How to Win Business with Visual Marketing
Do you want a fail-proof visual marketing strategy to win business? Check out this post for tried-and-tested tactics, illustrations, resources, and hacks.
Visuals are eye-catching and impactful. Many viewers retain them longer than plain text.
To understand the importance of visuals in marketing, Venngage conducted a survey of marketers and reported the following insights:
- 74% said that 70% of their content contained some form of visuals
- 64% spent at least two hours per day creating visual content
So, whether it’s infographics, presentations, GIFs, or stock images, visuals play a big role in marketing. The visual economy is poised for a boom in 2020.
If you don’t have a concrete visual marketing strategy, you are losing out to more savvy competitors.
But it’s never too late to start.
This post will outline smart ways to win business with visual marketing. It also contains data, examples, and resources to make your task easier.
Shall we begin?
How Visual Marketing Helps You Win Business
A picture can convey a thousand words.
Sound cliché? It’s true.
Visuals stimulate our senses and because of that, they can capture our attention. And that’s why marketers are leveraging visuals to effectively win business.
The best news is that you don’t need to be an expert designer to create stunning visuals.
There are several free or low-priced design tools that can help you craft infographics, animated pictures, and videos. That done, you can use a robust software program for content marketing. It can house your content library and publish it to the platforms of your choice.
Seems simple, doesn’t it? It is.
But first, you need an actionable visual marketing strategy.
To help you get started, I’ve filtered it down to five powerful tactics:
1. Tell Your Brand’s Story
Modern buyers are very discerning.
They like to research brands thoroughly before engaging with them. During the consideration and discovery stages of the buyer journey, customers like to learn about a brand’s story, journey, and product catalogs. This helps them compare brands and make an informed purchase decision.
But not all buyers have the patience to read lengthy whitepapers or “About Us” pages.
Concise and visual-rich infographics and listicles are considered valuable, said 78% and 76% of buyers. Based on the results of the study, you can also conclude that buyers find video content valuable.
What’s the takeaway?
Use these formats to convey your brand’s story and make a lasting impression on potential customers.
Image via Demand Gen
Burt’s Bees has nailed this tactic.
They use short YouTube videos to talk about their founder, Burt, who is a nature enthusiast. His passion for nature makes the organic cosmetics brand’s messaging more credible.
Image via YouTube
2. Leverage Social Media
Social media can help brands stand out in an oversaturated market.
A combination of social media and visual content can help you win over your audience. By publishing slick content on visual-heavy platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, you can grab eyeballs as well as potential customers.
While long textual posts have their own value, social media isn’t the place for them. Social users have dwindling attention spans. They scroll right past text-heavy posts.
To unlock a social network’s full potential, you can follow their recommended best practices while creating visual content. Plus, you need to figure out what kind of content is well-suited for which platform.
For example, Instagram is great for posting high-quality images and off-the-cuff Stories. YouTube is known as a platform for long-form videos, while Tumblr is for microblogs.
Take a cue from GoPro.
The professional camera brand is active on most social channels but they have different strategies for each channel. They use Facebook for brand awareness, Instagram for posting UGC, and Twitter for announcements.
Image via Instagram
GoPro also posts video editing tips and tutorials on YouTube. This multi-pronged approach has helped GoPro garner a huge following on all channels and earn a lot of business.
Image via YouTube
Don’t forget to add branding elements to your social posts.
Follow a consistent tone, color scheme, and posting schedule so that audiences start associating you with your content. Repeated exposure to your brand’s voice can make a lasting impression on audiences.
3. Widen Your Reach
If you are a global brand or want to reach international audiences, visual marketing should be your top priority. You can overcome language and cultural barriers by expressing yourself through visuals.
You can take inspiration from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The organization crossed borders through its #LastSelfie contest on Snapchat.
Snapchat’s content is also ephemeral. WWF leveraged this content format for storytelling. They posted pictures of endangered species, with the caption #LastSelfie, to show that time is running out for these animals.
Image via WWF
They urged people to share the pictures, donate through SMS, or adopt an animal. The campaign was a huge hit because it struck a chord with people of varied cultures and backgrounds. Take a look at the results:
Try not to pigeonhole yourself into a single type of visual format. The more varied your visual content, the broader your reach will be.
GIFs are a less explored visual format, but they have immense potential.
They have no ad breaks like videos. You get to combine art and animation in a single piece. And, you can add fun captions and music to make them more interesting. Plus, younger audiences love GIFs.
If you’re a fan of the Terminator series, you’ll know their creator, Paramount Pictures. When the movie, Terminator Genesis, was about to be released, Paramount unleashed a marketing blitz using GIFs.
They hired six GIPHY artists to create GIFs enacting their favorite scenes from the movie’s preview. The results were stunning, to say the least.
Check out some creations from their GIPHY page.
Images via GIPHY
4. Increase Your Website’s Dwell Time
By adding engaging videos on your website, you can convert it into a lead generation tool. In a survey, 71% of respondents said that videos can increase the amount of time that people spend on a site.
Explainer videos or demos on product pages are excellent for creating product awareness and educating new users.
One brand that does this perfectly is Alaska Tours. Their homepage shows videos of Alaskan grizzlies and glaciers that are really enticing.
Image via Alaska Tours
5. Flaunt Your Domain Knowledge
Visual marketing can also help you establish domain authority. In this way, you can attract customers, investors, and collaborators.
But how can you achieve this?
You can also work out an affiliate partnership with industry experts. They can recommend your products and you can give them a commission on the revenue their recommendations generate.
If an affiliate program doesn’t interest you, you will have to invest time and effort into creating buzz-worthy visual content yourself.
Want some inspiration?
Listerine uses infographics regularly to educate customers about oral hygiene. Their content is laden with well-researched data and attractive graphics. Naturally, such visuals can build customers’ trust in the brand.
Image via Pinterest
The key is to keep your content original and helpful. Additionally, promote your visuals through your website and social media. Post consistently and respond quickly to feedback from viewers. In this way, you can build your reputation.
Ready to Win Business with Visual Marketing?
Visual marketing can generate massive returns for your business. It boosts your brand’s awareness and authority. It also improves your customer engagement rates and content visibility. All of this translates into business opportunities.
Do you have any questions about visual marketing? Share them in the comment section below.