I love Saatchi & Saatchi. That was the first Ad group I worked at and I refer to Kevin Roberts (Former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi) very often in branding, marketing and advertising conversations.
Kevin coined SiSoMo which when translated means Sight.Sound.Motion. This was at the height of the Emotional Branding maelstrom that took marketing communications, advertising and branding by storm and produced Saatchi & Saatchi's proprietary tool called Lovemarks.
Ok, I digress.
The point of the SiSoMo ramble is to emphasize the importance of visuals in your content.
Let's talk about 7 reasons why you need visuals on your blog and in your blogposts.
7 Reasons Why Visuals Are Needed In Your Blog Content
1. To Grab Attention
Visuals make people take a second look. Great visuals halt people in their tracks. For your blog and it's content to get the attention you want (and deserve after all the work you put into it), they need to take a break from all the content they are consuming and only an image can do that in a second. Only when you catch their attention, can you then pass across the piece of information contained in your blog. So, first, stop!
2. For Clarity
Very early in life, especially when one is a child with a very visual imagination, you realise that unlike yourself, a lot of other people can't turn the words of a book to images that float around in their head as the text goes along. To provide a clearer understanding of what a piece of text says, an image is required.
3. For Emphasis
Want to bring the attention of your reader to a particular exact thing in your text? Include a picture of it. For example, An article about the different ways wallpapers can be used in interior design to create a certain atmosphere can be emphasised with actual images of one room, same setup, but different wall paints and wallpaper designs. Or, what better way to show what a tacking and an overlapping stitch look like than to put a picture of them side by side?
4. To Immerse
There are blogs that have not a single text apart from the title but yet, have amassed a ton of followers and readers. Uhm, I wouldn't say readers actually, I'd say viewers. The followers they have amassed, who spend hours on their blog, are only there to view the images they share. I've been there too so I understand 😊. Really nice images, can help to immerse your blog visitors in your content. They love your images and are so wrapped up in them that they don't realise when they read your text, discover how informative it actually is and before you know it, they become loyalists.
5. To Remind
Research proves that the human brain can process an image over a thousand times faster than it can process text. Think about it - when you see a beautiful woman, in a red dress, looking all gorgeous, you remind her easier than you remember the colour of the wall against which she stood to take a picture (at an event, you'll probably just say - the event backdrop but you won't remember the details as much as you would the details of her look and her dress). Now you understand what I mean right? For people to remember your content, you need to supplement it with visuals that direct their brain to what your blog and its content was all about so they remember it and can come back again.
6. For SEO
Have a blog and don't already know what SEO means? You need a blogging 101 class for sure. One of the hottest topics in Digital Marketing is online promotions, but honestly, I'm of the opinion creating content that attracts organic visits from search engines, social media and even word of mouth is a bigger win that the money you'll spend on sponsored promotions. Having images on your blog, will help increase this. How?
- Image description: always ensure images you post on your blog are described and not left to read CAM_700. Image description is text that search engines can crawl and use to collate image results which will lead to organic traffic
- Image alt text: in simpler terms, this is the text that appears on your screen when an image doesn't load fully on a webpage. This is also the image that is used by online image generators or voice assistants, to describe your image to the visually impaired. Having a great alt text is therefore equal to tons of organic traffic as well
7. To Increase Share Value
What do people share the most on the internet? Whether via messenger, or memes or inspiration or as a reference to something? Images. Using images in your blog content, especially images that are original to you or your blog, will increase the share value of your blog content and its content automatically.
