Your marketing team is not complete if you do not have a member who is skilled in the creation of visual content. No matter what digital channels you primarily use to market your business, well made visual designs will enhance your brand and improve your conversion rates.
In fact, researchers at the University of Minnesota and at 3M Company explored the persuasive powers of computer-generated visuals only to find that Visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. On social media, visuals are proven to increase engagement with a business’s content. Facebook images for example receive 2.3% more likes and shares than text only posts. Whilst over on Linkedin you can expect up to 50% more engagement with visual engagement.
Brand Your Visuals
The number one mistake made by any business online using visuals to boost their brand awareness is that they do not brand their visuals. When your followers share your image or video, you want their followers to recognize it as your brand. This can be achieved with strategic logo placement but I would recommend taking a step further. Look at your overall brand look. Do you have a brand color palette or a brand font for example? If not, work with your design team to establish what these are for a tighter looking brand. If you do have these already, then use them consistently when creating visual content. Incorporate the brand colors and font so your content is known as your content.
Use Infographics
Eye-catching, useful, and guaranteed to reinforce your brand and your authority in your given area of expertise. Use infographics to present findings from your own research or statistics relevant to your audience and brand (always credit the source). Infographics are simple to make and even easier to brand. Online graphic design tools like Canva have ready made infographic templates that can be easily chopped and changed to fit your brand. Before sharing your infographic, check the size limits of your channel of choice. For any visual to display properly it is best to avoid posting outside of a channel’s display limits. Doing so could result in your image being cropped.
Use Color
The use of color psychology in marketing is not a new trend. It is one that has been tried and tested since the advent of the original ad men. Color has the power to communicate and to influence emotions and behaviors. Marketing software company Hubspot performed a color test on CTA (call to action) buttons and found that red CTA buttons outperformed green CTA buttons by a staggering 21%. Imagine that – a 21% increase in leads or sales just from changing the color of a CTA!
“Color can do more than catch the eye,” Says Steph Blackwood, a tech writer at Coursework help and Next Coursework. “It can communicate what kind of brand you are and what kind of information you are sharing.” Use blue to communicate trust and reliability or reds and pinks to create excitement. Different colors convey different things. Play around with what colors work with your brand palette for communicating your message effectively.
Use Video
Video is all the rage but can be intimidating for a business that has not used or created video content yet. The great news for those businesses is that there are tools available to make it much easier for you to create professional looking and striking video. Tools like Clipchamp and Vidnami make video editing a simpler and more intuitive process than the complicated tools of the past. “Thanks to the improvement of smartphone technology it is now possible for businesses to shoot high quality content and then edit it online.” Says Warren Byrde, an AI blogger at Australia 2 write and Brit Student. “The cost and ease of editing make video content more attractive to marketers on a budget”.
Video popularity has exploded, with 6 out of 10 people saying that they would rather watch online videos than television (Google). The potential market reach for a business is huge and, with the right kind of video content, could change a business’s fortunes overnight. Start small with bitesize videos on your website and social media channels before starting to create longer videos. This will give you an opportunity to get to know the tools but also an opportunity to monitor the engagement of your first videos to see which ones your audience prefers.
Regina Wheeler is a marketing writer at Thesis Writing Service and Write My Essay. She has been involved in graphic design for digital brands for many years and likes to write about marketing and design to share her knowledge.
