Article Highlights:
If you want to give your content a boost, invest in compelling, informative, and exciting visuals. Here are three ways visual elements can take your content to new heights:
- Visual elements share your message faster
- Visual elements help consumers retain your message
- Visual elements elicit emotion
The timeless saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” has never been more timely.
Posts that include images or another form of visual element produce 650 percent higher engagement than posts with only text.
And today’s fastest growing social media sites — like Instagram and Snapchat — are all visually based.
If you want to give your content a boost, invest in compelling, informative, and exciting visuals. Here are three ways visual elements can take your content to new heights.
Visual elements share your message faster
When it comes to digital content, the modern reader doesn’t read. They skim. In fact, 81 percent of educated people skim instead of reading online. On top of that, it only takes about 8 seconds before the average person becomes distracted by something else.
A visual element like a photo or infographic can share the highlights of your message in seconds. And if your message is compelling, viewers will be enticed to learn more.
Visual elements help consumers retain your message
It doesn’t matter what you have to say if no one remembers what you said. Without visuals, the average person will only remember 20 percent of the text they read. This makes sense when you take into consideration that, on average, 90 percent of the information transmitted to the human brain is visual.
With these facts in mind, thoughtfully pairing written material with visual elements not only helps your message to be seen, but also helps your message to be remembered.
Visual elements elicit emotion
Connecting with human emotion is key for effective communication. Imagery like photos and videos can convey emotional messages and leave lasting impressions. Because of this emotional connection, posts with visual elements are extremely effective in fostering engagement and inciting viewers to action. Consumers are 85 percent more likely to purchase a product after watching a video about or involving the product. And with Cisco predicting that global internet traffic from videos will make up 80 percent of all internet traffic by 2019, you can expect that video content will continue to improve in its ability to connect with the emotions of an audience.
Get started with engaging visuals
If you want to engage with your audience, invest in what they will see. It takes less than 50 milliseconds to form a first impression, and there is no better way to secure a positive one than with the perfect visual.
Find out how Stoke’s creative studio can help you add compelling visual elements to your content strategy.