5 Reasons Why Visuals Have a Huge Impact on Your Social Media Campaign

If you want to be a master of social media advertising, it’s not enough to have great written content. What really grabs the attention of your readers is quality visuals. Videos, photos, and infographics will capture your reader’s attention much quicker and more effectively.

Humans are visual beings who process images much better than text. Our brains process visual data 60,000 times faster than text, and that should be enough to convince you that visuals can greatly improve your social media campaign.

With the right images, you can build an impressive marketing presence and succeed in your field, all thanks to a couple of carefully chosen visuals. 

But why exactly do visuals have such a huge impact on social media campaigns?

A higher number of views

According to research, any type of social media content will have 94% more views if it includes visual elements. Informative content means very little if you don’t have appealing visuals to accompany that content.

When you include photos, videos and other types of visuals in your social media campaign, more people will find your content engaging. Your target audience will also find your content much easier to read if there is an appropriate, attention-grabbing visual that accompanies your written content.

Visual content is also a quick way to:

• showcase your products
• increase traffic to your website
• express your brand
• convey an emotion
• differentiate your brand from competitors

Data visualization

If you need to get your point across and have a bunch of data and statistics to present to your readers, don’t just use text. Instead, create a visual which can capture all you have to say in a fun and colorful way which also makes the topic more approachable.

A simple graph or chart would help the reader visualize and become more familiar with the topic. If you’re struggling with something complex, you can use an infographic to highlight important facts and crucial details. With data visualization, any topic can become fun and interesting.

Making the content more memorable 

Not only does visual content attract more attention, but it makes the experience more memorable as well. Pictures attract attention, but they’re also more interesting than text, and as we’ve said before, our brains process them much more quickly. All of this makes visual content memorable.

However, be careful because some images can actually be forgettable. Over-used, generic, and bland visuals that aren’t interesting to readers won’t achieve the desired effect. Instead, by using original images, your product or service is bound to pop up in someone’s head long after they’ve seen your content.

Making relatable content

Today’s consumers are more likely to buy a product from a business or brand they find trustworthy. That trust is gained by making relatable content your consumers can connect to on a personal level. If you use relatable visual content, your customers will have positive emotions toward your brand.

People don’t use information nearly as much as they use emotion when they’re evaluating a brand and deciding whether or not to purchase a product. If the consumer has a positive emotional response to your product, the chances of making a sale are much higher.

Videos are extremely popular

Image by 200 Degrees from Pixabay

Anyone who has spent some time browsing the internet knows how popular videos are. Each popular social media website is filled with videos, and according to a Cisco study, approximately 78% of all data traffic in 2021 will consist of videos.

Many consumers would much rather watch a video showing a product and describing all of its qualities than simply read about that same product. This type of visual content will attract more views and ultimately increase sales rates.  

However, social media video production is more complicated than just creating images or infographics. That’s why it would be best to get professional help if you really want your content to stand out and generate more sales.  

How to choose the best visuals

Including visuals in your social media campaign can do wonders for your business. But how do you know which visuals will attract the most attention and which will be uninteresting or even off-putting? 

Here are some tips on how to choose the best visuals.

Choose visuals that match the topic and are easy to understand

There are many different types of visuals that are used in social media campaigns, but not all of them are appropriate at all times. Decide which photos, videos, or infographics match your content and add value to it. If you use the wrong kind of visual, it could convey that you aren’t knowledgeable enough on the subject.

Don’t be afraid of using a variety of different types of visuals

In some cases, your content can look sloppy and disorganized if you use too many visuals. However, if your content is long and diverse enough to require different types of visuals, don’t hesitate to add them.

• Use graphs and charts for facts and statistics.
•  If you’re mentioning or describing a product, make sure to include a picture of it.
•  When you want to highlight the most important parts of your post, use an infographic.
• Create a graphic checklist when you want to summarize your post.

Respect copyright laws

This isn’t something you need to worry about if you’re using your own visuals. However, if you get your images from anywhere else, make sure to check if they are copyrighted. If they are and you still want to use them, you will need written permission from the author. Otherwise, you could get into legal trouble.

Include sharing options
Image by monicore from Pixabay 

Sharing buttons on blogs and posts have become a norm, but not a lot of people remember to include them to their visuals. If you include social sharing buttons to your images, there is a good chance your visuals will go viral.

Shareable visuals are those which can stand on their own even without written content. These are usually videos, graphs, and infographics.

Optimize all of your visuals for search engines

When you add keywords and descriptions to your visuals, they become ready for visual search in search engines. If your image or video has keywords that reflect the content of the visual, they will become search-engine optimized and the right people will be able to find them much easier.

How visuals have influenced marketing

There are some notable statistics that show how significant visual content is in the field of marketing. After all, these numbers don’t lie:

• 32% of marketers have stated that visual images are the most important form of content for their business.
• Infographics can increase web traffic by up to 12%.
• Tweets that have images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without any visual content.
• Using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and clickthrough rates by 65%.
• In a 2018 survey conducted by HubSpot, 54% of consumers stated they wanted businesses or brands to produce more video content.