As a digital marketing professional, you are always on the hunt for new ideas for your social and digital streams. It’s normal to look for new ways to market your wares and to bolster the reputation of your brand.
If you’re looking for a killer strategy to set your brand on fire, consider incorporating visual and content marketing into your current practices. Video is on the rise in the digital sphere, with consumers preferring emotive videos with captions more than blogs.
Read on to get our six outstanding tips for incorporating more visuals and video into your content marketing strategy. You’ll get more views, more engaged users and more return on your investment.
To Start: Copyright Your Content
If you want to make sure your visual content is protected and other brands can’t steal it and use it for their gain, then make sure you learn how to copyright photos. The process is for copyrighting photos is fairly easy, and you can do it online via the U.S. Copyright Office. If you don’t copyright your photographs and someone uses them improperly, then you could be disenfranchised.
Once photos are copyrighted, and someone uses them without paying you or crediting you, each infringement they make can carry up to a $150,000 penalty. So it is well worth it to make sure your unique and creative content doesn’t get the exposure or into the hands of people you don’t want to have it. For a big brand especially, you want to protect all of your assets and protect your clients as well. Make sure you are thinking about whether you need to copyright your assets, so you don’t lose out.
1. Don’t Just Talk
You’ve got to show your customers why they should care about your product and services and use their hard-earned money to buy them. Photography is an effective way to put your wares in the very best light and to show how beautiful, simple, and engaging they are. Add even more effectiveness to showing instead of telling by posting simple tutorials that demonstrate how to use your product.
2. Make Your Customers VIPs
Incorporating a behind-the-scenes, exclusive demonstration or tour that helps your customers see the value of your brand is an easy and efficient way of integrating visual content marketing into your streams. Consumers want to feel that they are getting added value, and exclusivity is one way to give that to them. That means identifying your customer persona and understanding what they need.
It’s a potentially crucial factor when creating your marketing strategy, so don’t be afraid to expand your team in order to get the best content possible.
3. Try Out Video Tips
Related, customers want to learn things they didn’t know. They want to see how your product is going to solve some problems in their lives. When you can give them quick tips via a live or filmed video that is not about your product but is related to it, then they will feel that they really need it.
4. Let Your Customers Tell Their Stories
If you want to see your social media channels go through the roof with engagement and customer satisfaction, then you’ve got to incorporate user-generated photographs and videos into your stream. Maybe you create a short campaign with a custom hashtag. Let’s say you are a company that sells adventure gear.
You could ask your customers to answer a question or tell a story about their most memorable adventure. You then could feature the best stories and photographs on your social channels and ask your users to vote for the most inspiring stories. You could give away prizes for the finalists and a grand prize for the story and photo with the top votes. This is an excellent way to use user-generated content to boost your business and win big with your audience.
5. Make It Human
When a customer feels that you are touching on the emotive, common experience of being human, it’s amazing what they will do. They feel part of a bigger movement and family. They feel more loyal and engaged like you are on their side and relevant to their lives. They’ll be more interested in hearing about what you have to offer if they feel they can relate to you in a common and shared experience.
And, that’s exactly what you should be going for with our visual content. You want to remind your customers of the human experience and how that binds us together throughout time.
Try to incorporate that concept into your visual content strategy. For example, you may think about doing a video series in which everyday people talk about how your company has improved their lives. The theme is up to you. It’s just that you want to tap into the human experience through a video series of ordinary people that your customers can relate to at the end of the day.
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Graphics
Graphics are a great way to communicate information about your brand and your products. Just make sure they are adding value. Whether you create a small infographic that can be shared on social media or a quick list of tips, you can use graphics in interesting and beautiful ways to engage with your audience.
Plus, the more easily they are to read and to share, especially on social media, the better your chances of getting a boost across all of your platforms. Be creative, and keep it simple as you develop new graphics for sharing.
7. Is It Time to Take Your Content to the Next Level?
If it is, then don’t miss out on all that multimedia has to offer you. The popularity of video is only going to rise in 2017, and that’s why it’s so important to be on top of this trend.
Whether you are trying out a Facebook Live video to give your viewers an exclusive insider view of your brand or you are using it to give them quick tips, make sure visually engaging content is involved. You may need to outsource freelancers and other professionals to get the high-quality of content you want, but it will be well worth it.
Keep in mind these six outstanding tips for using visual and content marketing in your digital and social strategies and watch your viewership take off.
Author bio: Alex Moore is a Business Management graduate focused on everything business, tech, and marketing. His burning desire is to make it as an expert writer in the field, so if you have any suggestions for him, do not hesitate to leave a comment or get in touch on Twitter at alex_moore01.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
