For executives of scale-up companies, building a powerful marketing strategy is critical to staying ahead in a competitive landscape. One essential component that can no longer be overlooked is visual content creation. Visuals are not just about aesthetics; they are a direct contributor to engagement, retention, and long-term business success.
Consider this, 58% of marketers stated that aligning and documenting their content strategy is overall effective with their marketing strategy.
Beyond attracting attention, incorporating strong visual content examples results in immediate benefits, such as increased social media interaction, newsletter sign-ups, and more. Businesses that prioritize effective content marketing are better positioned to connect with their audiences and achieve sustained growth.
Let’s explore three practical ways to elevate your visual content strategy.
1. Create A Customer Centric Visual Content Strategy
According to a survey by the Marketing Insider Group, 65% of the most successful digital B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. At the core of a well-defined content strategy is your customer journey.
- Awareness Stage: Brief, engaging videos or graphics to introduce your brand.
- Consideration Stage: Data-driven infographics to highlight benefits and build trust.
- Decision/Purchase Stage: Customer testimonial videos or product demos to inspire action.
Creating visuals tailored to each stage of the funnel ensures relevance and effectiveness.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, emphasizes, “We are customer obsessed, inventive, and creative problem solvers. We start with the customer and work backward to solve problems.” By understanding your target audience’s pain points and preferences, you can design visuals that resonate deeply.
Here’s a data point to motivate you further: content with visuals garners more views and is more likely to get shared than text alone. This is why it’s critical to ensure your visuals align not only with your marketing objectives but also with your audience’s needs.
2. Setting Brand Visual Content Goals
Did you know that by incorporating visual content, your content is likely to get more views and more shares than non-visual content?
To maintain consistency, ensure your visual content creation:
- Reflects your brand’s values and vision.
- Uses fonts, colors, and styles that reinforce your identity.
- Optimizes design for multiple platforms (social media, email, websites).
Delivering purpose-driven visual content design positions your business as customer-focused and innovative.
3. Build a Visual Content Calendar
Strategic execution hinges on preparation and consistency. A visual content calendar helps plan, schedule, and distribute content effectively. It also allows for content repurposing, maximizing your resources.
For instance, a long-form video can provide:
- Video, such as clips, stills, pull-out quotes for Instagram or LinkedIn.
- Pull-out quotes for Twitter.
- Stills for newsletters.
- Illustrations or charts to integrate with long-form content
Using tools like Excel can simplify managing your calendar. Turns out that marketers with organized content schedules are more likely to succeed. Align your visual content examples with other formats like whitepapers or blogs to ensure a balanced message delivery.
Based on our experience, we like to have a static calendar to plan content in advance and allow to add dynamic on an ad-hoc basis. Investing in customer centric visuals requires expertise ana d a wide range of resources, tracking the performance of each content piece is important to inform better decisions for future investments. For example, a video with high engagement rates may warrant follow-ups or derivative content targeted at the same audience.
4. Balance Visuals With Copy for Maximum Impact
Finding equilibrium between visuals and text is pivotal in crafting an effective . Visuals, no matter how stunning, need contextualization, while text benefits from the clarity provided by visual aids.
Infographics for example are useful for presenting complicated data or concepts in a way that is easier to digest. They also save a lot of space on the page and simplify complex concepts for your audience. A well-designed infographic can condense what would be a 1,000-word blog into an eye-catching, digestible format. CMI research shows that infographics improve web traffic when used strategically.
In addition, research from CMI demonstrates that webinars, research reports and short articles were the best performing assets over the last year.
Ultimately, organizing visuals and content—and presenting them in an orderly manner—requires astute planning but will make the design look even and well thought out.
Thought Leadership Insights
“Data visualization is a way to connect with people aesthetically while still respecting their intelligence,” says Edward Tufte, the pioneer in the field of data design.
Your visual content design should:
- Simplify concepts for quicker understanding.
- Avoid overcrowding elements to maintain clarity.
- Use intentional layouts to guide the viewer’s eye.
Regularly test whether your audience responds more favorably to visually dominant content or a balanced mix through A/B testing.
Tracking Impact of Your Visual Content
Once your visual content strategy is live, measuring its effectiveness and digital marketing ROI is non-negotiable. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor include:
- Engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments).
- Video play rates and completion percentages.
- Conversion rates tied to calls-to-action.
- ROI from aligning video content with marketing objectives.
LinkedIn’s Vice President Penry Price notes, “Sophisticated marketers today don’t just measure outputs; they measure outcomes.” This means your metrics should directly tie back to business objectives, like revenue growth or customer acquisition.
Tying in your visual content together serves as a powerful tool for user engagement. It increases your audience’s likelihood of responding to call-to-action (CTAs) and website traffic.
Our digital marketing agency will guide you in achieving success in your marketing strategy planning, execution and tracking!
Final Thoughts
Have you optimized your business’s visual content strategy? With the right approach, combining visual content creation with text-based materials enhances engagement, builds brand equity, and keeps your company ahead of the curve.
If you’re ready to design a content strategy that amplifies your reach and results, our team at Pace Creative is here to guide you. From concept to execution, we ensure your visuals deliver impactful results.
Need inspiration? Check out how a custom infographic can help you achieve your goals. Contact us today to transform your marketing with powerful visual experiences.