Image and mobility are becoming increasingly important in digital marketing. Increasing digitalization creates more contact areas with the target group. So how do we create effective marketing that simultaneously strengthens the brand?
Marketing is becoming increasingly visual. And there is a straight line between the visual in the communication and the brand. What values do we signal? Do we meet the emotional needs of the target group? To succeed with the symbiosis between powerful marketing and a stronger brand, insight is required into what is communicated visually on each contact surface.
This is what marketing & content should look like
The most important thing is not to try to take shortcuts. Always start with the brand! What do you want customers to remember when they visit your website or see one of your ads? What is the essence of your business? When those questions are answered, you apply them to the visual material.
Finding your visual position requires fingertip feeling. Some questions to ask yourself when choosing images are: How should customers feel when they see the image? Would you recognize that the image belonged to the brand if the logo was not visible next to it? How do we want customers to react to the image?
Do not forget to have fun! Using visual communication to strengthen the brand can and should be a creative process. It strengthens one's own understanding of the brand. Do not be afraid to discuss image selection with colleagues. It is easy to become blind to the whole when you stare at pictures for a while. It is a good idea to help ensure that the standard is maintained. Then you avoid a slip in the message you want to convey.
3 Tips for More Effective Visual Marketing
1. Plan the pictures as carefully as the text!
We often plan textual content carefully, but forget about the images. It ends with you in a panic trying to find an image bank image that says something in the style of what you have in mind. When looking for pictures at the last minute, for example just before a blog post is to be published, it is not uncommon to choose the first best picture without thinking about the whole. Therefore, plan the pictures well in advance!
Blog posts for example: Make a detailed plan for the next three months and take a holistic view of the imagery of the posts. How should they harmonize with other visual material? How will customers recognize that the blog posts are from you if they scroll past them in the Facebook or LinkedIn feed?
Build an image bank with images that are in line with the brand. Then you have some pictures in stock if needed in addition to what was planned.
2. Image and text must complement and elevate each other
Images are powerful tools for quickly and efficiently conveying messages. Put the right picture in the right place. Look up and choose pictures that say something more than what is in the title. Images provide the opportunity to convey a more nuanced image in a fraction of a second. Use pictures to clarify something that is between the lines or summarize the text's message.
3. Visual communication is not just photography!
Complement photos with moving images, illustrations, and colors.
- Moving images are a way to engage customers. The brain is programmed to respond to moving things. In addition, it takes much less energy to watch a video than to read a text. Surely you also stop when there is a video in the Instagram feed?
- There is a reason why we use symbols in traffic. We quickly perceive what the symbols stand for. The brain constantly interprets images and simplifies visual impressions into icons. A symbol is an already simplified image, which makes the job a little easier for the brain. Use symbols to clarify the message.
- Choose colours with care. The colour scale in the images should harmonize with each other and with the brand. Retouching the images in the same way (by, for example, adding a warm colour tone) is a way to make them stick together. Another way is to simply select motifs in the same colour scale or to create illustrations that harmonize with the graphic profile.
