Bob Hutchins
“Don’t make me read,” says today’s consumer.
“Show me.”
Whether you love or hate the demise of the written word, you have to admit that today’s best content generally doesn’t come in the form of an essay. Instead, we gravitate towards photos, videos, illustrations, and GIFs.
The less we have to read, the better.
9 Reasons Why You Should Use VISUAL Content Marketing
A new infographic from Widen shares a few key reasons why your brand should be creating visual content for your audience in 2015. Here are a few of our key takeaways:
- Attention spans have shrunk from 12 seconds to eight seconds between 2012 and 2015. Visual content takes less time to process than written content – perfect for lower attention spans.
- Processing visual content involves almost half our brain. We are wired to process visuals in less than a tenth of a second!
- Social posts with visuals see 180% greater engagement than posts without.
- Video is 53 times more likely to earn a first-page Google ranking.
- Images account for 93 percent of the most engaging posts on Facebook.
- Viewers are 85 percent more likely to purchase a product after watching a product video.
- Users are 200% as likely to convert to a sale after clicking on photos of real people.
- Visual content marketing offers better recall. Words have 10% recall; words and visuals have 65% recall.
- Tweets containing images get 150% more retweets.
Tips for Creating Visual Content… And All-Around GREAT Content
Not sure how to get started? Last month, I shared 42 content posting ideas that can help you get off the ground. I also love the practical suggestions included in the Widen infographic below. The most important thing to remember – whether you’re creating visual content, written content, or experimenting with something totally new – is this:
All content should enrich your user.
“Content marketing” isn’t necessarily the best term for describing what we do when we create something new and post it to Facebook or send it out to our email list. The word “Marketing” suggests that we’re pushing something onto people; we’re trying to get them to buy in to what we’re doing.
This philosophy won’t win in the long-term. You can’t push people into buying your product or joining your cause. But you can come alongside them and offer the resources and solutions that fix the problems they already have.
That’s what great content does. As Seth Godin says, people shouldn’t just “opt-in” to receiving your content. They should be upset if they don’t receive regular content from you. If your audience actually misses you, then you know you’re providing truly valuable content that enriches your user… visual or not!
Visual Content Marketing Infographic
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