While everything in the world of PR and Marketing is speed racing to new levels, one thing remains. Humans are visual beings. This may seem obvious, but it has been long neglected in marketing until more recent times. Visual content engages readers, creates emotional connections and is 40X more likely to get shared on social media. Needless to say, if you haven’t already it’s time to get on board otherwise you will need to start using Google translate for all the wrong reasons.
It’s Time to Embrace Emoji’s
ICYMI- an emoji is a small digital icon used to express an idea or an emotion in digital communication. When you don’t have the right words to say, you can simply insert these little graphics and you’ll be set. Whether you’re trying to be funny or are offering condolences, these little gems certainly come in handy. You will find them in action on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, text messages and now even in your inbox displaying as awesome inclusions to subject lines. Here’s some fun stats for you: when a human looks at an emoji, the same chemicals react in the brain as if we were looking at a real person’s face. These wink giving, smiling poops, red dress dancing, man fishing, kiss blowing icons aren’t just for your private entertainment. They belong in your marketing strategy and if you haven’t grabbed a hold of them yet, now is the time.
Gif’s Are Gif-tastic!
Gif’s are the naughty love child of still images and video content. Oh how we adore these fun, silly and often inappropriate types of images. They combine the aspects of videos with the limited time span of an image. In an ‘attention economy’, people need to digest media fast while extracting meaning from the message. So the highlighted highlighted motion in the gif is perfect for a quick grab of the attention, share of the message and prompt of a response from the consumer. So where do these bad boys pop up then? Well, pretty much everywhere now, but you will find them in their natural habitat over in your social media feeds, blog posts and email newsletters.
Infographics Aren’t Just for Nerds
This type of graphic is the combination of nerds unite and some sort of frat sorority. It’s smart meets cool. Infographics are the perfect recipe for people who like to know the facts but hate reading ordinary graphs and overbearing statistics. I’m not sure if the brainiacs are fans of them, but us visual people love the way they make data interesting and easy to read. If you’re in the business of marketing to businesses, this may be of interest to you: infographics were the B2B content marketing tactic with the biggest increase from 2014 to 2015, up from 51% to 62% (thanks Hubspot). So where will you see infographics roaming around? Anywhere really, that’s what makes them so awesome. We recommend using them in emails, presentations and on web pages for maximum results.
If you aren’t quite ready to embrace these types of visual literacy never mind; words still have an important place in your content marketing strategy. The fun police in your marketing department may hit up your desk though, so be warned. If you do manage to get off punishment free from those guys do beware though. With the way virtual and augmented reality is going these types of interactive imagery are only the start of it all.
