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We’re all used to building visuals into our marketing. To start with, most forms of digital marketing require a thumbnail, banner image, icon, or some other visual aspect. And they’re right to do so – any content you publish is enhanced by some accompanying pictures or videos. But why exactly are visuals so helpful? We probably have an intuitive sense, but really investigating these benefits can help us use visuals more deliberately and effectively. Here’s five key ways that visuals make your content marketing better.
1. Visuals Get People Through the Door
The quality of your content doesn’t matter if people don’t click through to read it. Convincing someone to give your content a chance is the first and most important step, and visuals are a key part of achieving it.
To make a good thumbnail that hooks people as they scroll by, think about the context people will see it in. What other thumbnails is it competing with for their attention? How will you stand out and grab them if they only scroll past it for a second? Try to make something unique, but within the visual language of other thumbnails – they should still know what to expect. And, of course, deliver on that expectation with the visuals inside the content itself.
2. Visuals Can Drive Home Your Value Proposition
OK — this one is a tip for product marketers too. As a content writer in the software industry, I often face the challenge of relaying a lot of technical information while also imparting emotionally resonant messaging. Sure, you could simply say that your new feature will make the customer feel happy and confident, but that’s not convincing enough. While you definitely should be smart about your messaging, you should also supplement your messaging with visuals that speak to the ethos and pathos of your audience. I like this example from Monday.com. They posted an ad with this visual that I think does a great job at inciting an emotional response.
Visuals are a great way to bridge this gap. What are the ultimate benefits your service or product provides? Then, what specific emotions should your customers feel when they experience those benefits? Safety? Joy? Empowerment? Seek out visuals that inspire these emotions – a semantic search can be helpful. They can be totally abstract images. As long as they inspire these emotions, they’ll reinforce your messaging in readers’ minds without distracting from the facts.
3. Visuals Make Content a Complete Experience
I’m a huge advocate of “cornerstone content” – supplementing your typical posts with larger content projects, like a new interactive infographic or an eBook. These big projects can help indicate a prospective customer’s interest or make them more invested in learning about your campaign.
For a big project to succeed, you need to think not just about what information the content should contain, but about making a high quality overall experience for the reader. Visuals are a huge part of that. Use pictures to help delineate sections, or embed videos to add variety to how your messaging is conveyed. Aim for a consistent visual mood throughout the project that still varies across sections. For example, you could have icons and key images that vary in color scheme to reflect the subject of each section. Your readers will be compelled to see this entire visual journey, and will end up more engaged with the content.
4. Visuals Convey and Refine Complex Information
If your product or service has complex, nuanced features, written content is a great way to inform customers and prospects on helpful uses and their benefits. Your goal is to make it clear that, even if the functionality is complex, it’s not so scary, and they’re totally capable of achieving what they want from it. Accompanying visuals are an excellent way to achieve this.
Try to turn the complex information on your page into simpler diagrams, workflows, or tables. Use this as an opportunity to empathize with your readers and think about what they’re likely trying to learn from the content. The content itself should be comprehensive, but these visuals can highlight and foreground the most important and actionable info. These visuals can also inject some personality into informative content. Don’t just use basic or default diagrams. Frame them with images that can impart some of the feelings you want them to get from the feature. Just make sure the diagrams remain easily readable too!
5. Visuals Help Establish Consistent Campaign Themes
Good content is all about variety: mixing up your tone, length, medium, and more to attract different audiences and inspire different reactions. At the same time, you still want to build a long term readership that enjoys and trusts your persona across all content. Visuals are the perfect way to build that persona while still being totally free to experiment with everything else.
Consider having banner images that use the same iconography across posts. It shouldn’t be the exact same each time, but similar enough to make it clear they’re related. Try to find a spot to include some “bonus” visuals for each post that may not be directly related to the content, but connect to each other in some fun way. For example, you could include a cute animal picture or a meme with each post. Your readers will be curious about what visuals you’ve chosen each time, leading to more consistent engagement.
Your visual style doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Case in point: this blog! I initially sent these drawings as examples to the Associate Creative Director at Catch+Release for inspiration to find images online or digitally design some visuals. She, however, recommended we just stick with the doodles, because they were created by me, the author of this blog, and they were a true representation of the ideas in my mind. Don't slow yourself down waiting for the perfect visuals, but experiment, iterate, and learn what your audience likes. Any visual will enhance your message and bring you closer to your readers.
I hope we’ve inspired you to think deeper about how visuals work in your content. If your head is buzzing with ideas of where you can tackle these strategies, great! If you’ve got the content, we can provide the visuals. Explore our Creator Community to get started on your next great content campaign.
