The Role of Visual Communication in Simplifying B2B Content

By far the biggest challenge that content marketers face is making things easy for the audience to understand. Regardless of your target audience’s level of understanding, it’s your job to make content effortless. In this edition of the Orange Draft, I want to discuss the role of visual communication in B2B content marketing.?

You may have heard that your viewers look at the design before even reading the first word. This means that it ends up making or breaking your content messaging. Not only that but your reader’s low attention span is easily affected by the design and visuals. So to maximize the impact of your messaging and its seamless integration with good design, you need visual communication.?

What Exactly is Visual Communication

Visual communication is the art of using carefully crafted visuals and design principles to convey complex ideas in a concise and impactful manner. It allows you to transcend language barriers and captivate your audience through strategically chosen colors, shapes, and imagery. By merging aesthetics with purpose, visual communication enables you to deliver compelling messages that leave a lasting impression on your viewers. In simpler words, it solves three problems:

1. Address the limited attention spans
2. Makes your messaging and content memorable
3. Helps the audience understand difficult concepts

Data Visualization & Visual Aids

Data visualization is the most important aspect of visual communication that B2B marketers need to focus on. Since it's all about making complex business easy, there’s nothing better than data-driven visuals like graphs, charts, heatmaps, etc.?

The tough thing about understanding data, is that you can read the numbers all day long. But, they never show the bigger, clearer picture. Data visualization changes that by showing that bigger, clearer picture that lets you compare and understand the data.

And visual aid, on the other hand, is more like a visual representation of a concept. For example, a concept explaining how gravity works will have an apple falling from a tree to demonstrate the concept in action. The data visualization elements that we just discussed can be considered visual aid. Along with that, you have infographics, animated GIFs or videos, illustrations, etc.?

Choosing the Right Visual Formats

Choosing the right visual formats from the above is also just as important as having one in the first place. Two general tips that apply to all visual formats are:

• Aligning the format with the objective
• Enhancing message clarity

Depending on both of these, you can narrow the concept down to one format that fits best. Now, let's look at how these types work to improve your content:

Infographics: Infographics are the simplest form of visualization. They combine textual information, design, and layout to convey the message in the simplest form. They are extremely shareable and great for social media and editorials.?

Data Visualization: Charts, tables, graphs, etc. are useful where you need to represent data. These are usually used within other content forms like infographics, videos, or as a part of blogs and articles. As the name implies, data visualization lets the reader see the information and complex data.?

Animation & GIFS: Animated elements or entire GIFs serve the purpose of grabbing your reader’s attention. They are versatile and can be used in several different ways. You can use them on landing pages to demonstrate your product for visualizing the usage. You can use them as social media posts and advertisements to grab the viewer’s attention and compel action. You can also use them as a part of blogs, email campaigns, etc. as supplementary elements for your content.?

Videos: Videos are great for telling a story and building more trust. Your website can use embedded videos as explainers and testimonials. They’ll form deeper connections with your visitor and support your landing pages. You can also use them on social media and advertisements for the same.?

Illustrations: Illustrations are straightforward; they act as secondary elements for other elements of your content. They’re usually used to go along with a section of written content to show a graphical representation of the same information. This helps the reader associate certain aspects of that design with the concept explained within the written content.?

Storytelling and Shaping the Narrative

With the power of visuals to engage audiences and convey messages, you open the possibility of great storytelling and shaping the narrative of your message. By carefully using visuals, such as imagery, typography, and design elements, you can guide viewers through a compelling journey that fosters empathy, comprehension, and motivation.?

And choosing these visuals gives you control over how your message is perceived. Just a headline and some body content doesn’t always convey the exact information you want. Visuals take that responsibility by including an additional layer of narration that solidifies your message.?

Also, visual storytelling transcends the limitations of language. This creates a lasting impact and shapes the narrative that resonates with your audience.?

About the Orange Draft

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