Visual Advertising: 13 Creative Ideas For Promoting Your Business

You may find yourself asking what visual advertising is and why it’s important. Put simply, visual marketing is anything that uses images, videos or other pieces of multimedia to communicate with potential clients and customers while also representing your brand.

Let’s face it, we’re becoming an increasingly visual society, wanting to read less but consume more. That’s where visual advertising comes into play. But how do you incorporate visual marketing? Read on to find out more.

What is the purpose of visual advertising, and why is it important?

Visual advertising is important as it lets us tell a story in more creative ways that, in turn, reach more people. Using visual techniques, you can quickly draw someone’s attention. And , after all, a picture tells a thousand words. In addition to this, it usually can cut down on the amount of ad space needed.

Here’s a few statistics to show just how important visual advertising with video/images is:

• Infographics are the fourth most used type of content marketing, according to Hubspot.
• Instagram business revealed that over 500 million Instagram accounts use Stories every day, and 4 million businesses use Stories ads every month.
• 15% of all Facebook content is video, and this is increasing over time.
• The majority of businesses (70%) are currently investing in content marketing.

What are some visual advertising techniques?

There is a range of popular techniques that you can use when creating visual content. When we take a look back at historical techniques, we can see that illustration was a prominent way to advertise. That was because illustrated posters were less expensive than using photography, which was more costly at the time.

Of course, visual advertising has moved on since then, and digitalisation means that we’re also adapting the ways we search online. One of the ways in which people search is through visual voice search, meaning that we’re searching more with speech than ever before, which needs to be reflected in how we advertise. Likewise, the way we view content has changed.

Video is now one of the most prominent ways to advertise, and, thankfully, there are a lot of techniques you can employ when creating video, such as;

• before and after shots
• celebrity endorsements
• using specific body language on screen, etc.

For whatever your product, there are multiple ways for you to engage with visual advertising and use certain techniques.

13 creative visual advertising ideas you can use to promote your business

There are many different types of visual advertising, which you can find below to inspire your own campaigns. 

1. Make your visual advertising resourceful and shareable – after all, the more it’s shared, the most potential customers you will reach!
2. Create a range of visual content. Instead of relying on static images, try creating gifs, videos, infographics, graphics and more!
3. Get on board with video – in a recent survey, 9 out of 10 people said that they wanted to see more videos from brands and businesses. You can also find a great piece on video marketing here.
4. Show how products are used. If possible, show their USP in action.
5. Make your social images optimised for each platform. You can find a list of the right sizes here.
6. Create visual quotes – because who doesn’t want a feel-good quote they can share on their Instagram.
7. Go live! Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and more all have live features now; it’s a great way to connect with your customers in real-time
8. Mix online and offline visual advertising. Who can forget this excellent campaign in London to celebrate 25 years of Jurassic Park with a giant Jeff Goldblum – it was shared around the world and for a good reason! This is one of the best visual advertisements in the past few years.
9. Make the most of stories and ‘disappearing content’ on Snapchat, Instagram etc. This adds a level of exclusivity to your content, also make the most of fun filters and trends – you might even go viral!
10. Get your meme game on. Memes go viral for a reason – they’re often relatable and funny. Why not try some out that are related to your industry?
11. Don’t be afraid of repurposing content where you can! It’s ok to reuse content across different formats, for example, taking a blog and making it into an infographic as long as it’s useful!
12. Focus on your story. Who are you, and what do you stand for? Think about ways you can incorporate this into your visual advertising.
13. Inject some humour where appropriate. People want to see that there are actual humans behind brands, and humour is a great way to do this.

Wrapping up

These ideas can be used within your visual advertising strategies to promote your business, get seen by the right people and increase your conversions. And don’t forget to think outside the box!

Visual advertising is essential for businesses in 2021, creating exciting and creative content doesn’t need to break the bank. Using some of the ideas we’ve shared, you can find ways that represent your brand, while also reaching more potential customers and clients – particularly online.