By Rachel Peck

We’ve all been there. Attempting to read a blog, web page or social media post with paragraphs upon paragraphs of text. This can make it harder to read, more difficult to decipher and sometimes just plain boring. This doesn’t mean that the content isn’t valuable or interesting – it’s all in how the information is presented.

Packaging is as important as the contents. Almost 66% of all social media updates include visuals and 50% of internet users have reposted visual content online. Here are a few reasons why B2B brands should include more visuals with their content:

1. Visuals are easier to process

In today’s world of social media, real-time news and constant advertising – we’re easily distracted. Expecting your audience to slow down and spend even five minutes on an article is a big ask. This is where visuals will help. The human brain only requires 1/10th of a second to comprehend an image, whereas reading 200 – 250 words averages at one minute. 

It’s also important to remember that we’re not just talking about relevant images; visuals include infographics, gifs, video and graphics. Instead of listing off your business or product’s features, try creating a basic chart or infographic. Infographics, especially, have seen growth in B2B marketing, making up 65% of visuals used by B2B marketers.  

1. Visuals improve engagement rates

Social media users love visuals – educational or otherwise. Including a thought-out image or video in your social post will increase your engagement rates. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than those without, while Facebook posts with images receive 3.2x more engagement – making including visuals easy  “must-do’s” when it comes to a competitive B2B social media plan. 

Your website isn’t immune from the benefits of visuals either. Adding educational visuals to your web pages can result in a higher click-through-rate (CTR). Content with relevant visuals gain 94% more views versus content without. 

If your plan is to increase engagement, start with an audit of your content. How often are you publishing without visuals, and how does engagement compare to posts with visuals? An easy way to increase visuals is by investing some time into Instagram Stories. Since launching in 2016, this social media platform has grown to see more than 400 million users daily – making it a powerful tool many B2B marketers have yet to tap. 

Since implementing Instagram Stories into Eclipse Media Group’s social media plan in August, stories, have gained more than 300 percent more impressions than the typical Instagram posts.

1. Visuals increase consumer trust in your brand/business

Think of using visuals in a show vs. tell situation. Which is more impactful? Which option is more likely to elicit a visceral reaction from your audience? Making strong, insightful visuals part of your B2B media plan can help build trust between a brand and its clients, through the breaking down of information into more digestible visuals. Images, infographics, memes and videos also empower brands to showcase their personality, which in turn will help to foster trust and relationship building.

A combination of shorter attention spans, highly visual social media channels, increasingly picturesque websites and advertising has created an online environment that thrives on visual appeal. Whomever your audience may be, remember that visuals are more likely to pack an engagement punch.