5 Reasons Why You Should Invest in Visual Content Creation

As humans we are naturally visual creatures.

Investing in visual content creation, will not only help your company engage with users and fans but it is also as a great way to drive traffic to your site.

Did you know that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text.

If thats the case, it makes sense for your company to invest in visual content creation. Still not to sure, here are five reasons why you should not only invest the money but the time into developing visual content.

5 Reasons Why Should Create More Visual Content

Develop a Brand Identity

Need a way to draw people in. A great way to do that is with visual content. There is no better way to show your customers and perspective customers the identity of your brand.

Don't just show cool graphics or memes your company created or even just tell your fans, followers, or users what their employees are doing on a daily basis -- show what is going on behind the scenes with real employees and customers. Use your visual content to create a human connection that translates the brand experience, and promote brand loyalty between companies and consumers that can't be achieved through words alone.

Not everyone sees your company the same way that you do. Due to different perceptions, it is important to think about how you can visually translate your brands image in a way that will help your fans see your company from your perspective.

Do you have a picture of your first office? Or do you remember moving day when you upgraded from that first office to some swankier digs? You could show that before and after process in photos to tell the story of an important, bitter-sweet milestone in your company's history. Or maybe your staff does something fun together to unwind? Capture those moments to help differentiate yourself as more than just any company.

How to make your content more visual:

• Include high quality, professional looking photos

• Create infographics

• Include data in graphics, allowing your audience to visualize the statistic

• Produce videos

• Use eye catching headers and styles

• Create slideshows

• Memes

Create User Engagement

I cannot say this enough, people love pictures and visual elements. It is also important to acknowledge that not everyone retains information the same way. Some people need to read something, where as others need to see it. In a recent study by Simply Measured, they stated that "visual content drives engagement. In fact, just one month after the introduction of Facebook timeline for brands, visual content particularly photos and videos saw a 65% increase in engagement". Just because photos and visual content increases engagement, doesn't mean that you should begin posting photos that are meaningless. Show the culture of your company, allow users to develop a deeper connection with your company. Take a look at our culture.

Ways to create user engagement:

•  Post a photo and ask fans and followers to leave their own caption

• Showcase two employees in your company and ask a question (maybe something like who has the most tattoos or did ballet when they were younger.

• Create contests

Allows You to Condense Large Amounts of Information

With so much information out there on the Internet, it can be hard to take in all of that information. One way for you to help users receive a large amount of information at one time is through visual content. According to Zabisco, 40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text.

Reasons why you should visualize your data:

• 83% of learning occurs visually

• People remember only 20% of what they read

• Images are more appealing

• Infographics get shared

Condense large information into:

• Infographics

• Videos

• Slideshows

• Charts

• Graphs

Opportunities for Users to Generate Content

Your customers are on at least a couple of the visually-friendly social networks like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Why not get user involved in helping shape the story of your brand in a more visual way. A great way for your company to allow your users to generate content is through crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing allows a company to gain insight into their customers and what they desire. In OPEN Forum, Lauren Drell talks about how crowdsourcing can be very effective for brands. She suggests "you ask fans of your brand to pin pictures of themselves with their favorite product of yours and tag you, then you can repin those photos onto a VIP board. It’ll give a shout-out to these fans and show potential customers that your current users really like using your product.”

One company that's taking advantage of crowdsourcing is Gap. Check out their board on Pinterest where they ask their customers to take photos of themselves wearing outfits that contain articles of clothing from the retailer.

A great company taking advantage of allowing their users to generate content is Bergdorf Goodman. Not only are they engaging with users on Pinterest but also Facebook. The company leaves an update on Facebook asking their fans... I have a weakness for ... and post photos related to the responses they receive.

Drives Traffic

Who wouldn't want to increase their traffic. A great source of traffic is referral traffic. A large percentage of referral traffic is actually generated through social media.You might be surprised to know that a study by Shareaholic revealed that "Pinterest generates more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined; only Facebook and StumbleUpon generate more". Isn't that a great indication of how important important visual content is. As a company it is important to ensure that your images and even products are standing out from the clutter. A great way to make your products standout is by showcasing them in a visually stimulating way.

When thinking about utilizing visual content, think of the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. Your visual content  is able to say more than words could. Before writing another paragraph of information and statistics, think of how you can develop visual content from it -- a video, infographic, graphic or image.