While we all like to think our content is important, it’s not always necessarily engaging. Adding visuals are a great way to provoke interest, but they can also hurt your content just as easily as it can help it.
To be clear, visual content is much more than just “pictures” – it also includes infographics, videos, and other digitally manipulated images. These various forms of visual content lead to endless possibilities, so where does one start?
First, you need to understand just how important visual content is when it comes to online engagement – in fact, it has been proven that content with compelling images get 94 percent more total views * than content without it.
Bottom line: If you’re not using visuals of some sort, audiences are not looking at your content.
Incorporating visuals is just the start – there’s a right way and a wrong way to engage your audience. Visual content should be creative but easy on the eyes, goal-oriented, and accessible from all social media platforms and internet mediums. Most importantly, it should be relevant to your brand. If your visual content falls short of these qualifications, it’s probably losing appeal among viewers.
Your visuals should also be unique while remaining easy to understand. For example, adding a busy or complex image to a post can be just as harmful as not adding one at all. Additionally, your visual content should be helping you meet a goal. Sure, visual content generates views, but the goal should be bigger than that. Use visuals to help get your written content noticed and to help you tell your story.
Ensuring your visual content is the appropriate size, file format, etc. is extremely important when sharing it across multiple social media networks or mediums – keep in mind that everyone should be able to engage no matter how they access it! Make connections with your visuals and let them do the talking – you want your audience to look at them and ask meaningful questions about YOU! Start a conversation!
Overall, gaining viewers with visual content is a great start, but it’s important to keep in mind why you want people to be engaged with it.
For content marketing, online marketing, and other integrated marketing services, please contact Sagefrog Marketing Group.
*SOURCE: Ekaterina Walter, co-author of ‘The Power of Visual Storytelling’
