For business owners, creating quality content is vital to engaging with our audience and attracting new customers. You might obsess over crafting the perfect blog post or creating visually stimulating social media content but often overlook one of the most critical features — pictures!
As the Director of Content for KWSM, I’ve seen how big a difference captivating pictures in content can make. KWSM has been helping clients hit their marketing goals for over 13 years, and depending on what those goals are, pictures can be the difference between sinking or swimming.
Incorporating captivating visuals into our content has been proven to be an effective way to make it more engaging, but how do we do it? In this blog post, we will provide you with 5 strategies for using pictures to elevate your content and make it more appealing to potential and existing customers.
The Right Way to Use Pictures in Your Content
Using pictures in content is essential to humanizing your brand and telling a story. However, it’s not just any picture that will enhance your content. High-quality, meaningful images that align with your brand’s tone and audience is key.
“In today’s digital climate, we’re more likely to be impacted by an image or visual than by words on a page. Visuals can really help set the tone and make a huge difference in the value of your content. With the average person getting distracted in a matter of seconds, using photos that will help people digest the content, understand it, and remember it will lead to a stronger connection and help drive leads.”
– Angie Smith, Creative Director, KWSM
Choosing pictures that are relevant to your message will make it easier for your audience to digest and retain the information. By weaving images into your content, you can convey a message that resonates with your target audience and tells a story about your brand.
- Humanize Your Brand
Consumers are more likely to connect with businesses that make them feel like they’re communicating with an actual human being. Therefore, using photographs or videos of your employees, customers, or behind-the-scenes shots can help humanize your brand, making it easier for customers to connect. You can improve user engagement on your website with, for instance, indoor/ outdoor shots of your office building and your coworkers in addition to highlighting the charitable activities of your company. Ensure that the shots illuminate your personality, your surroundings, and your goals and values in the most appealing way possible.
- Tell a Story
Images should be used as a platform to communicate the brand’s message effectively in an easy and impactful way. So whether you’re posting an image on social media or using it in a blog post, think about the story you’re trying to tell. Marketing agencies use a tool called a heat map to show us which part of the pages are getting the most attention. Most pages are hottest up at the top and get colder as you go down. This indicates that people often scan or skim the page to find what they are looking for, or make sure it’s the right page to be on. Using your images, you can show someone who is skimming exactly what that part of the page is about.
- Use High-Quality Pictures
The quality of the images you use has a significant impact on how consumers perceive your brand. High-quality pictures create a professional look and feel that makes them feel more approachable. Customers are looking for content that is visually appealing and easy to look at. Therefore, when planning your content strategy, invest in professional photographs or have an in-house photographer that you can rely on.
- Incorporate Your Branding
Given that the images are part of a broader branding strategy, make sure that they reflect your brand voice, values, and tone. This makes your images instantly recognizable and builds familiarity with your offerings. Consistency is key to building a strong brand identity, and this will surely translate into the quality of the visuals you upload.
- Increase Audience Engagement
User engagement is one key indicator of success in digital marketing. You can improve audience engagement for your company by strategically incorporating pictures into your content. Research shows that posts with images receive more clicks, likes, comments, and shares than those without. The human brain processes images much faster than text, making pictures a powerful tool for capturing attention. Additionally, pictures can break up text-heavy content, making it easier to digest. So, if you’re looking to improve engagement for your company’s online presence, consider the power of pictures.
Case Study: One of our clients, a mid-size agency that specializes in divorce mediation serving Southern California, was looking to increase the traffic to their website through their monthly newsletter. Our research shows that newsletters with engaging imagery perform better than text-heavy correspondence. The Digital Account Manager on this account created a custom, themed “spot the difference” image that prompted the reader to visit the website for the answers. That month the newsletter drove more traffic to the website than the past 6 months combined! Sometimes engaging your audience visually is the best way to drive their interest.
Looking for a Digital Marketing Agency to Help Elevate Your Content?
Incorporating images into your content strategy is an excellent way to take your brand to the next level.
By outsourcing your content to a marketing agency that properly uses pictures to elevate your content, like KWSM 😉, you can publish visually appealing articles that tell a compelling story, reinforce your brand values, engage with your customers, and ultimately increase your conversions.
Fill out the form below to talk to a member of the KWSM team about your content, and watch your brand grow!
