Different people have different ways of understanding content so it’s important to find what works for your blog. Your success will depend on how well you can engage your readers and build an audience. After a few years in the business, you’ll be know exactly what you need to do to write content that resonates with your readers. For some, it will be adding videos, images, or content in the form of a story. We know audio is a very important learning tool but being able to visually describe your content is much more effective. As a matter of fact, the reason story telling has been so effective as a learning tool is because it stimulates the mind in a way where more of the information is retained long-term. There are many parts to an effective story telling campaign and I’d like to go over some right now.
If you want to shake up the way your audience understands content, then it’s important to start implementing some of these awesome story telling strategies. Let’s jump right in…
Text vs. Visuals
Every time I write content or present at a conference, I’ll add images because it’s been proven to help absorption of text. Many bloggers will tell you if they had to pick, they’d choose images over text because people can understand visual content better than text. Here’s something else that’s cool,
In a recent study, it’s been proven the human mind will process visuals 60,000 faster than text, which is amazing especially with so much competition in every niche. I’ve always been a true believer that you have to stand out compared to your competition and what better way than to have your content quickly processed within seconds?
Images Provide Recall
Here’s something new I learned recently and it’s that people can recall images more quickly than text. You’ll notice this is why big brand names will emphasize the importance of an awesome logo because once a customer sees your brand logo, they’ll remember it. The same can be applied to content and how people process what you’re trying to get across to your readers. If you are able to compress the text into a visual image, then they’ll remember it compared to others who are focusing on just text. Here’s something else you should note,
You’ve probably seen an influx of infographics over the last couple of years and the success can be attributed to how well they allow people to process enormous information quickly. Many top bloggers use infographics and have done very well getting content across to their readers.
Less Is More in Visual Storytelling
When leveraging storytelling to create engaging content it’s recommended to use visual cues to help people process information more quickly. This doesn’t mean you can’t make use of text on your illustration but you have to be careful when you do. It’s often said less is more when adding text to images because adding way too much defeats the objective of using an image. I suggest doing the following when adding text to your image or infographic…
- Keep letters bold
- Always use bullet points
- Keep characters to under 16
Careful of Placements
If you need to add text to your infographics or images, then it’s important to be careful about the placement so you can still get your point across. As mentioned above, you want to tell a story about your content so readers remember your brand and can engage with your content by sharing it with others. However, you need to be careful how you set up your final product so the important elements can be seen. If you’re adding images, be sure to space them out correctly and if you’re adding text, don’t block the visual images. There is no replacement for clean organized content and if the reader can’t see your visual cue, then they won’t engage with your page.
- Space out your images
- Keep them clear
- Don’t block images with text
- Text should be bold and big enough to read