The Future of Content is Video

Great presentation by Amy Balliet, CEO and Founder of Killer Infographics at Cloudinary ImageCon. While the title of Amy's presentation was, "The Future of Content is Visual," it became clear as her presentation progressed in conjunction with the rest of the content presented at the Cloudinary user conference that the future of content is video.

Visual Content is King

Visual content helps businesses grow revenue 49% faster (Aberdeen). Audiences only read 20% of a 600-word webpage (Venngage). 91% of audiences prefer visual content over traditional formats (DemandGen). While visuals communicate information 60,000 times faster than words (SAGE Handbook of Political Communications).

The human eye can process 36,000 images per hour while a human can only read 15,000 words (ExecuRead). As a result, a one-minute video is worth 1.8 million words (Forrester). 

Text plus images improve comprehension up to 89% versus text-only (e-Learning and Science). Tweets with images earn up to 18% more likes, 89% more "favorites," and 150% more retweets (Buffer). I look forward to seeing these results for videos this year.

According to Amy, "Visual communication graphically represents information to efficiently and effectively create meaning. When necessary, limited text is used to explicate the meaning."

Today, marketers combine as many as 12 to 14 distinct types of visual media to achieve singular goals (CMI). In 2018, 56% of marketers used visuals in 100% of their content (Venngage). 

90% of marketers consider visuals as "quite important" or "absolutely necessary" for their 2019 marketing strategies (Venngage). Many marketers still feel they lack the knowledge to develop and deploy successful visuals: 

• Struggle to produce engaging visuals consistently (35%).

• Struggle to produce great design (31%).

• Struggle to produce good data or content (20%).

• Struggle to get wide reach with their content (14%).

Custom designs are 7X more likely to convert than stock photography, yet 35% of marketers still use stock (SME/HubSpot). I'm very surprised the percentage of marketers using stock is not higher.

94% of a brand's first impression is based on design.

Visual Workbench

Design is critical for creating an emotional connection to the brand. Given this, Amy recommends creating a visual workbench — a set of graphics assets employees can repurpose for a variety of applications including iconography, data visualization, and illustrations. The benefits of a visual workbench are creative unity, consistent branding and quality, faster and more cost-effective content development, application across any medium.

Amy showcased how this translates with the visual workbench and animated video they created for the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 2018, original, custom, graphics drove 3.3X more engagement than stock photography (Venngage). Motion graphics increase conversion by an average of 80% (HubSpot). Year-over-year, the number of videos appearing in the Facebook newsfeed has increased 3.6 times (Facebook).

Fundamentals of graphic content development for your workbench:

1. Get to know your audience -- how they communicate, their impressions of your company, their engagement with the category, preferred platforms, motivation, and favorite visual media. Generation Z is the first digital natives. They will make up 40% of all consumers by 2020 and they watch video on five different platforms every day.

2. Set a single goal for your campaign. More than one goal may produce an end result that sends mixed messages. One goal ensures clear messaging and a more defined path to achieve the goal.

3. Determine what visual content performs best on your customers' favorite platforms: color palette, design style, orientation, medium, dimensions, video length.

4. Develop a list of all the assets you need to develop your campaign. What types of content appeal most to your audience? Where will your audience encounter your content? What will perform best there? What content varieties and formats will help achieve your goal?

5. Write text-based content that complements and elevates your visual content. 90% most successful marketers use information of value versus sales messages. 77% of B2B marketers use educational content to nurture audiences.

To communicate with your audience more effectively, use high-converting visual content and share thought leadership. Tell versus sell and know that video is more effective than words or pictures.