The power of visual media and content has been straight in line with the sudden surge of information and technology that has affected virtually everything, even the way marketing dynamics present themselves, particularly when it comes to the World Wide Web. Never before has the world been this visually sensitive what with luxury goods such as high definition screens, apps that create the perfect airbrushed look on everyday photos, smart phones with 8 megapixel camera’s and etc. etc. hitting the market and being a part of daily activities. This is because humans are becoming increasingly visual beings and as such, they tend to respond to what visually appeals to them in some way or another, whether it’s a certain color combination or simply the way something ‘feels.’
That is not to say, however, that today’s consumers are impulsive and give in to binge buying. As a matter of fact, today’s consumers are more aware of what they want, why they want it, and what they want to do with the products and services they wish to pay their hard earned money. Today’s consumers are empowered, complementary to the producers of today. In the business world, a customer wants to do business with another person who is not an ethically questionable dud and vice versa.
When it comes to marketing, especially from the psychological perspective, visual elements are crucial. This is because any successful marketing strategy engages its target audience, and a powerful use of visuals can do so in a way that words at times simply fail to. Often marketers are thinking of ways and methods of making their target audience think in a way that they want to. And often the good one succeeds very well when they attempt to do so. However they could yield overall better, holistically speaking, results if they realized that people’s learning abilities are different, and as such, different people will understand their information differently. Studies show, however, that people respond to learning more visually than in other ways so it’s important to understand the different ways to incorporate strong visual elements into social marketing.
The Short Film
When it comes to online marketing using videos for the purpose of marketing can be very useful. There are so many creative ways of going about it and the amount of information that one chooses to put into a video has no boundaries… almost. It’s important not to overwhelm your audience with buckets of information that will only leave a person’s mind dulled out, overexerted or disinterested. Experts say that while a video has a powerful pull on captivating an audience with all the mixed elements of visuals and sounds, anything longer than 2 minutes, or 2 minutes and 30 seconds is pushing their concentration level. So when using video’s, we should stick to the time frame limit, otherwise the information you are trying to send may fail to reach the recipient.
Pictures are worth a Thousand Words
Picture’s are indeed worth a thousand words – the different compositions, lighting and subject can evoke a multitude of feelings in an intended audience. Technology such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator have allowed for textual content to be put alongside visual content, resulting in mixed media which engages its viewers in various ways.
Magazines, Newsletters, posters and various other kinds of engaging content is put onto the world wide web through social networking websites such as Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Pinterest.com and so on and so forth. While at least the word on the street is that pictures are worth a thousand words, according to Facebook videos are shared 1200 per cent more than links or status updates put together; furthermore pictures are ‘liked’ by users a whopping 200% more than status updates. This shows how much potential there is in just how much reach a photo a Facebook page chooses to share with its audience.
Graphic Art
As mentioned above, technological innovation has allowed for artificial visuals to be created and posted online on all sorts of platforms. The power of a graphic, in some ways, is more powerful than an image, be it still or moving in the form of a video. Graphics are a part of businesses in more ways than one would think. Think of a business’s logo, or a charitable organization’s symbol for whatever causes its working towards. These little minute structures matter and can make a profound difference when it comes to customers relating to your business on a more personal level.
Apart from that, the increased popularity of info-graphics, which include jumpy pieces of highly quantitative information, provides customers with valuable information that would otherwise require a lot of reading. With the way routines run amok and how busy lifestyle’s are, who has time to read through pages of research when one wants to buy a new product? The use of info-graphics to show an audience a condensed form of information based on many hours of research in a visually alluring way is fast becoming a tool more marketers should keep in mind.