02 Dec Open your eyes! It’s all about visual content

You can’t escape a #MotivationalMonday without seeing your fair share of memes pop up on your timeline and you’re unlikely to make it through a #FunFriday without having a couple of YouTube videos (probably about cats) ping into your inbox.

The world’s gone picture potty!

Whether you’re part of the Instagram-photo-sharing generation or not, this means marketing campaigns are trending more and more towards visual content.

What is visual content?

Most marketing campaigns will centre on a visual element. Images are strong, engaging and motivational.

According to HubSpot, we process visual content 60,000 times faster than text and consumers have the ability to retain 90% of visuals compared to a measly 10% of read information.

Here are a few examples of the most effective visual content used in marketing today:

Social media posts

Often branded with your company’s logo and colours as well as a relevant image to illustrate your content, these are an opportunity for a visual double-whammy.

It’s a simple fact that social media posts containing images are more engaging and, in a world where there is a deluge of 140 million tweets generated daily, it’s worth taking note. Research shows people remember just 10% of what they hear after 72 hours. When a relevant image is added to marketing material, people remember 65% of the information after three days.

Videos

Love YouTube or loathe it, 2 million videos are uploaded every day and, with advent of Facebook Live, this is growing fast. Globally, there are 25 million smart phone users and 26% of these people watch at least one online video each day.

Whether you use video to create emotive charity campaigns, an informative how-to series or product testing and reviews – with 40% of all online users responding more favourably to visual content, video is a medium you should be tapping into.

Infographics

Did you know you can generate up to 94% more content views if you add compelling visual elements and infographics to your marketing message?

In fact, the stats used to write this article are sourced from an infographic created by Digital Marketing Philippines – we all love the bite-sized, easily digestible facts and figures that infographics put out.

Brochures and reports

No, print media is not dead – far from it! Visual elements can help explain what you’re trying to say both online and in print. Take the report we recently designed for Gatwick Airport.

A potentially long and wordy brochure on the airport’s Decade of Change, we kept in mind that 90% of information that enters the brain is practically non-verbal (or textual, in this case). We added infographics, graphs and detailed imagery to select well-written text for maximum impact. We also used the psychology of colours such as green and blue to emphasise the positive environmental message.

Visual marketing will help you to stand out from the crowd, communicate your brand message and reach a wider audience who will retain your message better. There are no two ways about it, you need to open your eyes to visual content. Contact Xpress Group today for more information on how we can bring your marketing to life with imagery and infographics.