The Power of Imagery in Content Marketing

Words aren’t enough any more.

We have to go a step further to inform, delight and engage our audience.

With the increase of photo, video, infographics and screenshots – today’s marketers are discovering the power behind imagery in content marketing.

But why should you join the party?

Let’s look at why visual marketing is becoming a staple in the online consumer’s diet and how you can use it to your advantage.

Consumers prefer visuals

Today’s average consumer prefers visual content compared to word-based interactions.

Communication coupled with imagery – photographs or video – is easier to process and more entertaining than words on a blank canvas. Forbes Insight reports that nearly 60% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, if both are available on the same page.

Graphic courtesy of Adelie Studios 

Visuals spike social media engagement

But visual marketing is more than giving consumers what they want. Visual marketing can be a huge asset for marketers who want to draw a sharing response from consumers.

Consider the response rate of tweets coupled with images. Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets. People feel compelled to share meaningful content, and the strongest way to enhance your message is by including a visual element.

Not only are consumers sharing visual marketing – they remember it as well. An infographic in AdWeek shared that people remember 80% of what they see or do, versus 20% of what they read. Imagery in content marketing is a “must” if marketers want to make a lasting impression on consumers.

Photo courtesy of NeoMam Studios

With this in mind, marketers should focus on creating visual content over text and audio. In doing so they quadruple the likelihood that a consumer will remember messages.

How can I make sure my visual marketing is powerful?

Not all visual marketing is created equal, and it is only powerful when executed properly. Marketers shouldn’t expect to see big changes by adding a simple stock photo to tweets.

There is an art to producing strong visual marketing, and it revolves around three key factors;

• Pick the right type of content

Stock photos may be an easy way to add a visual element to a blog post, but there are better ways to execute visual marketing. Adding an infographic or a short video outlining key points can make content much more meaningful to the consumer.

In larger works, like eBooks and white papers, an animated character or theme can tie the work together while keeping the reader engaged.

However, if your hands are tied and you’re at a loss for original images, using a relevant stock photo is better than completely foregoing a visual element. Reports show that 40% of people respond better to text coupled with visuals than plain text. Although stock photos may not be ideal or original, these images will garner more attention than no visuals at all.

• Make a call-to-action

Visual marketing can be an asset because of its ability to inspire consumers to take action. Marketers should ensure that they are taking advantage of this capability by including a call-to-action (CTA) with their visual marketing.

Calls-to-action can range from low action (check out our website) to high action (register now, make a purchase).

Not all CTA’s have to be obvious. By drafting creative, stimulating content, consumers will feel compelled to share your work with others. By simply providing a solid piece of imagery (think: infographic), you can inspire your audience to advocate for you without actually having to ask.

It is imperative that all visual marketing encourages consumers to do something. Otherwise, your content (and hard work!) is a complete waste.

• Be aware of omnichannel marketing

You can tweet the best video content with links to landing pages on your website… But if your site is not optimized for mobile, this means nothing to the consumer trying to access your site from their smartphone.

This is one example of poor omnichannel marketing steamrolling a carefully constructed piece of visual marketing. Consumers should be able to access all touch points of your company without a hitch. Encountering an incorrectly linked landing page or receiving conflicting messages across two separate platforms can be a major turnoff for consumers. Ensure that you are producing seamless content with omnichannel marketing to avoid confusing or frustrating customers.

There’s certainly a lot to think about when integrating imagery in content marketing. But, if done correctly, visual marketing can be the most powerful tool a marketer can use to generate leads and make sales.

Guest Author: Savannah is a writer for SaaS platform NectarOM, and loves discussing marketing personalisation, automation, data analytics and CRM. Connect with her on Twitter or check out more on the NectarOM.

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20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics

Imagine if you could take 1,000 words a and help people digest that information in only a few seconds?

An infographic, put simply, is a creative way to take a “thousand words” and depict them using a picture. These days, readers are looking for quick access to brief information.

Website visitors love this unique form of presentation which is quickly gaining popularity, and in some cases, becoming the standard form of communication instead of page long, lengthy blog posts.

Infographics have emerged as one of the most popular forms of content marketing in contemporary digital media.

But why should you care about infographics?

• We receive 5 times more information than in 1986 and are 80% more willing to read anything with colors. Infographics are great with colors.
• 45% more users will click on a link if it features an infographic.
• They help us get valuable inbound links - Streetcouch does a great job of explaining the importance of creating infographics and sharing them on social media in a 5-step process (as a link-building strategy).

Readers are not the only ones with time constraints and an inclination towards quick and easy ways to consume information.

What if you, the creator of an infographic, are also short on time and need a simpler, quicker way to create beautiful infographics in an instant?

Forget about Photoshop and other time-consuming image creation methods.

Let’s introduce you to a set of tools that will make creating infographics simpler than ever!

1. Easel.ly

This application will let you create an infographic in just a few clicks.

First, you get to pick a template from a long list of cards, then a search bar and drop down menu on the side will allow you to filter the template results. For instance, you could search for a template that deals with geography (maps) or templates with a timeline format.

Once you’ve selected your template, you can add in more shapes, backgrounds, charts, objects and of course text to personalize the template and let it tell a story in your own way.

The basic version of this tool is offered for free.

2. Visualize.me

Visualize.me focuses on letting users create “infographic resumes”. However, the template designs are not limited to that purpose alone. Once you’ve signed in with your LinkedIn or email account, you can select from a range of beautiful themes, language maps, timelines, bubble charts, tree maps, pictograms, and other formats.

3. Visme.co

Visme is another super cool tool that allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics, ad banners, animations, customer layouts, and more. It has an extensive library full of templates, shapes, icons, and objects to choose from.

It is a highly-recommended app by  Coursework Spot, a service that offers academic research. If you’re not up for a bunch of changes, edits, additions, or subtractions, you may simply edit the text and hit publish. You can also directly insert data values to change the charts and graphs.

Another plus point is that it’s “specially priced” for teachers and students.

4. PiktoChart

Applications like these could kick graphic designers out of business since PiktoChart markets itself as the tool that let’s “non designers create beautiful infographics in as little as 10 minutes.” This may be a shocker – or maybe even a bit offensive – but it is true. Piktochart has over 400 fully customizable themes with retina-ready images, objects, graphs, and colors you can edit and adjust according to your preference.

5. Canva

One of the most uniquely and brilliantly designed websites,Canva aims to train both designers and non-designers to come up with cool and creative stuff. Canva will start out with a brief tutorial to acquaint you with their program. Once you’re through with that, you can move on to creating your project whether it be a presentation, Facebook cover photo, business card, ad, poster, banner, or a retina-ready infographic.

6. Infogr.am

Infogram is all about making charts and infographics “the easy way”. So far over 2 million infographics have been created using the website and some have even been used by prestigious organizations including Euronews, University of Cambridge, and the Huffington Post.

Whether you are blogger, educationalist, brand ambassador, or an organization, you can make charts/infographics in three easy steps: pick a template, visualize the data, and publish.

7. Venngage

Venngage has everything you need to create free infographics and publish them on the spot. You can choose from hundreds of professional templates.

Infographics is not all you can make; reports, posters, promotions, and social media posts can also be created using Venngage, allowing you to tell your story “visually” with the help of charts, maps, icons, and visuals.

8. Dipity

With Dipity you can create digital timelines. If a timeline-based infographic is what you are after, you can use Dipity to do the job. Dipity aims to organize web content by date and time.

9. iCharts

iCharts is a cloud-based visual analytics platform that allows users to create quick and easy visualizations for complex business information, data sets, or extensive research work. You can access and update your data in real time whenever you like since it is cloud native.

10. Geo Commons

Perhaps, you’re more interested in presenting maps instead of timelines. Geo Commons is perfect for geography-based infographics that must include a map of your choice.

Create feature-rich maps and share what you know!

11. Google Charts

Why not simply use Google charts? This is probably an application you are already familiar with and definitely one that requires little training or experience to learn. Google Charts is a free solution with all kinds of charts, maps, bars, and statistical goodies to choose from. Google’s gallery is rich with variety.

12. InfoActive

Infoactive is a simple and flexible platform that allows you to create interactive infographics and other “data driven” stories. InfoActive lets you connect your data to the application and let automation do the rest for you.

13. Photo Infographic Gen Lite

If your infographic is based on the number, ways, or timing you take your photos, you can use this Android application to sum it up for you. This is a very specific program with a very specific purpose, but if you’re a photographer looking forward to fulfilling that purpose, it will suit your needs.

14. Get About

Another application designed to cater to a specific purpose, Get About lets you create infographics that determine your social media activity. For instance, Get About will let you track your Twitter terms, hashtags, and mentions. Also you can monitor your social activity with infographics that chart out how you connect and share with your network.

15. Creately

Creately is not only a diagramming tool, but also a tool that works for teams requiring real time collaboration. Creately will let you create style smart shapes, diagrams, connectors, and more to gather information in one compact space.

16. PhotoStats

This is an iPhone application dedicated to generating infographics on how, when and where you take photos. Similar to Photographic Gen Lite for Android, the application will reveal your photography habits in just a few clicks, and if you like, make it available to your friends.

17. Charts Bin

Charts Bin is a free online solution that allows you to create interactive maps. After a sign-up, create a map of your choice by inserting values or zooming in. If you like you can copy and paste the HTML code to your blog without having to go through a bunch of tricky steps to display it on your website.

18. Gliffy

Gliffy will transform your ideas into shapes by providing you with a variety of flow charts, UML diagrams, wireframes, network diagrams, org charts, and sitemaps. Create digital visualizations by dragging and dropping shapes/lines/objects from the library and transforming words into graphs.

19. Wordle

Sometimes word clouds are all you need to explain a concept in just a few words. Wordle will let you create unique and interactive word clouds in a variety of fonts, layouts, color schemes and more.

20. Smile Widgets

Smile Widgets is an extremely simple website that allows users to create “free, open source data visualizations and web widgets”. The software will let you create exhibits, timelines, time-plots, and runways of your choice.

Guest Author: An aspiring blogger, Jillian Petrova loves blogging a lot and in her leisure time she writes insightful posts on latest trends, education, marketing, etc.

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How to Tap Into Emotions and Boost Your Content Marketing

Scared.

Afraid.

Anxious.

Excited.

Inspired…

We all experience emotions every day. From our daily struggles to our biggest dreams.

It’s your job as a content marketer to discover these emotions, and uncover their raw ingredients.

Embrace them, dig deeper and offer a way out the other side.

We are always trying to understand why some content goes viral and rises to the top – and some flops. Up until now we have focused on the content itself – optimizing it for search and sharing, then desperately hoping it will get some attention.

But what about your readers’ emotional needs? The sense of belonging, ego, self-expression and obligation.

There are ways to “tap” into these emotions and they should be a part of every content marketing strategy.

You have about 2 seconds to get people’s attention – that’s your first couple of sentences. My hope, for example, is that you were drawn in by my first sentence and lured down the page. Now, the rest of my job is to engage you, to continue to feed your emotions, and move you along in two ways:

1. If the goal is increased brand awareness, relationship building, and sharing of valuable and practical information, then I am looking to compel and engage the emotions of my readers to the extent that they will want to share.
2. If the goal is moving the visitor into the next phase toward a purchase, I will be using sales psychology and neuroscience to stimulate the emotional responses necessary to achieve certain actions (solving his/her problem or relieving the pain through purchasing the product or service I am selling).

The whole 2-second thing and beyond – Creating engagement

Once you have a potential customer’s attention, the next step is to engage that customer with the content you provide. At this point that customer is still in an emotional stage, so continuing to appeal to their emotions will achieve that engagement.

At this point you can use humor, fun, arousal of curiosity – address pain, fear, and/or anxiety over their problem – engage in story-telling.

This idea of engagement through emotion is embedded in our make-up. A few years ago, two researchers at Wharton studied content that went viral, in an attempt to determine commonalities, and, indeed, they found them. They discovered that very early on in that content, the following appeared:

1. Positivity – when people feel good or entertained by what they read, they are far more likely to share what they have read and/or viewed.
2. Shock and awe – facts or data that shock people are more likely to be shared
3. Anger, fear, anxiety – there is something in human nature that wants to share what they are angry about and to comment on it when they share it. This in turn stimulates more commenting and sharing. The same goes for things that instill fear.

Practical aspect of content – After the engagement

By the time the reader has experienced the initial emotional attraction, and logic is “kicking in” a bit, it is time to present the useful and practical aspects of your content.

You can address the “pain” or problem that the visitor has and demonstrate that you, as an authority, have a solution to that problem. If you do your job well, with clear, simple language and engaging media, your reader will see inherent value and move into the purchase phase.

If you goal for this piece of content is not to sell but to increase awareness and brand recognition, then you want that reader to share the content. Again, if the piece is done well, and the reader sees value, it will be shared.

Certain emotions trigger the most intense sharing responses.

How to do it

You cannot appeal to the specific emotions of your target audience unless you are absolutely certain you know who that audience is. As a content marketer, that is a critical piece of your responsibility.

To do this, you have to “hang out” with them:

1. Create a demographic from your current customer base, and use that demographic to develop a profile. Use the profile and good analytics tools to determine the sites, social media, etc. where your typical customer hangs out. If you want to get even more precise with your profile, survey and interview your existing customers. Visit the websites they visit; see what they share and post on Facebook.
2. Begin to develop a psychological profile. For example, what type of humor do they appreciate? How sophisticated or simple is their language? What frustrates them, angers them, pleases them, and what problems do they speak to? Psychologists have quite a list that includes such things as control, superiority, family values, belonging, fun, self-achievement, helping others, and so forth. If, for example, you discover that your demographic seems to be very strong on family values, then sharing stories of you and your team with their families on your blog will be perfect.
3. Focus on your audience in the beginning of whatever you write. If that audience is correctly identified, you can then address its “pain” points and problems and how your product or service resolves those. Once they accept that you are an empathetic expert, and feel a relationship with you, you can move to the next phase of the conversion process – perhaps getting email addresses through special offers, such as a short e-book for free, or offering a subscription to your newsletter. If you have developed the emotions of trust and security, you will be successful. Even if the follower is not yet ready to buy, when they do need your product or service, they will buy from you!

A short case study in the appeal to humor

Because the research from Wharton showed that most people want some fun and that humor and jokes were consistently shared, using humor in content marketing is extremely effective. Large companies do it all the time, in order to keep their brand name “out there”.

They know that humor does the following things:

1. It grabs and holds attention
2. It results in an emotional response – not just positivity but a connection to you and your brand
3. It shows you are just “one of them” after all
4. You are remembered and shared. And if you use humor on all of your social media pages, you will continue to increase your number of followers.

Here are some examples of the “big boys” using humor on social media. You can easily and cheaply do the same.

• Newcastle Beer tweeted: “It’s National Beer Day. Have an ice-cold Newcastle and pretend you care.”
• Virgin Airlines posted a picture to wish its audience a Happy Thanksgiving. An employee, dressed in flight clothing was in a stance as if he was guiding a plane in on the runway with his arms raised. Instead of the normal lights, he held two giant turkey drumsticks.

• Charmin Bath Tissue issued a Tweet on Father’s Day: “To all you dads doing your morning routine, we wish you a Happy Father’s Day.”

One last comment on this one: You have to know your audience and your humor must be appropriate for them. Don’t offend.

Don’t neglect the emotions of your audience

Sometimes content marketers get so caught up in the latest technology and SEO techniques, analyzing traffic and the content itself – they forget that buying is about 85% emotional and only 15% logical.

Guest Author: John Unger is a passionate writer and contributor from Manchester, UK. Currently, he works as an editor at AssignmentMountain. He writes about things that matter and tries to consider the issue from a different angle. His main topics of interest are self-improvement and marketing.

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