How to Use Visual Content to Drive Results
If you are a content marketer, then you probably must have realised that a picture is equivalentto a thousand words. Quality writing an article or a blog is a crucial part of your content triumph, but to really stand out from the crowd, visual content has to be incorporatedto make the content more appealing.
Effective use of visuals go beyond just pleasing the eye. The value of a visual content is literally outpouring. People find visual content irresistible because it is more engaging, easy to understand and entertaining. Content Marketers love visual content because it makes them easier to reach their target audiences. Most of the search engines love visual content because people’s engagement rate is high.
1.) Make Use of Custom Images
We all do bookmarking. But it’s a very boring task to read the articles that are in a long form without the presence of any images to justify the same. As a matter of fact, internet readers tend to ignore the contents that are presented in the form of massive blocks of texts.
This is the reason where it’s necessary to include compelling images in the posts which can greatly boost the chances of the audience reading your posts from start to the finish if it is accompanied by images related to that post or article. According to the experts, blog posts with high quality images get 94% more viewsthan the posts with only texts.
With the help of resources such as, Canvas, Fotojet, Fotorand Gravit etc., you can create high-quality, captivating, and customised images for free. You can also make use of photo-sharing platforms such as Pinterest and Flickr for free as it produces excellent quality photos for your blog posts.
For the purpose of SEO, make sure your images have the right caption that contains your target keywords. Also, optimize your alt text (or alt tag) for your target keyword.
2.) Create Info-Graphics on a regularly basis
Info-Graphics provide great opportunity to present quick and relevant information to your audience at a glimpse. InfoGraphics is a great way to summarise lengthy, instructional texts in a visually engaging format.
In addition to being visually interesting, attractive and easy to read on the go, Info-Graphics also drive marketing results. They are a great way to generate back links if you ever find your Info-Graphics go viral. This will bring more traffic to your site as well as get your brand name in front of millions of eye balls. When it comes to actually creating anInfo-Graphics, don’t be discouraged by lack of design and skills. There are plenty of Info-Graphic tools and resources to aid the non-designers.
Infographic by www.webdesigncity.com.au
To Publish this Image on your website or blog . Copy this code
3.) Back-up Your Ideas with the help of Screenshots
Screenshots allows you to provide your audience with an overview of the real time inner workings of your products or services. It also helps you back-up claims that you make in your sales posts.
You can also combine it with some of your testimonials or marketing copies to boost your post’s integrity and trustworthiness. If you are marketing an application, for instance, clicking a few screenshots with a caption can act as a great visual verification that your audiences need to trust your claims. When using a screenshot, don’t forget to highlight what’s important with annotations.
4.) Videos
Another attractive form of visual content that people love more than images and InfoGraphics are video content. They are highly engaging, visually stimulating, and easy to understand. When it comes to the full potential of videos, figuring out the type of videos can help you rank better.
We all know that, YouTube is the 2nd largest search platform after Google. People visit YouTube everyday for knowledge and entertainment. According to the article on Telegraph, YouTube beat Google for the first time ever as of December 2015 as the most visited site on desktop computers. Content marketers have every reason to put their content on YouTube and embed the link in the relevant webpage. In order to grab attention of your video,it has to be unique and different from what already exists.
Use Keyword Planner to find keyphrases for your target niche segment.
Once you have produced your video ready for publishing, don’t forget to optimize your meta-data, such as video titles, tags, descriptions and even file names – for the targeted keywords. Pick thumbnails that are relevant to your video to allure your viewers.
5.) Engage Your Audience With Useful Presentations
A good alternative to the Info-Graphics are generally the presentations. Presentations use progressive disclosure to tell stories step by step in a formal way, and therefore keep your audience hooked in your story by gradually divulging the narration.
Another advantage of presentation is its visual format. You can use color, images, background, and striking layout in your presentation to tell a memorable story or share any useful information. If your post is too lengthy and not quite appropriate for an Info-Graphic, a well-designed presentation can be highly effective in keeping your readers engaged with your content.
One reason Slide Share is great for search engine marketing, is that the platform automatically transcribes your presentation when you upload. While Slide Share is an SEO friendly platform, never forget to make use of the keywords using keyword research, and thus optimise your slide-titles and Meta-descriptions for your target keyword. You can also embed your presentations on the blog, and share it on every platform.
6.) Other Visuals
Images, Info-Graphics, Videos and presentations are not the only elements that you could incorporate in your visual SEO efforts. There are many other formats that you can make use of. They are:
• Quotable banner graphics:
• Memes:
• Animated charts:
• Embedded Instagram/Tweets: