Updated: May 2020
Do you inspire and captivate your social media community? Is your visual content dynamic, engaging, and diverse?
If you want to stand out on social media, you must earn the attention of your audience. And you have to do it in a short amount of time.
That’s where visual marketing comes in. With it, you breathe life into your brand.
The right graphic can expand your reach, boost engagement, and get interaction churning.
Simply stated:
Visual content is your make or break moment.
So how can you create a strong visual brand on social media? And what can you do to create a signature style that precedes you?
Today I’m giving you 6 visual ingredients your social presence can’t live without. Here’s how to develop your unique visual calling card.
6 Ingredients to a Strong Visual Brand on Social Media
1. Unique, Memorable, Undeniably YOU
Imagine sitting down in front of your computer, watching a sequence of images at a rapid pace.
You might think it would be impossible to identify, capture, or retain any of that information. Amazingly though – a lot can happen in the blink of an eye.
In fact, our brains are such a powerful processing tool that they can process images in as little as 13 milliseconds.
Think about that as it relates to your brand, your website, your entire online presence.
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Jeff Bezos #InfluencerChat pic.twitter.com/iiplmJm3rW
— Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) June 8, 2016
In a matter of moments, your audience is making a decision. Will they stop and read or will they move on?
Do they decide to engage with your business or interact with your competition?
Given the speed that people scan content, having a knock ‘em dead online presence is critical. Without it, you may lose an opportunity forever.
That’s where visual marketing comes in.
Visual content breathes life into your social media marketing. Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images.
The right graphic can share your vision, expand the life of a product, sell a service, or boost a campaign.
And the beauty in this…
Every company has this unique opportunity. It’s that split-second moment where you can inspire and delight your audience.
But to do it, you need to start with a powerful brand image.
What does a strong visual brand on social media look like?
When you think of a strong visual brand identity, what comes to mind?
In most cases, the logo is the first thing you think of. From the website to offline marketing, a logo is an extension of that brand.
But it’s more than that…
According to a recent study, 45% of a brand’s image comes from what they say and how they say it.
Your words tie together the mission, vision, and values. How you say it gives a voice to the company message. It’s that message that creates the brand experience.
It influences how people feel; their emotions, attitude, and opinions around that brand. It’s also the vibrant, eye-catching, and appealing way they leverage visual marketing.
Just take a look at many of the most iconic brands out there. Each one has an instantly recognizable logo. They’ve also succeeded in creating massive appeal through strong visual content.
Coca-Cola, one of the most well-established brands around, has an undeniable look and feel.
In fact, it’s said that “Coca-Cola” is one of the most recognizable terms worldwide.
What’s more:
From Instagram to Facebook, they’ve leveraged that brand. Proving that a strong visual presence is a key to continued domination.
So what makes them stand out? They’re…
- Unique
- Versatile
- Predictive
- Responsible
- Memorable
- Adaptable
- Confident
How can you create a strong visual brand?
- Streamlined look and feel – Just look at Target as a prime example of a brand that’s consistent from online to offline marketing.
- The tone of voice – Whether your tone is bold, vibrant, playful, clever, cool, fun, genuine, empathetic, or authentic, it needs to humanize your brand, create a bond between you and your audience, and define your personality.
- Clear aligned message – Know your brand and have a clear image of your company’s personality, mood, and history.
- Tell a story – 92% of consumers say they want brands to create content that tell a story. However, every brand has its own story, so it’s up to you to create yours.
- Be a trust magnet – 60% of consumers say they’ll only buy from a familiar brand. At the same time, 54% of people DON’T trust brands. Yikes…
2. Design an Experience, Don’t Just Sell a Product or Service
Are you posting visual content just for the sake of it? Or worse yet…
Does your visual marketing only promote your business?
If you want to create a community eager to eat up your visual content, stop making it all about YOU. Instead:
Remember, a good brand is built over time and that requires thought, strategy, and consistent implementation. What does this look like in action?
Nobody knows how to create an experience better than the Ritz Carlton. They’ve turned customer care into an art form. And they’ve extended that across all of their online properties.
A photo posted by Rebekah Radice ⚡️ Social Media (@rebekahradice) on
How are you using visual marketing to create a valuable experience for your audience? With 63% of all social media content including an image, it’s time to increase your odds of winning that moment.
After all, your customers crave visual content, so why not give it to them?
What type of visual content works best across social media?
- Quotes
- Data (Infographics, statistics)
- Ebooks
- Video (hot, hot, hot!)
- Gifs/Memes
- Behind the Scenes (a look into your business)
- Tips and How-To’s
- Questions
No matter how you’re using visual marketing, make sure it’s hitting the mark. If quotes aren’t working with your audience, adjust your strategy.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Find your visual groove and work it.
3. Give Your Visuals a Plan, Purpose, and Promise
Before you can use visual marketing, you need to know what you want to get out of it.
How will you communicate your brand image to the world?
Once you know that, it’s time to determine how you will visually and creatively express your brand promise.
For example, Apple’s promise to… “think different” is two-sided.
It’s their guarantee to create products based on seeing the world a little differently.
It’s also their promise to inspire their customers to do the same.
Find your identity:
Think about how people perceive your business.
Now consider Red Bull.
They have a well-established voice and share engaging and contagious content.
But they do more than that…
Red Bull knows how to create an experience with visual content.
They’re using it to build trust long before they ask for the sale.
“Build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is too late.” Seth Godin #SMMW16 pic.twitter.com/ntXPfZC5dD
— Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) April 21, 2016
To develop your visual marketing plan, take these two steps.
A. Planning Ahead: Where do you want to be?
Examples:
- Global industry leader through a clear, measurable and achievable company marketing strategy
- The dominant player in market through word of mouth marketing, influencer marketing, integrated marketing plan, and defined customer acquisition campaigns
- WOW factor established – plays a significant role in customer retention and satisfaction
- The inbound marketing model is 100% in alignment with company goals and strategies
- The team trained to nurture leads through the established customer journey – speak to a clearly defined customer persona
Now determine how you translate that through your visual designs. How can the right graphic position your business in the best possible light?
B. Identify how you will create a brand connection through your visuals.
Examples:
- Produce visual marketing that surprises, delights and educates the audience
- Use visuals to tap into the head and heart of the audience. Understand their physical, emotional, and rational needs.
- Know why your customers buy. Is it to:
- Satisfy a basic need?
- Solve a problem?
- Better themselves?
Once you know those answers, you can cater to your customers’ exact needs. Don’t throw visuals out, hoping they make a connection. Use them to provide real value.
Make your social media audience feel safe, confident, and comfortable.
4. Inspire Action: Be Consistently Consistent
What’s the difference between a memorable brand and one that’s forgotten?
Consistency.
After all, a consistent brand builds trust. But consistency doesn’t mean cookie-cutter.
It also doesn’t mean doing the same thing across every social channel. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – all unique audiences.
So why are you treating them as if they’re the same? Each one needs to visually stand out on its own.
Don’t be afraid to tailor your content per channel. Be careful to only change characteristics based on the channel.
Your brand elements should remain consistent.
How can you create consistency across social media? With your…
- Name
- Communication
- Style
- Logo
- Color scheme
- Tagline
- Watermark
- Graphic elements
5. Choose Your Best Color Palette
Did you know that color impression accounts for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of your product or service?
That’s HUGE!
Choose a dominant color that mixes your message, voice, and identity. Think about what it represents: energy, vitality, creativity?
Remember that color can send a powerful message about your brand, so make sure it’s only strengthening your brand’s image.
The Psychology Behind Brand Colors
- Black conveys a message of power and authority. It speaks to a stylish and timeless message, imparting a sleek, formal, luxurious, or classic experience.
- Yellow is seen as fun, joyous, and optimistic. Brands like Nikon, Subway, and Best Buy bear the brand of a bold, deep yellow.
- Orange is my brand color and one that embraces every aspect of my business. It’s cheerful, inviting, encouraging, friendly, and confident. Orange makes me happy!
- Red is a color that is emotionally intense. When we see red we think of “strength, adventure, energy, and love.” It is extreme, exciting, and vivacious with Coca Cola, Virgin, and Pinterest embracing this vibrant hue.
- Blue makes us think of tranquility. It promotes a feeling of calm and can symbolize loyalty. When we think about blue, we think of the words “unique, trust, reliable or clear.” Brands prominently displaying blue within their logo are Facebook, Dell, HP, and Oreo.
- Green causes people to think about nature. It’s calming and refreshing. Green symbolizes balance, growth, and freshness and can also speak to financial stability as green is the color of money.
6. Tell Your Story
92% of consumers say they want brands to create content that tells a story. What’s yours?
Just keep in mind, as you craft your story and prepare your visuals for each social network:
Writing and creating content for the ear isn’t the same as creating it for the eye. Think about it…
If I were to tweet that I just ran to get lunch, you’d look at it – move on and possibly never come back.
I gave you nothing to interact with. Now, what if I tweeted a pic of my freshly baked pizza with homemade tomato sauce, dripping with mozzarella?
If you’re a fellow pizza lover, all of a sudden – your senses come alive.
You’ve activated another part of your brain where instead of just “hearing” the story, you’re actually “feeling” it.
Let your visual content become nuggets that drive sales, boost your bottom line, and connect customers to your brand.
In other words – the right content, shared with the right people will help tell your story in a powerful and meaningful way.
Our brains crave storytelling! 92% of consumers say they want a brand to create content that tells a story. #SMMW16 pic.twitter.com/ADrFi3lhSx
— Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice) April 20, 2016
Final Thoughts – Rinse, Repeat, Repurpose
Visual marketing is a win/win for the customer and the brand! So, do more of what works! Share liberally across multiple social networks.
Be bold, be daring, be vibrant, be YOU!
But know this…
Building a brand on social media takes time.
Be patient, persistent, and diligent in the pursuit of owning space in the mind of your audience.
Visual marketing is one of the best marketing way. Because a picture worth thousands word. Here is the some points that i saved:
1. Unique, Memorable, Undeniably YOU
2. Design an Experience, Don’t Just Sell a Product or Service
3. Give Your Visuals a Plan, Purpose and Promise
4. Inspire Action: Be Consistently Consistent
5. Choose Your Best Color Palette
6. Tell Your Story
7. Final Thoughts – Rinse, Repeat, Repurpose
I have saved all the points mentioned in this article and read this article around 4 times so i can remember each and every single information. All the above points you have mentioned are really worth investing.
Visual content is one of the most important tools that businesses owners are using nowadays. While writing this comment a line is coming to mind that is “A picture is worth a thousand words” and that’s why people are now using videos also to promote their products and services.
Nice article, Coca-Cola and Pepsi is one of the best examples, both the companies have done a great job to increase their respective company’s sales and revenue. In today’s social media world where everyone has a smartphone doing online purchase. Customers are not wasting their time and purchase through online platforms like Amazon, Walmart.
Conclusion: If any business wants to increase their sales and revenue then they must need to use social media in an effective way.
Thanks for the article. Keep going.
Hey Rebekah,
Beautifully presented! I believe that the visuals are powerful and efficient for any industry, be it a small store or a multi-national corporation. It makes the posts much more interesting and attractive. I’m definitely going to use tips from this article in future.
Thanks!
great post! thanks for sharing and providing such an informative post…
Social media is nice information. Thanks you for very nice sharing
To create a strong visual brand in social media It is important to gain trust from your customers. What you say and how you interact to your customers will reflect to you and to your products and services.
I always aim for strong visual brand adverts
Hi Rebekah..! I just saw your article by my friends who introduce into me. By the way what is Visual Brand on social media?
Telling experience, story and purpose is essential in creating visual branding. The way to get recognized as a brand leader is crafting the perfect story and then telling it again and again to anyone who will listen. This is a great advice Rebekah, thanks for this one!.
Great post. I am curious what you think about creating visuals at the sake of not having the visual click through to the post. Yours did this from Facebook and I find I do it a lot as well. But I wonder how many people don’t look at the post because they already clicked once .
This article had a lot of great tips for getting the most from my marketing without having a marketing department. I also recently found a great service to help called EvoShare, which allows customers to earn cash-back into their retirement accounts every time they shop at my clothing store. They love the savings they get so much they tell their friends to visit me as well and my revenue has grown. It’s definitely a great service for thrifty small businesses.
Wow! What an impression! I believe in the power of visuals. It makes posts more interesting. Thank you for sharing this!
Excellent post Rebekah, you really hit the nail on the head. Too many business owners ignore the incredible importance of branding, and how it must carry across all of your collateral and touchpoints. Every line of copy, every font used, every colour choice on every platform, every piece of content and angle you take when writing it, every item of clothing you wear when meeting prospects or partners etc. The more holistic and consistent you are across the board, the more powerful the brand experience will be for your audience; the more emotionally attached they’ll be to you; the more they’ll remember you; the more they’ll understand you and what you can uniquely offer them.
And every decision you make should be aligned with your core brand values, so that those values ooze out from every touchpoint. People who engage with your brand even for a second should understand its personality and identity immediately (and thus understand what your values are) – just as they would form an emotionally-driven impression of a new person they met. And either warm to him/her or not… Then every other interaction with your brand, on any and every level, should reinforce that emotional connection and understanding. If it didn’t, the inconsistency would be confusing. The trust would naturally break down.
And as you’ve rightly said, consistent consistency is key! In fact, consistently consistent consistency is even better 🙂
I also liked that you touched on sensory branding here. Visuals are obviously the easiest to focus on in the digital world, seeing as your prospect is sitting in front of a screen – but even if you can conjur up the idea other sensory inputs, like the smell, taste, sound and feel of something – you’re more likely to evoke an emotional reaction. E.g. by tweeting the pic of the freshly-baked pizza or by using vivid sensory adjectIves such as ‘this JUICY article’ or ‘why your website copy STINKS’ etc.
Anyway, I’m now running the risk of rambling on for too long as usual.
Thanks again for your insightful post, you big social media queen you 🙂
This is getting a big fat share!
Cheers,
Konrad x
Hello Buddy !
Another interesting and useful post. yes social media is very trending in business world. Many people use it for many purposes.
Many business man use different social media platform for their business. To use them all they promotion or advertise their business. As a result they found leads for their business and increase their customer day by day.
Social media is very cheapest and effective way to connect with lots of people in one time.
In your post you tell lots of useful tips that give excellent result to any business. They are are very good and helpful for many people like business man, bloggers and also other people who promote anything on Social Media.
This is a wonderful article. I believe visual information is as important, if not more, than plain old text. We all must remember that 1/2 of people who soak in information are visual learners. Well stated article here. Love it.
Hi Rebekah, So sweet of you for sharing
I like your post due to having informative and useful post for me. Now, you have instructed very well through this post that how to create strong visual brand on social media. There is no doubt that without having these strong tip, difficult to establish a new brand in front of social media. In this modern and competitive world, it is very difficult to create a brand.
We should always go through strong strategy to create a strong visual brand. You are right on Coca-Cola brand is most and well established brand in the world and all are familiar with this brand.
Your global example helps me easy to understand about this topic. This post really help me to create a strong visual brand on social media. Having a perfect brand helps to impress and attract people easily. So it should always be better and unique.
Thanks
– Ravi.
Patience is very important when you’re building a brand on social media! That takes time and you’ll see the result – there’s no doubt about that, but only if you’re persistent and diligent in the pursuit of owning space in the mind of your audience!
This was a great read Rebekah! Shared it with my socials too 😀
Rebekah, I really enjoyed all the useful details you put into this post! The importance of unique, memorable visuals (love your examples here.) And designing an experience rather than talking about oneself.
One of the reasons video is hot, hot, hot in social media as you say is that it’s just so powerful for branding people uniquely and memorably. People buy from people, not companies. Video really helps build the know, like and trust factor. Am working on getting more video going.
Thanks again for this super useful post!
-John
Consistency matter a lot in branding visual images. I am not a designer and use canva for creating images and it’s works fine.
Learning a lot from your blog. Thanks for the awesome post.
Hey Rebekah,
Visual branding is powerful and gives your audience a different. type of content to see the message you get across in a different life.
You’re right that it’s not just putting up images, but how you create an experience for your target audience. You want to figure out what type of visual content is resonating well with your audience and stay consistent with it.
Also, I like the fact you pointed out being consistent across the social media board. It’s not enough to be conveying one message on one site and something different on the other. You want to be memorable so that your target audience can relate your images to you and/or your business.
Thanks for sharing Rebekah! Have a good one!
We are impressed by this blog about visual brands on social media. This blog contains a huge amount of information and lots of examples. There is a lot of reading and learning to do. Thank you for that! 🙂
Visuals can increase the rate of making readers read your content. And as you have mentioned, visual contents have higher engagement. I think it’s the same with the brands. You have to make it highly visible and visually appealing if you want more involvement.
Indeed a good post and the points are also somewhat doable depending on the budget and resources. The examples are good but it would have been better if you pointed some more general cases, not like Coca Cola or Apple or Jeff Bezos or Seth Godin. Those are extreme examples and may or may not be executable by a small or medium sized company. But the points you mentioned are good and will deliver results if done properly and consistently.
Very complete info.. thank you!
This is awesome! Social Media is amazing and a great tool to have at your disposal. If you know how to use it correctly and creatively, it can definitely be beneficial. Nice work. Thanks so much for sharing all the info!
Wow! Very informative thank you!
Corporate trust is at an all-time low these days. If you can back up your talk on social media with a solid product that delivers, that’s power.
Hi Rebekah
You make a great point about branding more than just a logo. As you say, it’s all about what you say and what you say it.
I like to say that your brand represents the experience you offer your customer.
Your brand identity encapsulates your mission, what makes you different, your essence, your personality and your message.
I expand on this in my latest blog post.
Will be sharing!
Clement
Hi Rebekah,
I’ve been thinking a lot about visual branding and when I seen this I had to run over. Your visuals have always been ahead of its time. Love the orange color that you always use also. I can always tell its you by the visuals.
This is something I am playing around with as I write. Better late than never hugh? I do want something that is consistent.
I am practicing on an e-com site I have and using tons of visuals with turquoise on Instagram, and it’s working nicely. But when it comes to my main blog, I do want to do colors, and even a logo maybe of my brand.
You have given me lots to think about and I thank you.
-Donna
Wow! Very complete thank you! Can I ask you which plugin for social sharing are you using please?
Thank you