By Victoria Lim
We talked about the importance of having a strong communication strategy and how it can help you establish your brand, now we’re going to expand on that. We’re going to cover an equally important topic that will further develop your company name and put you on the map. Visual storytelling is an excellent opportunity to truly connect with your targeted audience and fully utilize all the modern marketing tools that are at your disposal to bring in more business. Simply put, visual storytelling gives your words meaning and conveys your message in a much more entrancing way.
Various forms of visual media attract engagements so here’s how to make the most of them and improve the online presence of your small business.
Equal Opportunities for Everyone
Advertisement space used to be monopolized by large corporations and international conglomerates, leaving little to no space for the little guys to have their voice heard. However, with the rise of the world wide web, more specifically social media, these days are behind us. It’s time to level the playing field and grab a piece of the market for yourself. Sure, corporations still have a substantially larger budget for marketing, more followers, and a far more recognizable brand, but the internet is a vast place, and there’s room for everyone. Remember, high-quality content spreads like wildfire, focus on creating compelling visuals, and you’ll successfully establish an online presence.
Less Is More
Social media algorithms favor content that creates engagements and sparks discussions. Avoid posting meaningless visuals just to fill the space on your web page or your social media profiles. Post less but make sure it’s with purpose. Think up front what kind of message you’re trying to convey and try to turn it into a story. Use clever metaphors that are intriguing and provide your customers with content that resembles a picture book that perfectly portrays what your brand stands for.
Your Landing Page Is The Face Of Your Company
First impressions on the internet are just as important as they are in person. What better way to draw in potential customers than by using a compelling visual presentation of your products, services or even your entire brand. The first point of contact with your brand is your landing page. Make sure it’s visually attractive but not too overwhelming.
Don’t Settle For Bad Design
As a small business, you want the overall design of your online presence to be nothing short of stellar. Cheap and bad design will only make sure that people leave your website as fast they loaded it up. It takes just a few seconds for someone to create an opinion about your brand based on what they see. As we previously mentioned, first impressions count both online and offline. That being said, you don’t have to spend money you don’t have on fancy design solutions. There are a lot of marketing photoshop templates out there that are an affordable option and can effectively tell your story.
Build A Community
So you’ve managed to introduce your brand to the market successfully, now it’s time to stay relevant. Small businesses need to build a community around their brand if they are to stay afloat amidst harsh competition. Remember, while there is more than enough space to advertise your products or services online, converting new clients to loyal followers is an entirely different story. Everyone is fighting for the same crowd so unless you wow your audience and establish a connection, you’ll have a hard time staying in business. That’s why it is important to remind yourself that constant engagement with your audience through the use of visual storytelling is just as important as it was at the very beginning of your journey.
Great Examples Of Visual Storytelling
There are a lot of good examples of visual storytelling – from clever logo designs to more complex video content that instantly grabs the attention of the viewer. Alluring storytelling is all about using visual metaphors that relate to your brand. One of the most famous examples of simple yet ingenious visual design is the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo. Once you see it, it never goes away.
A more recent one comes from Slack – a powerful cloud-based communication tool. For a brief time, their landing page featured a picture of one of Nasa’s exploration rovers and the tagline “a messaging app for teams who put robots on Mars.” Their users might not be launching rockets in space, but having equal rights to a tool that is used by the largest space program in the world has to feel good.
If you’re looking for a way to engage your community and create content that draws discussions in an organic way, Airbnb is a good example. They decided to reward their best hosts by gifting them valuable gifts. In return, they got to share their stories and create original content that resonates well with everyone who uses their service.
So what’s the main takeaway? Big or small, every business can utilize visual storytelling to their advantage. It’s just a matter of giving it a little thought, implementing your products or services in a clever way, and creating something that your audience can quickly relate to.
Victoria Lim is a business consultant and a digital marketer with expertise in scribbling many relevant, industry related online publications. Always searching for new opportunities, she loves sharing ideas with other professionals.
Social media: https://twitter.com/VictoriasScrawl
Storytelling stock photo by Gonzalo Aragon/Shutterstock
