marketing, you can always contact us; our visual marketing experts will give you a free consultation. Call Now!