‘A picture speaks a thousand words’ is an old cliché; but how does a cliché become a cliché? Talk is cheap and in an age where customers are bombarded with information and advertisements, you only have a few seconds to whet your audience’s appetite for more information and hook their interest. Your core message and theme is communicated in a matter of seconds when you do it visually and if you keep it witty and friendly, your visual promotions will look less like direct sales pieces that savvy consumers have become adept at ignoring as “advertising noise”. So why are images so important? Basic biology – the human brain processes images faster than text, as the areas of the mind that comprehend letters and symbols are smaller than those that process shapes and colours. With statistics showing that articles with images get 94% more total views, you cannot afford to ignore the power of visual marketing. A business that has become adept at using sharable images and regular new visual material to market or advertise their product or brand has successfully generated an impression of being current and dynamic.
So, if you want to draw in new business for 2013, here’s how to use visual promotions effectively for your business:
Be Unique
Paper and leaflets are all too easy to toss in the recycling bin. We all live on our laptops now, so merge your business card with a short promotional presentation about your business put onto a business card DVD. There are many companies out there such as http://www.discmakers.co.uk/ who will help you to produce large quantities of professionally produced and packaged DVDs to showcase samples of your video or software.
Share and Share Alike
Images are highly shareable; they can be pinned, tweeted, embedded and printed so use them to promote offers, new products or just draw attention to you. Get your business on image sharing websites such as Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr to expand your fan base.
Be Mysterious
Flyers with an intriguing image, question or puzzle will encourage your customers to come and find you. Research some of the best Guerilla marketing campaigns, which use images to surprise or intrigue and use them for inspiration.
Become a Blogger
With your own blog you have the perfect forum to post videos and interact with your customers. A blog post full of keywords and unique content will also have a great impact on your SEO.
Get your customers to provide your images. We all have the technology to take high quality images now even on our phones! So hold a competition for your customers inviting them to share their own photos of them using your product with the most unique winning a freebie product or service.
Make a YouTube Video
Video is so easy to produce now, you can even do it from your phone and with plenty of free editing software you can easily create a few helpful videos answering common questions about your product or brand, explain or give a demonstration on how to use your product. Keep it witty and short and it will be noticed and shared.