What is Visual Content Marketing?
You’re likely already familiar with content marketing. Using visuals rather than text alone to bring forth consistent information with value and relevance to entice and maintain an audience in order to take action and eventually convert.
Content marketing can come in various forms such as blogs, eBooks, infographics, and videos. Specifically, infographics and videos are examples of visual content marketing. Primarily, visuals are used for the communication of information in the latter examples. The images come with textual elements, but they are not the main focus.
Venngage reported that greater than 60% of marketers declared visuals an absolute requirement for their 2017 marketing plan. The importance of visual content marketing has grown, and is now making a greater impact on planning and executing.
It is imperative to stay consistent and keep up the hard work when attempting any form of content marketing. The payoff isn’t immediate. What is the impact of visual content marketing on the purchase journey?
What Motivates People to Buy?
It is important to have some knowledge of the elements that prompt people to make a purchase before comprehending the connection between visual material and sales.
When someone buys something, there are numerous elements that come into consideration. In other words, without fail, each buying decision originates in the customer’s existing discontent. A sense of discontent creates a motivation to try and mend what would be wrong in the coming days. The combination of discontent and the anticipation of something better is what drives one to purchase something.
A more suitable query may be: What drives people to make a purchase from you?
People’s opinions and thoughts of you and what you are offering will influence if they decide to make a purchase from you. For example, if your prospective customer understands that what you are offering is helpful to them or if they appreciate your ideals and they match up with their values, they will be more likely to purchase from you.
The opposite is also true. When a person considering your product or services has a negative opinion of you or what you’re offering, they will avoid making a purchase.
Is it as simple as that? Let’s dig a little deeper.
The Six Triggers that Influence People to Become Buyers
Marketing and psychology professor Robert Cialdini has declared that there are six rules to make people consent to you.
I’m going to give an overview of his work here, however you should definitely explore his thoughts in further detail on his website.
- Reciprocity
- Scarcity
- Authority
- Consistency
- Liking
- Consensus
Reciprocity expresses the idea that when one individual provides something to another, the latter then feels obligated to provide something back in response.
A lack of availability is synonymous with having a concern of not participating in something. Individuals don’t wish to miss the potential to capitalize on something due to the concern of missing out. When resources are scarce, people find them more desirable.
A person is more likely to be agreeable to your requests when you come from a place of knowledge and experience, thus exhibiting authority. Folks tend to have faith in those in positions of authority and tend to imitate them.
People are willing to go to extreme measures to demonstrate that their behavior and statements are consistent. Even tiny demonstrations of dedication increase their propensity to purchase from you, for instance signing up for your bulletin, sampling or testing for no charge, or paying for no transport costs for returning items.
You’ve likely encountered the influence of “liking” more times than any other. It implies that people are prone to accept your proposal if they have an affinity with you or your business. Cialdini emphasizes that there are three main components to being liked. We like people who:
- Are similar to us;
- Pay us compliments; and,
- Cooperate with us toward mutual goals.
People tend to imitate the actions and behaviors of others if they are similar to themselves and in larger numbers, in order to settle on an agreement.
Think to yourself: is there a method to put these stimuli into effect virtually and from a viewpoint of visual promotion? The answer is yes.
Why Visual Content Affects Buying Decisions
In a previously written article, I investigated how sentiment can influence purchase decisions and how visuals can stir up emotions. Now you can comprehend the link between convictions, outlooks, and particular mental stimulants that prompt individuals to purchase.
Taking into consideration these factors, visual content improves conversion rates since it:
- elicits emotional responses from your audience;
- helps form beliefs about your brand and offerings; and,
- triggers psychological principles that influence purchases.
Here’s a real-life example of visuals affecting decisions.
My spouse is fond of the male fashion line Mizzen + Main. He anticipates their sales announcements the same way a child would look forward to Christmas morning.
Whenever he receives an email with their newest offering, he can’t stop thinking about buying it. He is unable to overcome the charm of their tale, as well as the stylish, efficient and low maintenance apparel, all of which is created in the United States of America. Mizzen + Main’s visual content has an impact on my husband’s feelings, views, and his motivation to demonstrate his principles. (Think about the persuasion factors!)
1) Experiment with video.
Videos & Product Pages
It has been demonstrated that product videos have the potential to increase conversion rates – 73% of American adults, for example, tend to be more inclined to buy a product or service after they watch a video which explains it. It is a tremendous increase from the 20% boost in conversions witnessed on Unbounce in 2012 and the growth is easily explained; the web is getting progressively faster. Downloading this footage used to be a headache previously, but with quicker speeds, it is becoming the preferred option for acquiring information. After all, Google didn’t acquire YouTube for fun.
However, it is not a clear-cut situation with “Movie = Conversions”. Video recordings function best when surrounded by the hottest pieces of your product page, for example, adjacent to product photographs or “Purchase” buttons. If you display your videos prominently at the top center of the page, people will stay longer on your site, interact with it more, and will likely make a purchase.
But what should these videos be about? Consider what your customers (don’t) want. It’s likely they don’t have any desire to go through a long product description – most web guests just take in 25% of what is written. Demonstrate how the product functions and illustrate how actual individuals are taking advantage of it. Do not forget to let them know how your product will make their life better, as opposed to just pointing out its features.
Ensure that these videos are precise and will result in more reasonable anticipations. By producing a video that demonstrates how products are typically used in everyday life, it can lead to a decrease in the number of returns. Zappos’ approach has been successful while other brands, such as ASOS, project that a minor one percent reduction in returns would give them an extra $16 million in profits.
2) Show people how to use your product or service.
Pre-Purchase Product Tours
It is possible to demonstrate the functionality of a product without the use of video. Internet product tours may attempt to provide the same service, but when done incorrectly they can become tedious, uninteresting, and excessive.
Usually, a product tour can be accessed after an item has been acquired as part of the becoming familiar with process. Pre-purchase product tours can act powerfully to increase conversions as well. Take Visme’s product tour, for example. The layout of this content is crafted to appeal to those at the beginning of the buyer journey; it has big and uncomplicated pictures, and the language used is brief. Benefits of the product or service are directly visible with a picture in the top spot, and an arrow underneath allows the user to scroll down for more information about how it works.
3) Use Pinterest to your advantage.
One may not have success with this approach everywhere; however, if one’s desired customers are female, they should take note– Pinterest is a great place to reach them.
Ezra Firestone, the originator of SmartMarketer, had the intelligence to know what he was doing, which is likely the way that he made more than $40,000 in ecommerce sales from a small budget of $775 in Pinterest promotion expenses.
He disclosed that he had been paying close attention to Pinterest for a while already. Pinterest was experiencing extremely rapid growth, had a majority female user base, and its average user income was above $100,000, making it the perfect platform for ecommerce marketers.
However, you don’t have to have a good-looking product to attract interest on Pinterest. You just need visually appealing, genuinely useful marketing. Depending on the item you are selling and who you are selling it to, Pinterest can change the number of people who convert; roughly 19% of regular users say they make a purchase at least once a month due to being inspired by something from Pinterest. However, that does not mean that your pins should only consist of images of items for sale.
Look at Food & Drink strategically as the top choice in the U.S. and Canada. For example, if you operate a grocery list app, you have the perfect opportunity to link to a recipe on your website. If the directions tell people to download your app and put the necessary elements on their grocery list, that could be an effective way to get conversions.
It’s necessary to use some creative thinking when dealing with Pinterest, and you will be rewarded for it.
4) Integrate your social content with the rest of it.
Curate Social Proof with Twitter & Instagram
It is extremely influential when other customers discuss your product or service; it is one of the most effective ways to market. Almost 40% of Twitter users have indicated they made a purchase because of a tweet posted by an influencer.
The key is to carefully select the tweets concerning your company. Keep the good elements, and ensure that the whole item is included so that it appears genuine. You can click on the three dots beneath a tweet, select “copy link to tweet,” and save the URL to a bookmark. You can share their posts again, or if they are specifically related to a product, you can insert them on your website next to pictures of the product and the “buy” button.
Why does social proof work? People tend to be more trusting of other consumers like themselves than of marketers, which is why the previously mentioned statistic regarding influencers is so impressive. Reading positive reviews from other people removes any worries and doubts, resulting in more successful sales.
5) Not Selling Sweaters or Makeup? This Still Applies to SaaS.
Your product may or may not live in the Cloud, but these rules still apply:
- Prominently-placed videos sell products. Make them fun and benefits-driven. Show people how your product works with a pre-purchase product tour early in the sales funnel — don’t wait for the demo.
- Use social media – but do it cleverly. (Check out how some unconventional brands use Twitter here.)
- Remember: Pinterest leads to your site pages, which can lead to conversions, as per the app download example above.
- Twitter and Instagram give you social proof, which reduces fears and — you guessed it — can also lead to conversions.
- Instagram produces much higher user engagement than Facebook, so make sure you’re investing the right amount of resources in each social network. Pew Research Center’s Demographics of Social Media Users might help, and once you know which networks to leverage, you can plan your social media posts with a calendar.
- All visual content should deliver real value for the user.
6) Connect Emotionally With Your Community
Moz asserts that customers are now looking for a stronger emotional tie. In conclusion, businesses that are capable of forming an authentic relationship with their clients and local area will have an edge over those that don’t.
I completely agree with this viewpoint! Forming relationships with your target demographic at an emotionally and intimately level will make your company exceptional. I call this Y.O.U. Marketing. The distinctive characteristics that make you unique draw the appropriate individuals to you, thus developing a group of passionate advocates and simultaneously dissuading those that aren’t meant to connect with your group.
Sight is capable of stirring emotions and conveying your idea more effectively. Visuals, be they humorous or serious, link to your crowd far more quickly, effectively, and profoundly compared to written words alone.
7) Attract attention
Organizations utilizing tailor-made visuals obtain seven times more transformations. If your target audience is unable to locate your business, it will be very hard to increase your conversion rate. Here’s how visuals boost your visibility.
Blog
Adding visuals to your blog entries is a SEO blogging tactic that will please both search engines and visitors. The highest ranking blogs have images every 350 words. Including photos in your blog posts improves comprehensibility, trustworthiness, interactivity, and the overall potency of your content.
Search Engine Optimization
Whenever you incorporate a picture in your website, you get the option to give it an explanatory file name and alternate text. Don’t overlook these two benefits. Including keywords in the file name and alternative text can assist search engines in locating your website.
Captions
Images give you the opportunity to use captions. Kissmetrics has stated that captions are read three times more regularly than the main content. You’ll enjoy increased attention by including captions!
