Visual content such as images, videos, and infographics is becoming increasingly important for online marketing. As visual information makes up a large portion of what our brains can process, visual content is more engaging and shareable than text-based content. Marketers must create visual content that supports their written content in order to be successful across various online platforms and social media channels. Both visual and written content are needed to provide a good customer experience and drive traffic, engagement, and conversions.

1. The Rise of Visual Content Marketing
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26 Feb2014By Helen Mere in Content Marketing
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Every company knows that content marketing is important but if a business wants to be
successf ul online, it needs to understand the connection between regularly updated, relevant
content and higher traf f ic and user engagement.
Most businesses want this to be super easy. They just put up a static website and don’t pay any
attention to it f or another year until its time f or updates. Websites don´t work that way. They are
like your children you must take care of them all the time!
As the world of online marketing is constantly changing, the importance of content f or search
and social media marketing has exploded the recent years. This is driving another trend within
that sector called visual content marketing. For example there are more than 350 million photos
shared on Facebook every day!!
By far the most important part of our brains taking in new stimuli is visual.
Approximately 65% of the population is visual learners – Mind Tools, 1998
The brain processes visual inf ormation 60,000 times faster than text – 3M Corporation,
2001
90% of inf ormation that comes to the brain is visual – Hyerle, 2000

2. The rapid acceptance of smartphones, widespread availability of WIFI networks and decreased
cost of data uploads are all responsible f or the visual web growth!
What this means for marketers?
This, of course is a great challenge f or all marketers as there is a need f or new platf orms,
inf rastructure and processes to manage it all! However, the visual content gives businesses a
chance to be inspiring, engaging and entertaining. This really means, at the basic level,
teaching.
It is important that your audience understands the inf ormation you are sharing. The consumers
often carry out a thorough research to help them make the best decision, of ten considering
multiple sources, so you want to influence their decisions.
Why is visual content better?
Content overload – your audience is drowning in content.
Time – your clients don’t have the time to read everything.
Sharing – images are more shareable than text.
Types of visual content can be integrated into your marketing campaign
Comics
Memes
Inf ographics
Photos
Videos

3. Visual note-taking
Channels to share your visuals
Pinterest – gif s, memes, comics and inf ographics
Flickr - images of your events, of f ices, production centres
Instagram images, videos
Facebook images, memes, comics and inf ographics
YouTube - videos
Slideshare - PDFs, PowerPoint presentations
How will this affect your rankings on Search Engines
Let´s look at a competitive search term that you have not been raking f or. Google search page will
show you search results that you could probably optimize your site f or. But also there are photos
and videos showing which have now become your extra chances of being more visible though
these sharing options.
Let´s say you sell running shoes. You may never beat Nike or Adidas f or those top results but if
you have a video about them in YouTube or images in Instagram then these visuals have a huge
potential to be showing on that page 1. These visuals will bring you traf f ic as people’s eyes
are more drawn to visual content than text.
The big picture
There are many websites out there that have great visuals but the written content lacks important
inf ormation and vice versa. So ultimately the question is: should a site emphasize one over the
other? The answer is No. The two need to support each other and if you don’t get that right then
the website will not serve its purpose.

4. Every website needs to have the f ollowing:
In terms of SEO, Google values good customer experience. All the material must be straight
to the point, in terms a reader and viewer can understand. Well-written copy and
reinforcing visual material are a must. You will def initely get brownie points f rom Google
f or getting this right!
All essential material must be there – a slogan, tagline or headline, and the old who, what,
when, where, why and how.
Conversion design- logical and easy navigation so that the customer is able to f ind what
they need or want to know. Don’t f orget that the number of mobile users is increasing so
you need to make sure your site is mobile-device compatible. Our f avourite platf orm is
def initely WordPress!
A clear call to action.
Conclusion
Search engines now rank content based on social sharing and not just your website alone. You
can use social media to increase engagement and ultimately inspire viral marketing. The rise of
platforms like Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram shows how visual content is becoming an
increasingly important f orce f or communication online.
The era of visual consumerism has started, make sure you make the most of it!
15 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE´S CONVERSION RATE” DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE
WHITEPAPER HERE ”
www.YourDigitalStory.com
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