Any growth marketing strategy revolves around connecting target buyer groups with precise content and messaging designed to convert them into customers. This alone is why visuals are vital parts of effective growth marketing strategies.
According to the American Association of Psychology, more than 70 percent of people are visual learners and hold their attention spans longer with visual content. Ultimately, people just prefer visual content over text. Yet so long as there is appropriate video, imagery, or animation accompanying textual content, various studies show that time spent reading articles increases significantly.
The best growth marketing agencies specializing in lead generation know exactly how visuals improve performance, and there are several reasons why growth marketers use precise content to achieve their client’s goals. Here are four of them.
We have already stated that most people are more visually inclined than they are textually. The way we process information and communicate has changed rapidly in the last several years. Instagram users have increased by 64 percent, hundreds of marketing agencies reveal in A/B tests that visual content converts better, and due to the fast-paced lives so many people lead, capturing their attention and retaining it is difficult…but easier with visuals. That said a video, infographic or image can create connections with customers where text alone can’t. This also helps brands clarify and enhance their messaging while helping people differentiate them from the competition.
When visual messaging is consistent, it creates brand familiarity and trust with consumer groups, and this leads to powerful connections buyers make with their favorite companies and the products that improve their lives. Powerful connections lead to brand loyalty–a major driving force that enables sales and growth.
We talked about visual images making connections in growth marketing strategies, and one way this is achieved is through enhancing a brand’s story. Storytelling is huge; consumers don’t just “buy your products”; they buy the lifestyle your company projects through its journey. Today’s savvy businesses learn how storytelling improves sales, and they partner with a growth marketing agency to ensure the right story reaches the right buyer audiences. By peppering in video content, compelling action-based images, and other visual forms with your text, you can enhance storytelling efforts and lead potential customers down an amazing journey that allows them to imagine themselves as the hero in your brand’s adventure.
Search Engine Journal reports that visual images create deeper emotional ties with people as opposed to long blocks of tests, and they have their own research to back this up. SEJ warns marketers to avoid stock images used by hundreds of other organizations and to instead implement original images. But let’s get realistic; even the biggest growth marketing agencies don’t typically invest in photographers to go out and take thousands of images to stockpile for rainy day articles and landing pages. The cost wouldn’t justify the investment, nor would the time. If you are going to use paid images just try to avoid the cliche ones. You know, the “content is king” image or some businessman holding a sign that says “ROI”. Carefully choose your images; make sure your images are more unique and convey an emotional message that reflects your messaging.
Growth marketing agencies know exactly how visual content improves SEO, and this is a major reason why it is a focal point to any growth-driven strategy. Visual content keeps people on pages longer and promotes engagement with the website. When people spend more dwell time and create lengthy session durations, they are reducing the bounce rate and sending powerful signals to Google letting the search engine know that the content is of value.
Let us not forget that the goal of any SEO strategy is not to simply rank to the moon, but to convert web visitors into paying customers. This means you need to pair the right searchers with the content that will earn their trust and educate them through the buying process. Images can play a big role into this when you add image ALT tags that contain the main keyword or search phrase your ideal buyers punch into the search engines. By ranking in as many places as possible your ability to convert web traffic into paying customers increases, and compelling photos tagged appropriately help you rank in Google Images. FYI, there are a number of other tactics that go into ranking images that will be addressed in another article.
Amazing videos, images, or infographics can be designed to draw top-of-funnel traffic and convert visitors into leads. From email marketing to downloadable assets, there are a number of places where such content cna live. But one of the best arenas for lead conversion is social media. When you share compelling visual content in the right social groups, you can drive people likely to buy your products straight to your website. Be sure the image speaks to your target buyer persona and gives them a reason to engage with your website. Just make sure your growth marketing agency has created a workflow designed to take these leads and nurture them through the buyer’s journey, and keep the emotional elements of the visual content consistent through every stage of the funnel.
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