Visuals rank above blogging and videos as the most important type of marketing content, according to the “2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” by Social Media Examiner, which surveyed 5,700 online marketers. Furthermore, 68% of marketers plan to increase their use of visuals in the near future.
The “2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” by Social Media Examiner, which surveyed 5,700 online marketers, found that 32% believe visuals are the most important form of content. Furthermore, 68% plan to increase their use of visual images.
Marketers have gotten the message: They need to make visual communication a fundamental part of every campaign. But when it comes to measuring the performance of your visual content, it might seem to pose some unique challenges.
How do you know if you’re producing the most engaging and effective visual content possible? Let’s take a look at how you can measure your return on investment on three key channels.
1. Tracking Visual Content Engagement On Social Media
Eight in 10 marketers share visual content on social, according to the same Social Media Examiner report. Given just how effective visual content on social media can be, you’re probably already sharing infographics, mini infographics, GIFs, videos and motion graphics on a regular basis. How can you tell whether these are performing at their optimum level?
First, compare their performance to that of your text-only posts. Posts with visuals should be getting more likes and shares. Use tools like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics and Instagram Insights to make these comparisons.
Next, if you haven’t yet defined a visual language that outlines a consistent look and feel for all your visual marketing content, consider trying posts in different illustration styles and color palettes: business professional versus fun and quirky; neutral palette versus playful and colorful. Which ones get more engagement?
Even if you’ve already defined your visual language, you can test what kinds of content get more engagement. Try posting mini infographics with key statistics related to your industry. How do these compare to illustrations or photography? Do videos or motion graphics generate more clicks or shares than static images?
Also, make sure to note how all of these trends vary by channel — because they will.
You can measure engagement and effectiveness not only with on-platform tools but also with the help of custom URLs, Google Tag Manager and urchin traffic monitor (UTM) parameters that track the performance of the links you’ve paired with certain visual content. Do some types of content drive more click-throughs or conversions than others?
Based on all the data you’ve collected, you’ll be able to outline which types of visual content you’d like to use moving forward on each platform.
2. Crafting An Effective Email Marketing Campaign
You can incorporate visual content in a variety of forms into your emails. In almost all cases, you’ll want to include a visual header that will immediately catch the attention of your reader. It should be something that’s engaging and interesting — something that makes them want to learn more. You might also want to include in-line images throughout your email. This can be anything from product images to blog links to e-book teasers. Some applications even allow you to embed video.
How can you tell what’s engaging and interesting? Many of the techniques you use to measure social media success, including creating custom URLs and useful UTM codes, can also be used to track the success of your email campaigns.
Another powerful strategy is A/B testing. Try comparing two different visual headers or sets of primary visual elements. They might be in different design styles or color palettes; one might incorporate a little text, while the other might be illustration-only. Test these different styles against each other and see which ones get higher click-through rates versus which elicit unsubscribes or get marked as spam.
If your email lists are segmented by demographic or other criteria, pay attention to whether preferred visual content types vary among these groups. For instance, your business-to-business (B2B) list might be more likely to respond to neutral color palettes and realistic illustrations, whereas your business-to-consumer (B2C) group might prefer fun, quirky or even cartoony styles. Just as you write differently when you’re talking to these different groups, you must also communicate visually in fundamentally different ways.
3. Boosting Website Returns With Visual Content
You can also use A/B testing to determine what types of visual content are most effective on your website. This can help you discover not only what design style is most engaging, but whether the overall visual layout and presentation of key pages is as effective as it could be. Are your call-to-action buttons in the right places? What parts of the page are people paying the most attention to? Heat maps and eye-tracking software can help answer the latter question.
Even without A/B testing, you can compare the success of different blog posts or pages with the help of Google Analytics. Which are getting the most traffic, and how do the visuals on those posts or pages compare to the rest?
A couple of key metrics that will help you make these comparisons are your time on page and bounce rate. How long are they sticking around to check out your blog post or page, and are they leaving your site after they see it? Low time on page or high bounce rate could mean you need to reassess your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy: Are you really driving the right people to this page — people who will truly value what you have to offer? On the other hand, if the traffic sources are similar to those of other pages and you’re seeing numbers that are lower or higher than normal for particular pages, it’s time to determine how the visuals compare.
Every business measures the success of its visual strategy differently, depending on what goals it wants to achieve. Try some of the strategies I’ve outlined here to more clearly measure your visual content’s return on investment. This data will be key in defining the most effective visual strategy for your business moving forward.