How to use visual content?
As a content creator, how much time do you spend making your work visually appealing?
If you are honest with your answer, I am sure you would agree that you could use extra effort to make your content engaging and interactive.
Be it landing pages, articles, or a newsletter — the design component is what enhances and gives life to your writing. Adding visual elements can help you:
- Emphasize a point
- Add value to your claims
- Give extra meat to the reader
- Elevate your aesthetics
- Balance out texts and white spacing
- Engage the readers
- Make content share-worthy
Well, the benefits are endless. So, today let’s discuss 6 important visual elements that every content piece must have.
6 important visual elements for your marketing collaterals:
1. Featured images or thumbnails for context
Be it any marketing collateral — blogs, whitepapers, infographics, or emails you need a thumbnail or a featured image while promoting on different channels.
For obvious reasons — you want to set the context and make it attractive enough for the audience to click and check your content.
This is also particularly useful if you are a blogger or a Youtuber.
Whether you are promoting it on different channels or not, an attractive thumbnail opens up an opportunity to lure the audience. In addition, you can add text and logos to your thumbnail to get your point across more clearly.
Once you start creating attractive thumbnail images that work for you, you can also adapt to a particular style or theme that brings coherence to your pages. This makes it aesthetically stunning and sets a vibe for new visitors.
A thumbnail does not only help you out with clicks but also makes visitors turn into fans almost instantly!
A tool like Picmaker can help you create stunning thumbnails for your content!
Tips for creating the perfect thumbnail/ featured images
- Keep the text on the image very minimal
- Add a logo or brand colors to make it recognizable
- Avoid clickbait or false claims
- Be cautious of the size and custom create if need be
If you are particularly interested in Youtube, don’t forget to check out the thumbnail best practices guidelines from the platform.
2. Representing data in charts and infographics
In an analysis of over 1 million articles, BuzzSumo found that articles with an image once every 75–100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images.
I am sure the bar graph caught your attention instead of the textual representation of the fact. That’s the power of representing data through charts and graphs. They spark a conversation among readers and make your content look more authentic.
You can also add infographics to your content to tell a visual story or represent your ideas in a quick engaging graphic instead of textual content, just like what I have done here:
You can use tools like Venngage, Piktochart, Canva, or Visme to create infographics for free.
3. Creating animated videos to explain concepts
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If your content is a “how-to” article, a tutorial, or a detailed explanation of a concept, or simply a landing page — you simply cannot ignore the power of videos and the value they can add for you.
In fact, Hubspot found that the primary form of media used in content marketing is video.
Here’s why videos are the most powerful form of visual content:
- Grab attention quickly
- Ease through a concept
- Explain content easily
- Make the audience engage better
- Shareworthy and actionable
Not just that. Videos are now easy to create as well. With a 2D animation software
like Animaker, you can create animated as well as live videos for any use case or topic with tons of free templates!
4. Screenshots of UI to make the point clearer
Screenshots are inevitable for a tutorial blog or if you want to share some extra information. Screenshots can help you add authenticity and additional relevant information to make your points clear ad support your arguments.
Here’s an example of how your screenshot should not look:
The problem?
Too much explanation within the screenshot and lack of coherence.
It can also be a screencast, a screen capture, or an animated Gif instead of just images. But if it is an image here are some things to keep in mind:
- Edit your screenshots well by adding a clean background
- Add arrow marks if you want to clearly explain the components
- Do not update blur images. Sharpen blur images through photoshop
- Refrain from adding screenshots of sensitive data or the ones that do not have the consent of the owner
- Do not clutter it with too many texts. Explain the screenshot in another paragraph instead of loading the screenshot
5. Relatable Quotes for extra crunch
Quotes are the best way to address a strong opinion. Quotes are always equated to the ones from big influencers or industry veterans. But it does not have to be.
You can quote the words of wisdom from your own C-suite personnel and department heads. Whatever niche you operate in, your heads and mid-level employees have a lot of knowledge and expertise in the industry they operate in.
Even your content marketers, product marketers, and sales folks understand the business well. Their understanding and research need not always be confined to blog posts.
If they are opinionated, why not share their perspectives as quotes with their image on social media?
6. Image testimonials for social proof and quick action
When it comes to social proof, there are a lot of visuals like brand logos, huge numbers, case study snippets, and more that can add credibility for your brand and prompt action.
But, the best one has to be testimonials because it is short, crisp, and powerful — both textually and visually.
So, instead of adding just text-based testimonials try adding the photo of the customer along!
However, make sure that you have their consent, you place them in the right fold of your landing page, and design it well.
Wrapping Up
Visuals are as important as your text as they elevate it to a whole new level. As marketers, you must have the itch to get your hands dirty with designing as well.
With just creating text-based content as a skill, you increase the dependency on designers for all the content you try to create and syndicate content which increases your publishing cycle.
There are tons of easy-to-use DIY tools and resources that help you create high-quality content easily. I hope you would now be interested in adding more visual content to your blogs and landing pages, and wait to see your engagement rates explode!
If you want to add anything to the list, drop a comment. I’d love to know!
