Content is king, and it has always been. But it is not always about the written content.
Be it an ad copy, a blog, an image, or a video, everything that makes your target audience engage with your business is content. But, today with the emergence of visual content, people are looking forward to interacting with them a lot more than what they usually do with the readables.
And, here comes the concept visual marketing. As rockcontent says, “Visual marketing is the use of images, videos, and other pieces of multimedia content to strengthen your brand and communicate with your target audience.”
Over the years it has proven itself as one of the most effective tools for creating a successful marketing strategy. And, it’s a whopping 49%.
Also, research from Brain Rules says that people can retain only a mere 10% of what they have read or hear in just a matter of three days. But, in the same interval, people remember an astonishing 65% of the entire information from a piece of visual content.
In order to make things work for you likewise, you need to check out the best visual marketing trends that you can implement on your marketing strategy to make it big in 2022.
Popularity of Mobile Video Content
People, today, tend to incline a lot more towards mobile videos than they did before. And, there is no doubt that attention-grabbing videos are doing a lot better than readable content.
This is why predictions say, videos will be driving 82% of global traffic by 2022.
In this fast-paced life, people are looking forward to watching videos that delivers information fast and without having them to put in any effort other than plugging in their earbuds and scrolling through the internet. Hence, no wonder why mobile video has become the top priority for marketers to promote their brand in the global market.
You can visualise this change around you as well. Today your smartphone is filled with applications viz. YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, and whatnot, that deliver video content. And, they are growing more than ever before.
But, it’s not that easy to grab the attention of your target audience so easily. You need to keep in mind a few things. These are,
- Resizing your videos: Resize your videos in such a way so that they can occupy the entire screen size you’re the smartphones used by your target audience.
- Going live: Share real-time feeds and let your target audience engage with your directly through live videos. It is one of the best ways for hosting a two-way communication.
- Adding proper captions: Most people out there watch videos keeping the sound off, so if your videos have proper captions, then you can save a lot of to-be-missed opportunities.
Short Video Content Engages More Audience
Tiktok, you definitely have heard of this mobile app, haven’t you?
It’s been merely 5 years since this revolutionary video platform has released, but because of the type of content it delivers, Tiktok has become the favourite of the mob. And, this has helped it become the fastest growing social media channel with a humongous 1.2 million active users in 2021, approximately.
With the uprise of Tiktok, certain things have become quite clear to marketers that people crave bite-sized video content. And, this craving is not going anywhere, anytime soon.
In fact, Instagram, too has jumped into this race of garnering the short-video audience with its latest inclusion, Instagram Reels.
It is high time that brands take this trend of visual content in the form of bite-sized video content seriously. Such kind of videos have started dominating the arena of visual content not long ago, but it is definitely here to stay.
Keeping videos short, fast-paced, playful and snacky is the key to success in today’s times. Also, it matters how you fit in your audio and texts in them spreading your brand voice to your target audience.
Do not miss out on this opportunity to engage and probably convert your audience.
The Best of Visual Marketing Trends in 2022
But this isn’t the only trends right now. There are a few other visual marketing trends that you need to catch up with to skyrocket your brand in 2022.
Let’s check them out.
1. Videos
Videos are certainly one of the most preferred visual content types that you can find out there. They interact with both your eyes and your ears making them a lot more impactful than other forms of visual marketing content.
And, this is why brands all over the globe are tending to brig out more and more visual content to cater their prospects and make them stick to them.
Today, you will find several types of video content, be it product tutorials, customer reviews, unboxing videos, from several brands on social media. These videos can really be very helpful in demonstrating and educating your target audience about your product.
Also, if you want to educate your audience about the type of product you are selling and want to share some helpful insights about the same, then also videos prove to be quite helpful.
2. Stories Format
Mostly every social media platform including LinkedIn comes with the feature of uploading stories as a form of ephemeral content. And, this trend of sharing snacky video content was initiated by Instagram, years ago.
Speaking of today, this social media platform witnesses 500 million stories getting shared on a daily basis. And, out of them all, 1/3rd is several big to small brands and business organisations.
The best part about Instagram stories is that businesses can make use of the simple “swipe up” feature to drive their audience to their landing pages in order to perform a successful conversion.
For brands and businesses, Facebook can also be a very handy tool when it is about sharing quick, snacky pieces of information to users catalysing their purchasing decisions.
Just keep in mind to stay in front of the camera, upload video content in most occasions, and position your brand as the main highlight of your stories. This will help you in reaching your target effectively and quickly.
3. 360-Degree Photos
Visual marketing is all about displaying your products in an attractive manner that people cannot remove their eyes from. Then what can be better than something that is still rising and will be at its peak in a few months from now? Yes, we are talking about 360-degree photos.
As we have said earlier, the trend of 360-degree photos is still going upwards. So, it is high time you make use of it.
360-degree photos can encompass a lot more information than a regular image. So, when you put up a 360-degree image of your product, your target audience then get to understand how practically it looks like. This is quite helpful as it gives them a clearer idea about what you are selling.
Undoubtedly, 360-degree photos are one of the best ways to provide your target audience with an amazing shopping experience.
4. Shoppable Visual Content
This trend is all about making discovery to purchase easier as well as quicker for the people on social media.
Yes, in this era where brands like Amazon are flourishing, social media has also turned somehow into an eCommerce platform as around 71% social media users visit their respective profiles for the same.
From discovering trendy clothes, jewellery and accessories to purchasing them, social media has made it easier for brands to convert their followers into customers.
Shoppable visual content on Instagram have features that are allowing brands to not just display the prices of their products with just a click but selling them easily.
You will often find Instagram posts that have shopping stickers on them as well as product tags. Both these features are meant for the ease of selling products, without having your potential buyers to leave the platform itself.
To make this happen with your business, all you need to do is, attach shoppable tags to your posts, utilise influencer visual content as well as encompass your relevant products in a single image.
5. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
If you are a bit tech savvy, them you definitely have come across the terms Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).
If not, then let us enlighten you on this.
Say suppose, you have visited the online shopping platform, IKEA and you happen to like a particular chair. Now, how can you understand if it will be a good fit for your home?
The answer is Augmented Reality. Yes, IKEA has a feature that allows you to place your picked product directly in the place you want it to place in real life and check the look and feel through Augmented Reality.
Isn’t that great?
Well, not just IKEA but a good lot of other brands are also looking forward to utilising this state-of-the-art tech and boosting their sales like never before.
So, if you are selling a product online, then you should definitely try out these technological wonders and skyrocket the growth of your business.
6. Illustrations
It’s been a while since illustrations have been a part of marketing strategies. But, lately have marketeers have started to understand their worth as a primary visual marketing tool.
Not just illustrations but, sketches also play a crucial part in this. And, you can mostly come across them in your social media handles where they have become quite and engaging form of visual content that are quite helpful in educating brands as well as pushing them down the conversion funnel.
A good lot of brands out there are making good use of these visual marketing tools to make their social media content stand out of the crowd and ahead of their competitors.
The best part of illustrations and sketches is that they make the content feel more authentic and their target audience can see the efforts in their approach.
Moreover, such kind of visual marketing content is quite useful in leveraging a lot more information when compared to regular image-based posts, however, they are also aesthetically a lot more appealing.
Dropbox has come up with the same strategy and has been using sketches as well as illustrations as a part of their social media strategy.
7. Infographics
Just like illustrations, infographics have also become quite a lot more popular visual marketing content for digital marketers lately.
Previously they happened to be just a part of the blogs, but now they have solely set their feet strong in the arena of digital marketing. And, most importantly, they are today one of the most vital forms of visual content that marketeers are looking forward to implementing in their content marketing strategy.
And, as expected they have made quite an impact, assertively.
Infographics are somewhere similar to blogs when it is about providing information, however, it delivers them in a lot more engaging way. It really proves to be quite effective in educating your target audience about your product.
Now, if you are a beginner and have never created infographics before, then you can easily find numerous templates that are available on the Internet that can really help you in creating amazing infographics for your visual marketing endeavours. Working with these when you garner enough experience, you can easily create your own without any third-party help.
8. Live Streaming
Considering the fact that you already know what live streaming is, you must also know that it has gained popularity in the recent years. And, like you can see, it’s growth in becoming popular is quite constant till now and is likely to grow even popular.
Due to this upsurging popularity of live videos, more and more brands and businesses are moving towards the same in order to find a better medium to connect to their target audience directly.
And, as you already know, live streaming allows you to connect and spread your word directly to your audience, and that too real-time. It is such a great visual marketing tool that with live streaming, you get a two-way communication opportunity where your audience can not just see you real-time but ask you their queries as well.
Practically, there is no other such tool that allows you to connect so seamlessly with your potential as well as your existing buyers in the same way like live streaming.
You can also host virtual consultation sessions with your target audience and help them with a better insight with your product or service. Moreover, hosting interviews with popular influencers has also become a cakewalk with live streaming, giving your audience a chance to interact directly with their favourite people.
9. GIFs
Social media platform Instagram has played a very big role in popularising this visual marketing tool, none other than our favourite GIF. Today they have become quite popular throughout every social media platform, and is this is not going to stop anytime soon.
The reason why they have become so popular is the fun-quotient that they add into just anything, be it a chat or a post or a simple comment section.
So, placing the best of them in your posts can easily help you stand ahead of your competitors when it is about gaining reach on social media.
Similarly, animations can also do a lot when it is about marketing your product or spreading your word in an engaging and entertaining way.
And, the best part of using GIFs is that you can do literally anything with GIFs. Also, they are not specific or limited to any certain niche or industry, hence you can use them just the way you want to.
Moreover, when it is about creating your own GIFs, there are numerous design tools (both free and paid) available in the market currently, which can help you turn anything into marvellous, entertaining and engaging GIFs.
10. Gamified Visual Content
Amidst this ongoing pandemic situation, lockdowns are not anything new. And, no wonder why people getting bored at home, are looking for ways to entertain themselves through social media.
This has proven to be a marvellous opportunity for a lot of digital and social media marketeers out there where they are leveraging gamified content to keep their target audience engaged to their brand and spread the word as well. This technique of encouraging social media crowd to interact with the brand specific social media posts has helped a lot of brands to grow. For example, Canva.
Mostly, you can find this trend going on on Instagram as it is primarily a visual-focused platform and has emerged lately as a great platform to sell products efficiently and effectively.
This kind of content is all about challenging users to take actions and is basically created with the help of advanced graphics.
Be it a quiz, bingo or any other gaming-style quest, you can try out as many formats as you want to. All you need is witty copywriting work and splendid graphics. Once ready with these, you are good to go!
Final Thoughts
So, from live streaming to snaky content like Instagram and Facebook stories, everything is a part of visual marketing. With time these trends are growing stronger and working pretty well in driving audience and helping brands convert successfully. And, now it is your opportunity to get the best out of these.
So, what are you waiting for?
