Ivan Drago told Rocky Balboa when they faced each other in Rocky IV, “I must break you.” While there may not be other businesses that want to completely break you the way the Russian wanted to break the protagonist in Rocky, there are enough that desire to outperform and outmaneuver you.

For this very reason, marketers, and the companies they work for, must be proactive, resourceful, and very nimble. One of the best ways to do this is to leave a meaningful impression on your target audience with your content.

In a world full of sameness, such as generic images often found on websites offering stock images and video, marketers must stand out and capture that valuable piece of real estate in their prospect’s mind. But marketers don’t have to be Hollywood heavyweights to master visual production. It’s easier than you might think.

Mastering Visual Production Because of How Our Brains Work

A variety of audiences, regardless of whether they are consumers or B2B prospects, prefer to digest information when it’s presented visually.

According to a HubSpot study, 80% of people remember things they see. Alternatively, only 20% of people remember things they read. Our brains are highly receptive to viewing and digesting content because we can process those images much faster than the written word.

We don’t have to abandon written content. We must properly marry the right amount of content with the right amount of visual imagery. Mastering this concept will give you an advantage over your competitors.

Mastering Visual Production Because Video is King

Marketers must understand those practices that readily facilitate video use as a key component of an overall marketing strategy. For many brands, video has become the primary tool used to communicate the benefits of their brand.

This doesn’t mean that one needs a 20 million dollar budget to incorporate more video production into their marketing mix effectively. It means that solutions are available, such as a visual production platform that has democratized production so that brands at every creativity and budget level can leverage visually stunning video to make that emotional connection with audiences.

That emotional connection with an audience is what stunning video that’s tailored to your specific needs achieves.

Mastering Visual Production Because the Tools are There

Creating specific images tailored to your brand’s particular requirements is exactly what every marketer should pursue. Searching for, selecting, and deploying freelance visual resources, whether they be photographers or videographers, is necessary to capture those tailored visual assets.

Does every organization want to go through that process or have the budget to do so?

There is an ideal option available to help marketers obtain the perfect visual asset without the high cost or typical hassle. Video production platforms, like StudioNow, have streamlined the use of visual production professionals while removing constraints associated with geography, style, budgets, and volume.

Visual production platforms also enable communication among multiple stakeholders within networks to ensure the right person handles the right project – all within budget.

The tools are available. The question is whether marketers will use them to master visual production.

Mastering Visual Production Because Distribution is Gold

Having great visual content is one thing. Knowing what to do with it can be completely different. When deployed properly, visual assets can be used repeatedly across multiple platforms and through a series of complimentary messages.

Distributing video across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and more will cultivate a viral effect and convey your organization’s message over and over. This is crucial since more and more people are relying on video for information.

Not only can visual assets have multiple lives, but they can also be edited, shortened, and blended with other content to extend their lifespan. To show how important it is to leverage various platforms just for video, 85% of all Internet users in the U.S. viewed online video content every month on one or more devices.

Also, the popularity of video shared across all social media is illustrated by the fact that 76% of marketers plan to use video on Facebook while 88% of them plan on using it on YouTube. The opportunity and audience are there.

The Results Speak for Themselves

Because Internet users spend 6 hours and 48 minutes every week, on average, watching videos online, various audiences are ripe for viewing new content that can elicit an emotional connection and carve out valuable real estate in their minds.

Think this is a bit far fetched?

Consider the fact that 93% of marketers say they’ve secured new customers because of video used on social media. Furthermore, 88% of marketers are satisfied with the ROI derived from video marketing activity on social media.

You don’t have to be a Hollywood bigwig to master visual marketing production and all the components associated with it. All you need is a desire to maximize the tools and platforms available to you and deliver assets to audiences that want to hear from you.

Who knows? Your next production could win you the marketing equivalent of an Academy Award.

Your first thought may be to use stock images, but customized visual content would help you create a unique brand identity among your social media followers and on social media sites in general. The goal is to create and share on-brand images without being too pushy or imposing.

From Instagram to Facebook to Twitter, make sure you’re aware of the best practices and technical rules. For instance, square images are ideal for Instagram, while vertical images are more suitable for the Twitter platform.

Social Media Marketing: What’s the Secret?

Social media strategy encompasses many aspects, but ultimately aesthetics are central. You can always play around with filters, frames, and features to capture customers’ attention with your social media posts.

The key, however, is to use image-oriented elements that resonate with your followers. In fact, the better your on-brand images blend in, the more customer engagement you can expect. Essentially, you have to figure out the general feel and look your followers prefer.

What Constitutes Social Media Engagement? The Standards are Changing

Contrary to popular belief, social media engagement is more than just a straightforward measurement of likes and follows. If you want to increase your total followers through on-brand images, you will have to be more engaging.

When it comes to brand awareness, you should focus on quality content rather than quantity to strive for perfection. When you launch a new small business, it resembles more like throwing a party on social media platforms. You have to create conversations and push followers to think about you.

Engagement works both ways, and your brand images should prompt social media users to go beyond just the “like & follow” – this includes genuine comments, shares, mentions, and retweets with their own comments.

In the age of digital marketing, active social media engagement is all about creating a brand experience through visual content. You’d be surprised how the integration of specific images can build robust and meaningful customer relationships.

Focus on Specific Ideas: Social Media Following and On-Brand Images

If you’re not established as a brand and are just starting, you should opt for unique and customized images. The right combination of images will communicate a message and help people identify with your brand. As much as the use of gifs, emojis, infographics, memes, screenshots, and short live videos matter, images and photos should be the bread and butter of your brand and marketing strategy.

Customized images will leave a lasting impact and help you grow your following on social media channels. Often, brands simply need to be active on their social media pages to engage, promote, and communicate. It is a great way to grab the attention of followers who don’t follow you.

Along with the nature of distinct on-brand images and ideas, make sure you have a unifying theme throughout your social media accounts. For instance, a minimalist color palette says that your brand has a simple and design-oriented philosophy. Bright pops of color and design elements in your images might suggest humor and liveliness. Custom images can help you create a brand personality, and it is how new customers visiting your page will perceive you.

Learn to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

• Post Engaging Images

Create and post engaging images that people can relate to on Facebook and Twitter. Usually engaging means eliciting a form of emotional response, something that resonates.

Engaging images tell a story, either that of your brand or something relevant. If you are looking for a particular emotional response from your followers, make sure you choose the right color scheme, visual style, and even fonts. They can range from funny to touching!

Engaging images not only get likes and shares but, more importantly, build brand loyalty as it is a means for your audience to connect and understand you.

• Only Share Images That are Relevant to Your Targeted Audience

Are you sure you know enough about your social media followers?

You have to figure out the interests, preferences of your audience. For instance, what topics do they care about, does a specific style appeal more?

Remember, you can always experiment with numerous types of content to garner more engagement. Nonetheless, focus on creating and sharing custom images that have performed well without becoming too stagnant or boring.

• Use On-Brand Images in Each Post

It is no secret that Facebook posts manage to gain more online engagement on social media platforms, 2.3 times more in fact.

Images grab more attention than plain text when your online customers scroll down the Twitter timeline or Facebook wall. The inclusion of relevant images to each post will unequivocally lead to better social media engagement. Brands can exponentially increase their engagement rates through custom images.

This is a great opportunity to promote branded content – perhaps quote and link some blog content, or include a photo of your product (with a partial body part?).

• Respond to Visual Content Posts

If you want to create social media engagement through images, you will have to be more participative. It means when users leave a comment or message on your social media post, you should take it as an opportunity to create more engagement.

Whether it’s a negative or positive comment or message, focus on a quick response to every follower, especially when starting out. Often, brands post customized images to showcase appreciation for the positive feedback and thwart negative resolution.

Often, brands forget to integrate a call to action into custom images. Remember to include CTAs and encourage your followers to leave a comment, like, and share with others. Great CTAs can come in the form of giveaways – many influencers use this to get their followers to engage.

• Post Multiple Images Regularly

If you want to jumpstart your social media engagement, you will have to post more than one image a week. On Facebook, across all brands, there is a median of 0.97 posts per day. If you’re posting less, other brands are getting more screen time. Using multiple images on several social media accounts consistently will help you build better engagement.

However, make sure you don’t cross the thin line of posting images to the point it becomes a nuisance for your audience. Ideally, you should establish the preferable time to post images on different social media platforms.

• Don’t Hesitate to Ask Questions

Often, brands are reluctant to direct questions to their followers. As a result, it creates a radio-silence between the brand and the target audience. Thus, be open and ready to ask questions on your social media accounts.

Your objective should be to ask your followers about what elements would make this post better. You can do this indirectly and playfully by incorporating questions within a custom on-brand image or on Instagram stories.

In addition to gaining insights about your social media profile or new products, you also generate more engagement from your followers! Remember, it does not have to be in the form of a serious survey.

• Maintain the Flow of Conversation

Contrary to misguided perception, the visual and textual representation on a social media platform is not just about creating art. Instead, it has to do with a brand’s ability to grab attention.

If you can view social media engagement through this same lens and post images consistently while taking a proactive approach to spark conversations with followers, you’ll find success on social networks.

Followers are already interested in your product or service, and you just have to give that nudge to keep the conversation going.

Take Advantage of Social Media Tools

There are several social media tools that can help you track and improve your engagement. Some help you to create beautiful, aesthetic social media posts, while others focus on automating and measuring your activities on different platforms.

You can, for instance, use Canva to create custom templates for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter covers. Think of it as a simplified version of Photoshop without all the editorial headaches.

BuzzSumo is a tool you can use to identify top-performing content across the internet. Better understand what content is getting engagement and inspire your own social media strategy.

Sproutsocial has a quality social media listening tool that allows you to follow meaningful conversations about your brand on social media. From monitoring hashtags to your share of voice, you can now find out exactly what your audience is saying.

Hootsuite, on the other hand, helps you to manage various aspects of your social media accounts on a dashboard in real-time. You can schedule multiple posts, curate content, manage various team members, and even measure ROI.

Final Thoughts

The last thing you want is to press pause on your social media engagement efforts. It is a continuous task that requires time and undivided attention to win followers’ hearts, both old and new. In essence, the more you learn about your targeted audience, the more you can implement on-brand visual content strategies that would work in your favor.

Most brands use analytics to determine what elements lead to positive social media engagement. It is a great way to assign your valuable time to the activities that dramatically improve your social media engagement and make more informed on-brand visual content decisions.

If you would like to improve your social media strategy with on-brand images, StudioNow will give you the help you need to refresh your marketing campaigns.

From conventional TV commercials and ads in the 1960s to today’s Snapchat, YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook Live, there is no doubt that video has now become a staple of our daily lives.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth that much more. Visual marketing is much more engaging than other traditional content strategies.

Did you know that people today spend one-third of their total time watching online videos? So, it is no secret that this is where the views are, and advertising dollars follow. Plus, according to Google, 6 out of 10 prefer online video platforms to traditional TV. There is definitely a trend for video content, especially in digital marketing.

Brands and consumers are using social media platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, to create and consume videos at a staggering rate. A Cisco study has revealed that one million minutes of video will move across the internet every second by early 2021. So, it is evident that brands ignoring video content will certainly be left behind.

Benefits of Video Marketing

It’s probably pretty apparent now that video as a means of marketing is no longer just a creative option for your business – it is a necessity. Video marketing is great for your brand as it does all the work that conventional marketing does; however, it amplifies its effects on the human brain. Keep in mind that humans are visual creatures so pictures speak louder than words. This is why we cannot help but be drawn to and engaged by moving images and clips, whether they show a feline jumping into a box or a stranger opening their recent order.

Businesses can use videos to express complicated concepts, as well as inspire and facilitate marketing-specific conversions (such as demos, subscriptions, trials, and more). Or even just sharing fun stories with or about customers.

Video marketing is appealing as it delivers plenty of information in a brief amount of time. Also, it does not hurt that this engaging storytelling format appeals to multiple senses.

Improve Your Google Ranking

Did you know that video is not just excellent for increasing traffic and driving more sales; it also captures and holds visitors’ attention?

The amount of time a visitor spends on your webpage after a Google search can considerably impact how high you appear in the search results. This factor of dwell time is a crucial Google ranking factor, as per Backlinko. Thus, video content can help improve your business website’s ranking on SERPs (search engine results pages), making it ideal for SEO.

So, more prolonged exposure benefits your business in two ways. It increases trust for consumers and alerts search engines, like Google and Bing, to good content.

Enhance Mobile Marketing

Mobile continues to grow in popularity as the main means of accessing information online. Video is now ideal for mobile marketing with increased bandwidth and better technology. According to YouTube, mobile video consumption increases by 100% every year. And keep in mind that as people prefer watching video content on the go with an increase in smartphone users, your video audience will keep getting bigger.

People generally view video content on mobile devices on the full screen. As a result, you can know that the audience is getting the full visual experience.

Trust and Emotional Connection

Remember that marketing aims to create and sustain long-term relationships with your consumers built on trust. There is no doubt that trust is at the core of the most effective marketing campaigns.

One of the best ways to develop a relationship with your audience is through face to face interaction; however, this is not realistic for all growing businesses.

The good news is that you can easily capture that sentiment and emotions in the form of video content. Video marketing can create connections that other content formats simply can’t.

The power of visual lies in its ability to evoke various emotions, unlike most other media. Video is useful as it allows you to use facial expressions, tone of voice, and emotional music in your favor. You cannot do that with infographics or a blog post.

Video can Augment Your Email Marketing Campaigns

As most of us get inundated with email, note that getting somebody to open your email is now a big challenge. Did you know that just using “video” in your email’s subject line can help increase open rates while decreasing unsubscribe rates?

Including a video in an email usually leads to a 19% increase in open rates and 65% in click-through rates!

Video Improves Your ROI

Here is another stat that will convince you to use video. For 88% of marketers, video marketing provides them with positive ROI – not an easy feat. While video production is not the simplest or cheapest task, it is no secret that it can pay off big time.

If you want to improve your digital marketing, you should have a complete and in-depth understanding of the power of video and visual communication as marketing tools.

Engaging and amazing videos are no longer just a ‘nice-to-have’ part of your marketing strategy, you will have to learn to incorporate video and visual content into your content marketing to remain competitive and relevant.

So, you might be wondering what makes an excellent video? Is it about keeping viewers engaged and informed? Is it merely a good and entertaining story? Or perhaps, it is just about reaching the right audience at the right time?

Honestly, it is not just a single factor. Here are some ideas to make your next video a success.

Video Marketing: Tips and Secrets

Recount Stories

Stories can reel your audience in and keep them both eager and connected. This is why fusing stories into your videos is an excellent method to increase viewer commitment. Rather than just presenting facts about your company and products, you should search for new approaches to tell engaging stories with your video content.

If you would like your videos to be watched, it has to create some value for your viewers. Pure advertising videos about your brand are likely to be ignored. So, while communicating brand voice, make sure you incorporate meaning too.

Use the First Couple of Seconds Intelligently

You probably know that attention spans online are quite short. On average, you’ve only got 8.5 seconds. The old saying: “You only get one chance to make a first impression” could not be more true for videos.

When creating successful and effective videos for your brand, you have to bring your story to life quickly to immediately capture attention as people scroll through their online feeds. In the opening seconds, you have to give clarity to what the video is about and give your viewers confidence and assurance that what they are about to see is worth their time.

Optimize your Video Content

Making sure that your video content is optimized to get as much exposure and engagement as possible is essential. Depending upon the channels that you choose to launch your campaigns, you’ll need to keep a keen watch on relevant keywords.

You may also include exciting invitations to take action, urging individuals to visit your website, sign up for a webinar, or visit a presentation page that has a unique offer.

For Facebook, optimization means keeping your videos short and sweet, adding captions, and uploading videos directly to the channel. In contrast, for YouTube, long-form videos are popular too. And you’ll usually wait two or more weeks after the video launches in order to make some tweaks.

Keep Sharing

You have to share your video across different social media channels and numerous blogs to get the best results. Note that the more often you share your video, the more visible it will be.

And just like with link building, if numerous sites pick up your video, search engines will view this visual content as more powerful and engaging, which can considerably improve your organic ranking on search engines for the video.

Final Thoughts

As a majority of consumers use videos to help make purchasing decisions, it is one of the best ways to reach your audience in the modern digital age, particularly on mobile and social media platforms.

Whether you run a large organization or manage a small company, you can’t avoid the fact that video is now essential for your business.

With StudioNow you can make sure you leave the right impression.

Now, as much as the textual content matters, the visual content is in a league of its own. Microsoft’s study proves that humans have a short attention span that lasts less than 12 seconds, and this is where short and stylized visuals take the spotlight.

With visual content production, a multitude of brands have managed to increase their conversion rates and engagement ratio. Furthermore, more small businesses now prefer to have a dedicated marketing budget specifically for visual content creation.

The Importance of Visual Content in the Digitalization Age

The fastest way to capture the attention of people is through visual content production. Since the human brain processes visual content quicker than textual content, it makes sense for brands to use the best images, videos, and infographics to retain content information for days.

It has never been clearer that digital success largely depends on the utilization of visual content. In fact, there’s an ocean of visual content strategies and tricks brands can use to step up their digital marketing game.

A decade ago, when the digitalization revolution was still on the path of evolution, visual content may not have been a priority. Contemporarily, it serves as an opportunity to prove and improve your brand’s image in the eyes of your audience.

What Constitutes Visual Content Marketing?

Digital marketers have been aware of the benefits of visual content marketing for quite some time. As of now, visual content marketing has become an integral part of a digital marketing strategy. Technically, visual content marketing refers to the use of pictures, images, or videos.

You can use the visual content to offer valuable information about different products or services to your audience. When it comes to visual content marketing, the trick, however, is to pair the text information into brand infographics, images, audio, video, or screenshots.

From Images to Video: There’s More Than One Type of Visual Content

High-Quality Custom Images vs. Stock Images

Once you figure out the basics of visual content marketing and what makes it so important, you can dive into different types of visual content. However, using a specific type of visual content depends on suitability and what type of products or services you are trying to market to your audience.

Nevertheless, you will inevitably find yourself drawn to use high-quality and customized images. In short, either you can create your own images or check out stock photos from professional photographers at platforms such as Adobe or Unsplash.

Video Content

Yes, audiences over 18 years old spend more hours watching YouTube content. In fact, even on social media platforms, video content garners the highest attraction. Besides, video content is a crucial entertainment aspect that you need to realize.

In fact, the Cisco report predicts that video content will amount to 82% of all online traffic by 2021. From boomers to millennials to Generation Z, people love to watch video content on their smartphones. However, is it important for a brand to utilize the right video editing creation tools from Apple or Adobe to structure the video content in the best possible manner, or use a visual production platform like StudioNow.

Infographics

Infographics can simplify the most complicated information for the audience. Simultaneously, it can grab attention and avoid detailed information about a product or service. That said, content marketers often avoid infographics as they can be quite challenging and time-consuming to produce.

Fortunately, you don’t have to hire an expensive graphic designer to render eye-catching graphic design. Instead, startups and small businesses can use Canva’s extensive collection of designs to create sublime infographics.

With enough patience and practice, you would be able to produce infographics that your targeted audience can understand. Infographics are all about compressing detailed information to explain the value proposition of your products or services to prospective customers.

Screenshots

It is another effective type of visual content format that can divide large textual blocks. To some degree, it serves the same purpose as an infographic without all the integrated and customized design features. The idea is to avoid long and sleep-inducing textual information.

Memes

There’s no social media platform where you won’t find memes. In fact, the entire online realm contains some memes. If your target audience is young, memes will serve as viable visual content. You’d be surprised how many brands use memes to create a bond with their audience.

Reasons, Benefits, and Uses: More Brands are Leaning Towards Visual Content

The reason most brands want to hop aboard the train of visual content is how it can be in the short and long-term. Consequently, you improve the image and recognition of your business. Here are some essential uses, reasons, and benefits of visual content.

Increases Engagement

With a more focused and recognized brand identity, you can paint a picture of your brand through storytelling. Think of sports or major film studios that visualize their brand image through different forms on social media. The more relevance you generate, the more engagement ratio will help you achieve your marketing goals.

Conversion Rates

The effective use of visual content will boost your conversion rates. Most businesses continue to explore the endless possibilities of using visual content to increase overall conversion rates on, say, landing pages. One of the most useful visual marketing strategies is to include visual marketing content throughout your web pages.

Repurpose Content

You can take the usefulness of your visual content to another level by restructuring the same images, videos, screenshots, or memes for a different purpose. It’s a strategic move that many brands take advantage of and repurpose content endlessly. No matter what you may have heard, you can repurpose and reuse your visual marketing content.

In simple terms, you can reuse and repurpose practically any visual marketing strategy. However, the easiest and simplest approach would be to repurpose your text content into invigorative visual content to save your business valuable time, energy, and resources.

Your Visual Content and Marketing Strategy: It’s ALL Connected

In the old days, SEO was all about using merely text to rank high. Today, there is a more heightened interest to use all forms of visual content. Your visual content should complement your marketing strategy. Words are powerful, but sometimes you need visuals to think outside the box.

As a result, you will have a more engaging audience and stand out in the online landscape. Think of visual content as a trigger mechanism to generate reactions. The response can generate happy, inspirational, surprise, and even shock value. So long as the targeted audience has an appetite for visual content, you can continue to evolve your marketing strategy.

Custom Visual Content Production: Need of the Hour!

Whether you’re a new or established brand, you need to understand the visceral psyche of your targeted audience. Once you understand the visual needs of your audience, you can provide interesting content for exploration. Remember, there is no such thing as too much visual content.

In fact, visual content creators try to amaze the audience. Though ultimately, it is the creative effort of the content that rewards itself in the form of likes, more tweets, retweets, shares, and comments on social media platforms. The higher the engagement, the more followers a brand can attract.

Customized visual content production is all about visual communication through relevant images, screenshots, infographics, videos, gifs, or memes. However, the rabbit hole goes much deeper than to acquire more followers. Instead, more brands today want to use custom visual content to realize their full potential in a competitive market.

Whether its likes or shares on social media platforms, visual content has become the key to communicate with the audience and is a perfect format to convey facts or figures to your audience. Essentially, the production of visual content revolves around taking into account calculated risks and understanding what would work best for you.

It is high time for brands to harness the power of brilliantly designed visual content that could change the course of a marketing strategy. Often, it may come across as a magic trick. But is a simple matter of careful consideration and planning that allows brands to surpass their preconceived digital marketing expectations and achieve optimal growth.

If you want to stay relevant, StudioNow can help you produce streamlined visual content. It is a platform that uses creative ingenuity to convert your visual content ideas into reality. StudioNow’s collaborative and creative efforts allow brands to compete in the same league as world-renowned brands.

If you don’t want to hire a production agency due to budget constraints, StudioNow’s visual content production platform quickly delivers high-quality custom visuals and reduces production costs significantly. Partner with StudioNow to help your brand affordably attain and retain a global audience.

For those who remember High School English, whenever it came to creative writing, our teachers instructed us to show, rather than tell, a particular action. Those wonder years are in the rearview mirror for most of us but one thing remains; showing your audience rather than telling them is a staple of getting your message across. Fast forward to some of the best marketing strategies being implemented today by small and large companies and you’ll find one constant: visual content marketing is the key to increased traffic and engagement.

The use of visual content marketing is crucial for any organization because of the way our brains work. Because the gray matter between our ears processes images 60,000 times faster than text, organizations should rely on visually demonstrating the importance of their value proposition rather than trying to explain it. Imagine taking 15 to 30 seconds necessary to convey a written message in a way to ensure comprehension and compare it to a visually compelling method that requires less than 1 second. When comparing these two scenarios, why wouldn’t everyone leverage visually compelling assets as part of their marketing mix?

It’s worth noting that we can’t explain every detail visually, but we can speed the comprehension and engagement by connecting with our audience on an emotional level. We’ve come a long way from living in caves and communicating by drawing pictures on the wall. But the fact remains that when possible, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Telling your story visually

Because our brains are capable of processing images much faster, organizations should effectively leverage imagery when telling their story. Faster processing is not the only reason visual storytelling should be the norm rather than the exception. The fact that engagement significantly increases when stories are told visually is of utmost importance. In fact, 80% of people remember things they see or experience compared to 20% of people who remember what they’ve read. Reading comprehension is critically important (we would not have graduated high school without it), but visual storytelling is much more important.

With the amount of stimulation the average person is bombarded with on a daily basis (work, traffic, television, the kids), we can only retain so much. If the key for organizations is to carve out meaningful real estate in someone’s mind as quickly as possible, it’s better to use tools that offer 80% retention compared to those touting only 20%. In short, those who tell their story visually ensure retention and greater engagement.

The best tools for visual content marketing

Now that we’ve illustrated (pun intended) the importance of imagery in our marketing, the question becomes what imagery works best? Most would agree that photographs, videos and illustrations make for excellent visual content when telling a compelling story and conveying your value proposition. Each one has its advantages and the ease and affordability associated with each type of asset plays a role in which tools organizations choose.

Photos

The most common type of imagery used in marketing might be the photograph. We’ve been using pictures in marketing for about 100 years and it’s just as effective today as it was at the turn of the 20th century.

It’s true that photography has seen a bit of a revolution in the last 20 years. With the advent of digital cameras and every smartphone doubling as a camera, everyone’s a photographer these days, right? Well, not exactly. Taking a picture with your iPhone is one thing. Properly determining composition, lighting, and framing the subject is a completely different animal. Only an experienced professional can provide the necessary details needed in photography to ensure your brand is effectively telling its story. Getting the best professional photographers to capture your value proposition doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either, as visual content marketing platforms have significantly simplified the process and reduced the cost.

Videos

It’s true that photographs are the most popular visual asset, but videos are just as popular due to social media platforms and the opportunity to live stream any number of events. Contrary to what many Millennials might believe, live streaming isn’t the only use of video content. As with photography, where certain expertise is necessary to capture the essence of one’s brand, video should also be shot by experts. Looking to create a two-minute advertisement for YouTube? Using a visual content marketing platform can provide all the expertise needed in a timely manner at affordable rates.

Other assets

Other visual assets, such as illustrations, infographics, memes, and GIFs are very effective when looking to carve out territory in your target audience’s mind. These can be created quickly and affordably by any host of producers using any number of visual content marketing platforms.

The benefits of visual content

Increased brand awareness, engagement, and conversion rates are the payoffs when incorporating visual content into your marketing mix. Research has shown that 65% of us are visual learners. If we want an audience to remember what’s being shared, we must do it visually to increase the chances of retention. When this happens, organizations will see increased brand awareness and retention of the message when compared to other methods.

More traffic to websites and social media accounts is another positive byproduct of leveraging visual content in marketing. Utilizing visually stunning assets across websites, social media platforms, email, and other channels helps cut through the clutter and drive home your organization’s message. By nature, most of us would click on something with an exquisite image when compared to simple text.

When using visual content, marketers can also count on seeing increased engagement and conversion rates. Explainer videos make an indelible impact on visitors and help increase time on site. Also, drawing attention to a landing page and persuading the visitor to complete a form with compelling imagery is a winning strategy as well.

When we choose to show rather than tell, we more effectively draw in audiences and give their brains something to retain. With great visual content as part of your overall marketing mix, you make significant strides in retaining, engaging, and converting their audiences in today’s hypercompetitive environment.

MIT News. In the blink of an eye, MIT neuroscientists find the brain can identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds.
HubSpot. The Power of Visual Communication
The Social Science Research Network. Reaching the Visual Learner: Teaching Property Through Art

Don’t miss out on any great actionable ideas and real-world applications shared during this presentation!

If you’re saving the video for later, here are some highlights as food for thought.

Dane starts with the vital principle of Brand Authenticity and what it means to him.

The brand is a living entity that requires maintenance, constant effort must be put into building authenticity.

It’s much more than a buzz word and should be a true reflection of those inside the company. A common mistake is that companies look to customers for a brand definition. Though they can help to validate a brand, a brand must start from within the company.

Next, Dane examines the importance of Personality, Voice, and Tone.

How do we use it as part of positioning a brand? A big part would be aligning all aspects of the business – be it the talents, sales staff, or a social media marketing team, everyone needs to be on the same page.

Humanizing a brand and developing its personality and character traits is a great way to shape brand messaging and brand voice. Try out 3 simple activities that the NFL uses to monitor their brand and see if everyone is on track. (We won’t spoil it for you here, you should check out the webinar.)

Understanding and communicating the long-standing and defining traits of your brand’s personality, while being able to adapt your tone to changing environments is essential to visual content success.

The final step is putting it into practice in a Visual Strategy.

Dane emphasizes on using what is available, not every piece of visual content needs to be highly produced and polished, especially when it comes to demonstrating Brand Authenticity.

At this point in the webinar, you’ll find some social media accounts to follow for inspiration. These brands have struck a balance between consistency and evolution, embracing user-created content and distinctive hand-drawn graphics.

How do all these concepts translate to real-world applications?

Dane provides deep insights using case studies of the NFL Network and its transformation, the NFL Fantasy Football, and the NFL TNF Promos. If you’re interested in marketing and sports, you will love these examples!

In these case studies, Dane focuses on the practicality and efficiency of work to keep up with the volume demands of visual content. Find out how the NFL managed to not only innovate their tone through visual language but also lower costs and reduce their dependence on laborious 3D design work.

As a bonus…

Simplify your marketing efforts with 6 tried and tested tools that cover everything, from workflow to live event coverage. (Again, we’re not spoiling this for you.)

Brand authenticity and visual content go hand in hand, and the ultimate goal is to “peel back the curtain” of your business and let your customers feel like they are part of something real. In this sense, there is no one size fits all as every brand is distinct it what it offers, but just remember to keep the messaging regular and consistent.

If you want to get all the details of how to apply this to your brand, check out the webinar, and stay tuned for some interesting questions during the final segment.

Besides, visual content marketing works only when your strategic approach does not involve using generic stock images. So long as you utilize custom visual content, you can elevate the bar of your entire content marketing strategy.

Where Do Digital Marketers Stand?

Today, digital marketers want to engage people through eye-catching, interesting, and unique customized visual content. Gone are the days when you could pick any stock image and use it a dozen more times for another valuable post on social media.

Comparatively, for instance, Tweets with custom images receive five times more engagement than generic stock images. The same standard of custom visual content is applicable to blog posts and articles on your webpage.

2020 may have been a tumultuous year for the global capitalist order, but it also brings an evolutionary step for digital marketing. It is one of the reasons visual content planning has become more prioritized for brands.

Let’s take a look at the essential reasons, importance, and uses of custom images for a brand in 2020 and beyond.

Why Use Generic Stock Images in the First Place?

Not every brand would adopt the same digital marketing practices at the same time. Predominantly, however, most businesses have gradually started to let go of outdated generic use of images. Visual content is the king only when there is a customized strategic value for the audience.

No one wants to see images that don’t lead to meaningful user experience. However, customized, relevant images will always fair better than stock images. Still, startups use readily available stock images to save time and avoid expenses. Unfortunately, stock images don’t serve any purpose in the long-term.

A niche business usually requires specific and stylized images that are ordinarily impossible to find. Also, a limited budget is no longer a viable excuse; brands can use cost-effective tools like photoshop or avail a photographer’s services to get custom images.

Although there are a few benefits of stock images for small businesses, it does not naturally become part of a long-term branding strategy. There are several ways to customize images online for social media posts and website pages.

Besides, there’s always a legal risk of using a stock image that might run into a copyright infringement issue. It is an expected burden that no businesses should bear on their shoulders. Once you move past the convenience of using stock images and see how it impacts your SEO, you would start to use custom images to stay competitive and achieve long-term strategic value.

Why risk your brand’s authenticity when you can offer something original that would lead to high conversion rates and leads? After Facebook, LinkedIn is another platform that is filled with recognizable generic stock images. The use of custom images on Twitter, however, has become a new norm.

The Power of Custom Images

In the e-Commerce marketplace, conversion rates are higher than 35% when brands integrate custom images to market a product for service. Almost 70% of online shoppers prefer custom and high-quality images to make a purchase decision.

Turns out the unique appeal, after all, sells and attracts more people. Besides, it is vital to remember that people usually remember custom images for an extended period that contain interesting objects, buildings, product placement, or faces.

Sure, custom photos can be relatively more expensive than generic stock photos. However, you should start to think of custom images to achieve more consistency and promote the confidence of your brand. Naturally, every business wants to position itself uniquely.

Another defining aspect of custom images is that you can repeatedly use them without paying added fees. In essence, custom images confirm your brand’s authenticity and generate a high conversion rate than you can imagine.

The Case for Not Using Stock Images

When you have the visual communicative images to drive a successful digital marketing campaign, the possibilities are endless. Therefore, ditch stock photography and adapt to custom images to bring out the originality in your brand’s visual appeal. Once your visual content becomes more recognizable, you can demonstrate more creativity and use even more engaging custom images.

Reasons to Opt for Custom Visual Content than Stock Images

1. Concentrate on YOUR Target Audience

Many brands often appeal to an audience that is not interested in their products or services. With custom images, however, you attune the representation of your brand. So long as the custom images are suitable for your target audience’s preference, you can add more specific styles to increase the appeal.

Also, custom images allow you not to generalize the taste of your target audience. Therefore, even straightforward custom images can leave a good impression to get in your target audience’s good graces.

2. Custom Images Complements Other Visual Content

It is true – custom images can heighten the appeal of your existing visual content. It amplifies the contextual relevance of your visual content. However, how you place a customized product image right next to the description can be exciting or boring.

The trick is to use your creative imagination to make the audience more engaging towards your visual content. Primarily, custom images are powerful enough to add a new life to your textual content.

3. Custom Images Cuts Out Clichés

Yes, generic custom images are vulnerable to typical clichés that bums out millennials and Generation Z. For instance, there are hundreds and thousands of stock images of a person sitting on an empty desk. Typically, you would need more than just an ordinary image to grab the attention of your audience.

On the other hand, you can use a customized image that doesn’t contain clichés and aligns with your entire visual content strategy. Simultaneously, you can use the same custom images to tell the story of your brand and intrigue your targeted audience every time.

4. Better Image Optimization on Social Media Platforms

The natural instinct of a digital marketer is to optimize the images for a specific platform. It means your Facebook optimization tactics would be relatively different than Twitter. The point is not to disregard the nature of each social media platform when it comes to images.

For instance, the last thing you want to do on a Facebook platform is to use low-resolution images. Instead, view it as an opportunity to add high-resolution png images that would encourage your audience to continue scrolling.

5. Custom Images Always Stands Out

The social media paradigm has become more competitive and broadminded over the years. And people can see generic-oriented visual content at first glance. Alternatively, custom images on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook render a high engagement ratio.

Mostly, generic stock images are not expressive enough for the online audience to share with others. Therefore, it makes sense to use memorable and creative custom images.

6. Optimize Specifically for Search

Optimization of images for search is a crucial aspect of on-page SEO. Well-optimized custom images significantly improve the relevancy of each web page and support the subject matter of a topic.

When it comes to ranking factor, Google’s algorithm on search engines undergoes necessary changes after some time. Therefore, use the correct combination of title, alt text, file name, file size, format, and other relevant image SEO factors. Google can be quite rewarding once your on-page SEO checks out.

7. More Opportunities to Highlight People

Custom images that feature real people perform much better. The high engagement comes because people form a connection more easily. More brand strategists and digital marketers now utilize custom images that feature one or more individuals enjoying or talking about a specific product or service.

8. Addition of Emotion Value

Custom images can add the much-needed emotional value that your audience can resonate with. It’s the same emotional value you can use to convey a specific product or service message to the desired audience. Custom images should be able to strike a chord in the hearts of your audience. In fact, striking custom images can embody the sentiments of your target audience.

9. Overall Improved Visual Appeal

Editing images to improve your custom image quality while including more visually attractive components is vital to draw attention in the age of digitalization. One of the reasons to use custom images is to resonate with your target audience’s ideas and perceptions. It might sound something simple, but it takes a lot of effort and careful consideration to perfect an image.

Often, brands combine the use of stock and custom images. Theoretically, it may sound like a good, but it results in high costs and even more confusion among viewers. Consequently, your targeted audience can, for the most part, distinguish between unique custom images from stock images.

Your goal should be to boost the effectiveness of your images at all costs. And that means getting custom images. You don’t have to get rid of all your stock images in haste completely. Instead, gradually replace your website pages and social media platform’s generic stock images with custom images.

It might come across as a time-consuming idea, but you would be surprised by the heightened search engine optimization results. Custom images will influence your audience to stick around rather than lose interest. Once you understand the importance of custom images, you can add surprise elements to spark more interest in your target audience.

Our online world is also incredibly competitive, whether you are seeking out views or purchases from your target audience, there are millions of companies doing the same.

Quality visuals are a key differentiator for customer experience and brand image. However, aesthetics are not enough. You might have read about the pitfalls of overused stock images in our article Why Custom Visual Content is a Vital Part of your Digital Marketing Plan.

Let’s explore the how’s and why’s behind custom visual content, and what it can contribute to your personal brand.

What are Custom Visuals

You can probably tell from the name itself, but in other words, custom visuals are original image-based content specifically created for your own business.

The category includes a vast range of media including:

• pictures & photos
• data visualization tools: charts, diagrams, graphs
• infographic
• live or online videos
• screenshots
• memes
• and slides & presentations

New forms of visual content are being invented every day.

Why are Custom Visuals so important in Brand Image today?

58% of digital marketing professionals consider visuals (including videos) as the most important form of content!
Millennial groups with their $200 billion buying power only respond to personalized, original, and engaging visual brand experiences.

Clearly, generic images are no longer going to cut it in digital marketing.

Instead, businesses need to understand how to use custom visual content to:

1. Positively impact brand storytelling,
2. Build a strong brand that is consistent everywhere from social media, e-commerce to even brick and mortar stores
3. Foster customer relationships through customer experiences.

Moving forward, we will address these points and examine some great brands to learn from. You too can apply their proven brand strategies to your own business!

Crafting your Brand Story

What is a brand story anyway?

Brand storytelling is about building a narrative that describes not only the tangible benefits of your personal brand but also the brand’s personality and core values.

A brand story allows your business to build an emotional connection. Your brand will be associated with more than just its product.

When successful brands are able to accomplish this, they can then use it to build brand loyalty.

Thus a brand story is very helpful for small businesses and business owners to differentiate themselves in the crowded marketplace.

How do you use Custom Images in Brand Storytelling?

When you know your brand story you can develop the right image and communicate this to your target audience.

A good example would be the festive Coca Cola campaigns. Their overall brand values align well with the Holidays, and with that in mind, they created the image of Santa Claus we know today who personifies their brand (even the colors).

Thanks to successful annual marketing campaigns, Coca Cola’s brand personality of happiness and celebration has become associated with the heartwarming celebration of the Holidays.

Building an emotional connection through a brand story is effective as it avoids the obvious sales pitch. Coca-cola is now an essential part of many festive celebrations and they got there through brand storytelling, not just by pushing discounts or product features.

Did you know Coca Cola’s jolly Santa Claus has been around since 1931?

Though their ads have adapted to changing times, their key brand elements have stayed the same throughout the retellings of their brand story.

Keeping a Consistent Brand Image

What contributes to a Strong Brand Image?

Having a strong brand image means that customers can easily recognize you from consistent brand elements.

In addition to a strong brand story, there are certain concrete visuals that your brand needs to be easily identified. These include, but are not limited to:

• Brand name
• Logo
• Brand Color Palette
• Typography/Font
• Business Cards

These are elements that your customers see and interact with regularly and should closely follow brand guidelines.

More specifically, a brand style guide is needed to steer all advertising and publicity material and ensure that it agrees with the brand image.

Of course, to avoid blending in with the crowd, these elements which help to create a strong brand image must be distinctive.

This is where custom visual elements and images come into play.

Let’s take a look at Apple, a brand that pretty much everyone will recognize from a quick glance at their ads or logo. They have created distinctive and original brand elements that stand out for minimalism and elegance.

That style might not work for everyone, but it is a lesson in thoughtfully designing your own custom visuals and keeping them consistent.

How Brand Image affects your Customer Base?

A strong brand image plays an important role in customer relationships and the entire customer experience.

If you’ve got a good brand image, your customers will feel good about their relationship with you and purchases with your business.

Shoddy visuals will immediately reduce the credibility of your brand.

Using your own custom visual elements lends professionalism throughout your business, so the customer journey feels seamless whether they are making a transaction online or in-person.

Build on that with consistency and foster a sense of reliability; your customers will know exactly what to look out for when it comes to your brand.

When talking about customer journeys, it is essential to build brand recognition on all platforms, and not just purchasing platforms!

Building Brand Identity on Social Media

How do you know if you’ve got a strong brand identity?

In addition to your store or e-commerce platforms, your social media should immediately show your brand personality and brand voice at a glance.

Social media is a titan when it comes to digital marketing opportunities, and is a direct gateway to your target audience or customer base.

A great example of a big brand that has made great use of social media is Nike. The sporting brand holds the top followed Instagram account of 2020.  Unsurprisingly,  they have exploited the visual nature of the platform very effectively.

Nike has adapted its content to reflect the increasing popularity of collective running, but without sacrificing the content their fans have come to expect. Namely, high-quality images and videos of athleticism with a strong motivational message.

Take a note from Nike and be sure that your social media profiles communicate your brand just as effectively as all other aspects of your marketing.

What custom content can you add to social media?

Social media is one of the easiest ways to share branded custom visuals, and the options are pretty much endless. However, here are some ideas to get interaction from your followers.

1. Make your content personalized and local to the region you’re targeting.  Be it streaming a live video at an event or sharing a post of a famous landmark – let your customers know that you are in touch with them!
2. Learn from successful influencers and don’t be afraid to collaborate. Creating visual content like short videos with others in your niche is a great way to grow your audience organically.
3. Link to your e-commerce pages. Instagram, for example, has a marketplace that allows you to link your posts to your site. Be sure to take quality photos of your products and make use of this opportunity.

Whether it’s a tweet, Facebook post, or Instagram story – use the right elements and stay in line with your brand identity and brand image.

Custom Content Marketing

Are custom images really important in written content marketing?

We all know that content is an important part of any marketing strategy. Many companies have blogs to share articles, and content writers work daily on writing new pieces.

In fact, 61% of potential customers are influenced by custom content when making purchasing decisions.

For online businesses, custom content is especially important, as authentic content ranks higher on Google. Google guidelines “particularly discourage pages where neither the images nor the text are original content.”

In addition to quality written content, accompanying images have to measure up too.

What are some simple ways to employ brand images in your content?

If you’ve been using exclusively written material in your content marketing, there are some quick ways you can start incorporating custom visual images into your work.

Infographics are great for sharing on social media platforms which can attract new customers without the use of paid ads.

Another possibility is offering useful branded downloadable content. This will build your site’s reputation as a knowledge base and keep visitors coming back to check for updates.

A good example would be LinkedIn’s free whitepapers. Their whitepapers cover a range of topics, tastefully embody the brand style guide, and are always in line with the brand message of helping individuals with their career.

Adding custom visual content to your usual content is a simple way to improve its quality for both readers and search engines. Just be sure that your custom content is original and high quality (as always).

The bottom line is images are an essential part of building your entire brand identity – from communicating your brand story to creating a brand image on social media. Visuals are surprisingly influential in shaping your customer relationships, and thus directly affect sales and business goals.

Why not make sure these images are truly authentic and represent your company?

Build a brand image truly deserving of your business with help from StudioNow’s professional photographers and production platform.

Why Should Brands Use Localized Visual Content Marketing

The way you use content tells your audience a lot about your brand. Using the right localized content will ensure new markets and your existing audience will relate to your company.

For example, you can post a local video or image about an event that happened in a specific area. Global brands can also appeal to your audience in multiple areas of the world. For example, if you’re working on a global marketing strategy, you can post visual content in different languages, and that conveys different cultures.

Overall, when marketers release content that appeals to specific regions, you’re appealing to your audience’s lifestyle and culture, helping them connect to your brand.

Reasons to Localize Visual Content

The internet is global but rather than being enticed by general visuals, your target audience reacts stronger to local visual content. Here are a few reasons why.

It’s Subjective

The Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty. The Great Wall. No matter where you’re from, you recognize these landmarks.

Not only that, but these images intrigue your local market. This is thanks to social platforms such as Instagram, where anyone can become a photographer and post a picture of their local town or the location of their vacation.

Because of platforms such as Instagram, posting localized visual content is easier now than ever. Whether you post an image that everyone recognizes or something that symbolizes your hometown, you can reach a global audience.

Visuals Convey a Strong Message

An image speaks a thousand words. That old adage is true. Not only that, but visuals are a universal language. No matter where you’re from or what language you speak, you can see a visual and identify with it. This is why visuals can enhance your company message.

Localized content offers this for your brand. The right images can give your audience insight into your brand, products, and company aspirations. Using localized images also allows you to reach your target market, which is especially helpful if you’re a global company.

The Type of Localized Images to Use

Every city has nuanced aspects that make it unique. Using localized images in your marketing campaigns will give your brand a more authentic feel. That’s why you should highlight the different factors that make a city unique.

Should you only focus on historic landmarks? While these are a good start, a local consumer will identify more nuanced factors such as:

• Language
• Signage
• Building styles
• Types of buildings
• Vegetation
• Weather
• Vehicles

Let’s take Los Angeles as an example. While anyone can recognize the big Hollywood sign, LA locals may recognize other aspects better, such as street signs.

Don’t forget about the interiors. All locations have different interior types and styles.

• Some examples are:
• Decorations
• Room types
• Activities
• Furniture and objects

For example, Japan will have different furniture and interiors than Sweden. This little difference will determine the type of audience you attract.

Why Custom Images and Videos Are Important

Custom video content, as well as images, do more than improve your SEO and grab your audience’s attention. Your audience will identify with images that relate to their lifestyle. If your images don’t speak to your customer, they may be turned off from your brand.

Here are a few reasons why you should utilize custom images and video in your digital content.

More Affordable Than You Think

Stock images are more than just convenient they’re cheap (or even free). Even though stock images don’t contribute to the customer experience the same way that custom visual content does, many brands settle for stock images because they think they will make their ROI.

But you’ll make a better ROI if you use custom images. Not only that, but custom images are more affordable than you think.

For example, there’s software available that streamlines the creative collaboration process. You can share your ideas while an artist in the marketplace can execute your image. Since the process is all online, you’ll save a significant amount of money.

No brand can also deny the benefits of custom photography. The photos are specifically designed for you and can’t be copied or used by anyone else.

Great Option for Global Businesses

Global brands need specific types of marketing materials that stock photos and videos can’t fulfill. In reference to localized visual content, global businesses will benefit from custom images taken at a specific location or ones that appeal to their demographic.

Software can also make this process easy for global businesses. You can reach out to a photographer or content creator from anywhere in the world. They can create your media visuals and send them to you, all on a digital platform.

Eliminates False Advertising

How often has this happened you’re at a restaurant, looking at a menu, and you order an item based on the picture on the menu? But when you receive the item, it looks nothing like the photo. This is the prime example of how the wrong imagery conveys false advertising.

This is what happens when you use stock photos. While a stock photo may represent your personality and can interest your audience, it will never be as accurate as a custom photo. This false advertising includes not only product photography but also images that improve your brand awareness.

With that being said…

Accurately Represents Your Brand Identity

No stock image can represent your brand the way a custom image can. That’s because you’re conveying your brand’s message through a visual medium. This is achieved by your goals, ideas, and even any challenges you’re facing.

Talented photographers and artists will use your insight for effective visual content production that will cater to your personality. You can also use this process to create localized images that will draw in your audience, creating a lasting connection.

More Flexibility

While stock images are convenient and affordable, your stock photo options are limited. Custom photos always have room for flexibility.

First, you’re making your ideas come to life. You share your ideas with photographers and designers who will deliver your visuals. Custom images convey a stronger statement than stock images because you’re expressing your personality and enticing your local audience.

The best part? The photos are yours! You can use them how you want whether on your website, your social media channels, or all of the above. Stock images come with rights and licenses, which can set you up for legal liability.

Case Studies: Localized Content in Action

Don’t believe us when we say localized content will intrigue your audience and will result in a great ROI? Many brands already took the plunge, deciding to invest in custom localized and lifestyle photography rather than settle for stock photos. Here are the results they experienced.

Uber

Many people might not think Uber is a local business. But Uber passengers can relate to all of the wonderful qualities that make their hometown, well, home. They wanted to embody this by releasing images catering to their local audience, using city-specific images from 600 cities in 65 countries.

Skilled photographers snapped one city at a time, resulting in 10,000 images taken at 2,000 locations. The best part? This whole project was completed in only two weeks.

Google

Google dominates search engines but also the internet as a whole. But people from all over the world access Google and Google products. Therefore, Google wanted to entice a local audience by creating content for hundreds of cities.

Google had two goals: capture neighborhoods in select cities and capture points of interest all over the globe. The result was not only high-quality visuals but images that expressed each city’s unique local culture.

The secret to success was seeking out local photographers who could capture the true beauty of their city.

430 neighborhoods were photographed, and 5,600 images were produced. The project only lasted six weeks. The best part? Google was able to obtain these images on a budget.

Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is one of the largest banks in Canada. They experienced a major problem with stock photos: most of them catered to a U.S.- based audience, and RBC is trying to appeal to their Canadian audience.

What did they do? They created a strategy to take pictures of multiple RBC locations across the country as well as lifestyle content from the surrounding areas. This not only conveyed RBC’s branding and personality but also captured the diversity of different areas of Canada.

25 photographers captured these images, resulting in more than 275 photos. The project was completed in only 11 days.

Utilize Localized Visual Content

An effective content strategy is essential for businesses, including the type of visuals you use. All businesses, even global businesses, can benefit from tapping into their audience’s local city. This is why localized visual content can entice your audience and generate a great ROI.
We make ordering localized content easy.  Request a demo today.

What if we told you that blog posts with images receive 94% more views than blog posts without images?

Your digital audience is continuously evolving. An average page visitor is more impacted by visuals than words. After all, it’s definitely more interesting to see beautiful images as compared to walls of text. You might notice that influencers on social media platforms have adopted this concept, and their entire brand revolves around quality visual assets.

While written content will always provide educational benefits for your readers, and help you to optimize SEO and keywords, aesthetic visual content is essential for leveling up your blogging. If you’re now interested in creating a visual content marketing strategy, you might be wondering what types of content to include?

We’ll cover that in just a moment,  but a big hint is that you’ll want to focus on custom visual content vs stock. Custom content strengthens your brand, makes your website stand out, is often more appealing for your target audience than stock photography, and can even improve your conversion rates.

Visual Content 101

Before we jump into details about why visual content is essential in digital marketing, it is important to understand what it is exactly.

What types of visual content are out there?

Visual Content includes a wide range of visual assets from images, infographics, charts (and a vast array of other data visualization tools) to slide decks, Youtube videos, screenshots, memes, and diagrams.

These visual assets should be authentic and employed on websites, social media platforms, or any marketing channel your brand is using to reach your target audience, build brand awareness, and consumer trust.

As mentioned, visual content sticks with consumers far better than the written word. If you’re not using visual content in your marketing campaigns, then you’re missing the boat. And it’s a big one.

So if visual content is what consumers remember most, brands should be using distinctive, custom visual elements in their marketing – especially when it’s on social networks that demand shareability.

…Right?

In actuality, stock images are a popular option. Let’s get a better understanding of precisely what function they serve.

Why Do Brands Use Stock Images?

With the rise in the importance of visual content for businesses and bloggers, content marketers had to look for a solution and often turned to stock images.

While visuals are necessary for any content strategy, one can only experience results when using high-quality, relevant images.

Stock images are readily available and high-quality; they exist for all purposes, business niches, and styles.

Stock images offer many benefits for businesses, especially small businesses, with a limited budget and who may not have a concrete branding strategy. These are affordable types of content that can be used on blogs, social media posts, and more.

Unfortunately, convenience and affordability make businesses overlook the benefits of professional photography or custom designs. What they don’t understand is other businesses, including competitors, might be using the same stock images.

Stock Images are Everywhere

Anyone who works in marketing, specifically content marketing, can recognize the same stock images. They’re seen in related blog posts, on video content, in ads, even in website design.

Going on Twitter, Instagram, or even LinkedIn, you will recognize some generic photos being used.

Stock images are convenient. Many of them are cheap or even free. You usually have full rights to use the images, as long as it pertains to your business. Often, there is no need to credit the original owner.

Sometimes, convenience comes with the price of originality. Your customers notice generic, boring photos just as you do! Don’t risk your brand’s authenticity, which could impact lead generation, conversion rates, and your brand’s overall marketing efforts.

Stock Images Are a Thing of the Past

There Could Be Legal Risks

Most stock images are in what’s known as the “public domain.” The public domain is where certain creative materials aren’t protected by copyright, trademark, or patent laws. But you cannot assume all stock images are in the public domain.

For example, let’s say you find a stock photographer you like. You download their entire collection. While most of their images are in the public domain, they may choose to place copyright restrictions on certain photos.

If you use these photos without their consent and against their copyright standards, they could enforce legal action against you. Invest some time and resources into custom content. This way, you can license the media to prevent other businesses from stealing it.

Consumer Trust Gets Lost with Stock Images

Trust is the most important quality you can establish with customers. While transparency and increased customer engagement are great ways to improve consumer trust, the right visuals can build your brand as trustworthy.

Custom Visuals Improve Your Reputation

Stock photos and other unoriginal content makes your business look like a clone of others in your niche. Regularly release content and always include high-quality visuals, whether these be self-created infographics or other designs.

Your customers are smart. They can see when your business takes the easy way out with content creation. Not only that, but competitors are always looking to better their content strategy —and maybe possibly win over your customers. Avoid this by making your content stand out, in both utility and aesthetics.

Need to Innovate with the Times

Our culture is always changing, and the modern customer enjoys this fast-paced lifestyle. Stock images make you seem outdated. On-trend custom visuals will build brand relevance and help cement your place as a leader, not a follower.

Think of your Social Media Platforms

Needless to say, you’re not the only company in your niche on social media. Stock images will make you blend into the crowd. Create custom visuals and add them to your social media marketing strategy. This way, you look authentic and will catch the eye from different customers.

You Won’t Achieve Brand Storytelling with Stock Images

Storytelling offers more than just a way to connect to your audience. When your brand masters telling its story, you’ll achieve brand consistency. The voice you use with your written content needs to match your visuals. This can’t be done with stock images; differentiation is impossible.

What Storytelling Offers Your Brand

Stories do more than entertain us. They connect us. The right story can influence your audience and inspire them to take action, making storytelling an essential part of your brand’s content strategy. Your entire content strategy should revolve around telling a story. Crafting your branding into a narrative creates opportunities to build relationships with your audience.

If you can communicate the right message to your target audience, the result would be improved conversion rates, user experience, and customer retention.

Other benefits that storytelling offers include:

• Trust
• Recognition
• Inspiration

When you think about your visual branding, think of the story you want to tell. Make sure your visual and written branding are seamlessly connected.

Using Custom Visuals in Storytelling and Brand Consistency

Your custom visuals should be well-planned and outlined to communicate effectively. Think about the message you want to convey to your audience and how your content can reflect this.

There is a whole repertoire of tools at your disposal, from Canva for beginners and individuals to the Adobe Suite for professionals.

Regardless of how you’re making visual content, you’ll find different branding elements to use in all of your visuals. These elements include color schemes, designs, fonts, and more.

Keep your branding elements in-sync and consistent (without sacrificing creativity) for the best brand messaging.

How Should You Customize your Visual Content?

Localized Content is Essential to Building Your Brand

Localized content is created for a specific geographic area. If most of your customers are from the same location, you’ll want to optimize your strategy just for them.

While you might already use local SEO and other local marketing techniques, including localized visual content in your strategy can offer many benefits.

Think Local for Your Social Media Strategy

Google isn’t the only platform focusing on local algorithms. Social media is putting a bigger emphasis on local marketing; for example, you can open up your audience when you use geo-tags in your Instagram posts. Localized visual content can help social media channels recognize your brand and connect with your audience.

Here are some key benefits and ideas you can immediately employ on your social networks.

Easy to Remember

There’s nothing your audience recognizes more than their hometown. Optimizing content with local icons entices your customers and gives them a way to connect to you. Your local images and designs will be easy to remember, and prospects will be more inclined to make a purchase.

This type of visual content is easy to incorporate – have a photographer take a picture of a recognizable feature in your city and post the image on social media, relating your brand to your town.

Stronger Engagement

Localized content creates stronger engagement between you and your customers. You’re tapping into a unique local culture. Your images will relate to your audience, making them more likely to support your business.

This is a big opportunity to make use of current local events in your marketing, consider including a seasonal banner or sale feature into your e-commerce landing page.

Offers Better Insight Into Your Company

When you utilize local images, you give your local audience insight into your company. You can post pictures of your business location and give them a virtual tour of your office or store.

You can participate in local celebrations and share these images on social media. You may even tailor your designs to local imagery.

Gets Your Audience Involved

Local businesses have many opportunities to connect to their audience. You can easily photograph your customers (with permission please) at your business or using your products and use this as in social media posts as part of your visual marketing strategy.

Making the locals themselves part of your business will bring you closer to your customers, which will ultimately increase brand awareness and revenue.

See examples of how major brands like Uber, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Google have utilized our visual production platform to produce localized content around the globe.

SEO and Visual Content Go Hand in Hand

Your team likely already understands the value of SEO. While keywords and linking will help you rank in social media, visual content is also a big part of your strategy.

Would you be surprised that the right custom visual content can increase your website traffic?

Improves Website Stats and Time on Your Site

You not only want to attract customers to your website, but you want them to stay. Custom visual content is the best way to intrigue customers and keep them searching around your website.

The visuals you use also have a lot to do with this metric. Use videos and infographics to generate the most user engagement. At the same time, provide social network sharing buttons so they can spread content they enjoy.

Conveys More Information

A picture can say a thousand words. And this is true with custom visual assets. While long-form content ranks highly in Google, your audience may not read your entire blog post. Visual assets are a great way to break up chunks of text into sections.

If you use the best visual content, your audience can take in your message quickly.

Improve Your Linking Strategy

Great online marketing can improve your linking strategy, but so can visual content. Backlinks are important because they increase website traffic and improve web page domain authority. In other words, you’ll be a more credible business in Google’s eyes.

How do web pages find other great websites for outbound links?

They will look for brands that post original content, including stats and insights on trending topics. Visual content makes this content readable and more engaging, resulting in content with amazing linking value.

Image Optimization and Alt Tags for SEO

Visual content provides great opportunities for optimizing SEO. Meta details, such as alt tags, improve your search engine rankings. You can also optimize your custom images by adding description tags. Both alt and description tags should include your primary keyword.

An optimized image for every piece of content you create can help Google crawl and index the page more effectively.

Use Video Content to Increase Time on Site and Social Sharing

78% of web users watch videos every week. Google knows this and will raise your search engine rankings if you include video in your strategy, especially YouTube videos. Google owns YouTube and thus links its search engine platform to the video-sharing site, helping you rank in two different search engines.

As with all content, you should focus on creating custom and high-quality videos. Not only will your brand appear more professional, but you’ll engage your audience better.

Stop Using Stock Photos for Social Media Posts

At this point, your company likely has social media pages and a concrete social media marketing strategy. From writing a tweet on Twitter to filming a story for Instagram, these platforms maximize your reach and generate interest from your target audience.

Social media is the best place to use your custom visual content. You can post your images, infographics, videos, and more on your social media channels, increasing the size of your audience.

Improved Social Media Presence

Your social media presence represents your audience size, promotional efforts, and search volume. If managed positively, it can land you more external links. The best way to improve your social media presence is by using high-quality images and other media in your posts that audiences want to engage with.

Think about using competitions or giveaways periodically.

Unleash Your Creativity

While web pages are a great place to express your artistic side, it’s easier to reach your target audience via social media.

Entice your following by releasing unique and creative visual content that ties into your digital branding. It’s much easier to experiment on social networks where feedback is almost instantaneous.

Different Media Options

Social media’s visual content expands continuously. Your options are endless—you can upload images, video, infographics, live content, animations, designs, create filters, GIFs, memes, and even more.

Diversify your visual content for the best results.

Don’t forget to keep a look-out for the newest platforms (there was a time no one cared about TikTok or Snapchat) and focus on those which your target audience uses.

Extensive Tools and Resources

The best part about optimizing visuals for social media is that it’s easy to take a high-quality image or record a live video using only your phone. There is an ever-growing assortment of tools for creating and editing – whether it be pictures, designs, videos, or even animation. Explore tools like iMovie, Canva, Adobe Photoshop, and Boomerang.

In any case, you always have the option of using professional content creators to ensure you only post the best visual content.

Visual Content Improves Your Digital Presence

Custom visual content should be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. From videos to branded visuals, this type of content accelerates customer engagement and grows your audience organically.

Visual content benefits every aspect of your marketing strategy, including SEO, social media, and even video marketing. Overall, consistent, high-quality visual content makes your business stand out and is a crucial factor in building your brand image.

So what are you waiting for? Build a fully customized visual content strategy with the best creators, on StudioNow’s visual production platform.