Visual Marketing Content Types You Need To Use in 2022

Tricia Lim

It’s a known fact that we’re very visual beings, so naturally, implementing visual marketing into our marketing strategies is the best logical approach. We need to understand what captivates our target audience’s attention best to stimulate our brand’s online growth. Nowadays, there is a plethora of visual content online, but the real question is: which is best suited for your niche and business?

We’ll be diving into the different types of visual content you need to use to engage your audience, which will help you achieve your marketing objectives.

What is visual marketing?

Before we look into the types of visual content, let’s first understand what visual marketing is. Visual marketing utilises visual elements like images, videos, and other multimedia content to develop strong bonds between your audience and your brand. Its impact on the target audience is often more effective than plain or written text.

It’s common for brands to invest their resources in visual marketing strategies using infographics, interactive videos, animated GIFs, data visualisations, and other types of content to engage with their audience successfully.

Visual marketing content that will take your marketing strategies to the next level

1. Images

Our brains take in an overload of information every day and at the cost of shortening our attention spans. Science has proven that we have a shorter attention span than a goldfish’s! Hence, it’s more important than ever to leverage eye-catching content.

I’m sure that you’ve heard of the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The point is that you can convey so much more information than you can with words with a picture. Pictures also can convey abstract and complex concepts such as facial expressions and evoke emotions in the viewers. Which, by the way, is an excellent means to connect with your target audience too.

If you’re writing a blog with big chunks of text, it’s always a good idea to sprinkle in some images to break up your text.

According to BuzzSumo, articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. Moreover, Facebook posts with images see 2.3x more engagement than those without images. Another marketer, Jeff Bullas, cites that articles with photos get 94% more total views.

Our brains like to process images better and faster than text, so it’s best to catch your viewers’ eye with appealing images and at the same time support your message and content. Add pictures to your blogs, web design, social media, and make a good impression to attract your audience further.

2. Videos

The next big visual content powerhouse is video. Videos are a brand’s most powerful tool. With it, they can communicate and connect with their audience in tremendous ways. We’ve seen a boom in video content and a demand for short-form video content like TikTok and Instagram Reels throughout recent years. In 2020, 96% of consumers increased their online video consumption. According to a 2018 Hubspot survey, 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support. As of 2021, an average person is predicted to spend 100 minutes per day watching online videos.

So, there’s no denying that video marketing is highly effective when trying to reach, appeal and convert your target audience. With our impressive video capabilities on smartphones today, it’s also an affordable tactic to implement, no matter your industry or resources (Hubspot).

Here are a couple of video types that you can implement depending on your target audience, niche and brand messaging:

Explainer videos – this form of video is a great way to showcase your brand’s product or service, and we often place them on a landing page, your website’s home page, or the main product page. These types of videos have grown popular. Hubspot cited that an overwhelming majority of people (94%) report watching explainer videos to learn more about a product, with it swaying 84% to make a purchase.

Ahrefs is a software company that develops online SEO tools and free educational materials for marketing professionals. With their expertise in developing SEO tools, they created this quirky animation video to explain what they do and made it friendly for prospect customers to understand.

How-to videos – According to Wyzowl’s State of Marketing 2020 survey, 86% of people would like to see more videos from brands in 2020. Out of these, 36% say they’d most like to see more educational/explainer video style content, with 14% wanting to see more product demos. Here are some examples that we liked that did well in terms of views and engagement:

Tasty (part of the mutli-platform network under Buzzfeed) creates content of all things tasty. From recipes and how to videos, Tasty has garnered a huge following across all platforms that they’re on.

Even if you’re not a cooking or production company, simple how to videos are the way to engage, attract and connect with your target audience.

Customer Testimonials – 9 out of 10 people say they trust what a customer says about a business more than what it says about itself (Wyzowl). Testimonials build trust with your customers because they learn from people like them – rather than the company trying to sell to them.

Who said customer testimonials had to be a certain way? The popular business communication platform, Slack, were strategic in creating this form of user generated content. Since customer testimonials are deemed as more trustworthy sources than what brands say, it’s particularly engaging to users when they hear it from others like themselves.

3. Infographics

Infographics are an effective and unique way of conveying information using the combination of text and visual elements through data visualisation.

Unlike business decision makers and some consumers who purchase based on data, not everyone has the time to read through lengthy reports and research. That’s why infographics are preferred because they conveniently package important information in a layout that’s easy to read, digest and share. However, to truly reap the benefits of an infographic, it’s essential to combine the visual and written elements to be as impactful as possible to convey your important data. Use it right and infographics have the ability to engage, persuade and communicate effectively to your target audience.

Source: Coca Cola

Here’s another out of the box way of incorporating infographics and making it interactive for the users:

Source: Neo Mam Studios

4. Visual CTAs

Call-to-actions are another excellent way to use visual content marketing to increase engagement, improve user experience, site metrics and drive conversions. Plus, marketers can deploy them at any stage in the sales funnel. Visual CTAs are particularly effective for driving prospective customers along the buyer’s journey. For example, top-of-funnel content CTAs should direct them to read mid-funnel content. Then, CTAs can ask more of readers as they become qualified leads. Lastly, have the bottom-of-funnel content CTA to encourage customers to contact your sales team.

There are other ways to use visual CTAs:

Drive traffic from your top to mid-funnel content
Encourage readers to contact you
Ask readers for feedback
Prompt them to subscribe to a newsletter

Source: Hubspot

Try to think about where your customers are in the conversion funnel and where they’d want to go next. Will it be helpful to direct your customers to buy immediately upon reading a blog post? Or perhaps they need more information before making any next moves? It could also be as simple as prompting them to contact you if they have any inquiries! Whatever it is, try some A/B testing to see which ones resonate with them most.

5. Memes

At this point in 2021, are you surprised? Memes are highly viral content that can help your brand reach an entirely new level of engagement and showcase your brand personality. The term ‘meme’ was first coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 to ascribe an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.

*Cough*, totally not speaking from our personal experience…

These funny images that reference pop culture, daily life, and other topics add a touch of humour and relevance to your content if you truly understand the format and how it adds value to your conversation. When done right, meme marketing has the potential to build community and grow your brand awareness.

You want to make sure you’re doing things right with that in mind. As with any marketing strategy, you want to make sure your meme feels authentic to your brand. Be selective of which memes to create without compromising your branding. On the same note, make sure your meme isn’t offensive. If it makes fun of a particular group, includes insults, slurs, or suggestive imagery, you may want to reconsider its use and opt it out entirely. Keep your meme simple, recognisable, and on the ball to gain traction at its peak.

Don’t be afraid to incorporate memes into your marketing strategy. Use them whenever it makes sense for your brand. After all, it’s a creative and fun way to share your brand narrative while engaging your audience.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bask Bear Coffee (@baskbearcoffee)

Bask Bear Coffee, a local coffee brand hopped on the Squid Game hype and got creative in how they shared a promotion post to their 11k followers on Instagram. Their caption is very apt for their Malaysian target audience and it shows that they have a sense of humour too!

The Bottom Line

Visual content encourages your audience to discover more about your brand and engage with your call-to-action. Explore the different types of visual content to see which will be a good fit for your audience and company. Then you can reap the benefits of fully engaging your prospective customer base. If you can create high-quality visual content that truly resonates with people AND promote it regularly, you’re likely to boost your brand reputation and awareness.

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