As you probably know by now, visual content plays a vital role in marketing today:
- 32% of marketers agree that the most valuable type of content in growing a business is visual content.
- 51% of marketers in the B2B world concentrate on producing visual content within their overall marketing strategy.
Apart from attracting customers, visual content also has the short-term benefit of increased engagement, including more comments on social media, newsletter sign-ups, eBook downloads, videos played, and more.
B2B businesses that leverage visual content and embrace its strategic significance can stay ahead of the competition. Visual content is key to your marketing success.
Here’s how to align and balance visual content with your other content and overall content marketing strategy by creating a visual content strategy to meet your business objectives:
1. Create A Visual Content Strategy
Start with the customer journey. What visual content will entice potential customers at each stage? Create targeted content for each stage, starting with brand awareness. If you have mapped out your target audience, you will be able to pinpoint exactly what type of visual content your audience will respond to. For example, a fun graphic or illustration might work for the consideration phase for B2C audiences, whereas an in-depth infographic would be best suited for B2B audiences at the consideration stage.
Consistently using visuals throughout your marketing strategy will help you position your business in a way that attracts your target audience. Users will know what to expect from your brand and your content marketing efforts.
2. Create a Content Calendar
After you map out what content your audience will engage with, use a visual content calendar to implement it. Plan out when visual content will be published to ensure you are consistently producing content for the different stages of the customer journey. It’s also helpful for repurposing content that requires more resources, such as video. Use it to space out repurposed content from the video, such as clips, stills, pull-out quotes, or reposts of the video.
Use your visual content calendar alongside your other content to maintain a balanced posting schedule. Ensure you address the needs of all users, such as those who may be looking for text-based in-depth guides or how-tos. Keep in mind that this type of content also benefits from visuals. Adding illustrations or charts to long-form content will keep readers engaged.
3. Balance Visuals & Copy in Your Design
Your visual content will often need at least a few words to provide context or background, especially for complicated messaging or concepts. Finding the right balance between your visuals and the necessary copy will make it more engaging.
For example, infographics 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. You can replace the majority of what you would have written as text with visuals. Organizing visuals and copy—and presenting them in an orderly manner—requires astute planning but will make the design look even and well thought out.
Has your business managed to successfully strategize for visual content creation? A strong strategy strikes a balance not only between, but also within visual and written content. Our team here at Pace Creative is ready to help you discover the power of visual assets—how they can assist in building brand reputation and keep you ahead of the competition.
Ready to get started? Learn more about why you should use data visualization here!
