As marketing best practices keep improving, you must look for plans that work.
While the future of marketing cannot be predicted, we have some ideas about the possibilities that can drive change.
One thing that drives your marketing campaign’s success is its visual element. Did you know that 49% of marketers consider visual marketing very important? And around 74% of marketers actively use visual content in their social media marketing.
One thing to keep in mind with your campaign is that our attention spans are short. With time, they’re just becoming shorter, making it more difficult to capture people’s interest.
A foolproof visual content marketing strategy can foster the positive growth of any online business. Before we explore a few visual content ideas, let’s see the benefits of visual marketing.
Benefits of Visual Marketing
It boosts website traffic
Visual forms of content are a path to a mine of information, getting a product in front of people, and facilitating visual communication.
People are visual learners. Typically, the average person will prefer an infographic over a blog post because infographics deliver more visually pleasing and concise information, which is more engaging and less time-consuming.
For instance, you can take a large piece of content and then repurpose it into smaller chunks, in different formats like video, audio, and images. You can then distribute them across other social media platforms where you have established your brand presence. This is a great content distribution strategy, and implementing it thoughtfully will lead to more traffic.
It increases brand awareness
Well-designed videos and images easily strike a chord with an audience. This results in brand value and offers a whole new narrative that can help audiences forge a deep connection with your brand.
You can also leverage visual content through other marketing channels.
It enhances the emotional bond with your audience
Through visual marketing, you can strengthen your bonds with a set audience, eventually helping communicate your brand’s story and improving your customer experience.
Visualizing crude data can serve as a powerful tool in making information easy to understand.
The idea of visual storytelling resonates with an audience. The entertainment, combined with the emotional appeal of the message conveyed, helps build your brand’s story and makes your audience connect more deeply.
Now that you’re clear on the benefits of visual marketing for a brand, let’s see how to optimize your strategy with the best visual marketing ideas to nail this year.
10 Best Visual Marketing Ideas
1. Story-based content visualization
With the advancement of smart speakers and voice search, one is mistaken if they say that readable content is more crucial than visual content.
The contrary is true because with advancements over time, visual content is gaining traction. And, people prefer visual content to plain text.
Image-centric platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are proof of this, with their wide range of illustrations and graphic designs. Not only are people hooked on storylines, but they also prefer visual depictions of such stories.
Stories, in general, are an effective means of visual marketing for brands. One example is ‘Behind The Scenes’ visual stories that show your audience how you and your team work on your products or services. Even customer testimonials accompanied by appealing images lead to a 102% hike in emotions associated with a brand.
Such content holds the potential to garner many shares and likes on social platforms, even to the point of going viral. This, accompanied by an effective CTA will nudge your users to take the desired action. Also, make sure you post your content when your target audience is active to rope in more engagement. For instance, share your reels at the best time to post on Instagram to get maximum reach.
2. Attractive images matter
Using the right kinds of images is a tactic worth getting practice with. Be sure to use enticing and relevant images with short and crisp captions or headlines.
With image text, less is more. Additionally, if you wish to optimize your blog for visual marketing, then it’s ideal to use visually appealing images in blog posts.
Use design elements that converge your brand identity into a brand kit. Refrain from using stock images – they are used frequently, which could hamper your ability to connect with your audience.
Here are a few suggestions to make your images attractive:
- Optimize your images for platform-based specs. These specs must be related to the size and the format, incorporating both.
- If you post an image on a website, add an alt attribute. This is an SEO HTML tag including a brief description of an image with target keywords relevant to the topic of the web page. Ensure to add the alt= attribute to help Google understand the image content and rank it in image search.
- Post images related to your industry. Generic images will not attract the attention of your target audience.
- Keep fixed design guidelines for your brand. This is a good way to make your audience recognize you and increase your brand recall. For instance, you could use the same color scheme on all your images to convey consistency and a synchronous brand image.
Images stacked up as carousel posts also happen to do better than single images. People tend to swipe an image to see more, making them stay longer on your post. This, in turn, increases the possibility of shares and likes.
3. Memes are always good
Have you ever wondered why memes are so important for viral marketing?
People find memes more engaging. They are a good way to build brand identity, increase engagement, and drive product interest.
Some say that memes make the internet a better place to be. Witty memes certainly serve as fabulous social media content that thrives on relatability.
Typically, a meme should be funny and clever. For example, pop culture-related memes do well on social media.
The key idea is to immediately recognize a meme. There is no single definition of how a meme can stand out, but relatability and humor might be the most important factors. A meme’s visual design is a differentiating factor too.
Here are some meme best practices:
- Look for viral memes and try to use them as inspiration to create your version
- Keep a close tab on the latest social media marketing trends. See what is trending as of late and what gets a good laugh. Also, get to know what garners the most responses and is considered entertaining by the masses
- Always choose a subject you feel your target audience can relate to and easily mimic
- It is important to keep the message short and use simple language. Your audience wishes to consume content in a short period of time, so conciseness is essential
- Your visuals must match the sentiment you wish to convey
4. Visual quotes help you stand out
Using visual quotes is a good way to grab attention. If you normally include them in text form or captions in a post, then now is the time to level up.
Within an image, your quote would appear in large text. The size alone will immediately capture people’s attention.
When you use easy-to-read fonts, and the right color scheme and image background, you increase your chances of getting recognized. Be selective and timely with quotes, and avoid cliche or common quotes by making sure they provide value and resonate with the audience. Quotes might act as a teaser to inform your audience of a new topic you’ll be covering in your blog or upcoming marketing campaign.
You can also get practice turning interview bytes into quotes. Interview bytes are a great way to boost your credibility in your industry because if you interview an industry expert, chances are they will also share your post/graphic. These can, in the future, turn into testimonials and blog assets.
You can also make the most of quotes from transcripts, Zoom recordings, or any other form of internal communication.
5. Turn your content into GIFs
GIFs provide an added benefit as they can be shared on various platforms. Since GIFs auto-play in your feed, they grab attention instantly. You can use tools like Jing and Recordit to create GIFs in no time. About 23 million GIFs are posted daily on Tumblr alone, and people send more than 22 million GIFs via Facebook Messenger per day. On Slack, you can witness millions of GIF integrations monthly.
You can use GIFs with text to make them stand out, and use vibrant visual design to enhance them further. Branded GIFs can also drive engagement and traffic.
6. Video content is king
Of all social media posts, videos are the most well-received. People find videos, such as those behind-the-scenes funny, emotional, and educational. Videos with subtitles are more likely to keep viewers engaged; about 39% of people are more likely to complete a video with subtitles. This is because we do not always have sound enabled on our devices, and subtitles make videos more accessible.
Social media platforms always wish to keep users engaged for as long as possible. Therefore, videos uploaded directly to a platform fare better than videos that redirect to another website or platform. And, it is always better to use social media management tools to leverage the benefit of your video content.
One of the easiest ways to use video is to make clips from content you’ve already created. For instance, if you run a podcast using audio and video, you can hire someone to break your podcast video into various pieces of content and post it where needed. If you’re not comfortable recording a video with people in it, you can consider making an animated video if possible.
And, a customer is 85% more likely to buy a product after watching a product video.
7. Use a live feed to grab attention
Over the years, the engagement created by live feeds and live videos has increased significantly. About 42% of the US population has streamed a live video. Various platforms, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Periscope, Instagram, and Youtube offer the option to go live.
The key reason live videos and feeds are becoming so popular is the “real” element associated with them. Since everything on a live video is in real-time, it becomes more relatable. Making a live video and going live is also fairly easy. You do not need any professional setup.
While live feeds typically resonate more with user-generated content, they can also be leveraged by brands. If you are a single user serving as a brand, then a live feed is a great visual entry for you. You can also communicate directly with your audience and get real-time responses.
Some things that you can include in your live feed are:
- Behind-the-scenes activities going on in your organization or business
- Live interviews conducted with industry experts
- Live discussions that are relevant to your community
- Real stories and feedback that demonstrate brand value
8. Use disappearing content judiciously
9. Good photography is your ally
A treat for the eyes can be a treat for the soul. Using photography to drive traffic and gain followers on social media is a tactic that will not grow old any time soon. Follow the latest visual marketing trends and use the best visual design.
Good photography is always welcome because it appeals to the aesthetic sense. For instance, in food blogging, the words that describe the food and ambiance of restaurants are not quite as impactful as the pictorial description. After all, we should see food, rather than read about it.
Some best practices related to online photography:
- Keep a fixed theme for similar posts. For example, color palette matters
- Use natural light, good contrasts, and do not over-edit
- Be mindful of image copyrights
- Keep image specs in mind
- Use minimal and tasteful text if you plan to add it
10. Highlight use cases
Showing audiences the use of your brand’s products firsthand is typically well-received. Be creative with your products and use solid visual marketing to convey the use of your product.
People are always seeking out things that make their lives easier. For this reason, you can utilize various platforms to show use cases and drive, depending on your business, in-store and online sales.
You can also:
- Construct an ideal buyer persona to represent a potential customer. This could help you frame correct use cases
- Use visual marketing tools that offer folders and numerous templates, and carry out team training for better results
- Convey use through videos, carousel image posts, and similar forms of media
- collaborate with other brands and show combined use to benefit the involved parties
Get started & execute a memorable visual marketing campaign!
Visual marketing is not one-thought-fits-all. Your visual marketing strategy should be up to par with the needs of the digital age. Online content is circulating massively and the pressure to stand out is immense. Yet remember, with the right visual marketing strategy, you are bound to succeed.
To attain creative visual marketing excellence, you can seek marketing services ranging from visual marketing strategy optimization to social media integration. We are sure that you will benefit from putting the list of ideas mentioned above to the test. Experiment and discover something new to see your visual marketing go to a whole new level.
Darshan Ruparelia is a B2B SaaS marketer at SocialPilot. He is a SaaS enthusiast and helped many SaaS companies bring quality traffic through data-driven content marketing. In his free time, he loves to follow and play Cricket. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
