Ask dozens of marketers, and they will tell you that content is king. This is true without a doubt, and here are some facts to back it up.
- 73% of B2B marketers use content as the spearhead for their marketing campaigns.
- 62% of B2B decision makers rely more on practical content and webinars for their purchasing decisions.
- Content marketing generates more leads than traditional outbound marketing while costing 62% less.
However, using textual content alone is not sufficient to drive profitable results. And that’s where using graphics comes in.
Not sure of how graphics can truly influence your content and change your marketing game? The next seven points are for you.
7 Reasons Why Content Needs Amazing Graphics
Eliminate the bland feeling from your content.
Bland content pieces do not look “bland” just because they were poorly written. Sometimes, these pieces just lack the necessary accessories to prop them up and ensure they’re worth reading.
Imagine publishing a 2000-word article on your blog page without adding a piece of image or infographics to augment your points. Just blocks and blocks of text all over the screen.
While this might not be a big problem for essays and research publications, it’s a different story when writing SEO-optimised articles and case studies. The latter two pieces are meant to boost a customer’s trust in your brand and help you position yourself as an authority in your niche.
By using awesome graphics, you can easily spice up your content and pique the interest of your target audience.
Note that the type of graphics you use can either make or break your content. So you need to choose the right tools that give you fitting visuals when creating your designs. For realistic graphics, you can go for the procreate watercolor brush. Line art and Procreate night sky brushes are very helpful for creating illustrations that are usable for visual storytelling.
Improve email open rate.
Holistically, graphics add an entirely different charm to your emails. Let’s say you sent your customers a monthly email report in the text format with clumped text, figures, and paragraphs. The likely outcome might be a reduced email open rate and a drop in subscriptions.
In a lesser tone, your email lists might take your emails as spam or simply regard you as being unprofessional. But when you add relevant graphics or convert the report into infographics, your email open rate is bound to receive a boost.
According to GetResponse, emails with graphics have a 27% increase in open rate and a 4.7% increase in CTR.
Source: Pexels
Also Read: 10 Easy Steps to create a professional poster
A boost in conversion rate
We’ve previously discussed how graphics play a crucial role in improving content engagement and vital metrics like email open rate and CTR. The more you’re able to engage your readers or target audience, the more likely they will purchase your product or subscribe to your lists.
Most experienced content marketers also strategically utilise graphics on their sales pages to tell a compelling story. With visual storytelling in place, you have more possibilities of connecting deeper with your audience.
Once you can get your customers’ attention, there is a relative boost in conversion rate, and sales become easier.
Visuals grab more attention than text
67% of people are visual learners. And this is largely attributed to the fact that a single image can speak hundreds of words while also enhancing retention. Besides that, colours are known to aid cognitive functions and help with passing core brand messages.
For example, the blue colour looks professional and shows consumers that a brand is an authority that’s worth trusting. Other colors can even aid retention and increase attention span.
When using graphics in your content, you can combine different colours, icons, and visualisations, such as pie charts. All of these elements, especially the colours, draw the attention of your audience and keep them glued to their screens, with visuals generated using Flux 1 AI.
Moreover, we tend to pay more attention to the things we can see and relate to nowadays, compared to monochrome strokes and lines of text.
Image SEO
Does an image serve as a ranking signal? Well, no proven statement has been released by Google and other search engines on whether it is or not.
However, you can properly optimise your content graphics to show up on Google Images, a page built solely by Google to display images from different websites. Any time your graphics are displayed as images in response to a query, they will directly take visitors to the original content once clicked.
So image SEO is like a way to build an additional source of traffic for your website. To make sure your image pops up on request, ensure you add the appropriate keywords in the alt text and title sections.
Also Read: Best Logo Maker Tools
Increased engagement
Remember, we mentioned how graphics increase attention span and aid retention. Additionally, using visuals in your content can increase engagement between your audience or prospects and you.
A survey report showed that 68% of millennials love to see GIFs, stickers, and emojis in their emails. Just imagine the expression on your email lists when they get that weekly newsletter containing a humour-filled sticker head.
Let’s pause a bit on email marketing. Another place where graphics can remarkably boost your engagement rate is social media. According to a report from Hubspot, tweets that have images record 150% more retweets than those without.
The same thing applies to your blog or website content. You’re more likely to receive feedback from your readers if you embed relevant graphics in your content. At its peak, you should expect people to share your piece with others.
This is especially true if you have unique data, probably from a personally conducted survey. By converting it to an infographic, other marketers who find your reports valuable will quote and link back.
Brand recognition
A recent survey by Peppercontent showed that people retain and remember 65% of the visual information they see. That’s way better than remembering only 10% of spoken words.
Now imagine if you put your brand’s logo on every graphic that you use inside of your content, whether on social media or your website. You can literally live rent-free in the memory of your leads.
Of course, you have to make sure you don’t overdo it. Just slide in your icon or logo in one visible corner. So when your previous website visitors see your infographics pop up on search, they know it’s you.
Other things that can enhance brand recognition when using graphics in your content include colour consistency. If your brand is known for purple-bordered visuals, stick to it throughout your marketing channels.
Also Read: Best 22 Content Marketing Tools
Conclusion
Content is powerful, but you can take it a step further by also adding graphics. Visual elements like infographics and illustrations can help convey your ideas faster. On the other hand, memes, gifs, and stickers create a fun and engaging environment.
As one of the relevant components of every graphic, colours leave a lasting mark and aid retention. So be sure to pick the right one that perfectly portrays your brand the way you want it to.
