If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a million times – content is king. While content marketing is a powerful tool for building trust among prospective clients and demonstrating the expertise of organizational leadership, great content is about more than powerful words. In the age of Pinterest, Flickr, YouTube and Instagram, one also needs striking visuals to make an impact.
Oftentimes, companies think visuals have to come from large-scale events and/or award ceremonies. However, in a world where people are consuming a significant volume of content through photos and videos, the need to find other visual marketing content is more important than ever. Here are five key areas to examine when looking for visual content:
Culture
What makes your company a great place to work? Why do other companies want to do business with your organization? For some, the answer is ‘our culture.’ Whether it is photos from a team-building workshop or a board on Pinterest dedicated to what inspires your company’s culture, there are opportunities to generate visual content that reflects this key component of your company.
Knowledge
Bylined articles and blogs are a great way to share on-staff expertise. But what about a vlog? Is there an opportunity to share the same on-staff expertise that would traditionally live on your blog in a more dynamic and visually compelling way? Thanks to smartphones and HD flip cams, producing a vlog doesn’t require a significant financial investment and a professional video production team. Carve out 10-minutes to organize your thoughts and write out some talking points, put the camera on a tripod and start talking. You can even make the vlog more visual by having exhibits (charts, graphs, etc.) to illustrate a couple of key points.
Existing Marketing
How does your company cultivate leads? For some organizations, the answer is free workshops and info-sessions. If you are an accounting firm that offers free workshops on new filing regulations during tax season, take photos of the event and share them through Facebook, Flickr or Instagram. If you are a podiatry practice that hosts free information sessions on common foot injuries in children, have a team member video tape a couple of your key talking points and post them on YouTube. These are easy ways to get more mileage out of what your company is already doing.
Data
While generating proprietary content is important for demonstrating thought leadership, there are opportunities to curate content from other like-minded organizations and reduce your content creation burden. Take Pinterest for example. Many organizations are sharing infographics that contain key industry data on their virtual pinboards. Perhaps your company wants to generate a board dedicated exclusively to visual representations of key industry data. This is an opportunity to share not only data from your own organization, but to build community by sharing content from industry trade associations and other thought leaders.
Clients
Something as simple as a photograph of the new school that your architectural firm designed can make great content for your Flickr, Pinterest or Instagram account. A short 30-second video featuring a client testimonial can provide great content for your YouTube channel. Think about not only what you are doing for your clients, but also what your clients are doing for their clients and the community. This is often a goldmine of stories, many of which can be told through compelling visuals and little, if any, text.
When thinking about how best to tell your business or nonprofit’s story to clients, prospects and the community, consider which content is best delivered through text and which content may be equally or more compelling when delivered through photos and/or videos. By diversifying the format of your content, organizations can engage new audiences and help existing audiences to engage with their brand in new and equally powerful ways.
