Visual content is here to stay. According to Search Engine Journal, 53 percent of marketers said they published content containing images between 91 and 100% of the time in 2016, up from 40.5 percent in 2015.
Consumers expect text to be broken up with visual content, such as an interesting infographic, which makes text more engaging, compelling and shareable. Graphics can also help you tell your brand story across multiple channels in a cohesive and memorable way. Here are three pointers for ensuring your visual content marketing stands out.
1. Create a brand style guide
Consistency is one of the most important elements of good design. If you are having your company logo redesigned, it’s the perfect time to build your brand design and style guide. Building on your logo, identify what companywide fonts, color palette and even photo filters you want to use to tell your story visually. Then write down the guidelines and share them with everyone in your company to ensure all communications – from an email signature to letterhead to a brochure to the website – have the same look and feel.
2. Give your audience more of what they want
Now that you’ve established brand style guides for creating graphic content, use your social media channels as an extension of your website to build your brand’s visual recognition. Before you develop your content calendar, audit your social media channels and analyze engagement reports to identify the top-performing visual content posts. Does your target audience respond better to infographics, designed quotes, photography, illustrations or user-generated content? Does engagement vary by channel? Deep dive into what works and what doesn’t, and then use your brand style guide to create a content calendar that is filled with compelling imagery.
3. Tell your story
Everyone loves a great story and in a crowded space your story must stand out. Now that you have chosen your brand’s guidelines, use them to help tell your unique story creatively and consistently. Whether you are designing a call out quote for your company blog or an infographic on your LinkedIn page, consistency is the key. You may not have an inhouse graphic designer, but programs such as Canva can help you create professional looking graphics that are in line with your brand style guidelines.
Oreo launched a campaign in 2012 that is a fun example of how templates can be used to great effect, especially on social media. The company updated its Facebook page with a new image every day for 100 days as part of their The Daily Twist campaign. The brand took a pop-culture reference and imagined it through the Oreo brand in an imaginative, and consistent, way. Each daily image used the brand’s color palette and signature font, an Oreo cookie design, the date, a title and a logo. These consistent elements weaved each social media post into a seamless story that was instantly recognizable to fans.
Your brand may not be selling cookies, but visual content is still one of the most effective ways to tell your brand story and build brand awareness.
What are some of your favorite examples of effective visual content marketing? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo via Pixabay