6 Forms of Visual Content to Engage Your Audience
The power of visuals is undeniable. Especially in an online landscape, where consumers cannot physically touch the product, visuals play a vital role in the purchase decision. And that is what makes them a core element of digital marketing.
Look into the online marketing tactics of well-established brands. You will find them using a variety of visuals such as photographs, videos, GIFs, screenshots, infographics, and more. None of them uses only text-rich content. If someone is making this mistake, they must be compromising a lot on engagement. Apart from it, their long-term survival in the online world is a big question.
Stop wasting more time if you don’t want to fall into this category. Learn about the basic types of visual content to perfectly hone your digital tactics. Keep reading!
1. Use Videos to Deliver Complex Information
If you have been into an online business, you must have heard about video marketing. Explainer, BTS, and how-to videos are gaining immense popularity. They deliver the message within minutes and help in comprehending it with ease.
Think of a trending makeup look. To create it, you need to learn various tricks. If you read the text to recreate the look, it will take a lot of time. And, even after it, you won’t be able to get an idea of the look that each step will bring.
Alternatively, videos can explain everything in detail. Within minutes, you can learn to create the look. Or, you can watch one step at a time, pause a video, and implement it.
Likewise, we use many products like toys and furniture that must be assembled before use. However, people barely take a look at the product’s manual. Instead, they prefer searching for an online video to resolve a query. And, if they don’t find it, your business identity will have a negative impact.
2. Create an Exciting Appeal through Alluring Images
Search for some restaurant brands, and the images of delectable dishes will make you hungry in no time. At a glance, these images show what items are on the menu. A consumer might only be interested in a particular food line. But images of mocktails and juices may provoke him to consider additional options.
Besides this, images add a human touch and help trigger emotion. For example, pictures of a happy family at a resort display how people can have a memorable vacation on the premises.
But the selection of high-resolution images is mandatory. Poor quality pictures can spoil a business image and may question your credibility. Therefore, try to get real photos by hiring a professional photographer. However, if the budget is limited, you can visit websites that offer good-quality images online. You can always edit these images, reduce their size, and enhance their appearance to suit your brand’s aesthetic.
3. Add Infographics for Displaying Complex Data
Every online business owner tries to provide clear information to visitors. If prospects don’t get what we say, all our efforts can go in vain. Especially if we use stats, figures, and trends, they are difficult to understand. Therefore, use infographics so that every visitor can digest information with ease. We can use bar graphs, pie charts, and visual cues to represent data.
Be it a list of upcoming holidays or expected ROI, a step-by-step learning process, or a health impact of a new diet. Infographics can make readers understand various things within minutes.
4. Display Moving Content through GIFs
GIFs are another trending element of visual content marketing. It is an advanced version of Infographics that is more engaging and attention-grabbing. Compared with static content, it uses graphical animations to add some motion. Most importantly, they look comical, making it easier to stay connected.
But, acquiring a lot of space is one downside of using GIFs. It can result in increasing the loading time and losing a lot of potential customers. Thankfully, various ways are present to reduce the GIF file size.
Lifeware, a website that provides guides, reviews, and news related to technological products, shares a guide to using GIFs without decreasing your website’s performance.
Since these comical graphics are highly shareable and boost engagement, too, adding them to our visual strategy is mandatory. But try to incorporate it in a way that doesn’t decrease your search engine ranking.
5. Highlight Key Points with Typography
While searching for a product, have you ever read an entire webpage from top to bottom? You will hardly find someone reading entire content like a book. Life is busy, and people want instant solutions to their problems.
Therefore, they either focus on the headings or jump directly to the phrases or sentences that look interesting. And marketers are well-aware of it. That is why they use typography to highlight essential pieces of content.
Typography is another form of visual content that combines various font styles, sizes, and colors to enhance visual appeal. For instance, you can use a bold and bigger font in a darker color than the background to write the discount offer.
6. Enhance Credibility through Screenshots
Even if people go through the entire content, how can they trust you? There should be something to build credibility on the techniques you suggest. One ideal way to develop trust is to show visual proof of your work.
Screenshots, which are easier to share, can help you do it. For instance, if you are sharing MS Excel shortcuts, you can share screenshots showing the result of every step. Not just this, they will help the readers understand better. In some cases, people might just look at the screenshots to understand the trick instead of reading every paragraph.
Wrapping It Up
There is no denying how visuals help us develop a long-lasting bond with consumers. Whether we talk about world-class brands or small start-ups, every online business owner is now trying to make the most of visual content. The options are tremendous, from images, videos, and screenshots to GIFs, infographics, and typography.
Therefore, it’s time to make some instant amendments to our digital strategy. Hone your content marketing plans with the types of visuals present in this article. And, soon, you will find a remarkable difference!