The huge variety and accessibility of visual content has made today’s consumers more visually oriented than ever. They already judge your brand based on its visual footprint. One study, for instance, found that 94% of participants considered a website’s design elements when determining their trust in an online health site.
But that’s not the only role visual content is playing. Research shows most consumers want to interact with brands in a visual way. According to Demand Gen Report’s “2015 Content Preferences Survey,” which polled 177 buyers, 91% said they preferred more interactive and visual content. This has translated to the rise of visual search, which is poised to be one of the most transformative trends in marketing in 2019.
We’ve already seen this technology develop a great deal in the past year. Many consumers now want to be able to find any product by snapping a photo of it, and they need to be able to interact with products visually before they decide to make an online purchase.
How has visual search transformed the marketing landscape, and what further developments can we expect to see? Here are three key visual search trends to pay attention to in 2019.
1. Camera-Powered Visual Search
The latest visual search innovations have seen improved functionalities that empower consumers to find a product simply by taking a picture of something they like. Optimizing your marketing strategy to harness the power of such technologies will be essential in 2019.
Several companies are using these innovations already. Last February, Pinterest incorporated a feature called Lens into its app. Lens enables people to take a photo of anything they like. It then conducts a search for ideas and images that are related to the photo the user has just taken. This way, the consumer can find the same or similar products and explore ideas related to that product.
According to AdWeek (subscription required), since it launched, Pinterest Lens has totaled more than 600 million monthly visual searches. And other companies are following suit. Google has launched a similar app, also called Lens, that not only empowers product searches but helps people learn about nearby landmarks, identify plants and animals and find the recipe for a favorite menu item. Brands such as ASOS have added visual search functionality to their own apps. Snapchat users, too, now see links to Amazon product pages related to photos they’ve taken.
This can be an incredibly powerful tool for marketers. Consider how many people have seen your product in the past but haven’t been able to easily find it online. Many of those lost opportunities can now be leads. After all, most people who snap photos of a product similar to yours are doing so because they’re genuinely interested in what you have to offer. In 2019, consider incorporating new visual search tools in your company’s app, and make sure to stay active on Pinterest.
2. Look Before You Buy
Now more than ever, consumers want to be able to explore visual content related to a product or service before making a purchase. In fact, nearly three in four U.S. web users say they regularly or always search for visuals before they make a purchase, according to a report by eMarketer. Furthermore, in 2016, Moz worked with Jumpshot to research search behavior and reported that nearly 27% of all searches were for images.
If your company isn’t providing the kind of visual content consumers crave, you may be missing out on sales. Make sure to post plenty of product photos with metadata optimized for your target keywords. Videos or motion graphics related to your product or service can also be a big help, given that video is estimated to account for more than 80% of all web traffic by 2022.
3. Image-Powered Browsing
Amazon, too, has jumped into the visual search market, and it features a fascinating browsing option called Scout to Amazon.com. Scout shows consumers a slew of different products, which they can rate with a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. Then, in real time, it offers the user revised product suggestions based on their ratings. Amazon calls it “a visual way to shop without words.”
What’s the takeaway? Text-powered browsing is falling out of favor. While text will continue to help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts as you target specific keywords in your image and video metadata, among other efforts, text isn’t likely to be what consumers want to see most in 2019.
So, make sure that all your product photos, videos, illustrations, e-books and other visual content are the highest quality they can be in the coming year. A custom-made, high-quality piece of visual content can be all you need to make the sale.