Increasing Traffic with Visual Content Marketing

Visual content marketing refers to the use of images to convey valuable information in an engaging visual format. You might be asking yourself what the purpose of this strategy is. Good visual content marketing should attract the users’ attention within seconds. In this article, find out why visual content marketing is a powerful and effective communication tool and why you should use it for your business.

In short: visual content marketing serves to make important and/or complex content easy to understand in a short time.

The reason for the popularity of visual content marketing is simple: you have to be able to capture the attention of the visitor within a few seconds.

These days, we are used to finding an answer to our questions on search engines in a fraction of a second. If you are not satisfied with a search result, you can close it and open the next one, right?

Visual content marketing is the perfect combination of written and visual information. It makes the understanding of a concept clearer.

Good content serves to inform.

Good content serves to evoke emotions.

Your goal should be to trigger something in the reader’s mind while informing them.

However, there is a “but”. Visual content marketing is much more than just posting an image, video, or GIF on your page.

Visual content marketing means that something is explained in a more creative way. In addition, it is also important to produce unique images. Don’t use Shutterstock or similar pages as the only source for your images!

Here are the topics we'll discuss in the blog. Feel free to skip ahead to the section most interesting to you:

Index:

What is visual content?
3 reasons why visual content marketing is effective
What are the success factors of visual content marketing?
Final advice
Conclusion

What is visual content?

There are different types of visual content when it comes to visual content marketing:

1. Infographics

Infographics have great potential when it comes to marketing. They provide a lot of information while also being clear, immediate, and easy to create. There is not necessarily a need for a design team or a high budget for their creation.

2. Photos

Whenever you choose pictures, try to make sure they are unique and represent your brand image. Avoid downloading them from a platform which offers free images. The aim of your images should be to differentiate yourself from your competition and not mix in with the masses.

You could take pictures of your product yourself. Smartphones today offer you the possibility to create high-quality pictures with a low budget.

Source: shutterstock/Rawpixel.com

Additionally, if you test out new products or extend your product range relatively often, it might make sense to invest in a decent camera and some accessories like a lightbox.

3. Images with text

These types of images are relatively simple to produce at a low cost. They are there to capture the user’s attention. In this case, you can let your creativity run wild and find out whether you can use this type of visual content for your target group.

4. Videos

Videos are probably the most used and growing medium in visual content marketing. A good example is YouTube, where more and more users are uploading content and competing to receive views.

Videos are especially useful when you need to provide longer and more complicated solutions or explanations. An example would be a video which explains how to assemble a piece of furniture or how a certain product works.

The budget in this case will most likely by higher than a photography project. However, it may definitely be worth it and it is also possible to do create YouTube videos with a small budget.

Recommended reading:
YouTube SEO: How to Get Your Videos to Rank Higher

5. GIFs

By now, you probably already know what a GIF is. This content idea is a short video-loop which can be very useful when you want to make a message visually appealing.

You should determine whether GIFs can be useful for you or not based on the target group and the message you're trying to convey.

3 reasons why visual content marketing is effective

shutterstock/Ellagrin

1. Visual content is very easy to remember

Beginning from when we wake up in the morning until we fall asleep at night, we are surrounded by information. We hear and see texts all day long.

Images are processed by a part of our brain that is more difficult to overwhelm, which is called the visual cortex.

What does this mean? It means that images are easier to remember (according to studies, it takes about ten milliseconds) in the long term than words. They are also generally more inviting.

Scientific studies have shown that the human brain perceives visual content 60,000 times faster than textual elements. Additionally, they found out that 90% of the information processed by the brain is visual.

The ultimate goal of visual content marketing is to deliver a message quickly, offering information in a way that is easy to remember.

2. Visual content is emotional

You’ve probably already heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”. This means that visual content can reach viewers in a way that words can’t.

Especially when it comes to capturing a user’s attention in seconds, visual content is essential. It can convince them in a matter of seconds to spend time on your page, click on your offer, or accept your service.

See the following example:

Source: Kellogg's

Instead of writing a thank-you message on the box, Kellogg’s decided to pay tribute to its Australian suppliers by focusing on a visual and emotional message.

Surely, the choice of this visual strategy (the Chicken's sad face) has led more people to actually read the message in which Kellogg’s explains how the iconic corn flakes would not be the same without its Australian suppliers.

3. Visual content adds value to your content

Content marketing is about creating something that gives value to your readers. Content which is only based on text can work well in a niche industry- it will only be read by users who are interested in reading long articles about certain topics they are searching for.

Regardless of how interesting your content is, users are unlikely to read your page from top to bottom without incorporating some visual elements.

Looking at the examples below, which of the two pages would you stay on?

Example number 1:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean mass. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nothing follows mass here enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus.

Example number 2:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean mass.

Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis di parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo.

Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus.

Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus.

Visual content keeps your visitors on your page for a longer time, which also has a positive impact on SEO. This means that your page ranking improves, you get more traffic and, in the best case scenario, your revenue increases.

What are the success factors of visual content marketing?

All types of visual content have common elements that are useful for the actual success of this marketing strategy:

Images are a universal language
They provide instant messages: the brain processes images much faster than words
They are remembered much easier
Summarise a text
Users like them
Make texts easier to read
Keep users on your page longer
Images can strengthen brand awareness
They can excite: if your users have an emotional bond with your brand, they are more likely to become loyal customers.

Final advice

Always include (at least) one image in your post to engage the reader.
Do not write long texts without incorporating some images. Break up the post by including infographics, images, or videos to keep the reader’s attention.
Use your colours or logo in your visual content to help users recognise your brand right away.
Think about your target group when choosing your visual content.
Use visual content to stand out from your competition – tell a unique story.
Avoid poor quality in design. If you do not have a design team, ask for help from external experts. It is very important to invest in good design. Don’t lose potential customers to save on design!

Conclusion

Although visual content marketing seems like a simple strategy, it represents a great challenge for companies.

It’s not a job that can be implemented straight away because creating relevant visual content requires a good knowledge of the target group (i.e. your buyer persona) and their behaviour on the web.

Always ask yourself if your choice reflects the values of the brand image that you want to communicate and whether it is relevant to your users.