Visual storytelling? What’s that? And what does it have to do with ecommerce marketing?
Oftentimes when asked about the company, representatives immediately dive into product and service details without first telling the listener about the company itself. Why does the company exist? What problems do people have that your product or service solves? And all this information can be difficult to digest, especially if you operate in a complex or highly technical industry.
Starting with the why is an important part of telling your ecommerce brand story. But it can often be difficult to articulate. That’s where visual storytelling can be really helpful.
Take this simple example of describing a circle – visualize yourself trying to tell someone what a circle looks like by using the textual description: a curved line with every point equal distance from the center. Not the easiest description to follow. Now, think about someone reading a textual description and seeing a picture of a circle right next to it. Bingo! That’s the power of visual storytelling.
Now let’s apply visual storytelling.
Visual storytelling is the passing on of a lot of information through a relatively simple visual aid to help potential customers understand your company’s message and can even help to forge an emotional connection quicker. Visuals attract people, and they give your customers a quick and easy way to understand and, perhaps more importantly, remember the message your ecommerce brand has to share.
You will be able to send your message without the use of any words, or at least using very few, and it can serve as a call to action at the same time. Visual storytelling also allows you to breach language barriers. It gives you the benefit of transmitting your message regardless of what language your prospects speak or their cultural or ethnic backgrounds.
It’s an effective ecommerce marketing tactic that helps your message transform into something that can be entertaining and interesting to your potential customers.
To start, you could begin capturing pictures or video and posting to social media platforms or blogs in a matter of seconds. Show examples of your product being used by customers with a dedicated hashtag to group together photos. By placing everyday people at the heart of your ecommerce marketing campaigns, you are creating engaging and relatable content that customers can connect with. This builds trust and an emotional connection which is how you can effectively set your ecommerce brand apart.
Then, consider a dedicated design team producing large format prints and videos that represent your ecommerce company’s message. To do this effectively, you really need to know your audience so you can create content that connects.
Using visual content allows brands to encourage greater engagement with their customers. Just look at the statistics:
- 37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content marketing for their business, second only to blogging (38%). [source]
- Even more telling, “when people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retain 65% of the information three days later.” [source]
Take a look at why visual storytelling in ecommerce marketing is so important in this infographic by B2B Marketing.
