As a professional digital marketer, you already know that the whole industry revolves around content.
After all, creating engaging and informative pieces to excite and educate a target audience is the cornerstone of building an online presence.
However, there’s been a shift over the last few years about the type of content people consume.
Instead of strict textual content — like blog posts and articles — they’re looking for more interactive and visual media.
And that means your clients need someone to help them get the job done.
Here’s what you need to know about offering visual content service and why it can be a great idea for your company.
Why Should You Offer Visual Content Service to Clients?
There are numerous reasons as to why you need to offer this type of content to your clients, but they all start with understanding how people perceive written versus visual content.
It’s easier to interpret
In general, the brain processes images a whopping 60,000 times faster than words on a page.
The reason behind this likely has to do with our cavemen roots.
Long before there was language and reading books became a thing, our ancestors had to make decisions based on what they saw in front of them.
While we’re long past those days, human brains are still designed to go with image first before it processes text.
Thus, images are easier to understand right away for most people scrolling through your website or social media page than a wall of text.
It’s faster to consume
Today’s marketing landscape is busy.
Most people don’t have the patience to stop and read something unless they are truly genuinely interested.
And, with literally millions of pieces of content to look at each day, can you really blame them?
That’s why engaging in a visual content strategy is so effective for a lot of companies — users are able to spot this content immediately, get the information they need, and take action.
Helping your customers create beautiful branded videos, infographics, images, and other interactive content is a way to help them get noticed by their target audience and grow their businesses.
8 Types of Visual Content Trending Right Now
We’ve covered why you should offer visual content service options to your clients.
Now, let’s go into the different types that are the hottest right now:
1. Images
As you might expect, images are a big part of visual content marketing. The good news is that they’re often the easiest and least expensive to create.
Marketing images can range from basic photos to created designs with words on a background.
The actual nature of the finished product will vary depending on the subject matter and niche, but the basic idea is that you need a visual to go along with any additional information you’re providing.
Additionally, as a professional offering this as a service to your clients, you’ll want to ensure all images you provide meet the company’s branding guidelines.
We’re talking colors, fonts, logos, and other related elements.
2. Videos
Videos are another form of visual content you can create for your clients.
Most small business owners will happily take out their smartphone and use the camera to shoot a few short videos for you to combine together into an edited digital video.
Audiences really like video, as it gives them a way to glance inside daily operations or see how things work with the company itself.
As a designer, you can help polish these snippets into an on-brand piece that educates, excites, and delights.
3. Infographics
Another visual content service you can provide for your clients is infographics.
Not only do they add an extra element to a longer educational blog post, but these types of images make it a lot easier for your audience to understand complicated or data-heavy subjects.
As a bonus, infographics also tend to become a good way to boost search rankings on Google Images.
Depending on the subject, it is possible to rank well with this type of visual content — especially when interactivity is involved.
Additionally, with the advancement in Artificial Intelligence, creating high-quality images that resonate with your brand and appeal to the audience is more accessible. For instance, using AI tools that can expand images through AI outpainting is a revolutionary way to leverage visuals effectively. These innovative solutions enable digital marketers to enhance existing content, ensuring it should be relevant and natural for their target demographics.
4. Memes & GIFs
Let’s face it, we all need a good laugh now and then.
Creating custom memes and GIFs for your clients is a wonderful way to boost social media engagement and help them stand out from the crowd.
These images can be used for a variety of different post types, ranging from industry-specific reminders to just questions to get social media followers to post.
Memes and GIFs are also close to a modern form of visual punctuation — you can use them to stress emotion, add emphasis, or just otherwise accentuate the rest of your content.
5. Screenshots
In some cases, a custom graphic might not even be necessary.
Instead, a simple screenshot can be the perfect accompaniment to any necessary written content, like a tutorial or guide.
Why does this work?
Many people are visual learners and screenshots can make it much easier to identify a step in the process.
It’s also a good way to show someone what they should be looking for, like when you’re discussing a particular SaaS program or other platforms.
6. Live Streams
One of the most popular forms of visual content right now is live streams.
While this one would be hard to do on behalf of your customers unless you felt comfortable acting as a visual spokesperson, you can assist them with the planning process.
Work together to create a content calendar that addresses various times they should go live and on what platform — i.e. Facebook, Twitch, Instagram Live, TikTok.
Decide what they’ll be covering and how it relates to their overall digital marketing strategy.
Done right, this can be an excellent way to gain exposure and increase brand recognition.
7. Bite-Sized Content
Another super trendy type of visual content is bite-sized content. These are those little short videos you see on Instagram or TikTok on a regular basis.
Why are they so popular?
Most people don’t have enough time to watch videos over a minute, so they love seeing something short that teaches a new concept, makes them laugh, or is otherwise entertaining.
As a digital marketing professional, you have two options on how you can introduce this content to your clients.
Like live streams, you can help companies plan and produce the videos.
Or you can opt to find influencers who make this kind of media, work with them to arrange a sponsorship deal, and use that as your way to have a third-party create visual content.
8. Product Photos
If your clients are in retail or even B2B manufacturing, then you’ll definitely want to help with their product photo strategy.
After all, in a society where everyone just orders online and doesn’t get the chance to physically hold a product in their own hands before purchasing, professional product photos across all channels are a must.
Remember to keep good lighting as a focus and use a plain background where necessary.
Use as many angles and different types of photos as you can to ensure the end buyer gets as good of an idea about the product as possible.
These images can then be used on social media posts, sales pages, eCommerce store product descriptions, and more.
9. Social Media Stickers
Finally, a fun little visual graphic you can create for your clients is social media stickers.
These little images can be branded to match their company colors and fonts, but added on the fly to Instagram or Facebook posts.
Not sure where to start?
Browse sites like Etsy to see what others are making and then use a graphic design to create your own.
There aren’t too many digital agencies out there offering this service, so it can definitely be a good way to stand out from your competition.
How to Choose the Best Types of Visual Content
Selecting the best types of visual content for a specific client really comes down to their individual needs and company objectives.
In addition, niche plays a very vital role.
For example, a trendy eCommerce boutique and a B2B manufacturing company would have completely different needs when it comes to visual content creation.
The boutique would likely require product photos, social media posts, and a live stream video to use as a showcase.
In contrast, the B2B manufacturing company would probably want a few infographics, behind-the-scenes brand videos, and other visual materials that could later be used by the sales team.
When trying to decide the best content for your clients, consider:
- Their overall objectives in using social media and/or digital marketing.
- What their target audience is looking to learn or see in a post.
- Where the images or videos will ultimately be posted.
- How the target market generally responds to visual content.
By looking at these factors, you can generally narrow down a few of the above mentioned categories to find the right fit for your client’s needs.
Where Do People Find Visual Content?
Finding visual content is easy. But discovering good visual content is typically much more difficult.
When looking for it, there are a few places you can start.
However, you want to remember that grabbing any old image off a website is not recommended.
Not only could this open you up to a copyright issue later on, but it could lead to your end client having legal trouble, as well.
And that’s definitely something you want to avoid.
Instead, there are other options out there. A few of the most common places where you can find visual graphics include:
- Stock photo websites.
- Etsy.
- Creative Market.
- Freelance graphic designers.
- Independent videographers.
In some cases, finding the right content is as simple as asking your customer to take a few snapshots or video on a smartphone for you to edit.
Or you might use those graphic design skills to create your own images.
Another choice? Rock Content’s Visual.ly.
Let our team of graphic design experts handle everything on your behalf, giving your clients the content they’re looking for without allocating members of your in-house team to get it done.
How Do You Measure the Performance of Visual Content?
Measuring the performance of visual content isn’t that far removed from the way it is done for text.
Essentially, it all comes down to seeing what the standard was before you added photos or video.
Then compare it to the results you’re getting afterwards. Metrics you’ll want to continuously look at include:
- Click-through rate.
- Time spent on page.
- Conversions.
- User activity while on page.
- Bounce rate.
- Shares (for social media posts).
Most of these indicators explain whether an individual is staying to engage with a video or other form of content or leaving quickly.
For example, a high bounce rate would suggest they aren’t interacting whatsoever.
Wrap Up: Creating Visual Content for Clients
Just about anybody can create a blog post these days.
But visual content service options are a surefire way to ensure your customer’s success while offering a service that not every digital agency provides.
Ready to learn more about exciting and unique visual content?
Then check our Interactive Content guide and find out how this type of content can be mindblowing to audiences!
