A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words: Visual Experience in Marketing
Visual experience is quickly becoming one of the essential parts of digital marketing. A recent survey suggests that 93% of consumers consider visual appearance to be the key deciding factor during the buying process. Whether it’s marketing content, product pages, or staff headshots, images play a vital role in establishing your brand’s unique identity.
When you hear the name Calvin Klein, what pops into your head? It is most likely a monochromatic young woman/man lounging in one of their iconic underwear sets- no fancy backdrops, very sleek and sexy. A brand’s visual content is as much of a storytelling tool as its written content, and it gives its creators another platform to communicate with consumers.
Done right, campaign images allow brands to reinforce their values on a visual level. For instance, brands that wish to highlight their fun and quirky culture may opt for a highly colourful and bold series of images for a campaign. Alternatively, a brand hoping to project a stylistic and sophisticated message would choose simplistic images with desaturated colour palettes.
Although it may sound easy, perfecting your brand image is hard to pull off. Here are some top tips for leading you on the path to success…
Keep the focus and stay consistent
If your business is marketing a specific product, keep the focus simple, evident and in line with your marketing strategy. It is easy for consumers to become visually overwhelmed when confronted with multiple busy images with different messages. Instead, showcase your product in an engaging lifestyle setting and demonstrate how it could be used. Tease the customer and make them want to get in on the action. Equally, if you’re selling a specific service, it is worth using lifestyle shots to illustrate how consumers can benefit.
Sticking to your brand guidelines (fonts and colour palettes) is absolutely vital. Consistency is crucial and the only way to help consumers easily recognise your brand.
We love how Aperol Spritz showcases their brand on Instagram. Every image is in line with brand guidelines, is visually pleasing to the eye and tempts the viewer into enjoying a lifestyle that is represented in their images. After following their page, it’s almost impossible to go on holiday or sit in the sun without thinking about a nice refreshing glass of Aperol.
Tip: When using models to showcase a product remember that direct eye contact between model and camera can often make consumers feel uncomfortable. Don’t let consumers think that they’re targets for a potential sale! Therefore, using an overly staged image where the model looks acutely aware that they’re selling a product is not always the best option.
Spend time perfecting e-commerce photos
Put simply, E-commerce images and proper product photography can make or break your chances of selling a product. How many times have you navigated off a website because the product is displayed poorly? Yes, good e-commerce photos are really that influential.
Masters of getting you to buy through amazing visuals – GoPro has perfected their strategy for capturing amazing e-commerce photos. For example, when you land on their website home page, you are not met with the standard product shot that you expect to see. Instead, a 3D, revolving product image draws your eye and makes you instantly intrigued to learn more. Check it out here.
Showcase company ethos
Whether you’re advertising a product or a service, your digital branding needs to reflect your company’s vision and values. This is what makes you stand out. For example, if you’re promoting your company’s relaxed employee culture, choose brighter images with more saturated colours to give off a fun yet vibrant vibe.
Also, don’t be scared to showcase your journey. People like authenticity and originality. Sonos are a company that has impressively embraced brand storytelling.
The Sonos ‘Our Company’ page is a beautiful scrolling story featuring people-heavy imagery and inspiring words. For a brand that offers high-quality sound systems, the page absolutely reflects that modern, inventive edge.
Think Mobile
According to a 2021 survey conducted by Statista, an estimated 72.9 % of all retail e-commerce is generated via mobile commerce. Therefore, making your brand’s images mobile-friendly is an integral part of drawing in potential consumers. In addition, keeping the focal point of each digital image clear so that users can see it clearly on a smaller screen will eliminate the annoyance of constantly having to zoom in on a product image.
When uploading images onto your website click the preview button (usually in the top right hand corner) to display how this would look on mobile before publishing. Also, always check your social posts are the correct size for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
The best image resolution for most smartphones is 640 by 320 pixels. Also remember that you should ideally maintain the aspect ratio of the original image or the output image will be distorted.
Images are not simply a stylistic bonus for a digital marketing campaign but an impactful method of communication between businesses and consumers. Visual experience is becoming an integral part of the buying process, and consumers expect high standards of imagery when choosing to trust a brand. Words are still a powerful way of storytelling; a carefully chosen image simply adds another dimension to that story.
Need help fine-tuning your digital imagery? Get in touch to see how we can help!
