Anyone trying to increase a brand’s visibility online should understand the importance of content marketing. Content marketing involves the regular creation and distribution of online materials, both written and visual, to attract attention and generate leads.
If you’re writing business blog posts, updating social media or sending promotional emails, you should have a content marketing strategy in place. High-quality, relevant content helps boost search engine rankings and ensures more people see your posts, resulting in audience engagement and a higher conversion rate.
For all of these reasons, you should be taking your content marketing seriously if you’re running a business, but where should you focus your attention?
Should Images or Words Be the #1 Priority for Brands?
The quality of your written content is imperative if you want people to take you seriously, but there’s no point writing anything if no one is going to read it. Strong images that tell a story are vital because they help create that initial engagement.
Readability is also important. If a post is too long or it’s not broken down into paragraphs with sub-headings, chances are it won’t hold someone’s attention. A Microsoft study that found the attention span of the average Internet user is just 8 seconds, so you have a small amount of time to make that first impression.
You also need to share your content on social media and optimize it for search engines so that people can find and access your content. The best way to increase your visibility online and generate traffic to your site is through a search marketing agency like Eventige who can work with your brand on a range of marketing techniques, such as PPC and SEO.
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
While you could post an image on social media without accompanying text and still get engagement, you should never post text without an image. Visuals and text are both vital for content marketing, even on photo-sharing platforms like Instagram, but the image will make that all-important first impression.
Through an image, you can convey far more information than you can with words, and much faster. According to technology scientists, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than words, which is why your visual content should send a strong message.
This is not an excuse to publish poorly written content, however; it means you should always include high-quality visuals in your marketing materials.
It’s Not Just About Pictures
It’s not just about pictures; it’s also about the visuals you use to convey your brand’s message. The way you arrange your images and text on the page, the colors you use, your sub-headings, logos, and slogans – all of these visual elements make an impression on your audience.
Conclusion
While images are more powerful than words in the first instance, that doesn’t mean you can get away with poorly written content. Your content marketing strategy should involve visuals, images, and words, all of which need to reflect your brand. It means choosing a color scheme, find your brand’s authentic voice and being consistent in every piece of content you post – whether it’s a blog post, an “about us” page or a product listing.