Jan Gordon
April 29, 2015

Visual Content Marketing: What You Need To Know

By Brett Relander

Content is still king when it comes to digital marketing. In order to get ahead of the competition, it has now become increasingly important to incorporate visual content marketing into your campaigns.

Why Use Visual Content Marketing

If you need a reason for using visual content marketing, consider the fact that the number of video content posts has increased by 75 percent worldwide. In the United States, the number of video content posts has increased by an astounding 94 percent. It should hardly come as a surprise that 70 percent of marketers reported that they plan to increase their use of visual content in the coming year, according to Social Media Examiner.

Generating More Responses

Although visual content marketing is on the rise, posts with images can also help you to garner more attention. Do you use Twitter? Tweets with images or photos can generate as much as 150 percent more retweets than those posts without images, according to research from Buffer. When it comes to Facebook, posts with photos generated the most action, an impressive 87 percent of total interactions, as reported by eMarketer.

Creating Easily Digestible Information

For brands that want to distribute a lot of information, facts, and statistics, infographics make it easy to do so. Last year alone, 39 percent of business-to-business buyers shared infographics.

Getting Visual Content Marketing Right

can-user-experience-be-designedBesides knowing that visual content marketing is big and can give your posts more exposure, it is also important to understand how to properly implement visual content marketing.

Visual content marketing should always enhance the user’s experience. Under no circumstances should visual content have the appearance of an advertisement. Instead, it should seamlessly integrate with the user’s experience. Your approach may vary based on the platform you utilize. For instance, the approach you use on Twitter could be quite different from the approach used on Facebook. The differences in each platform can make a significant impact in terms of the audiences that tend to spend time on those platforms, and consequently on your visual content marketing efforts.

It is better to give than to receive. The goal of visual content marketing should always be to provide your users something of value rather than to make demands. Among the most popular types of visual content marketing is the story form, but there are also many other options, including memes. Regardless of the type of visual content marketing that you choose to use, always ask what your user will get from it.

Keep it easily digestible. This is precisely why infographics tend to perform so well; they allow users to digest a lot of information in a short amount of time. In 2014, the use of infographics increased by nine percent, according to trends reported by Demand Gen, indicating that buyers clearly desire short, visual content.

Maintain consistency. There is nothing wrong with mixing up the type of visual content marketing you utilize, or even leveraging different platforms. In fact, doing so can be a powerful way to gain exposure and reach an even larger audience. Regardless of the method of delivery or the platform you use, make sure that your brand identity and personality remain consistent.

Variety Is the Spice of Visual Content Marketing

Among the great benefits of visual content marketing is the ability to keep things interesting with an ever-varying presentation. Do not fall into the trap of using the same staid, boring posts. Explore a variety of options for visual content marketing, such as the following:

Statistics

On their own, statistics can be somewhat dry and boring. Liven things up by combining them with visuals. With tools such as Visual.ly, you can create shareable videos, infographics, and interactive experiences for use in your visual content marketing campaigns.

Memes

Memes are not the right fit for every brand, but if your brand utilizes humor, memes can be a great way to draw attention and show off your humorous side. There are many sources available online for locating memes, such as Memes or you can create your own meme.

Visual content marketing is big and is only getting bigger. Incorporating it into your marketing campaigns today can help you to gain exposure and get ahead of the competition.

 

About Brett Relander

Brett RelanderBrett is a Growth Hacker, Consultant & Speaker with specialties in social media, mobile, and digital marketing strategy. He’s the Founder of Launch & Hustle and a Top 100 Social Media Power Influencer 2015. His first book, Imperative – How any business can quickly and easily leverage mobile marketing for radical success, was published in Nov 2014. Join him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ today.

 

Image attribution: Still taken from this Volvo Ad

http://smallbusinesspool.net/tag/video/

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Top 100 #Socialmedia Global Influencer | CEO of Curatti, Publisher of #B2B #Content | Author/ Digital Marketing Strategist | http://appearoo.com/JanGordon