What is visual marketing and why does it matter?
If you were to open a blog post it is very likely that you would come across the following structure: Image at the top and text below while scrolling down. You see the image first – it will catch your attention for a few seconds until you decide whether or not to read the written content. Images matter when your audience is deciding whether to read your content or not.
Nowadays people are always in a rush, and they don't have time to read all the information they're exposed to on a daily basis. That's where visual marketing comes in. Communicating with visuals is the easiest and fastest way to get a message across objectively, to grab the attention of your audience and engage them through content.
What is visual marketing?
Images, videos, infographics, illustrations, GIFs, and any other visual content that attract your attention are all considered to be visual marketing. Its promise is to communicate a large amount of information in the shortest time and in a highly effective way.
These different tools help you to connect with and transmit information efficiently to your target audience. Communicating in a simple, quick, and visually attractive way also helps you to stand out in the crowd because you aren’t adding as much to the clutter. Great visual marketing allows you to be unique, summarize ideas, tap into audience emotions, and be memorable.
Why is it important?
Since the beginning, human communication wasn't only verbal, but rather visual. Gestures, postures, behavioural expressions, and paintings were natural communication types. Visuals are a universal language, understood by many people from different languages, backgrounds, and cultures.
Communicating written information with visual elements is more attractive and often has a higher power to inform, educate, and persuade. In addition to text, images are responsible for creating an emotional and sensational connection, becoming a fundamental piece in creating a good experience for the client.
When text is accompanied by a visual element, the message comes across stronger. It can also help your content be more identifiable to your target audience and increase its shareability. Using visuals also helps you leave a lasting impression on your target audience because the human brain tends to connect with images better.
Besides making your content more visually appealing, adding an image can help with overall comprehension. For example, graphics and infographics are excellent explanatory images that can support written content.
MAKE VISUAL MARKETING WORK FOR YOU
CREATE ATTRACTIVE VISUAL CONTENT
Your content needs to be attractive to get and hold the attention of your audience. Prioritize original, high-impact images that are aesthetically pleasing. While not all of your visual content needs to be original, it does help you stand out from your competitors rather than using stock photos. If you are using stock photos, alter them to make them your own.
BE RELATABLE
The reader must be able to relate to your visual content, whether through the style, colour, or even cultural aspects. Your visual content should help you create a stronger connection to your audience.
BE RELEVANT
Your visual content should match the overall message of your post. What if you clicked on this blog post and it led you to an article about Star Wars? That would be misleading, and the title image would irrelevant to the topic. Star Wars fans might be happy, but you likely wouldn't read any of our other posts.
Visual Marketing is an excellent tool for companies that want to create an engaged target audience. Whether enhancing a written article, educating more about a product, highlighting offers on direct marketing materials, and so on, visual content is an important part of attracting your audience’s curiosity. So, next time you're generating written content, don't forget to include a high-impact visual to go along with it.
If you're not sure how to incorporate visuals into your marketing in the best way possible, be sure to give us a call!