You put thought into the text, the campaign objective, the landing page the link leads to, and the target audience you hope the post reaches, but do you pay attention to the visual that accompanies your post?

The visual you choose can make or break your campaign or post; content that has relevant images is viewed 94% more times than content without.

Our brains are pretty spectacular. They can process and understand an image in 1/10 of a second and remember visual information 6x better than read or heard info.

Those numbers speak for themselves! Visuals have a huge and powerful impact on your content marketing, which is why it is so important to use high quality, relevant visuals as much as possible.

So, how do you choose the right visual?

Make it easy to understand.

Like we said, our brains can process an image in a tenth of a second. Your visual needs to tell a story that can be understood quickly and easily. It should ADD VALUE, rather than confuse viewers.

Make it tell a story.

When social media users are scrolling down their feeds, you want your visual to stand out so that they stop to look at it. Even though we can process images so quickly, we still want potential customers to spend time on our posts. The visual you use should not only get them to stop and look, but also tell them everything they need to know without too much effort. What story do you want users to know about your brand, product or service?

Make it emotional.

You want to spark some sort of reaction from the person viewing the image (or video). Whether it is funny, sad, exciting, etc, make sure your audience can understand it in the context of the story you are telling.

Pro tip: Don’t solely rely on stock photos! They can be impersonal and bland and won’t tell the story of your brand in the unique, understandable way that organic product/service photos you take yourself will.

Spice it up with VARIETY

There are so many different ways to present your content visually. Don’t rely on one single way every time! If you have facts or statistics, make an infographic. If you have products, photograph them alone and in the context of their use. And, you can ALWAYS create a quick video of your product being used or your service being performed, as well as slideshows and other types of videos.

Search Engine Optimization

Did you know that 27% of all online searches are for images? Because visual searches have increased so much over the past few years, search engines are becoming better at presenting visual search results. Now more than ever it is crucial to make sure you have strong SEO and images and videos on your website are optimized for visual search using keywords in your alt tags and good, keyword heavy image descriptions.

If you have more questions about using good visuals in your content marketing, the right way to SEO your website, or would like help with your social media marketing, let us know!