Visual Marketing 101

How Visuals Impact Marketing

A test in visual marketing

Have you ever questioned why companies “rebrand” their image? Have you ever noticed after a popular brand starts to use bright, vivid colors, many others follow suit? How do you feel when you visit a site and as you scroll through there’s a calming flow to the layout? Visual attraction is a natural reaction in all of us, and it’s undeniable today that every business under the moon must include visual branding.

“The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual.”

The brain can also evaluate and rank image details instantaneously; would you drink brown celery juice? Do you remember what happened to purple and green ketchup? Most businesses are acutely aware of these well-known facts, especially digitally native businesses.

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First impressions

When the public initially encounters your business, visual branding is the “first impression” they receive. It’s the standard at which they will then hold you and your product. These visuals are the reason influencer photo presets and social media templates are an extremely popular digital consumer product. Color, layout and design become just as important as your product. How will you promote an amazing product or your talented services if first-time visitors are confused by your site layout or distracted by overused colors? Mastering the art and science of color psychology and site accessibility can be the cornerstone in growing your community.

Again, this is nothing new. Marketing agencies have been using color theory and psychology for a very long time. However, now consumers are quite aware of how much it impacts their decisions and expects that brands get their coloring correct. Proper coloring can benefit a company so much that the brand can have a low-range product or mediocre service, yet because of beautiful visual branding, they’re a rising star! Next time you hear a brand is “Instagram popular”, really look into their product or service. Convert your screen to black and white and view it unencumbered by their visuals. Are there countless others providing the same product or service? Now look at their visual branding compared to the others.

Our Test

For the past 10 years, we’ve seen so many small and large businesses use color theory on social media. Playing the aesthetics component of marketing and being quite successful. We’ve also run a few tests of our own. Tests on color theory, visuals, and text marketing on social media in the more recent, “non-organic reach” environment which seems to be the new normal.

Some key points from our testing (2019-2020) include

You can achieve 100k+ monthly impressions and without proper color theory yield little to no engagements
- this means you know the algorthim, but you don’t know people
You can have the proper consumer aesthetic and less quality imagery with high engagement
- this means you know people, and you might know the algorithm
Choosing the proper visual media platform is more important than which is more popular/has more users
- this means you know where your consumer is, not where the general consumer is
Simple beats complex
- the brain looks for easy, not difficulty

Companies who utilize visuals, no matter if you’re a millennial skincare brand or a mortgage business blog, will experience more success and control than those who don’t utilize visual techniques. The human brain is complex and not always predictable, but it desires ease. The clear use of visually appealing branding can promote that simplicity.