6 Tips to Make Your Visual Content Pop
April 22, 2019
Social media marketing is all about catching the eye of your target audience. With billions of users on the internet and millions making up the user base for platforms like Facebook and Instagram, it gets difficult to produce content that hasn’t already been seen. Setting yourself apart from competitors is more difficult than ever before. While the internet opened doors to a larger demographic of consumers, it also opened the door to worldwide competitors, especially in the ecommerce industry.
If your business has begun staking a claim on social media, blogs, or even through e-mail, but you’re not sure how to go about standing out, this is for you. Throughout this article we’ll discuss 6 of the best ways to include visual material in your content, which visual content is best, and how to make it noticeable.
1. Be Diverse: It’s no longer enough to slap a photograph into a text-based update and hope it creates a stir among website visitors. Social media members scroll past hundreds of pictures and videos every week – so, what makes yours so special? Diversity in your visual posts will help distinguish you as someone to watch in your field. Use memes, GIFs, infographics, and other content which won’t fade into the background.
Use more than one image in your post or take the time to edit pictures to include thought bubbles, captions, stickers and more. A social media user won’t look twice at a photo of your office team smiling for the camera. However, they’ll take a closer look if everyone is wearing a fake mustache and an eyepatch. Use all the tools at your disposal to stand out. There are filters and graphics included in photo apps for a reason – don’t be afraid to use them.
2. Use What’s Popular: Many companies believe it’s boring or tacky to use ready-made content available online. It’s not boring – it’s smart! The newest generation of internet users aren’t shy to make known what interests them and using that content to your advantage can help improve the image your company has online. Building brand awareness and customer loyalty is easier if you use images and videos you already know are popular. We’re not suggesting you take credit for any of these, just share them like you see others doing. Post a clip of a funny cat taking the internet by storm along with a subtle mention of your latest product. For example, “looks like grumpy cat heard about our new sneakers and he’s freaking out – click here to see them in different colors!”
Remember that everything you share has the potential to be shared again by internet users. This is the ultimate “word of mouth” marketing plan, and it works. Remember to use hashtags, keywords, and a link to your homepage to really benefit from shares.
3. Evoke Emotion: Some business who turn to the internet for marketing assistance get nervous about seeming too informal with consumers. They think, “it’s a business – it needs to seem professional.” Professional doesn’t mean stiff. Your content can still sparkle, shine, and crack jokes that will make your readers take an interest and maybe even relate.
Emotional responses to images and text we see and read online improves memory. Remembering your business relating to the content a consumer saw means they’re more likely to pass it on or call it to mind when looking for a service like yours.
4. Use a Personal Touch: While using memes and GIFs you find online is a perfect way to draw in an audience, what do you do once you have them? Consumers want to see the businesses they love as more than just corporations. They want to relate to you on a human level. Using visual content which shares personal stories helps them connect with you on a whole new level.
A video tour of the office, photos of “star of the month”, and other images specific to your business and the people who help it succeed are just what you need to get ahead. This type of content also promotes customer engagement, which improves SEO, traffic, and eventually – conversion.
5. Try New Things: Just because you’ve used one kind of visual content and it’s worked well, doesn’t mean it’s the only kind to try. Businesses which limit themselves to photos only or videos only miss out on opportunities gained by those who prefer a quick funny meme or a wordy infographic.
One great thing about social media spaces is that you can monitor how well certain posts are doing compared to others. This lets you experiment with varying types of imagery until you find the visual content you like best. Even then, you can mix it up once in a while.
6. Go High Quality: There’s nothing worse than trying to watch a YouTube video only to find it’s too dark to see what’s going on, or the audio feed is crackly and hard to hear. Using high quality photographs, videos, and even audio – makes a big difference to how popular your content will be. People are less likely to share a video they couldn’t enjoy, after all. It might seem like a bit of an investment, but if you plan to use visual content regularly (and you should), the one-time cost of a good camera and microphone will pay off.
Whatever visual content you use, choose pictures and videos which are relatable, genuine, and reflect your brand. The rest is icing on the cake.