Melissa Friedman |3-October-2016 | Full Native Article
The power of visual communication has reached an all-time high with the rise of digital and social marketing – media that modern marketers use to promote their content and brands. As a result, photography is becoming more crucial to the promotion of a product or service than ever before.
Here’s why:
- Gets attention. With the sheer volume of information being shared online – 1.5 billion units of content – marketers need to do everything they can to grab the attention of their target audience. Visual elements increase people’s willingness to read content by a staggering 80%.
- Speeds processing. The human brain can only process a limited amount of information at a given time. Data that can be processed much faster, such as a compelling photograph, will always take precedence.
- Improves nonverbal communication. With 93% of all human communication being non-verbal, combining visual elements with well-written text is an excellent way for marketers to capture the imagination of their target audience.
- Adds viral options. Visual content can go viral if an audience likes it well enough to share it with their online communities and social networks. This helps to build brand credibility, corporate integrity, and customer loyalty.
- Improves understanding. Photographically strong brands are dynamic, emotional, and timeless. Adding photographs that explain a brand’s message helps the target audience better understand and appreciate the message.
- Influences emotion. In spite of efforts to make purchases based on rational analysis, consumers often let emotion influence their buying decisions. The use of captivating photographs drives emotional responses about a brand.
- Solicits action. We are in a new era of marketing in which a brand is defined by those who experience it. Forty percent of online users will provide more favorable responses to visual content than to plain text and text-based content.
- Increases engagement. Photographs are easier to consume than text. Facebook campaigns generate 65% more engagement and tweets average 35% more retweets when including a photograph than those without.
- Creates a favorable perception. Humans are conditioned to make snap judgments, sometimes on a subconscious level. A professional appearance, including a well-taken photograph displaying a product or service in context, builds trust.
- Drives sales. There is a direct link between utilizing high-quality images in marketing and the growth of sales. Photographs help consumers visualize themselves using a product or service and allows them to imagine it improving their life in some way.
As a passionate, lifelong photographer, I can attest to the power of photography and the value that it brings to the communication of ideas. Modern marketers should make use of this visually stimulating content as a way to reach their target audience.