Visually Speaking!

Being in Marketing I am a bit of an information junkie, always looking for new marketing ideas on the horizon. Last week, on being assigned with the task to find a Marketing blog post that is truly informative and insightful, I started out on my quest to identify the one that perfectly fit the requirement. I scoured through endless blogs written by accomplished authors- experts in their own area of work, soon to realize that all these posts were trying to push information in my direction, information that was either too complex and hence difficult to comprehend, or information that was so vague, that I didn’t know how exactly it could be put in to action. So, I kept looking and after a bit of siphoning search I found a post that was  perfectly edifying and actionable. I chose to decipher Aaron Fried’s  blog on Visual Marketing published on The Daily Lead.

In his blog Aaron decodes why Content Marketing Campaigns fail and how Visual marketing can solve several problems faced by today’s marketers. But, thats not the real reason I chose this blog post. I chose it because Aaron quotes other Marketing experts to affirm his ideas which makes his observations unbiased and relevant. Aaron points out that Visual content can be the key differentiator for content marketing campaigns as it delivers valuable content for the target audience thereby engaging them and retaining them in the long run.  To exemplify his stand, Aaron quotes Neil Patel of Forbes, who mentions that businesses today don’t stand a chance if their campaigns lack visuals.

Further on Aaron suggests that It’s not good enough for your campaign to be visually appealing, it’s equally important to have a strong visual content strategy. Why have a visual content strategy? This is because it is equally important to test, compare and measure your creatives to understand what works and what doesn’t. A sound, clear and concise strategy with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) linked to each campaign can prove immensely effective and justify ROI. Here, Aaron quotes Evan LePage of Hootsuite, who confirms that building a solid strategy can be time consuming and seemingly complex in the beginning, but makes life simple for content marketers in the long run.

That said, Aaron asks a very thought provoking question, which is – ‘what happens if your content is inconsistent, here today gone tomorrow? Quality content is a pre-requisite, but how can content that lacks consistency ever be of use to consumers? Thus, he goes on to say that engaging content that is inconsistent can’t help marketers reach their content KPI goals. Consistently creating content not only drives more leads to the website, but also builds brand awareness as it allows consumers to relate with your brand colors, features and brand values. Meghan Sullivan, Creative head at Kuno, adds that if ‘content is King, frequency is Queen and consistency is the Prime Minister’.

That’s not all, Aaron suggest that what truly makes a content piece engaging is its ability to quickly tell a story. Thus, storytelling becomes an integral part of the content marketing strategy. It helps the brand visuals to break the clutter and stand out. It also connects with consumers on an emotional level by telling them how a product or service could impact their lives. Here, Aaron quotes Garret Moon, CEO at CoSchedule who iterates that storytelling helps consumers remember and recall branded content easily, thereby increasing online traffic to the website and contributing to brand building.

To put it simply, this blog post not only provides a road map to creating great content, but also tells you how experts do it. Not to forget that the blog is interactive as it invites opinions and comments from readers to add any observations they may have or seek answers to questions that may have been left unanswered. The article also encourages readers to utilize the hacks mentioned in the post and share results obtained. All in all an amazingly well written piece that has made my understanding of marketing more adept.