IMAGES MATTER

Images are not just separate pieces of content. They are doorways to more valuable information. Use visuals to drive traffic to your website, blog, products and services.

The key is to design each visual in a way that asks your fans or followers take some sort of action.

• Would you like them to share it?
• Would you like visitors to engage with it (like and comment)?
• Would you like them to go from one social media platform to another?
• Would you like them to click through on a visual to arrive at your blog post or podcast show notes?
• Would you like them to click through from a social media platform back to your website?

VISUAL SHIFT FOR BUSINESS

This means a massive opportunity for businesses who can leverage the power of visual marketing.

How does a business go about doing that?

Like any new skill, one must be willing to learn, study, skin your knees and grow. So the question becomes, will the effort be worth it?

The SHORT ANSWER IS YES!!!

WHY?

BECAUSE IT WORKS, AND STUDIES CONTINUE TO PROVE THIS.

If we can learn how to use images, photos, video, and other visual media in our online marketing, then we have a greater chance of reaching more people with our message.

This provides a greater opportunity for more exposure as visuals drive traffic to our websites products and services.

Instagram was recently reported by Dane Atkinson (CEO of SumAll.com as having as much as 10 times greater engagement than other platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

THE BEST TYPE OF VISUAL CONTENT

What’s one of the best types of visual content you can create? An infographic.

 

DIY TOOLS

Having a photography company Blair Ball Photography, I have it easier than most since I spend time in the digital darkroom working on images in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop and other plugin software. It’s a skill anyone can learn if committed.

Here’s the problem. TIME

Not only time, but easy of use.

I’ve discovered a fantastic FREE TOOL for business owners. It’s called CANVA. It can turn you or anyone on your staff into a visual designer in a few hours. It’s EASY, it’s PROFESSIONAL, and it’s POWERFUL!

I put this together in less than 10 minutes. The key to visual design is visualizing what you want ahead of time, and planning it out. Then it goes pretty fast. You can do this, and stand out from your competition with this tool alone!

Create one or more of the following types of “original” images:

• Quotes
• Checklists
• Tutorials
• Infographics
• Videos
• Slideshare presentations.

OTHER TOOLS

• Use iPhone/smartphone photo apps like Instagram, Snapseed, Overgram, Wordswag or Phonto to take relevant, original images, and to add filters and funky fonts.
• Learn to use quality DIY editing programs like PicMonkey.com

VISUAL MARKETING CONTENT – IMAGE TIPS

If you haven’t noticed, when it comes to online marketing nowadays it’s all about images. People are taking and sharing a whole lot of photos; 500 million photos are shared each day!

If you haven’t already, it’s time your small business started marketing with stunning visuals.

• Be authentic
• Provide value
• Create content that educates your users and helps them to improve their game – they will become loyal followers and genuinely engage with your content.  It also helps you to become an expert in your field.

On that note, here’s a quick design tip:  

• Ensure consistency throughout all of your visual content – your fonts, colors, photo filters, image style and the personality you project.
• It will make your brand is easy to recognize and more memorable.

Visual Content Influencing the Future of Social Media [Infographic]

Create Helpful Infographics

Infographics are traditionally data-filled and statistic-heavy. While they can be made attractive with an attention-grabbing, creative design, the reality is that after an initial view, pin or share, they are rarely viewed again.

In many cases they are repinned even without any click-through back to websites.

Create a super-useful infographic, and it is more likely to be bookmarked, kept, referred to and used by Pinterest users.

CONTENT MARKETING TACTICS

The popularity of whitepapers as a B2B content marketing format is actually declining in relation to more interactive, easily digestible formats such as video.

Dot Com Infoway, an India-based IT company, has put together an infographic on how and why visual content enjoys primacy in social media and the ways in which brands can integrate such content into their online strategy.

The below infographic addresses three main components

1. Why visual content is so important to the survival of brands in the digital age
2. The significance visual content enjoys in the biggest social media platforms
3. Online tools and mobile apps that brands can use to make their visual content more appealing in order to attract customers.