Text-based content has always been an integral part of marketing, but to really set yourself prominent in the digital era, visual content seems to play a pivotal role in all of your efforts.
1- CONTENT MARKETING
Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract, engage, and retain an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other media. This approach promotes brand awareness and keeps your business top of mind when it is time to buy what you sell.
Here are six types of visual content which may take our marketing campaign to the next level.
1.1- IMAGES
When you split up a body of text with some compelling images, people get more inclined to read till end what you have written (provided that the images are of high quality). Marketer Jeff Bullas reports that articles with images get 94% more views than those without them.
It is preferable to use original images or the ones taken by you, as this adds a new colour to your campaign. High quality, attractive images are often expensive to purchase or time-consuming to create. Fortunately, with resources such as Canva, you can create unique, captivating images for free. Alternatively, there are an endless amount of excellent quality photos on photo-sharing sites such as Flickr and Morgue file that can be acquired for free.
1.2- VIDEOS
Videos are incredibly useful for presenting common problems and then showing the solutions that your product can offer. While there are much cheaper types of visual content available, a great video serves as extra clout for your campaign by demonstrating that you’re prepared to go the extra mile for quality. One study showed that including a video on a landing page increased conversions by 86%.
There are numerous types of videos that can enhance your business – you could consider how-to videos, animated explainer videos, demonstrations or customer testimonials. Whatever your choice, it is important that the videos are congruent with the overall style and ethos of your brand. ‘InVideo’ is a great tool that can really help you dominate with your video marketing strategy.
1.3- INFOGRAPHICS
When you need to give someone a really quick rundown on something that can be hard to explain in words alone, an infographic is a good way to go. Infographics are great for making complex information easy to digest.
To reap the true rewards of an infographic, it is essential that the layout and design are as impactful as possible. The designer must combine the right colors, shapes, and fonts to convey your important data.
1.4- MEMES
The term ‘meme’ was first coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976. Oxford dictionary defines meme as an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users. Memes are now commonly known as images that are accompanied by humorous captions.
In the beginning, not many people realized that memes would play a role in content marketing, as college students started sharing them as a form of entertainment. However, now they have become an easy-to-create form of visual content.
Another unique benefit of memes is that they allow you to create in-jokes about your industry, which is a great way to make people laugh and build a community around your brand.
1.5- PRESENTATIONS
Gone are the days when presentations were restricted to just the boardroom; you can now share your presentation with the world via sites like SlideShare, easily expanding the outreach of your business. A great SlideShare presentation allows you to inform and communicate to your audience, no matter what device they are using.
Presentations serve a similar function to infographics, with a large focus on attractive design and color, thereby drawing the reader into the text. Although, they differ though by having a greater scope. Thus, if a topic is too lengthy to be appropriate for an infographic, a beautifully crafted presentation can be extremely effective at keeping people engaged with your content.
1.6- SCREENSHOTS
Screenshots are very useful in supporting the claims you make in your sales content. For example, if you are marketing an app which can perform certain functions, a screenshot with a caption can be the visual verification your audience needs in order to trust your claims. It will be better to annotate your screenshots if you wish to draw attention to a particular part of the image (such as which button to click).
Additionally, you may wish to incorporate screenshots into your infographics and SlideShare presentations, as they can bring forth more meaning to the stats or information you are presenting. ‘Skitch’ is a great tool for creating graphics and text on images.
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