Article

Shane Barker
Shane Barker 19 November 2019

How to Use a Visual Content Strategy to Generate More Traffic

Do you know you can use visual content to improve audience engagement and to increase your website traffic? Check out this article to know more.

Think like a consumer.

When you are reading an article with no images or charts, it can get quite boring, right?

No matter how well-developed the content is, and no matter how popular the writer is, the lack of visual content creates an unwanted flatness in the user experience.

Visual content engages your audience, while helping make the text content easier to digest.

Did you know that, according to Brain Rules, the human brain has an incredible ability to remember pictures?

If we read content, three days later, we are going to remember only 10%. If the content includes visuals, then we are likely to remember 65%.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content with images gets 94% more views than content without images. This includes any niche or subject. 

What are the Different Types of Visual Content?

When someone refers to visual content, most of us think of static pictures.

However, there is a variety of visual content you can use to spice up your content strategy and increase web traffic.

Here are the most popular types of visual content:

  1. Infographics
  2. Images/photos
  3. Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
  4. Videos
  5. Data representation/statistics
  6. Illustrations with inspirational/fun quotes
  7. Screenshots (serve as proof)
  8. How to visuals
  9. Memes or gifs
  10. Visual puzzles

It is considerably easier to communicate the emotion behind a statement, a brand, a product, or a service using visuals.

How to Connect Visual Content and Branding

Visual content creates an expectation for your brand. Therefore, the first step in any visual content campaign is to streamline your branding.

For example, if you are using visuals with soft, pastel colors, then your brand can be associated with calmer, nostalgic tones.

On the contrary, if you choose visual content with loud, electric colors, then your brand can be associated with more edgy, modern tones.

Can you see how colors have a lot to do with the expectation you are creating for your audience?

Having a strong and consistent visual content strategy will help your audience remember your brand faster.

The best way to connect visuals with your brand is to pick your branding colors, design a unique logo, and stay consistent with your fonts and graphics.

Consistency is the key to a healthy brand. It is also associated with confidence and clarity in vision.

A study published in the Cerebral Cortex by Oxford Academic established that consumers’ buying decisions are emotionally driven. A brand that exhibits a consistent visual content strategy will build a more trusted relationship with the audience, which will lead to higher sales.

To optimize any original visual content before publishing it online, make sure that you:

  1. Brand it with your logo
  2. Use consistent fonts and graphics
  3. Have a consistent tone of voice
  4. Check your spacing (visually, even the spacing is part of your brand)
  5. Use a set template (if possible)

Once you define your branding and streamline your strategy, it is time to begin implementation.

1. Social Media Visuals

Just like you have cleaned up your branding, it is time to streamline and brand your social media profiles. When you create a social media post, start looking for opportunities to incorporate visuals.

Alternate between video, Infographics, images, memes, and other visuals to keep it interesting.

A good way to design and execute your social media visual campaigns is to plan a monthly calendar.

Decide ahead of time what you will post and when.

For example, on Mondays, you can post videos; on Tuesdays, some inspirational quotes; on Wednesdays, visual puzzles; and so on.

This way you can also measure what days appear to have a stronger engagement. Knowing which visual content works best for your subject or niche, will help you optimize your social media content and profiles for better results.

Entertainment may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about visuals. However, Think with Google found that people trying to solve a problem will first choose a video source.

Why-People-turn-to-youtube.png

[Source: thinkwithgoogle]

2. Social Proof Visual Content

Social proof is very popular as an endorsement method. It is a little bit like the blockchain of content.

Just like blockchain in technology offers a safety net due to the decentralization of information, social proof offers a reliable mechanism to trust the feedback.

It is economically unreliable to try to fake massive social proof endorsements. Consumers know this, and therefore are more likely to buy a product with strong social proof.

What is social proof content? It could include:

  1. Product reviews
  2. Pictures of users with the product
  3. Pictures of celebrities using the product
  4. Endorsements from influencers

If your company is in a position to engage consumers, celebrities, or influencers in sending in visual content, then do not hesitate to do so.

Your company can create several scenarios to engage consumers in providing social proof.

  1. Best picture-holding-the-product competition
  2. Travel with the product competition, where users take pictures of themselves in front of popular landmarks, etc.
  3. Most creative product picture

This will not only generate free visual content for your brand but also provide you with trustworthy visual content.

social-proof-visual-content.png

[Source: Buffer]

According to Practical Ecommerce, if you had to choose one single factor that will ensure online traffic and sales, it should be social proof content.

3. Focus on Video

Perhaps the most effective component of visual content campaigns is video.

According to Oberlo, 88% of video marketers are satisfied

Focus-on-video.png

[Source: Oberlo]

These numbers cannot be ignored.

To incorporate videos into your visual content strategy, consider the following:

  1. Brand awareness videos
  2. Behind-the-scenes videos
  3. Testimonials
  4. Presentations
  5. ‘How to’ videos
  6. Interviews
  7. Fun videos

Measure Your Results, Optimize, and Repeat

There are various digital marketing metrics you should be measuring to optimize your campaigns. For your visual content, you will typically look at engagement rates to see how people are responding.

Among these metrics, knowing the cost of acquisition (COA) for all marketing campaigns is also vital.

The COA is defined as the cost it takes your company to get a client. If the COA is $10, you better be selling your product for over $10!

Different campaigns will result in a different COA. The lower your COA, the more profitable your company will be.

The best way to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns is to set up your analytics beforehand and connect them with the various campaigns.

Conclusion

Start preparing your 2020 visual content strategy by deciding which content is most relevant for your brand.

Do not try to implement all methods at the same time, as it will confuse your audience and disperse your resources in multiple directions, making it harder to measure.

Are you using visual content to generate traffic? Share your experience in the comments.

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