Adding an image to your content can boost user engagement by as much as 650%. Make that a video, and your content is 1,200% more likely to be shared than text and image combined.
Visual marketing is playing a bigger role than ever in digital marketing—but what exactly is that role? Understanding the importance of visual content for your business is the first step to building a visual content marketing strategy that delivers results. This visual marketing guide will deliver that information—and more. Let’s get started!
What we’ll cover in this visual marketing strategy guide
- What is visual marketing?
- Why are visuals important for a content strategy?
- How does rich media affect SEO?
- How to build your visual marketing strategy
- Can’t afford visual marketing? Here’s the alternative
Understanding visual marketing strategy
Totally new to content marketing? Make sure to check out our definitive guide to content marketing processes first! It’s a good idea because your visual content marketing strategy will not only have an impact on your content marketing strategy but your entire marketing strategy as a whole.
As we mentioned in the introduction, visual information can be an incredibly effective way of capturing—and holding—the attention of your audience. Let’s explore why.
What is visual marketing?
Let’s start with the visual marketing definition so that our foundations are set. Visual marketing refers to any method of sharing visual information with your intended audience. When we talk about visual marketing, we’re referring to any of the following media types:
- Infographics
- Illustrations/imagery
- Photos
- Videos
- Memes
- GIFs
- Quotes
- Slides/presentations
These visual marketing examples can include text, but they don’t have to. Visual marketing and content marketing are complementary strategies that your business can leverage to maximize its marketing spend.
Importance of visual content in a marketing strategy
An increase in digital content—facilitated by the rise of social media and associated technologies—has skyrocketed the quantity of multimedia content the average consumer interacts with daily. Visual information has several benefits that are particularly useful to marketers: it’s engaging, it’s memorable, and it has the power to create an emotional connection.
Whether you’re hoping to optimize your paid, owned, or earned marketing channels, visuals are a sure-fire way to do so. What’s more, visual content can positively affect and reinforce your SEO content strategy.
How does rich media affect SEO?
If you think it’s only the words on your site that affect your SERP rankings, think again. Visual elements and other rich media can help convey the value of your site to search engines, not just your users.
Rich media is any form of digital advertising that incorporates interactive elements, not just images and graphics. It can include expandable ad banners, interactive video content, and much more.
Rich media is linked to:
- Higher click-through rates
- An improved user experience
- Improved user retention
- Boosted engagement
All of these benefits help communicate to search engines that your content is worth ranking highly, helping to boost your organic traffic.
How to build a visual marketing strategy of your own
Maximizing returns on your visuals relies on knowing what you want to achieve and how. The secret? Your visual marketing strategy.
Set the standards for your multimedia content
The first step in building out your business’s visual market strategy is to create clear standards for your multimedia content. This requires you to decide on some key information, including:
- What’s the goal of your visual content?
- What mediums do you want to create?
- Where do you want to use your multimedia content?
- Will marketing visuals align with your written content strategy or stand alone?
Once you’ve decided—and documented—the basics of your visual marketing strategy, it’s time to outline the creative standards your content will meet. At this stage, it can be beneficial to build out a content guide that details the essential standards your content should meet.
For each type of visual media you want to create, consider including the following:
- Content format (e.g., infographic, carousel, short)
- Where the content will be distributed (e.g., LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube)
- Style, fonts, color scheme
- Finer details: orientation, dimensions, and resolution
- Key graphic elements (e.g., a logo, watermark, or mascot)
- Any filters or editing protocols
These may be similar to your existing branding guide or content strategy. As you build out your guidelines, consider aligning your strategies as much as possible to easily leverage the two simultaneously.
Don’t have a visual content marketing strategy? Ranq can build one for you as part of our content marketing services!
Use images and graphics to supplement the text in your visual content strategy
With most blogs including at least a featured image, failing to incorporate imagery into your content isn’t likely to work in your favor. A featured image helps improve your content’s discoverability, drawing in your readers and improving their user experience on your site.
Want to go one step further than a featured image?
Choosing key points in your written content to convert into eye-catching visuals or infographics can be a great way to give your content that extra wow factor, keeping readers on your page for longer.
When deciding whether a section of content warrants a visual, the Content Marketing Institute recommends asking yourself the following questions:
- Does this piece of content warrant the creation of a visual?
- What am I trying to achieve by adding a visual element here?
- What type of graphic or visual media would appeal to my target audience?
- What type of visual would fit my brand identity?
- What do I want my audience to do with this content?
- Bonus question: Is there a way I can incorporate a call to action?
Any imagery that you add to your written content that takes these questions into careful consideration is likely to enhance your existing content.
Create audio or video transcripts of posts
Creating an audio or video transcript of an existing blog post or article is a smart way to maximize value for your audience—without investing in creating new content from scratch.
For video, you have two options: overlay a written transcript of your text over video or record a voice-over.
For audio, you can either create a “read-aloud” version of your blog and pin it to the page (a bonus for audio learners within your audience) or turn your blog into a podcast episode.
There are AI-powered tools such as Synesia and Rawshorts that make this process even easier, letting you transform written content into engaging videos in minutes.
Repurpose visual content for social media
Some companies ignore the importance of visual content in social media. Visual content can be easily repurposed into social media posts, either to draw traffic back to your site or as stand-alone content.
For example, you might want to share an infographic—along with a short caption—to your business’s Instagram account. Video content can be edited and republished on YouTube. Audio content can be repurposed into podcast format, paired with stock imagery to upgrade into video format, or even transcribed and posted in a blog post.
This also works in reverse! User-generated content is a great way to showcase visually creative content that immediately resonates with your target audience. Repurposing this content in the form of a blog post is a great way to share that value further!
Get the help of a full-service marketing agency to devise and execute your visual marketing strategy
A full-service digital marketing company can seamlessly align your visual and content marketing strategies to deliver powerful content that engages—and converts.
Even small businesses can benefit from a full-service marketing agency. Ad-hoc fees for graphic design, SEO optimizations, and content can add up quickly—and there’s no guarantee of consistency.
An end-to-end marketing agency is the best way to ensure that your visual content marketing efforts have maximum impact, through strategic alignment with your business’s content strategy and marketing goals.
Can’t afford visual marketing? Ranq is a full-service alternative
Visual marketing is a significant endeavor to improve your content and outreach. If the complexities of visual marketing have you flummoxed, you’re not alone.
Ranq’s end-to-end marketing services include rich media, purpose-written blog content, and strategic SEO optimizations for your website. To find out more about how visual content marketing can grow your business, reach out to Ranq today!