If you are running a business then you must know that posting content on your website and social media pages regularly is key to success. If you want your brand to be engaging and stay at the front of your customer’s mind, then you need to feed them helpful content on a regular basis.

However, we also know that we are bombarded with a huge amount of content on a daily basis— so how do you make your brand’s content stand out? The clue is in the title! Visual content is key.

Look at Twitter for example— lots of people are still posting simple text updates and they all look the same. None of them stands out and catches your eye. But those that use eye-catching imagery, as well as a vibrant colour palette, can stop you scrolling and invite you to find out more.

This also works on your website. You can write the most helpful and engaging piece and it will be ignored as it looks the same as all of your other content. Adding visuals to your blog posts and news pieces can really help you get your message across.

Visual content doesn’t just mean pictures though— there are different types of visual content you can use to grab people’s attention, and these include:

#1 Photographs

It should come as no surprise that photographs are one of the most popular forms of visual content after all Instagram has swiftly risen in popularity as a social media platform. People are used to taking pictures and sharing them on a daily basis— quite often more than once.

In the past, many brands have relied on stock photos to promote their products and services, but this just won’t do nowadays. A well-taken photograph can work wonders for your brand, and really help you to stand out from the crowd.

You can use photos to show off your product or service, for example. The Zool team can set up a photoshoot featuring your product being used, or customers using your service, or even just your product itself— we know how to show off its best side!

We can also help you take some behind the scenes shots of your day-to-day life at work— what goes on in your office, who is the team behind the brand, how you create your products and so on. These sorts of photos are excellent for sharing on social media, and they help customers identify and connect with your brand on a personal level.

#2 Inspiring Quotes

People love quotes. #quotes is one of the most popular hashtags to follow on Instagram— it has been used on 95,180,954 posts to date! If you have a quick chat with your team you will soon come up with a list of inspirational quotes that have engaged them or stuck with them for one reason or another. Sharing these pearls of wisdom on social media can be a great way to inspire your customers— and they also make for awesome pieces of visual content.

Here at Zool, our creative team regularly produce social media quote cards for clients such as The CAD Room and BBI— and they consistently rank in their top five posts on their social media accounts on a monthly basis.

We keep the design for the quote cards simple, letting the type be the focus and ensuring the colour contrast is enough to ensure the quote is readable.

#3 Branded Images

When we sit down with clients and discuss brand identity, we make sure we discuss important visual elements such as colour and typeface as well. These sorts of things help us to build your brand appearance when it comes to website design, brochure creation and so on.

Your brand identity can also be reinforced with the use of branded images, as long as you ensure they complement the tone of voice and what you are trying to portray. If your brand is fresh and natural, like our client booicore for example, then we tend to use images that display their product in an outdoor setting.

#4 Data Visualisations

People love numbers, especially in the world of life science—they like to know what data you have to back up your claims. But you don’t have to show it in a boring way. In fact, being creative with your data visualisations can help people to understand tricky concepts more easily too.

Our creative team can produce graphics and diagrams to help you present your data to your audience in a clearer way— helping you to get more recognition for your data.

#5 Video

If images are a great way to stop people from scrolling past your content, then videos will stop them in their tracks. Research shows that over 4 billion videos are watched online every single day. Every single day! Yet only 9% of small businesses are using sites like YouTube or Vimeo to promote their brand.

Video represents a huge opportunity for brands to widen their audience, and get their message across in a short amount of time. They literally give your brand a voice— and they can be produced using your brand’s colours, imagery and typography as well. And guess what? The team here at Zool are video experts as well!

#6 Infographics

We work with a lot of companies in the life science and pharmaceutical sector, and so we know they produce a lot of data on a daily basis. One way of sharing this with their audience is through data visualisations (as discussed above) but another way is through the use of an infographic.

Infographics are eye-catching ways to share information with customers, and research has shown that they tend to be shared three times more often than any other piece of visual content.

So, infographics are a great way to help you communicate a lot of information to your target customers quickly, and in a way which will absorb them.

This list of visual content ideas may seem daunting at first, but there is nothing on this list that Zool hasn’t done before. We would love to help you! We can work with you to create stunning visual content that will differentiate you from your competitors and encourage more people to engage with your brand.