Cutting Through the Noise With Visual Content

Cutting Through the Noise With Visual Content

The popularity of visual content in places like YouTube, SlideShare, Instagram, and Pinterest has made it very easy to distribute content to a wide audience. The problem is that the availability of those sites has created a lot of noise. The challenge for brands and marketers is to cut through the clutter and get your content to your audience without a lot of other noise surrounding it. While these sites have a great way of serving up content that people like and driving organic traffic to them, marketers need to be adding these assets to their own websites and figuring out ways to get that content to people when they’re not surrounded by everyone else’s content.

Don’t Leave Your Audience Out In the Coldimgres

SlideShare is a great medium for gettting out a lot of different messages. In addition to being a popular network for content, SlideShare provides a lot of analytics, including demographic data, and click and interest data.
Be sure when creating a SlideShare that there’s a place for your audience to follow up. If you don’t give your audience a next step, you risk losing a lot of potentially good leads and conversions. Once someone has finished your content, SlideShare, because it’s a company, will suggest more slideshares for them to read and they won’t necessarily be yours. If you don’t direct them to your conent, then you’ve messed up.
If you’re going to use SlideShare, make sure you capture information from people reading your content.

  • Embed the “get in touch” button to get people to follow up on as leads
  • Give readers a next step and a place to follow-up
  • Embed SlideShares into your own website and create a journey with your other content

“It’s like having a flashing neon sign in Vegas – which would be awesome if you were the only flashing neon sign. Sometimes the answer is to be a street performer or to do something else. When it comes to visual content, I actually think that driving people to visual content from non-traditional sources is another option that people could consider,” stated Erin Robbins O’Brien, COO GinzaMetrics.
Be careful of trying to force a sale through a SlideShare that is meant to be a helpful piece of information. SlideShares are a great place to create case studies, white papers, and for product overviews. Use them as part of the customer journey and then provide a next step and a way for you to follow-up with more content. Consider slide share for:

  • Case studies
  • White papers
  • Product overviews
  • Industry trends and topics

“Does the messaging that you’re using to drive somebody to this particular piece of content actually match the output? There’s nothing worse than feeling let down after you open an e-mail or see a link in an article only to find out that it’s completely off-topic, or it’s really, really salesy and centerered around showcasing just the brand’s products and ideas as opposed to a real knowledge share,” cautions Erin.

Infographics that Pop

Infographics are difficult to do well and measure correctly. Before giving up on infographics as a medium, consider the production value of the infographics you’re producing.  Having an infographic that is either created poorly or with poor design production will have a major effect on drop-off rates.
images-1“Infographics are one of the hardest things for someone to do well because there’s a lot of competition and infographics are judged fairly harshly by viewers. So, if you’re not going to do it right, don’t do it,” advises Erin.
As with all content, make sure you provide a next step after the infographic. To get the most value, consider an interactive infographic that is visually appealing and gives your audience the opportunity to pop in places and dig in deeper to get more information about your content, or lead the audience to a next step where they can go somewhere interesting and keep the visual stimulation alive.
Leading your audience along a journey does not mean leading directly to a buy right now option. Instead, invite your audience to learn more and lead them to your site or to other content. Create a relationship with your audience and become the trusted advisor. In the B2B marketing world, specifically, take on the role of educator and help people find a solution to their problems. And if your company, product, or service happens to be the solution, that’s a bonus.

Show and Tell with Video

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Yes, video can be expensive to produce, but as with all content, not all video should be created equal. Differentiate between the types of videos you produce for various purposes and the quality and costs of those videos. Once a year you will probably want to produce some high quality videos to highlight your company or conduct a product tour, or some other sales purpose. Go ahead and spend the budget to get those videos produced. For the rest of your purposes, the videos don’t have to be slick and high quality. Record your own short videos to share customer conversations, or short tutorials. Here are a few ways to use video content:

  • Solve common problems
  • Address common questions or concerns
  • Case studies
  • Product demos
  • Generate awareness
  • Short “how to” videos for product use

“Now that goes back to us saying, you need to give people a next step. Don’t just end your video and leave them with nowhere to go. It doesn’t have to be an overly salesy call to action. It can just say, ‘Hey, do you want to learn more? Do you want more content from us?’ From there, audiences can be led to a micro site that has similar videos, instead of having them just surf away to other YouTube content,” advises Erin.
If you find a message that works, don’t just let it die or just put it out in an infographic, or a video, or however the message was originally distributed. Take that same message and try some other mediums. See if that message actually resonates with your target audience through other vehicles as well.
Here are some other resources to help you make the most of your visual content:

If you like us to help you and your brand get found online, contact GinzaMetrics for a demo today.