Businesses in all industries need to use content marketing. You can convince your customers and subscribers to visit your site via blog posts, social media updates and well-timed email blasts.
Did you know that visual content can dramatically improve the brand image and website performance?
Visual content can be images, videos, or GIFs. However, the basic idea of visual content remains the same. This content can be used to attract attention to your audience and add value to their lives. Your visuals can most often encourage visitors to take the next step of the sales process.
A video demonstration of your product may be able to convince someone to buy your product if they are not convinced.
This is just one example.
We’ll be sharing some information today about visual content and how it can impact your content strategy. These benefits are available to all brands, regardless of industry or resource.
Are you ready? Let’s get started!
1. People remember visuals better than written content
Visual content has a tendency to be remembered better by people. Although written content can have an impact on visitors, it is only one part of the puzzle.
You want people to remember who you are and what you did for them if they have industry-specific queries.
Let’s suppose you own an email marketing SaaS and want to convince your customers that email can reach more people. While you could repeat yourself in your writings, an image or video will be more memorable to your audience.
Imagine that you are reading an article on the benefits of email and suddenly this happens:
(IMAGE 1)
Source: MonsterInsights
This statistic is likely to be a part of your next email campaign.
Incorporating infographics or other visuals into your blog content is a great method to ensure that users are able to remember your brand even after they have left. Although there are many studies that prove the link between visuals and memory and how they affect our memories, the general consensus is that visuals tend to be more easily recalled than text.
2. Consumers want more videos
Despite the increase in visual media, consumers still expect more from marketing and business leaders. 43% of online shoppers want more video content over the next year. This number will increase as more people have access to visual content social media channels and smartphones.
A wide variety of video content can be created based on the needs of your customers and products. Start by understanding your target audience’s needs and goals. You can use what you have learned to create videos that answer your burning questions, provide a simple how-to guide or offer general industry tips.
We can go back to the previous example and see that an email marketing SaaS could decide on these three video topics.
- Is email marketing essential for 2022? (burning question)
- How to start your first campaign (how to guide)
- Tips and tricks for growing your email list.
These videos are great topics for business because they address the questions and concerns many marketers have when starting out in this field or considering trying this product.
Repurpose blog posts to create engaging videos. Check out your most popular posts on Google Analytics to create videos that contain similar information. Next, upload the video onto a YouTube site. YouTube has over 2 billion monthly users, so this is another way to increase traffic. You can also host videos off-site, which will speed up your store.
3. Engaging with Curated User-Generated Content is possible
Let’s now talk about how visuals can be used with content curation in order to increase engagement. You can gather comments and feedback from customers to create content curation. This is done for both existing subscribers as well as future visitors.
Visitors will trust your business more if they see well-curated visuals on your website and social media pages. Social proof is often a key factor in deciding whether to shop with a company. According to surveys, 88% of online shoppers said they read reviews before making a purchase.
New users will visit your website after they have seen a list with glowing reviews and images on your social media pages.
This can have a significant impact on your sales and engagement. 85% of shoppers believe that visual user-generated material (UGC), is more effective than traditional marketing.
Let’s now add context and explain the results of Coca-Cola’s Share a Coca-Cola UGC campaign. You may recall when Coca-Cola included names on its cans several years ago. The Coke team asked the audience to send them photos of themselves with personalized and themed Coke cans. It was quite impressive, to be honest.
(IMAGE 2)
Source: Coca-Cola
You might be thinking, “Okay. Curated UGC definitely led to more engagement.” It was enough to make a significant difference?
We are glad that you asked.
The data shows that one UGC campaign led to:
- 70% of brand mentions on social media were made using the #ShareaCoke hashtag
- Shares on Twitter: 89.000+ and Instagram: 496,000+
- Posts had a 14% share rate, beating the 3-4% old average.
- Coke saw an astonishing 11% sales increase
Curated content allows you to choose the best UGC related to your brand and make a list visual posts that will draw more customers.
4. Images and videos help with SEO
You can increase your Google search rank by using images and videos. This will allow you to attract more people to your content. Optimizing your visuals to SEO is different than traditional SEO.
Google cannot “see” visuals as such. If you want Google to rank your keywords at the top, you will need to tell it about your image.
Your chosen keyword should be included in filename, caption, image title, and alt-text. Be as descriptive as you can when adding information to your alt text. I pretend that I am describing the photograph to someone over the telephone.
It is also important to link your video or image to the rest of page content. Google might be confused if you write an entire article on cats and only include images and keyword tags that contain the word dog. Google will rank your website much more easily if all the text and images are about cats.
Your overall content marketing strategy can be impacted by optimizing your videos. These are some facts to keep in mind:
(IMAGE 3)
Source: Score.org
Video can be used across many marketing channels, as you can see. It is interesting to note that pages with videos rank 50x higher organically than posts with plain text and no visuals.
You can increase your video’s SEO by including the correct keywords in the title and description. Closed captions will increase your chances of being found by search engines. Search engines will look at captions in order to determine the context of videos. You’ll get more attention if you strategically use keywords throughout your video.
When uploading your video to YouTube or to your website, you will also need to select the correct tags. You can generate traffic by adding tags to your visual content.
5. Visual Product Demonstrations Highlight Value
Let’s talk about product demos. Consider the last time you bought a large item online. Do you click on the product and then go to checkout? Or did you wait for a demo before you made a purchase? Online shoppers often want to see the product in action before taking out their debit cards.
This thinking process is logical. The consumer knows that they have many options. Before visitors will consider becoming customers, a brand must prove its value. You can bet your competitor will demonstrate your product’s effectiveness first and funnel most of your traffic.
A product landing page is a great place to showcase branded products. If shoppers make it to this section of your website, they are likely to be interested in purchasing. Visuals can be used to show off the benefits of your product and convince customers to act.
According to research, brand leaders who add videos to landing pages see an 80% increase in conversions. This is due to visuals delivering value that text can’t.
Let’s take, for example, the vacuum cleaner you are looking to purchase. Which landing page appeals to you more?
- A landing page describing the features and specifications of the vacuum cleaner.
- While the second list has fewer benefits, a video shows how the vacuum cleaner tackles everyday messes around your house. You can see several visuals that show the different color options below the demonstration.
You’re not the only one who said example 2. The second option would be preferred by most people. Visual demonstrations that show both functionality and cosmetics can help you to get more sales.
Last Thoughts
Visual content is as important as written posts on social media and blog posts. You can use images and videos to increase brand awareness and grow your small business.
You shouldn’t be afraid of trying different content ideas. You’ll eventually find what works best for you and your customers. Each of us offer unique products and each audience is different. Make your brand unique to attract your audience using eye-catching visuals.
The article 5 Ways Visuals Can Affect Your Content Marketing Strategy appeared originally on Scoop.it Blog.
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