content has become increasingly important in our digital age. Visuals capture attention, engage users, and powerfully tell a story.
This article looks at how different types of visual content can boost your brand and some tips for creating compelling visuals. We’ll also look at the benefits of using visual content and some tools and resources to help you create better visuals.
Let’s dive in.
What is visual content, and why is it important?
Visual content is an image, video, illustration, or graphic conveying a message or telling a story.
Visuals are compelling because they stimulate multiple senses simultaneously. Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text alone, and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.
Visuals can be used for storytelling, depicting complex information, increasing user attention and engagement, and simplifying a message or process.
Visual communications are also becoming more common because of the popularity of messaging apps, which have limited text capabilities – users can only communicate through photos and videos.
In this world of digitized communication, visuals play an increasingly important role in interacting with one another, the media, and our brands. Visual content has become a vital part of our digital lives.
Types of visual content.
Visuals are used for various purposes, from sharing information to creating an emotional connection through storytelling. The main types of visual content are:
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Photos.
Photos tell stories about your lifestyle or provide glimpses into your world. Brands use photos to build a community around their product/service, lift their visual storytelling game and give followers an inside look behind the scenes.
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Illustrations.
Images can be created digitally by artists or hand-drawn to communicate complex messages in fun ways. Illustrations are usually static images, but they can also be animated or interactive.
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Visual advertisements.
Commercially, visuals are used for advertising products by way of imagery. Visual ad content can include infographics, short videos, photos, cartoons, and illustrations. Visual advertising is now the most popular online format for paid digital ads.
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Charts and graphs.
Visuals are used to break down complex information into more easily digestible chunks. Visuals are also helpful for creating visual content that showcases changes over time, such as the growth of a business or movement in graphic design.
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Visual stories.
In recent years, the trend has been using visuals to tell a story. Visual stories are told through a series of visuals and can take the form of short videos, images, or illustrations. Visual stories are often shared on social media, and they help create an emotional connection with users.
Tips for using visual content to boost your brand
Visual content is an ever-growing format that has been proven to engage and convert.
Visual content can be in videos, images, or gifs. Visual marketing allows you to win over customers by making your message much more relatable and stirring their emotions with a broader palette of visuals than text alone can provide.
1. Use visual content as often as possible on social media.
Creating engaging, informative, and fun posts on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook will help you grow your business.
2. Utilize all channels for distribution
If you have any blog posts promoting new products, post them up on YouTube so others who enjoy watching quick videos but aren’t followers will be able to see them too. Visuals also work well for email marketing campaigns.
3. Utilize visuals to teach rather than sell.
One of the best ways to use visual content is by providing valuable educational information through images and videos, which can help your prospects learn more about your business without directly selling them anything. Visual marketing allows you to be less direct, which can be more consequential.
4. Visual content is easy to share
All your visuals will allow your followers to share your images with their own social media pages easily or right within messaging apps like Facebook Messenger.
According to Visual.ly, visuals are the most crucial part of any social media strategy today because readers absorb 60% more information when presented in images, according to Visual.ly. Visuals are also commonly shared more than plain text posts.
5. Visual content is better for SEO
SEO has evolved since Google first announced that it would be favoring websites with visual content back in 2012.
Now, search engines can detect how many images or videos are on a page, how often they’re shared, and what words are associated with them. Visuals are the most popularly shared content on social media, making it easier for your website to be discovered through SEO.
Tips for creating compelling visual content
When you want to create engaging visual content, always keep in mind that your content should be:
- relevant to your business and brand
- easy to share
- valuable and educational
- high quality
- Optimized to be seen on small screens as they are on large ones
- inspiring and relatable
Tools and resources for creating better visual content
As a marketer, you know that creating visuals is an important part of your job.
But if you’re like most people, you probably don’t have a lot of experience or training in graphic design. That’s where these tools and resources come in. They’ll help you create better visuals, no matter your expertise level.
1. Pixlr.
Pixlr is a browser-based image editor that provides even more features than those above. In addition, it’s easy to use and has an intuitive interface with various tools for cutting out parts of images or adjusting on your phone while viewing them in full size through the website itself!
2. Gramener.
Gramener is a great resource for turning data into visualizations that you can publish on social media or your website. Visualizing data in this way helps bring attention to the meaning behind it.
3. Visual Loop.
Visual Loop is a source of inspiration for new types of visuals, especially if you’re looking for ideas around what kind of content and visuals to create and share. Visual Loop also provides actionable advice for improving your visual marketing strategy.
4. Visual.ly.
Visual.ly is more than just a social media site; it’s an interactive workshop for all your visual needs! With easy sharing options to help you get the word out about what matters most and tools that make content creation quick & painless.
5. Piktochart.
Piktochart is a tool that allows you to create visuals quickly and easily with your data, images, and photos without needing a lot of know-how or previous experience in designing visuals. It’s another great tool for quickly creating visuals that you can use to help your social media posts and marketing campaigns.
6. Canva.
Canva is an easy-to-use and free tool for creating custom visuals. Visual marketers can use this to create highly customized and personalized visual content quickly and efficiently.
Conclusion
Visual content is a powerful tool for any business’s marketing strategy because it allows you to engage and connect with your audience without directly selling them anything.
Visuals are highly shareable and can be better for SEO than text-based posts. Visual marketers should use many different tools and resources so they’re ready to create and deliver the best visuals possible at a moment’s notice.
