Why Visual Communication is Changing Marketing
Brands are struggling to keep up with the need for visual content of the market. People spend up to a billion hours on Youtube every day, but that’s not the only visual media that customers are demanding: 95% of B2B buyers prefer shorter and highly visual formats over traditional text-based media.
With the rise of social media, increase in visual content and internet video traffic, visual communication has become essential in interacting with today’s audiences.
Visual communication creates forms which elicit emotional responses and which clarify, educate, motivate, and inspire.
In 2016 the “Content Marketing Institute” stated that there had been an increased usage of illustration and photos in marketing, from 69% up to 76%, in the previous year, and continued with an year-after-year increase since then. But still many marketers are still reluctantly trailing behind when it comes to having an efficient visual communication strategy.
By January 2017, according to AdWeek, 53% of marketers said that 91-100% of their published content was visual material. While 35% often used lower quality images or stock images, fewer than 8% said those images inspired high engagement. Customers today won’t settle for any visual, they are looking for a mixture of quality and authenticity that shows why your brand is worth paying attention to.
The key is producing quality custom visual content. Mentally, we are tuned to store and comprehend visual information as our primary form of communication, and we all have discerning eyes. We recognize overused images, cheap design and photography lacking authenticity. And it’s equally true that we also recognize high quality original content. Multiple studies back this up: a study of websites by researchers at Northumbria and Sheffield Universities suggests that 94% of first impressions are based entirely on the design of the first message someone sees. Only 6% of the feedback was about the actual content. In addition, a study from PWC reveals that custom visual content converts seven times better than stock images.
Visual communication is key in this day and age, it connects audiences to businesses. Buyers have raised their expectations and you need to meet them in order to ensure your success in 2018.
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