Videos And Visuals: Why Quality, Integration And Intention Matter
Nowadays, content creators and marketers face a myriad of unique challenges in capturing (and retaining) their target audience’s attention. It’s no secret that content quality is of paramount importance, but from an imagery and video perspective, utilizing this type of content must be approached with a different methodology than written text. Cover photo by Nubelson Fernandes.
Video and Visuals Matter, Provided You Approach Them Correctly
It’s undeniable that high-quality visuals and video content matter for companies to achieve optimum brand awareness, grow their consumer and audience base, and foster feelings of trust and loyalty with their customers. However, the importance of visuals, imagery, and video content has arguably increased in recent years.
If you consider how drastically the average person’s attention span has dwindled over time (mirroring that of goldfish at 8.25 seconds), you’ll understand why visuals have become so important. This change is also driven by the increasingly competitive and cutthroat marketplace with thousands of businesses vying for the first precious few seconds of their buyers’ attention.
Furthermore, ask the average online shopper whether they will make a purchase on the basis of a description alone, without any high-quality imagery or visuals to go by, and the results will not surprise you.
Does This Mean That Website Text and Copy Must Take a Back Seat?
The problem herein is twofold, as marketers will have likely spent considerable time, resources and budget perfecting their website and establishing it as a place for relevant, high-quality and engaging content.
Whether this is in the form of blogs, articles, case studies, guides, ebooks, or product descriptions, if they are written towards serving a valuable purpose to that business’s audience, Google will likely see that site as a go-to resource and an expert in its sector. After all, Google has been upfront about its quality over quantity ethos.
Google’s ability to index webpages relies heavily on referring backlinks, content quality, page load speed and the integration and professionalism of images. The same can be applied to supporting video content.
If you think about it, users mostly skim-read text, because as has been established, there are only so many precious seconds we can spend digesting information. Yet Google cannot read images or videos (rather, the metadata around them), and these two elements have the potential to add plenty of useful, contextual relevance to somebody. If an image adds value to a blog that already serves a valuable purpose to the reader, it’s going to be a win-win situation.
This is why marketers must make imagery and videos as relevant and intentional for the user as the text.
3 Important Facets of Visuals and Videos for Marketers to Consider
When looking at the significance of visuals and videos in supporting marketers’ long-term goal of establishing authority and credibility through high-quality content, it’s important to look at three core aspects, alongside their presentation:
- Video and visual quality
- The need for improved integration
- Intention and purpose
Video and Visual Quality
Visual content has seen a remarkable evolution over the years. The type of videos that can support a business’s marketing activities can range from whiteboard explainers or animation videos to professionally shot narratives involving actors, staging and lighting, overseen by an expert video production agency. Imagery has experienced a similar progression, with static images now becoming more dynamic, dimensional and evocative.
Consumers now expect visually immersive and interactive experiences from visuals and videos that accompany the high-quality content they are expecting to scan. As we know, imagery and videos play a vital role in enhancing content quality, evoking desired emotions or responses from a viewer, or simplifying complex products, or even providing a breakdown of service benefits.
Video marketing goes a step further than static visuals, utilizing audio, storytelling and captions, presenting excellent opportunities for businesses to create immersive experiences for their desired audience. Whether this consists of step-by-step guides, tutorials, product demonstrations or interactive, multiple-choice questions embedded within the video, the versatility and dynamism of video cannot be underestimated.
Seamless Integration
If marketers can integrate their powerful and engaging videos or visuals seamlessly with website text, rather than merely viewing them as add-ons or ‘nice-to-haves’, they will be making a positive difference to their readers.
Visuals and videos are instrumental in capturing someone’s attention, which is why they must be structured and presented in ways that do not overwhelm, nor push away, the prospect. Static website or blog text can be shifted to make way for interactive elements like images and videos, and their arrangement and placement can make a vital difference to someone’s user experience. It’s also worth considering that this content, if high-resolution, will likely impact page load speed, so marketers have a tricky balancing act.
A page that displays engaging, well-written text with useful accompanying videos or visuals in a structured way that does not detract from the user experience will be pivotal in enhancing the power of the content.
The Intention of Use
Marketers will always need to consider the pain points and needs of their audience and ensure that any content their business churns out addresses these. If they want their content to have long-term value, customer needs and wants will have been addressed from the start.
In the same way as looking at the intent of keywords, marketers must carefully consider the intent of the visuals and video content they create themselves or commission to third-party professionals. These elements take a longer time to create than writing a blog post or article, so the time and resource factors must also be considered.
Beyond the basic structure and design of the finished product, marketers must always define the purpose of incorporating visuals and videos. Whether this supporting material is to entertain, educate, inspire, persuade, sell, or serve as a topic of interest, visuals and videos must not detract from any of the text’s intended tone, objectives or angles (and vice versa). If these two facets are not aligned, it creates a confusing and difficult experience for the reader.
By tailoring visuals and videos to suit their audience’s pain points, preferences and needs, marketers can ensure the interactive and immersive content addresses all of them in an engaging and easy-to-understand way. The supporting text also serves a valuable purpose, but the intended outcome will be better achieved if both text and visual/video are aligned.
