Visual Content Marketing: How It Can Help You

In the world of digital marketing, content is king. But a king in plain boring clothes will not get the attention he deserves—people will not even recognize his kingship.

The same is true with dull, uninteresting content. You may have well-researched and very informative articles on your website. However, no one will read them if they are all walls of text.

People retain 65% of information gained through a visual format. When content has a combination of written and illustrated elements, there is a significant improvement in memory retention.

Visual content marketing gives your written content a fresh look. Articles with an image after every 75 to 100 words have twice the social media shares than those with fewer.

The data doesn’t lie: exposure to your content is not enough. You must engage your audience by mixing both text and visuals.

 

What is visual content marketing?

With 65% of people preferring visual learning, it’s not surprising that YouTube and Facebook top the list for the most popular social networks worldwide. Together with Instagram and Pinterest, these social media channels have something in common—they all have visual content.

Bar graph of social media users; Facebook and YouTube have the greatest number of users
Most popular social networks globally (as of 2021)

Visual content marketing is about using images, infographics, videos, and memes for your promotional campaigns. It aligns well with the general purpose of any marketing plan, which is to attract leads, visitors, or potential buyers.

It complements your overall content marketing strategy and even boosts results. A study from PR Daily shows that visual content has a 94% chance of getting views compared to content that’s purely text.

Visual content can provide positive, impactful results, which is why marketers choose to grow their businesses using this approach. Research by the Content Marketing Institute shows that B2C marketers use pre-produced videos and infographics, together with their written content, to meet their company’s goals.

 

Types of visual content

Visual content has various types you can choose from, depending on the message you’re delivering to your audience. The most effective formats you can use include:

 

Data-driven visuals

Charts and graphs can help your audience more easily comprehend your message compared to just using text. Articles containing this visual format are what most B2B companies prefer to read since they focus more on data. Using charts and graphs receives more trackbacks when compared to blog posts using other image types.

 

Infographics

Aside from providing information in a condensed and visual format, infographics can also help build backlinks. Since it’s in a very shareable format, you can easily pitch your infographic to relevant sites. With more links, your website ranking will naturally increase, drawing in more organic traffic.

Pinterest accommodates infographics in long format. If it has multiple components, you can crop parts and share them individually on other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter for more exposure.

 

Videos

Animated explainer videos, how-tos, product demonstrations, and customer testimonials are just some of the ways you can use video for your visual content. Most audiences prefer watching videos instead of reading manuals or texts. Twitter revealed that tweets containing videos have ten times more engagement.

Regardless of the form of video you choose, make sure that audiences can understand your content even without audio. A study conducted by Verizon media revealed that 69% of consumers watch online videos muted.

 

Memes

Memes lighten up an article and mostly draw in the younger generation. Adding them to your content is a good choice if your audience covers this demographic.

This visual content type is in an easy-to-consume format and can even become viral. Therefore, uploading memes to a social media channel is an excellent way of promoting a blog post.

 

Gifographics

Curious about what gifographics are? They are like your typical infographics infused with a shot of espresso.

Instead of using static images, you’ll use animated images called GIFS. The lively presentation of gifographics will capture and hold your audience’s attention more effectively. You can discover some of the best examples of gifographics at Venngage.

 

Benefits of visual content marketing

Content writing and visual content creation are not mutually exclusive, and so are their overall effect on any marketing campaign. The benefits of visual content marketing are the same as promoting your written content, but with more engagement. Visuals matter because they:

 

1. Increase customer engagement

Bar graph showing that Social media posts with image or photo generate the most engagement

 

Even if you break up the wall of text on your long-form content with headings and formatting, it can still be a chore to read for most people. Using compelling images to split up text further makes the content easier for your audience to digest. As a result, your site visitors stay on your page longer, increasing the chances of clicking your offers.

 

2. Raise brand awareness

Brand awareness doesn’t stop after attracting new leads or customers—information should stick. With visual content marketing, customer retention offers many benefits, including:

  • Existing customers tend to stay
  • Prior customers come back
  • Customers will regularly buy your products or services

Your audience will remember your brand better when presented visually. For example, putting your brand’s watermark at the corner of your compelling videos and photos will improve brand recognition subtly yet effectively.

 

3. Boost traffic to your website

Video and other visual content forms are becoming the mainstream media to deliver information. Cisco recently announced that by 2021, 82% of all consumer internet traffic worldwide would include videos.

Since you get better exposure using visual content, there’s a greater chance that your website will rank higher because of the backlinks it generates from shares. You are not only increasing visitors from social media but organic searches as well.

 

4. Improve conversion rates

A study conducted by a Harvard professor says that 95% of buying decisions are subconscious. And what better way to influence the subconscious than by using visual content that tugs at emotions.

Customer testimonials in video format, as well as how-to guides and explainer videos, are effective ways to increase your potential customer’s interest in the products you’re selling.

 

Achieve better marketing results with visual content

Take your content marketing a step further by using visual content. Not only will you get more conversions, but it will help make sure that your audience remembers what you’re trying to convey.

Do you want to improve your visual content marketing skills and earn at the same time? Vector marketing—a direct sales company—can help you make money and build transferable skills for any career.

 

Connect with us and boost your marketing skills further.