If you think visual content marketing is about posting aesthetically pleasing pictures with empathetic captions, then let me tell you that this is not the right way. Visual content marketing is a powerful tool; with it, you can give a message to your target audience compellingly. It’s the art of telling your brand story using the right words and pictures.

You might have noticed that everything has been digitized in the past few years. Brands heavily focus on the latest trends to engage and strengthen bonds with audiences. With technological advancement and changing trends, visual content marketing is becoming an essential tool for marketers.

Remember, this applies to all small, big, startups or Fortune 100 companies. If you want to implement visual marketing in your marketing strategy, you are at the right place.

Because in this ultimate guide, I’ll tell you everything about visual marketing from start to end. After reading this guide, I’m sure you will understand visual marketing and how it can help your business. Let’s dive into it.

What Is Visual Content Marketing?

Visual content marketing is a type of digital marketing that utilizes visual assets like images, videos, infographics, and GIFs to create brand awareness, engage and educate audiences, drive traffic to websites or products/services, and ultimately increase conversions.

Visual content helps marketers easily explain complex topics in an easy-to-understand manner. By combining visuals with written content such as blog posts or explanatory videos, they can communicate more effectively than with words alone.

Unlike text-based advertising strategies like PPC and SEO, visual content has a longer shelf life by appearing at the top of search engine results for years after it was first posted.

But Isn’t Content Marketing & Visuals Unrelated?

The short answer is not entirely. But let’s understand it better by understanding what content marketing is. Content marketing is basically information that can be either online or offline through which you educate your customers, add value, engage with them, and increase trust. 

The most common types of content marketing are;

• Blogs, guides, or articles
• Video content
• Educational posts on social media channels

And the list goes on. You might think that visual content marketing is a new term introduced in digital marketing.

But NO. 

It’s been here for ages. You may remember a medicine ad in your newspaper and a picture of a person being healthy because they took medicine.

Ads include delicious recipes on their packaging. That compels you to buy even more of that product and brand. 

That’s how visual content marketing has been part of marketing. But now it’s in the limelight because of its amazing benefits, which we will discuss in this blog.

Related: Types of Digital Marketing

How Is Visual Marketing Different From Other Types Of Marketing?

Visual content marketing basically engages the core of your customer’s brain. The best part about this marketing is that it is processed by a part of the brain which is less busy. 

Let me clear your doubts! 

Think for a second that from when you wake up to when you go to bed to sleep. The entire day you are listening to words, reading, and speaking WORDS!!! 

But one part of your brain isn’t overworking. Because it deals with the visual aspect, this part is the visual cortex. 

Do you know what happens when we tap into this part of the brain? From a marketer’s point of view, it will help you in the following;

• Engaging more with your client’s brain
• It increases the interest of your prospect on the page
• It is appealing to the person interacting

When you break up page text and add relevant images to the content, it deludes the reader that the content is easy to read and skimmable, which will eventually help you increase traffic on your website and retention rate. 

Visual content marketing is easy, but it demands creativity! You will be surprised to know this interesting fact about visual content marketing.

Researchers conducted a study to find how long it takes to process static images. The results showed it only takes 13 milliseconds. 

Every business must leverage visual content marketing for growth and success. People immediately understand images. Do you know why? Because in this case, our mind doesn’t have to read letters or long sentences. It’s just an image, and the prospect immediately understands it.

Advantages of Visual Content Marketing

Visual content marketing has a lot of benefits, and there is no doubt about it. It can open many new opportunities and doors of success for businesses. Here are some of the major advantages of this marketing strategy.

Build A Strong Brand

You might have heard of the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and visual content marketers take this so seriously. It is because visual content marketing will grab the attention of your target audience in just a few words. 

People’s attention span is decreasing daily, so it’s essential not to use outdated long text blocks and focus on creating content your audience loves. 

With visual content marketing, you can build a strong brand identity. It’s critical to make visually appealing content that translates the core of your business. You can use reels, videos, compelling images, illustrations, and visual content.

Get More Traffic On Your Website

I’ve seen many marketers trying to find the best strategy to attract more website traffic. And after they get traffic, the biggest hurdle they face is stopping the retention rate from dropping. 

If marketers use compelling visual content marketing in their strategies, they can get 10x results without doing double the work. You will be surprised to see the following;

• Increase in website visitors
• Attract more audience
• More leads

All of this by using compelling CTA. Use persuasive copy, place it in the right place, and make it visually appealing. 

It doesn’t matter which social channel you are using to grow. By using calls to action correctly, you can get incredible results. Don’t underestimate the power of this seemingly small task.

Related: Best Ways To Get Free Organic Traffic

Improve Your Online Presence

If you want more people to discuss your brand and share it with their friends, consider focusing on visual content marketing. Start by updating your “About Us” page and remove the long, lengthy, and hard-to-read page. 

Make it short and tell a brand story through which the audience feels connected with your brand. You can also add a short video and share more about yourself and your business in this video and share it on social platforms. 

According to a study by BuzzSumo, blog posts with at least one image after every 75-100 words get 2x more traffic than blogs that don’t add visuals to their content. 

This number is insanely huge! 

It shows that with one perfectly placed image, your engagement can double. It will also give you a competitive edge.

Improves SEO

Your perfect visual content marketing will not yield exceptional results if you don’t work on image optimization. To increase your website rankings in search engines, you should make your images SEO-friendly. You can do this by;

• Adding keywords in the alt text of your images
• Avoid giving boring and generic names to your files
• Optimize the speed of your images

Search engines crawl through every website and prioritize those which focus on every aspect of the website, i.e., visual, technical, and textual content. You can be the search engine’s all-time favorite with visual content marketing.

Get Organic Traffic With Links

Backlinks are essential for increasing traffic to a website. Good visual content can increase your trustworthiness and make your brand likable. 

Most of the time, other website share detailed and visually appealing content from another website with their own. However, they share the content on their website but link visual content back to your website. It is a great idea to increase your customers and attract more people.

Your Leads Will Skyrocket

Visual content marketing is also known as a lead magnet because it does work like that. Some common examples of lead magnets are e-books, infographics, white papers, etc. 

You can get your potential customer’s contact information in exchange for this valuable information. However, you must identify what content your audience likes before doing this.

Multiply Your Conversion Rates

With all the benefits mentioned above, it’s a given that your conversion rate will also increase. Because the audience will start trusting you, making lead generation extremely easy, this is the power of visual content marketing if implemented correctly.

Types Of Visual Content Marketing Strategies

Let’s discuss different visual content marketing strategies to ensure you get the best results.

• Images: Attractive images are highly important if you publish a blog, develop your website, or make a landing page. Use your imagination and creatively place images throughout the site to ensure your content converts.
• Videos: They have incredible potential and can bring your business to new heights. However, don’t make boring videos. Add sound effects and captions for better understanding, and use storytelling to leave a long-lasting impression on your audience. According to statistics, around 88% of customers buy a product after watching their brand video.
• Infographics: Reading long paragraphs can be overwhelming, and no one likes it. With infographics, you can concisely shorten that information.
• Banners: Banners are like updated versions of billboards. They are an excellent way to market your products and get your audience to know more about your brand, product, offer, and discounts.
• Memes: Memes are becoming a popular culture. Everyone shares memes, so don’t run away from this trendy visual content marketing strategy which is probably here to stay for a long time.

There are many other visual forms of content, such as comics, illustrations, e-books, screenshots, presentation design, explainer videos, animated videos, and more. Experiment with what works best for you and stick with one that drives more customer engagement.

Step-by-step Guide On Making Visual Content Strategy For Your Business

If you are thinking about starting visual content marketing by posting a picture and writing two to three words under it, then this will never work for you. 

You might get some results, but it won’t benefit your long-term business. To experience success and growth, you must strategically implement visual content marketing. 

Follow these steps, and you can easily do visual content marketing for your business. 

Step 1: Make A List Of Your Visual Content Marketing Goals

Find out what outcome you want to get from visual content marketing. One good way to find it is by asking clear questions to yourself. Such as what I want my customers to do by interacting with my visual marketing content. It can be;

• Closing leads
• Trusting your brand
• Following you on social media

It’s important to be crystal clear about these topics. It will help you get better ideas that align with your goals.

Step 2: Understand Your Target Audience

Your content should be relevant to your target audience. It’s just like you won’t sell your digital marketing product to someone who is a fashion enthusiast and has zero interest in digital marketing products. 

To learn more about your audience, ask yourself these questions. This will give you an understanding of your audience in-depth.

• Who do you want to reach?
• What type of content does your target audience like?
• What is their level of awareness in their respective fields?

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think from their perspective. Get inside their mind and create content that they can’t ignore.

Step 3: Find Where Your Customers Are Most Active

You have created the best content and worked really hard on it. But nothing good will come from that strategy if you don’t know whether you are posting on a channel where your audience isn’t active. 

You can use many social media platforms, such as Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit. However, to find which works best for you, you need to consider the following things;

• Which platform your audience uses
• Best channels for your niche
• Your business goals and budget

Create a solid plan and make your visual content informative, valuable, educational, and promotional.

Step 4: Build Your Dream Team

To make your visual content strategy, you need experts with the knowledge, skills, and expertise to make everything perfect. 

That’s where building a strong team that knows how to get things done is important. Maybe you can already produce content and have a creative mindset. Still, you can brainstorm ideas with a team that will reap exceptional results.

Step 5: Use the Creative Process

After understanding your business goals and knowing your audience better, you should move to the next step, creating content your audience will love. Start by briefly explaining your idea and how you can improve it.

• Always write down your ideas and think about improving a specific idea.
• What modifications can still be made?
• And where do you lack?

Now think about every idea, and before choosing any idea, ask yourself these questions. Choosing one idea can be extremely difficult, but my strategy will help you find the perfect idea quickly.

• How can this unique idea provide value to my target audience?
• Is this idea interesting enough to be presented in front of customers?
• Is it persuasive enough that customers will be compelled to take action?
• Is the idea original or copy-pasted?
• Does it align with your business visions and goals?

Step 6: Find The Ideal Format

Now it’s time to choose the perfect format that your audience would love. But remember, it depends on your business. At this stage, you should consider two things;

• Which platform should I post on?
• Which format is better suited for this respective format?

You can look at how your competitors do it through their online videos, pieces of content, and visual marketing strategy and explore more in the industry. Do your complete research, and you can find a suitable answer to this question.

Step 7: Use Storytelling To Engage Your Audience

There is a huge difference between good and bad storytelling. Bad storytelling speaks about a business only. But good storytelling tells a story about;

• Who you are
• What you do for people like them(your target audience)
• How have you helped people like them

People don’t want to hear boring stories. They want something that ignites their soul and makes them feel emotional, sad, happy, or excited. In visual content, marketing storytelling holds great importance. 

It can be a small motivational tip on Instagram or an informative thread on Twitter. Remember that now the biggest marketing tool smartphone is in your hand. Use it to its fullest potential to connect with customers on a deeper level by being honest about your services. You can dominate the digital landscape.

Step 8: Make An Unforgettable Design

Your design is the core of your visual content marketing. Don’t rely on old, outdated ways to utilize it. Get help from a professional and understand the designs of your visual content marketing strategy. I highly recommend having a logo and design that stands out. 

Even in a crowded marketplace, your target audience should identify you because of your brand visuals. Visual language is also important while creating this strategy. Here is how you should do it;

• Make your brand stand out. Don’t be like everyone. Suppose everyone is using black and red logos. This is a huge opportunity for you to differentiate and be unique.
• Make sure it has a cohesive look. Suppose you notice some of the biggest brands, such as Apple, Amazon, and Nike. In that case, you will notice that they are consistent with their logos and have a cohesive look, so people immediately recognize them.

With this strategy, you can increase your credibility in the market. The audience will start to acknowledge you and your efforts. This proves to be a stepping stone in building long-term relationships with customers.

Step 9: Share Your Content

After creating your visual strategy, you are ready to present yourself as an expert in the market. You already know the best marketing channels and can now share your content there. Here are some more steps that you need to take to polish your visual content strategy.

• Write high-quality content
• Make your content SEO-friendly
• Use keywords

Step 10: Check the Performance Of Your Strategy

Many marketers focus only on the number of visitors to websites. But now it’s changing, and site visitors are not the only thing that needs attention. 

Because millions of people can read your blog, but in the end, what matters the most is how many people are building a long-term relationship with your business. 

Here are some important metrics that should be considered. It’s also a good way to check whether your current visual content strategy is performing well or needs improvement.

Leads

Remember, when a visual content marketing strategy is effectively applied, it will generate great results. Because when customers engage with your content, they will feel compelled to take action. 

Visually appealing CTAs also play a huge role in encouraging customers. They are like a push that convinces customers to take the next step.

Engagements

Audience engagement boosts your business. By engaging with the audience, you build a strong relationship with them. You can engage with them through comments. 

A good way to measure engagement rate is by keeping track of the number of likes, comments, and new followers.

Retention Rate

Your website is attracting customers, which is a good thing. Now comes the role of visual content because, based on this, your audience will decide whether they want to leave the website. 

Provide clear information to your audience and build a meaningful relationship with them. Because the more time your audience spends watching your visual content, the stronger the bond.

Social Media Share

No matter how marketing changes, word of mouth will always be important. Because when consumers share your posts, blogs, videos, or any visual content, they tell everyone that you are trustworthy, which is like a seal of customer approval.

However, if a customer shares the content on social media, that doesn’t mean they have read it until the end. But it is indeed helpful in expanding your business reach and growing networks.

Conclusion

A visual content marketing strategy can do wonders for businesses. It includes everything from producing content to improving it and then analyzing its progress to check the results and areas where you need more work.

Remember, any visual content strategy will fail if you don’t know how to execute it properly. With poor execution, your strategy will be like a pretty picture that nobody sees, and no business wants that to happen.

If you want to grow and take your business to the next level, then it’s time to apply visual content marketing strategy. But without guidance and expertise, gaining significant success can be extremely difficult.

But don’t worry; EchoFish is here to help you at every stage of visual content marketing strategy, from brainstorming to publishing. We will do everything for you. So you can enjoy watching your business touch new heights of success. We are just a call away, so contact us today.