Content is evolving, there is no doubt. No longer are white papers the secret to inbound marketing success, visual is becoming the norm. Get ready to kick the tires and light the fires around your digital marketing images design. We show you how to effectively utilize digital marketing images like infographics, video, visual note-taking, memes, and even Instagrams in your marketing campaigns.
More on image tools: Enhancing Graphical Content: My Favorite 8 Tools to Achieve
When it comes to visual content, your customers expect something very different compared to just a few years ago. It is now supercharged by mobiles and visual social media networks.
It used to be OK to have a static website gallery, post text to your social channels, and use corporate photos and videos online. Not ant more. Now, readers depend on visuals to figure out whether your content is worth their time.
According to a survey of 300 online marketers, stock photos are the most popular form of visual content, used by 35% of those surveyed.
Original graphics, including infographics, were used 30% of the time.
Videos and presentations, charts and data visualizations, and GIFs and memes made up the rest.
Interestingly, even though stock photos are used most often, they were reported to get the lowest engagement next to GIFs and memes. However, since you are probably most likely to choose stock photos, be sure to try to choose wisely. Look for photos that tell a story, add interest, and haven’t been used by every other marketer out there.
Another thing that is interesting, while 60% of marketers believe visual content is essential to their 2017 marketing strategy, for 56% of marketers, only 20% of their marketing budget was allocated to producing visual content.
Expectations of consumers have changed too. They no longer have time to click through to an image or link to see what your content is about. They make split-second decisions based on the visual content provided.
So whether your content is being consumed within social channels or on your website, visual content remains a powerful tool – but only if done correctly.
More to learn: 12 Fundamental Laws of Content Marketing
Here are some fresh thinking ideas on digital visual content marketing design:
Digital marketing images … credible always
The law of credibility states that your customers must be willing to stand by your brand by publicly aligning themselves with it.In layman terms, if your customers are posting images and sharing their experiences, they should be linking back to you or tagging you in their social media updates.
Think about it. What would you trust more? An image or video shared by a company showing how happy and satisfied their clients are? Or the same thing shared by one of their customers?
Here is an excellent example. Dole is an international brand which markets and distributes fruit including pineapples, bananas, and pawpaws. They often get their customers to share content from events or at home consuming the product.
When we go online, most of the content we consume is from the last few days. Content from last week is practically unreachable unless you’re looking for something specific. And content from last year has become history so ancient; it might as well be obsolete.
Skeptical? Try to disprove it.Go to your favorite social network. Open it up and take a look at your home feed. Can you find a post from last week in the first 25 updates?
Notice something else? The only way you can tell how recent a post is is the time stamp on them. Posts from today will either have the time they were published visible or tell you how long ago the post was made. E.g., an hour ago, five hours ago, yesterday.
For your content to be relevant, it has to be recent. The best way to do that is by time stamping your content or featuring topical events.
Show lots of personalities
For too long brands have been bland and boring. Think stock photos.
Thankfully, the recent developments in visual content make it easy to bring a brand to life.
The right visuals, including photos, videos, infographics, and e-books can add depth to your brand story and reinforce your culture.
One of the easiest ways to do so is to give your customers a “behind the scenes” look. Show them what goes into making or marketing your brand, post pictures from office events, maybe even how you brainstorm. The more your customers know about the culture of your company, the more your brand’s personality will shine through.
Maintain authenticity
People are more likely to trust a referral from a friend or relative than a company.
In fact, research has shown Millennials are even more likely to trust a complete stranger than a company. It’s why user-generated content is considered far more compelling than any content a brand produces.
Photos and videos from your customers tell the real story of your brand and are far more effective.
NZone is an extreme sport (skydiving) company. Customers who share personal pictures of their experience increase authenticity and can instill trust for anyone considering making a purchase.
When content says the thing people want or need to hear, magic happens, doesn’t it?
How about a great example?
Visual content examples.
In 2013, H&R Block, with their agency Fallon, responded to something they heard while interviewing consumers. What people seemed to care about most was getting taxes done right and getting every dime they are owed back.
The creative bomb that went off birthed the now famous, “Get Your Billions Back America” campaign, which launched at the start of 2014.
It was a message consumers heard, understood and were instantly captured by.
The genius of the campaign lies in what isn’t stated. There’s no reference to Block’s size and some locations. No mention of total refunds they’ve secured for their customers. No detail about their processes, services, prices or proficiency of their accountants. It was not about selling H&R Block, was it?
No noise, interference or distractions.
Sure, these things matter. But every accounting firm markets around the obvious things that make them great. Block took an alternative route and marketed around what people want – a message that gets them what they deserve.
Although very few of us can claim to fulfill such a tall order on a consistent basis, there are companies out there who have completely revolutionized how people see them – so that they’re no longer just another “me too” player in a crowded sphere. Wouldn’t that be great to join that crowd?
Visual content needs to be presented in context. It has to be relevant, informative and well organized.
So if you’re selling a product online, you need to provide corresponding visual content for it. Make sure you place relevant content in the right place.
For example, if you are selling a particular line of clothing not only do you need to place photos of that on the right web pages, you also need to place the correct user-generated photos on the right web page, which in this case may involve your customers with those clothes in a real-life situation.
Superette is an online retailer. They take care of this by linking customer photos to their products.
Digital marketing images … give an awesome caption
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a caption or headline can often bring it further to life.
There’s no denying that we process visual content faster than text-based content. But a simple caption is often required to tell a visual story more effectively.
A caption also helps you communicate your brand’s identity. For example, if your brand focuses on making things easy and fun for your customers, then the caption can be humorous.
The Press, a daily newspaper, ran a photo competition and asked their readers to submit their best backyard cricket photos for a World Cup promotion. One user submitted the image below with a caption that made a photo infinitely more interesting.
Consistency is essential
Apart from engaging customers, the role of visual content is to reinforce your brand. For that to happen, your content needs to have consistency.
This isn’t strictly new, but it’s worth reinforcing. We’re not referring to publishing visual content consistently. It’s more about elements in your visuals that tell your target market that the visual is from your company – even if you’re not linked or tagged in it.
You can do this by using the same:
Fonts and colors as your website
Images in your company’s social media accounts and profile page headers
Design element like a background, banner, or logo.
Customers should be able to recognize the content is from your brand at a glance. All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team, have their photos naturally branded. Whether their visuals are from their team or fans, they all include the All Blacks in one form or another.
Relationships start with being social
Your customers expect to be able to interact with your visual content – whether it’s on your social channels or your website. Make it easy for them by providing them opportunities to comment on your content, share them easily on their preferred social networks, and even email the content to their friends if they want to.
Social experience doesn’t end here though. Your customers also expect you to acknowledge their efforts. If they’ve left a comment, reply to it. If they’ve shared on social media, thank them for it. Find a way to make it worth their while, and they’ll continue giving your visual content the same attention.
Interislander is a very useful example. It is a ferry service ran a photo contest that asked their customers to share their favorite Interislander memory on their website or Instagram and tag them.
Content never sleeps, and neither does your online presence. Visual content is not a campaign that ends in a few days or weeks. It’s not a one-off thing. It’s an on-going strategy.
Make creating, publishing, and maintaining visual content a key part of your marketing strategy.
Quality wins every time
With cell phone cameras getting better and better by the day, customers have learned to take great photos and videos themselves. And with the numerous filters available through Instagram and others, it’s possible to source high-quality content from your customers.
The good news is, you can use that content and combine it with your in-house efforts to help with your marketing activities.
The bottom line
The days of the old website photo gallery are far behind us. When done right, visual content can drive traffic to your site, increase page views, lower bounce rate, and convert website traffic into sales.
Use these ideas for visual content to up your marketing game and grow your business. Ignore them, and you risk becoming obsolete.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
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Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
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More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
11 Steps to Media Framing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Digital Storytelling … 4 Ways to Employ for Message Persuasion
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
