How Visual Content Helps Achieve Social Media Marketing Success

In most places, when the benefits of visual content are being listed, the old adage a picture is worth a thousand words is usually mentioned.

The reason for that? It's true! Especially in today’s world, the power of visual content, stuff like images, videos, and infographics, compared to their written counterparts, is significant.

When marketing your brand via social media, visual content is often the most effective way to gain customer attention and hit your growth targets.

Here are some reasons why.

1. Visual content is easier to understand

Conveying a message using an image is much easier to understand compared to just text. The viewer can analyze and process the visual cues and graphics to quickly understand the message.

When we're able to utilize our visual senses and add additional context to what we're attempting to comprehend, our brains are able to decipher the story we're being told at a much faster clip.

2. Visual content is more eye-catching and engaging

This is an obvious one, but visual content is almost always more engaging than large chunks of text. Colors, if incorporated correctly, can pop out of the social media feeds and gain the attention of the viewers. Unlike bland-looking text, images and graphics can magnetically pull viewers towards them.

You can make your content more eye-catching by following these tips:

• Adding splashes of bright colors to them

• Making them animated (like using a GIF)

• Incorporating clipart, icons, symbols, etc., within the visuals

• Creating contrast between the content and the background (of the platform)

• Incorporating humor in the visuals to pique interest

3. Visual content is more memorable

Another great thing about visual content is that it tends to stick in people's heads better than text.

If viewers remember your content, they can search for it again later on, whether to share with their friends or even contact you for business inquiries. Another thing viewers can do is reverse search the visuals on the internet. For example, once you share a branded image or infographic on social media, the viewers could perform a reverse image search on it and find other visuals that are similar.

This leads them to the visuals you’ve previously uploaded, thus putting them in touch with your other marketing endeavors.

4. Visual content is easier to save and share

As compared to text-only content, visual content is easier to save and share. For example, if a brand shares an image on their social media, the viewers can simply save it to their device.

On the other hand, saving text requires more steps, which a lot of viewers may not be willing to take.

Plus, since it's easier to save, visual content is also easier to share. Once they save your image, viewers can share the image with friends and family using chat apps. They can upload the image on their own social pages. They can do a lot of things that they'll almost never do with a written paragraph. In fact, when people want to share text online, they tend to take screenshots of the text and share that image.

Yep, even the text posts are subject to becoming visual content.

Top brands that excel in visual content

Several well-known brands have mastered the art of visual storytelling on social media. 

For example, Nike consistently uses high-impact visuals featuring athletes in motion, combined with bold typography and emotionally-driven taglines that align with their brand identity. 

National Geographic is another standout, using stunning photography and short-form video content to captivate audiences and tell compelling stories about nature and culture. 

Meanwhile, Canva uses its own platform to create clean, branded graphics that promote their tool and serve as visual inspiration for their followers.

These brands demonstrate how powerful, consistent, and emotionally engaging visual content can help build loyalty and encourage social sharing.

4 tips to make the most of your visual content

Here are some tips you can follow to get the most out of your visual content when using it across social media platforms:

• Make sure your visuals are unique and one-of-a-kind. If you copy content or simply use ideas similar to your competitors, they won't gain the type of traction you need. If you don't have an image, but have text, you can use the text to image tool to generate an image from text.

• Make sure your visuals are consistent with your brand image. In other words, use colors, fonts, styles, etc., that are associated with your brand in its other marketing efforts.

• Compress your visuals before uploading them and stick to formats like PNG or JPG. This makes sure all your content is easy to save and share.

• Check the engagement and traction your visuals have gained from users. Metrics such as clicks, shares, and downloads can help you understand which visuals are more effective than others. You will usually be able to get these metrics from the Analytics section provided by the social media platform you’re using.

Wrapping up

Visual content, when used properly, can help you achieve your marketing and social media goals. It's easier to understand, more eye-catching, easier to share and save, and more memorable to viewers than content that's strictly text.

Want to know how your visuals are really performing? See how the algorithm interprets your visual content using Measure Studio’s AI-powered features. 

With Measure Studio's automatic benchmarking you can instantly see how visual content is performing compared to non-visual content, as well as A/B test specific visuals against one another.

Try Measure Studio today and start optimizing what your audience actually sees.

Get started with Measure Studio today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is visual content so effective on social media?

Visual content is more engaging, easier to understand, and more memorable than text. It helps grab attention quickly in crowded feeds, making your brand more likely to connect with your audience and drive engagement.

How can I tell which visual content works best for my brand?

What makes Measure Studio's AI analysis of visuals different?