The demand for visual content keeps rising, with marketers working hard to keep up with the demand. It’s no longer possible to reach your customers solely through text. This is because the majority of consumers prefer visuals to text.
Sumo found that only 20% of your audience completely reads articles on your blog. The average visitor does not read the whole post – they only read 25% of it. Instead, consumers prefer to see video content from brands.
Marketers have also embraced visual marketing. 86% of them use visual images, while 63% use videos for their marketing efforts on social media. Additionally, 32% of them consider visual images as the most important type of content. Image Source: Social Media Examiner
Now that we know why visual marketing is important, let’s take a closer look at how to leverage it to increase your engagement.
How to Engage Your Audience with Visual Marketing
It’s not enough to use words to communicate with your audience; you need visuals too. They make it easier to engage with your audience and, if effectively done, make you stand out from the competition. Here are four of the best ways through which you can use visual marketing to engage your audience more:
1. Incorporate Visuals into Your Blog and Website Content
To be a successful content marketer, you must know what people in your industry want to consume. It’s the only way to ensure that your target audience sees your content and engages with it.
You need to understand what kind of visuals will resonate with your audience and incorporate them into your content. Make sure you build attractive websites with ample visuals to capture your visitors’ attention. Custom-design it to stand out from your competitors. For this, you can use website building tools and develop your website from scratch.
You should also change your content writing style on your blog to suit consumer needs and preferences. Furthermore, you should get rid of lengthy paragraphs and incorporate visuals to increase engagement.
When a reader is skimming through your webpage, the visuals might push them to stop. They will also probably read the text before and after the visual to understand the context of the visual.
Another way of using visuals is by embedding your social media tweets and posts on your website. Doing this encourages readers to like or follow your accounts on social media platforms right from the website.
Embedding shareable links in your blog posts also allows readers to tweet or pin individual images to their social media pages. Remember, users will engage more with your content if you make it easy to share. Image Source: Post Planner
You should also incorporate videos into your website and blog. Renderforest found that video increases the time spent on a website and helps brands generate more traffic.
They also found that having a video on the homepage increases conversion rates by 20+%. Additionally, the study also found that 64% of users will buy a product online after watching a video.Image Source: Renderforest
Using visuals and videos can increase engagement with your audience. It can also help you increase the time spent on your site and chances of conversion.
2. Use a Variety of Compelling Visuals
When creating or uploading visuals to your website or social media pages, think about what you want to achieve with them. You need to be strategic and use the right visuals at appropriate spots to get the most out of them.
Doing this increases your reach and enhances your brand image. You don’t want to be picking random visual and posting it just because your marketing strategy needs visuals. It’s essential to analyze the content and understand what impact it will have on your brand.
There’s a wide variety of visuals that you can incorporate into your visual marketing strategy. Some of the visual formats you can use include:
Infographics: Use them to deliver data-heavy information in a simpler way to your audience.
Custom illustrations and micrographics: Image breakouts and small illustrations can make heavy text easy to digest for consumers. They help increase the time a consumer spends with long text.
GIFs and animated Images: They provide visual intrigue and break up long text. Additionally, they accentuate the text and engage the audience on social media, shopping platforms, websites, and blogs.
Stop motion videos: Use fast, alternating images to tell a story to your audience. You can use them to demonstrate the workings of your product. The audience can consume them within minutes without having to read walls of text.
Product videos: Use short videos to convince the audience to purchase your products. Show them how your products work and why they need them. You can create numerous product videos for all your products and upload them on video platforms like YouTube. Doing this makes them accessible on Google search and social channels too.
Wyzowl found that 81% of people buy after watching a video. Additionally, 95% watch explainer videos to learn about products, while 83% share branded videos with friends. This is why it’s essential to use product videos to promote your products.
Interactive visuals: You can also use questions and humor to increase engagement. For example, ask users to choose between two products. Consumers can also rate products, and this leads to positive engagement. Using humor, on the other hand, appeals to fans looking for entertainment.
3. Use User-Generated Content
Modern shoppers share their shopping experiences on social media and pay attention to what others post. A shopper will check out online reviews and trends before deciding on a purchase. They’ll also check out other consumer’s experiences with brands before they decide to engage with or purchase from them.
This is where UGC comes into the picture. When people share content related to their experience with a brand or product, it can have a great impact on your conversions rates. However, consumers are skeptical of photos and videos brands post on social media.
Bazaarvoice found that 45% of online shoppers think brands exaggerated product claims with pictures they post.
Consumer-generated videos and images, on the other hand, show you the importance of visual content. These visuals influence consumers to take a risk and purchase products. Nearly 56% of shoppers believe that visuals from other consumers give them a true depiction of what to expect from a brand. Image Source: Bazaarvoice
It’s thus important for you to encourage your audience to share their experiences with your brand. For example, they could post videos or images of the products they’ve purchased.
With their permission, you can share this content on your social media accounts. Such content provides potential consumers with proof that your brand delivers and improves your authenticity.
When you host events, use hashtag campaigns to get people talking about your brand. Encourage them to share content around the event hashtag. You can also encourage fans to share videos or photos to enter a competition. Doing this boosts your campaigns, reach, and engagement.
4. Humanize Your Brand with Visual Marketing
Visuals can tell compelling stories about your brand and elicit emotional responses from the audience. Emotions give them a reason to interact more with you.
For example, you could thank your followers when you reach a milestone. The consumers will feel appreciated and may leave comments about their experiences with your brand.
You can also use visuals to showcase your brand culture. Upload behind-the-scenes videos and images of your employees at work and give your audience a sneak-peek into your workplace. This way, your followers can experience your brand beyond your products and services.
Conclusion
Visual marketing is a great way to engage your audience and help your brand stand out. You must make visuals an integral part of your content marketing strategy if you want to engage your audience more.
Additionally, visual marketing helps you capture your audience’s attention and increase your social media presence. Visuals are easy to consume, and that improves the chances of consumers engaging with your content more. Execute visual marketing correctly, and you can communicate better with your audience. You can also increase traffic to your site and get more conversions.
Do you have any questions about how to leverage visual marketing to engage your audience? Or any tips to add? Let us know in the comments.