As marketers look for new and effective ways to reach target audiences and achieve successful business outcomes, one powerful technique that will continue to grow in popularity is the use of visual storytelling to engage customers and prospects.
One simple example: the use of photos, videos, and other rich media by marketers is shown to have a powerful uplift on consumer engagement and business results. As Jessica Gioglio, social media manager for Dunkin’ Donuts shares in a post on the topic:
- Social media posts that include an album or a photo drive up to 180% greater engagement than those without,
- Visitors spend 100% more time on web pages with videos, and
- Viewers are 85% more likely to purchase a product after watching a product video.
With consumers increasingly distracted by an array of digital stimuli, visual storytelling represents a compelling way for marketers to cut through the clutter, attracting and engaging customers across a range of digital channels, including traditional web, mobile, and social.
Further, data visualization tools provide an effective way for marketing leaders to drive optimal impact from their organization’s visual storytelling. By drawing on data from past messaging programs and campaigns, data visualization tools allow marketers to determine which media types generated the highest levels of engagement with different customer segments. In fact, data visualization tools can empower marketing managers to quickly spot key customer trends by segment, optimize campaign spending, and even project the best media mix to drive greater response and better results.
For instance, visual representations of consumer response to a recent video campaign for a male body wash product from a consumer packaged goods (CPG) company can illustrate that target customer segments (e.g. upper income males ages 25 to 39) spent more time viewing the video than other customer segments and more time on the CPG’s website after viewing the video on Facebook.
The use of data-driven visualizations such as heat maps or other graphics can reveal to marketers that the video performed better with target customers in the Midwest than states in the southeast. Additional analysis into the causes for these response rates can yield insights into audience behaviors that can be used to customize messaging for target customers in the southeast.
Just the right kind of data analytics drives better-targeted campaign spending that yields improved campaign results and makes the visual story come to life with more prospective customers. More than ever before, visual storytelling combined with data visualization will drive superior marketing results in 2015.