Did you know that 65% of our population learns visually?
Articles with images get 94% more total views, and one case study showed an 86% increase in conversion when a video was added to their landing pages.
These numbers aren’t new. Markets have recognized the importance of visual impact on target audiences since the ’90s. Some would argue even earlier.
Then why haven’t they adopted strong visual campaigns?
The short answer is they have. They’re bigger than ever. The real question is why haven’t you adopted one?
If it’s because you didn’t know how then we’ve got you covered. Below we outline the broad strokes for creating your next visually impactful campaign. We also give you a list of tools and a grab-bag of useful tips.
Let’s get started.
Goals
The first step of any marketing campaign begins with your audience. If you haven’t already done extensive research on your target audience, now’s the time.
The better you understand your audience, the easier it is to create your brand and brand strategy. Why are we harping on this rudimentary stuff? Because these first two steps cause 43% of startups to fail.
Also, your visual campaign is a derivation of your branding strategy. You need to understand the broad strokes before you can paint in the details. Otherwise, your strategy will end up lopsided and useless.
Now, what other goals do you have for this campaign? What do you want to achieve? Here are a few examples:
- Create 100 new leads per month
- Increase reader engagement by 25%
- Raise branding awareness by 15% in my target audience
Be specific when you write down your goals. Do you want more likes, views, shares, referrals, and profits? How many more? In what period?
Those nuts and bolts will help you iron out the wrinkles when you sit down and engineer your plan.
Look at Your Numbers First
Your next step is to check your statistics. You’ve completed your target audience research. Then you should know their likes, dislikes, habits, routines, places they hang out, etc.
Target the places they go to consume information. Do they land on Facebook often? YouTube? Twitter? Do they spend their morning commute reading the Wall Street Journal?
Next figure out which type of visual elements are best suited for those places. A 30-minute video wouldn’t do much good if they primarily hang out on Twitter. A 6-second video, on the other hand, now that might do wonders.
Fact: When an image is relevant, readers will spend more time staring at the image than reading the text on the page.
Choose Your Visuals
Here are a few types of visuals to get your brain rolling.
- Images
- Infographics
- SlideShare
- Screenshots
- Videos
- Memes
- Gifs
*Note–for the inbound part of your campaign, we recommend AdWords Image Ads.
Fact: Posts that include videos attract almost 3x more backlinks than those with without. Posts with videos, images, and lists attract almost 6x more.
Optimizing Visuals for SEO
For you to create a phenomenal visual campaign, you need to make sure search engines lead your audience to your visuals. That means improving your SEO game.
Hosting: Media content increases server load. Select both a reliable host and plan. Make sure it includes SSL. If it’s not a requirement yet, it soon will be.
Page Load Time: Your data-heavy images and videos need more time to load. Cut that time down by choosing a cloud-hosted plan with data mirroring. Ensure your host also uses SSDs.
File Names: Enrich your file names with keywords. Include both your target keywords for the page and branding keywords for your business or product.
Alt Text: Search engines can’t understand images yet (though they’re getting better!). They rely on information in your HTML’s “alt” text. Make certain you clarify what’s in the image.
If you’re using WordPress, try the Yoast plugin. It’ll help you fix your SEO errors.
Spectacular Images
To keep up with the market, you must create dazzling images. They should stop your audience in their tracks.
Consider first where you’ll be posting the images. Then figure out how you can make the images more appealing. Here are a few options:
- Overlays
- Text
- Colors Variations
- Size
- Resolution
*Note–if you can’t tell the difference between refining and rasterizing, or all purples look blue to you, it might be time to hire an expert like Exelab. If you’re a DIY kind of person, then you can ask a digital marketing expert to consult. If you have money but little time, they can run your visual campaign for you.
Fact: Studies show that 60% of readers remember offers on color ads, while only 29% remember offers on black-and-white ads.
Addictive Videos
Remember that conversation we had above about branding? Well, it’s critical to your visual campaign, especially when it comes to videos.
Double check your branding strategy matches the theme of your videos.
If your brand is elegant, do your actors portray sophistication? Is the location at which you filmed stylish?
If you use anime, does it match your brand’s colors and themes? Are you using the same graphic artist for both?
Are you including your logo on each video? Are you including links to your other videos? What about to your webpage?
Fact: 73% of U.S. adults use YouTube.
Compelling Infographics
Remember back when you performed all that audience research? Here’s another spot it comes in handy. What topics does your audience want to know more about?
Great, make an infographic about that. Then take it and post it where your audience hangs out. Here are a few tools to help you create your breathtaking pieces of art:
- Canva
- Piktochart
- Ease.ly
- Picmonkey
- Infogr.am
- Tableau
- Visual.ly
Fact: Posts that include images create a 650% higher engagement rate than posts without.
Social Media for Visual Impact
You can use social media for the inbound and outbound portions of your visual campaign. Target the one or two most popular platforms for your audience. Now create post worthy images and ads, alike.
Hit your audience both ways. Be sure to include hashtags to link your visual content. Remember, branding comes first.
Here are a few social media avenues to get the ball rolling:
- SlideShare
- Tumblr
- Snapchat
- YouTube
*Note–Pinterest and YouTube create the fastest return on your investment. Check out our article on how to get traffic from Pinterest for more information.
Additional Tips Grab-Bag
This section includes many tips. They may not work for all campaigns. Choose those that best apply to you and implement them in your visual campaign.
Custom Pinterest Images: Create unique Pinterest images for every blog post to skyrocket traffic. Remember to include an overlay, text, brand colors, and logo.
Create Templates: This is an enormous time-saving strategy. Jump on Canva or PicMonkey and create 5-10 templates to use for all your social media and blog images. Use them whenever you don’t have time to create anything original
Easy to Read Infographics: Infographics alone can make your posts go viral. Keep your infographics short. Use them as part of your strategy to make your readers take action.
Branded Buttons: Remember, your branding comes first. Gather your brands color scheme, tagline, and value proposition and get to work. Design your call-to-action buttons in accordance with your colors, word choices, size, and place on the page.
Click-To-Tweet, Subscription Boxes: Anything your audience might share is perfect for branding. Once again, focus on color choice, design, size, and position for your visual campaign. Include your logo where applicable.
Multiples: If you pin an image in Pinterest to attract readers to your blog, doesn’t it make sense to pin more than one image? More images increase your chance of attracting readers. The same holds true for other social media platforms and other visual forms.
Buy in Bulk: Create your images for Twitter in bulk. Twitter posts have a short shelf-life. It’s time-consuming to retweet them. Rather than creating new images, copy your tweet with the image already embedded.
Cover Photos: Use cover photos on your social media to encourage email signups. Include text describing your opt-in incentive gift. Then include the link in your photo description. It takes little time, and it’ll continue winning your email subscribers for years to come.
Video Montage: Create montages of your clients, colleagues, or recognizable figures. Then share them with the people in your videos. If you use recognizable figures, share them with anyone. The goal is to have your contacts repost your videos.
What to Do Next for Your Visual Campaign?
Do you have a plan brewing behind your eyelids? Can you implement any part of it today? Will you sit down and write out your ideas so you don’t forget?
It’s better to get it down while your thoughts are still fresh.
Before you begin, take a look at these tips on ways to get traffic for free. Combine those strategies with those listed above. Create a stronger, less-expensive visual campaign. Then put pen to paper and write it all down.
Go on, head over now.
So long and good luck!