People love to consume visual content. For proof, look at the rise of Pinterest, the explosive growth of Instagram, and the streams of activity on Tumblr. Visual content connects with people because it tells a story, it connects with emotion, and it can be consumed quickly.
Yesterday on the Hubspot blog, there was an interesting statistic shared on the impact of visual content on Facebook pages:
“Visual content drives engagement. In fact, just one month after the introduction of Facebook timeline for brands, visual content — photos and videos — saw a 65% increase in engagement.”
Facebook looks a lot like my little sister’s bedroom wall. She has bulletin boards packed with pictures of her and her friends. Life moments captured in their place. We can see each social platform moving to become virtual memory boxes.
As a marketer, creating an emotional connection between your product and your target market is your ultimate goal. Integrating visual content in your inbound marketing tool kit is a great way to connect with people.
Visual Content at Work
Visual content has played a major role in the 2012 Presidential election. Both President Obama and Governor Romney have marketing teams with very active Instagram feeds. Both regularly share infographs on their Facebook pages and in blog posts.
Both candidates are effectively using pictures and videos to communicate their message and make an emotional connection with their supporters. Supporters then take the content and share it with their friends. It is the emotional connection that
Visual Content Marketing
As inbound marketers we want people to take an action. We’re always looking for an information exchange. Sometimes this exchange is contact information traded for an ebook. Sometimes this is an engaging photo to share in exchange for an inbound link back to your website.
When you pin a picture from your website onto a Pinterest board, that carries with it a back link to your site. This is an SEO win.
When someone watches a funny 30 second YouTube update you produce, you can link back to a blog post above the fold in the description area.
Get creative! Mark Schaefer and the team at Businesses {grow} do a great job of sharing growtoons
Do it Yourself
It is easy to get out and start creating visual content. You don’t need to be a gifted photographer or professional graphic designer to produce visual content. Simply remember the people, tell a story through your content and connect with you audience.
There are a ton of free apps for smart phones and online photo editing websites to help you get started! Go make it happen!