Changes to search engine algorithms resulted in a leaning trend towards better and more relevant content as one of the main ingredients for higher search rankings. Business owners and digital marketers should take note of these developments and should make moves towards improving and providing more resources for their content marketing campaign.
But if they’re struggling to get results from all their content marketing efforts or would like to generate a stream of targeted traffic that converts, then they should power up and take their content marketing campaign to the next level – using visuals. Visual content marketing can be the rockstar in your overall digital marketing campaign and you can find out 12 reasons why you should with this next installment from Digital Marketing Philippines.
1. Visual Content Helps Grab Targeted Audiences’ Attention
You wouldn’t believe just how much information there is right now. We’re not talking data on a per year basis here, but rather an astounding amount of information generated on a daily basis – 1.5 billion individual units of content in fact. That’s not all. Two million videos are uploaded each day which can really get quite complicated and busy when you throw in up to 140 million tweets generated every single day. Calling it a jungle of information may be an understatement.
With such volume of information running each and every day, business owners and digital marketers need to do everything they can in their arsenal to grab their targeted audiences’ attention with their online content. Standard text information may not cut it anymore in a world where technology can deliver superb visual content even while online users are on the go. Telling a story using blocks of text may not be as effective in grabbing people’s attention as compared to giving your audience an awesome visual experience.
2. Visual Content can be Processed Faster by the Human Brain
The human brain can only process a very limited amount of information at any given time, and data that can be processed much faster than the rest will take precedence in grabbing a person’s attention. This is why visuals and images make for better content compared to lines and blocks of text. It takes time for the human brain to decode text as thoughts are enter the mind in a linear and sequential flow. Images on the other hand take the mind almost instantaneously to process the thoughts the visual elements are trying to say.
Just how fast does the brain process visual information? It takes a tenth of a second, according to the SAGE Handbook of Political Communication. This is 60,000 times faster than the time it takes for the brain to decode text. That’s why the first few seconds of delivering your content is critical if you want to get your targeted audiences’ attention – and visual content can do just that.
3. Visual Content Makes Up 93% of All Human Communication
93% of all human communication is practically non-verbal. This is true according to research performed by Psychologist Albert Mehrabian, which was confirmed by 3M Corporation in another study that claimed that 90% of information that enters the brain is practically non-verbal. This is because 70% of all sensory receptors humans have are all concentrated inside a person’s eye. The brain will then process up to 50% of information received by these visual receptors according to the 7th edition of the Human Anatomy and Physiology by E.N. Merieb and K. Hoehn.
Digital marketers may take a hard time getting the attention of their targeted audiences with text and words. They can do a better job though if they use visual elements instead. However, a study published in the Newspaper Research Journal Winter 2010 highlighted that text and graphics if used alone may be imperfect forms of communications. Combining visual elements with well-written text can be your ticket for capturing the imagination and attention of your targeted audiences.
4. Visual Content Generates More Views for Your Posts
If you are having a hard time getting views for your articles that contain only text, then you may have better chances of generating up to 94% more views if you add compelling visual elements and graphics. This was highlighted in a report by MDG Advertising which also reported that up to 14% more views can be generated by press releases if they contain photos when published – which can jump up to 48% if they contain both photos and videos.
5. Visual Content that Go Viral Can Bring Tons of Inbound Links
Tools for visual content marketing like infographics, memes, posters, and the like can go viral if people will like the content well enough to share it within their own online communities and social networks. Visual content like these however should contain your logos, page or website information so recipients will know where the material originally came from. It would be best however if the visual content is syndicated in a form that is clickable – which will bring in tons of inbound links back to you.
Getting loads of inbound links can do a lot for your business. From an SEO standpoint, high-quality and relevant inbound links can boost your rankings in search results, so make sure your visual elements are properly tagged with appropriate meta information and text descriptions. On top of that, visuals that go viral can boost your branding, giving you more probability of being contacted for business by up to 60% of targeted audiences.
6. Visual Content Helps You Increase Your Subscribers and Followers
A quick glance at your Facebook newsfeeds and timelines will tell you that good and compelling visual content can generate more likes, comments and shares than updates that contain only texts and words. As the posts gets viral, you can reach an even broader audience reach which will eventually results in more subscribers and followers for your brand or business page.
With a bigger number of subscribers and followers, more social signals and engagements can be generated from your targeted audiences. More engagements will result to better and more comprehensive interaction between your brand and your audiences, resulting in higher conversions. A report from HubSpot claims that up to 37% increase in engagements from targeted customers can result if the article is optimized by adding more compelling visual elements.
7. Visual Content is More Understandable
As explained earlier, people may have a harder time understanding what a page is trying to say or convey if it contains only texts. By adding visual elements that can explain what the page is trying to say, targeted audiences can better understand or appreciate your brand’s message. With detailed images that make your content more understandable, you can get the attention of up to 67% of targeted audiences that encounter your visual content.
People will find it harder to understand paragraphs and long lines of text. Many will find it unappealing and may not exert the extra effort to read what your page is trying to say. With visual elements, they can get a glimpse of your message right away and if they are interested, they can read and appreciate more information – which can compel them to take action.
8. Visual Content can Influence Human Emotions
Visual content can come in a wide explosion of colors that can really appeal to targeted audiences senses – making them great for visual content marketing because of how they can influence human emotions. How this happens is the result of the psychology of colors which describes how certain colors and color combination generate a particular type of emotion from a particular viewer. Studies have shown however that colors not only affect emotions but it can also influence how a particular viewer will take action – such as influencing their purchasing decisions.
9. Visual Content Solicits Targeted Users’ Action Much More Effectively
Getting targeted audiences’ attention is one thing, but getting them to take a preferred course of action is better. This can be a good result if you make use of visual content marketing much more effectively. A report from the Web Marketing Group claimed that 40% of users online will provide better and more favorable responses to a particular visual content than other plain and text-based content.
10. Visual Content in Video Form is More Preferred
Visual content marketing can generate even more favorable results than ordinary images and graphics in terms of getting targeted audiences’ attention and generating engagement. In the United States alone, up to 85% of Internet users watch online video according to comScore. This viewership can improve even more with the increasing popularity and availability of tablets, smartphones and other Internet-enabled devices.
Currently, there are 25 million smartphone users around the world that view an average of 4 hours of mobile video from their devices, according to reports from Ooyala. 26% of these smartphone users watch online video at least once per day which eventually will increase exponentially in the coming periods – giving digital marketers more opportunity to gain more marketing mileage through their visual content.
11. Visual Content Generates More Social Engagement
Social media marketing is a very powerful tool for generating better interaction and engagement with targeted audiences. The power of social media can increase even more with the use of compelling visual content that generates more social engagement. This is what brands discovered when they made use of visual content with in their Facebook campaigns, generating 65% more engagement just after only a months practice. The better and more compelling their visual content are, the higher their social engagement rates can become.
12. Visual Content Makes Targeted Online Visitors Stay Longer
People can easily get tired with long lines of texts and paragraphs. Many will tire off and eventually abandon the page without digesting and understanding what your brand is trying to say. With good and compelling visual content, website visitors tend to stay longer, long enough for them to consume more and understand the message your content is trying to deliver.
Visual content marketing has gone beyond the level of a fad into one of the most powerful online marketing tools the business world has ever experienced. The power of utilizing visual content marketing for your Internet marketing campaign is undeniable – and as a business owner and digital marketer you should start making use of this visually stimulating and highly engaging way of reaching out to your targeted customers.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.