Visual Marketing Strategies That Work

Jasmine WilliamsFreelance writer
Published:

Whoever said that “a picture is worth one thousand words” observed a fact that can dramatically affect your marketing success. Most people tend to learn visually, so many publishers commonly acknowledge the effectiveness of visual learning by using more pictures than words in children's books.


Science also supports the effectiveness of learning. For example, according to information published by National Geographic, almost one-third of the neurons in the brain cortex support vision. Furthermore, studies suggest that people can more easily recollect visual information than text-based material.


Although many in the business world have known about the power of visual learning, some have not yet fully optimized their marketing to harness the power of the eye. Fortunately, by learning about visual marketing strategies that work, you can improve your marketing game and your business.


VISUAL CONTENT MARKETING


Social networks and their intensively visual components have driven the adoption of visual marketing. For the most part, users want to quickly find and absorb information. While the reading of text hinders that effort, looking at graphics accelerates it. Additionally, the design elements of an image can enhance its appeal.


At the same time when social media users expect fast results, the people for whom you work also want to speedily benefit from their marketing investment. For this reason, you should recognize visual marketing as a communications tool that can help you meet and exceed the expectations of your bosses and clients. 


Whereas visual content marketing offers much potential, its benefits come only in conjunction with a well-defined strategy. You should define how you intend to reach your target market as well as the amount and format of the visual content that you will use.


A Venngage study reveals that more than one-third of digital marketers prefer to use stock images, such as photographs as they work. Meanwhile, 30 percent of the 300 marketers surveyed said that they use infographics. Moreover, 60 percent of the group believed that visual content was an essential part of their overarching strategy. 


Statistics published by the gurus at BuzzSumo used a sample of 1 million online articles and discovered some interesting principles that can guide your visual marketing effort. For instance, rather than worrying about how many images to include in your post, pay attention to the ratio of images to words. In fact, social media users most often share articles that use one image per 75 to 100 words.


Another part of the BuzzSumo study indicates that posts that contain visual content engage users at 2.3 times the rate of plain-text posts. The research also underscores the importance of relevance in image selection. Also, your graphics should make your post easier to read and understand.



AUDIOVISUAL MARKETING


Thanks to the evolving capabilities of social networks, visual marketers increasingly have a chance to incorporate multimedia as part of their strategy. Audiovisual content builds upon static visual content in ways that can help you achieve your goals. It does this by giving you an effective way to differentiate your business.


Your style of video production can help you communicate the unique personality and values of your firm as well as the special aspects of your products and services. Building your brand identity in this way can have a dramatic effect on business goals ranging from lead generation to customer loyalty.


Video gives you a way to keep your audience engaged. After all, many people who will never read an entire article will watch a marketing clip all the way through. To put it differently, video increases your ability to make a complete presentation of your brand and story.


The impact is another reason why you should include video content as part of your visual marketing strategy. People can remember a useful or entertaining video experience for a long time, thereby delivering ongoing results over the long run. Additionally, through the use of subtitle services, you can extend the reach of your multimedia to people in quiet environments and to the hearing impaired.


Audiovisual content can also help firms communicate their mission and values on YouTube, the so-called “visual” network. Additionally, YouTube hosts the second-largest internet search engine along with more than one billion users and can, therefore, offers you a chance to grow your audience. Also, YouTube is mobile-friendly, so you can reach the growing number of mobile internet users.


Some practical tips can help you optimize your YouTube content to accelerate and improve the quality of your results. For example, the YouTube search algorithm rewards content that causes users to watch and share more than one video during a visit. As a result, you should use YouTube Analytics to identify and learn from well-performing content and use that information to guide your production.


Increase the time users spend watching your video content by adding valuable content throughout each clip. You can also increase viewer watch time statistics by including a screen at the end of your content that invites users to watch additional titles. Also, by using the playlist feature on YouTube, you can extend viewing time by encouraging users to watch batches of your videos rather than a single item.


After optimizing your YouTube videos and playlists, spend time fine-tuning your video marketing strategy to emphasize YouTube. A Brightcove study that included thousands of consumers discovered that they watch one-half of their social videos on the YouTube platform.


Also important is that you create videos that play well on smartphones and other mobile devices. As part of this, consider publishing vertical videos that enable users to see a full screen without rotating their phone. Mobile users continue to dominate the internet, so you must ensure that they can easily view, enjoy and share your content. After all, that Brightcove study showed that three-quarters of shoppers say that social video influenced their buying choices.


Marketers must understand the importance of visual content and then act on their knowledge. By developing a strategy that includes images, you can quickly inform and influence your audience to achieve desirable results. Additionally, by developing an effective audiovisual strategy, you can take advantage of the power of YouTube as you build your brand and following. By using a variety of visual content and optimizing everything you do for mobile, you set the stage for enduring success.

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Comments (1)

Dan AllenSoftware Programming Contractor
CERTIFIED EXPERT

Commented:
Ironically, this article employs none of the guidelines it recommends.  i would include an image to illustrate, but this forum does not have a way for embedding an image in a comment.

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