How to Use Visuals to Get More Traffic

Having a blog where you can share valuable information with your audience can prove to be essential for your business. A blog is a great source of content marketing and, if you do it correctly, benefits may prove to be higher than expected. Ever wonder why you see all these companies pumping out content? That’s because when done right, content marketing works. In fact, it is three times more effective than paid search in regards to leads and ROI for your business.

Kinsta also saw the same quality results when they doubled down and focused on growing their site’s organic traffic.

Also, people are more likely to get to know your company or brand through content marketing. 68% of the Internet users spend time reading about brands and 80% of them appreciate learning about companies through custom content. This is probably the main reason why small businesses with blogs get 126% more leads than businesses that do not engage in content marketing.

Importance of Visual Content
However, content marketing is not and should not be just text. Visuals are an important part of a marketing campaign. They have the power to attract and retain your audience. They have the power to enhance your entire campaign and make it successful in the long run. Why do you think is that? Why are visuals important for a blog?

According to a report published by Social Media Examiner, 38% of marketers say that blogging is the most important form of content for their business. Visual content comes in second, as 37% of marketers admit it to be the most important part of their content marketing strategy.

Also, the same report states that 68% of marketers use blogging for marketing purposes while 74% use visuals as a common type of content. Overall, content marketing gets you six time higher conversion rates than other types of marketing.

However, we should also consider that people tend to retain only 10% of what they hear. However, if you pair written text with relevant images, 65% of that information is retained three days later. Impressive, isn’t it?

The Featured Image
When it comes to visuals on your blog, the first thing you should start with is the featured image. This type of visual is even more important when you publish blog posts that are mostly based on textual information, without screenshots, graphs, charts and other types of visuals. Also, the featured image is important if you engage in social media marketing as well. Why? This is the first thing a Facebook or a Twitter user sees when you share a link.

How to Add a Featured Image in WordPress?
If you are blogging from a WordPress based blog, and I imagine you are, things are quite simple. Most of today’s themes already feature this option. If not, try to update the theme or ask a professional coder to help you include the featured image option.

The process is similar to that of a traditional image upload/insert into a post. There is only one slight difference. Once the image has been uploaded, you should click on the “Featured Image” button instead of inserting the image into the post.

Visuals to Include in Your Articles
Now that you know how to add a featured image and why it is important to do it, let’s discuss the other types of visuals that may be paired with the texts you publish. What visuals can you use as a blogger and how to use them according to your overall content marketing strategy?

A. Screenshots
They are your best option if you want to describe certain operations and processes performed on a computer or a mobile device. “How to” guides are popular amongst internet users and screenshots will help you make them more easy to understand. In fact, according to a study, people who follow directions with texts and illustrations, understand and perform 323% better than those who follow the same directions without illustration.

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