If you are responsible for the marketing and promotion of your organisation, you will already understand the importance of visual content when it comes to social media and digital marketing.

Visual content can not only encourage more sharing and engagement, but it can be a compelling alternative to traditional written content and increase the chances of you making a sale or building a relationship with a potential customer.

Marketing materials that include coloured visuals can increase people’s willingness to read your content by up to 80%, so it is essential that you effectively produce and promote high-quality visual content to maximise your chances of business success.

To help you create relevant visual content, and boost engagement, we’ve put together five steps that you should follow.

Add a call to action

Adding a call to action to the end of your blog post or press release makes sense, so doing the same for your visual content shouldn’t be any different. Focus on creating compelling, engaging content that encourages your audience to read or interact with from beginning to end, and add a call to action to maximise your chances of direct brand engagement. Whether that’s a ‘click here to find out more’ link, or a discount coupon at the end of your promotional video, you’ll soon see that calls to action can be just as effective when they are used in non-traditional media communications.

Publish on social media

Spending time designing graphics or editing a video is great if you want to boost your engagement, but without posting onto social media, you’re missing out on a potential audience. Decide whether your visual media is suitable for Twitter and Facebook – if not, tweak your content to make it pack its punch. You can do this by cutting down the length of your video or splitting your infographic into separate information pages that are shareable and actionable. Not only does this allow you to post more relevant content to your social streams, but it means you can save money and cross-promote your visual content on multiple platforms to maximise your success.

Share with other blog owners

Bloggers are always looking for new content, so sharing your visual content with them makes sense. By identifying the top news websites and blogs in your industry, you will be able to target your promotions directly and get the results you need. Build brand partners, rely on your existing social media audience and customer base and attempt to get your visual content on third party websites. Sometimes, this may require link exchanges, guest blogging or payment, but the results speak for themselves when you find relevant industry hubs where your content will be seen.

Choose the right type of content

Infographics are a popular visual marketing technique, but that doesn’t mean they should be used every time you want to engage with your audience. Find the right avenues for your visual content by experimenting and monitoring your results. Infographics, social media graphics, YouTube videos, Vines and Instagram posts can all be equally as relevant and powerful when used at the right time, but the impact of each service is dependent on your industry and audience demographics.

Focus on your design

Information and brand messages may be the most important parts of your marketing, but when it comes to visual content, you need to focus on appearance. Ensure that you are using the right colours for your content – whether that’s your brand colours or colours related to your subject field. Typography, negative space, illustrations, and icons are all important factors to consider, and you also need to bear in mind readability on smaller devices such as smartphones and smartwatches.

The benefits of a strong digital marketing strategy are endless, and taking on board some of the steps to increase your levels of engagement will help. If you are not well-versed with digital marketing, take advantage of the services offered at Disruptor Media. Get in touch today, and we will discuss with you how to use visual content to increase brand awareness and engagement.