I’ve talked in the past about the power of storytelling and how it’s important to have a message that speaks to your readers. Something that is just as important as your message is the imagery you use with your message. By having a powerful message with just as powerful visuals, you can be more effective at engaging people looking for information related to your mission. Let’s look at just how powerful visuals are for your nonprofit organization, as well as look at a couple things to keep in mind when choosing what to use.
Preferred Method of Consumption
It’s been shown that for the last several years our world has been changing into being more focused on visual learning. People prefer to look at visuals (images, charts, videos) to get a better understanding of whatever topic they are looking up on the Internet. What does that mean for us as nonprofits? We need to find ways that we can take the written message and add on visuals that will enhance the message.
Think about it this way…imagine your organization is focused on saving elephants. Telling about what is happening to the elephants and what we can do to help them is useful but that is likely to mean a lot of written text. By adding on visuals (infographics with important statistics, images of what’s happening, video of them playing with their young, etc) you help paint a bigger picture of the situation, as well as catch the catch the attention of more people.
Easier to Process and Remember
Visuals are a great way to help readers of your content understand more of the information you share, as well as help them remember it longer. But what does that really mean? How can a picture help people better understand information AND help them remember what we have to say longer?
Remember that visuals are more than just powerful pictures of people, places and things. Visuals also includes things like infographics (a group of images, which can include graphs and charts, that are used to represent information on a specific topic), videos, slideshare presentation and much more.
Let’s imagine for a minute that you are needing to look up information on how GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation that protects European website visitors) will impact your organization’s website. If you were to find a website that has visuals to help explain the complicated information involved, it would be a lot easier to understand the different aspects of those regulations AND you would be more likely to remember that information longer. In fact, studies show that by adding pictures people will remember 65% of your message, over the normal 10%.
Increase Social Media Engagement
People primarily go to social media to look at pictures or see videos on topics that interest them. The more visuals used; the more engagement will happen. Let’s look at a few statistics on just how powerful visuals are.
- Facebook posts with images have 2.3x engagement over posts without images
- Twitter updates with images generate 150% more retweets over plain text
- More than 500 million user are active on Instagram every day
- Snapchat`stories’ fuel 10 billion daily video views
- 50% of users between 18 and 34 years old will stop what they’re doing to watch a new video from someone they follow
Imagine having your organization’s message heard by more, just by adding powerful visuals to your social media posts. This could help you increase awareness regarding your mission, those you serve, how people can be involved and so much more. If the right image would help you out
that much, why not do it?
But how do I find or create the right images for my message? Do I just throw an image or video onto every social media post? How many visuals is the right amount to use on a website?
There are a lot of places that offer quality images and videos to help illustrate the topic you are discussing. There are also places you can go to create your own content as well. It’s more than just having visuals on all your content… visuals are used to enhance the text message you are wanting to deliver. Let’s look at some things to keep in mind when deciding on what to add with your message.
Think About Your Donors
Yes, you read that correctly. Here’s the thing… I’m guessing that a large portion of your online marketing efforts are focused on getting people to donate. If that’s the case, then why would you create a website or social media posts that would be appeal to someone else? By keeping the interests of your donors in mind, it will become easier to know what visuals will keep them on your website longer and make them stop scrolling in their social media to see what you have to say.
Be Authentic
There’s a reason people started following you on social media or donated to your mission. Although the focus your work is something they care about, they were also drawn to your organization because of it’s personality. The way that you look at your work and how you approach it matters to them as well. I’m sure that when you post on social media you talk about that, but are you showing them…visually?
All your visuals don’t have to be perfect images that a professional took of your general service topic. Instead take some pictures of people in your organization while they are hard at work. Donors love to see what your staff are doing to make a difference. They also enjoy getting a look “behind the scenes,” so don’t be afraid to show them a little of the magic that normally happens behind closed doors.
Conclusion
Using effective visuals makes a difference when it comes to educating and engaging with people on your organization’s website and over social media. Just like with your written message, it is important to take some time to think about what is used to enhance the message. There is a wide variety of different types of imagery and all of them have a place in online marketing. Just remember to think about your donors and be authentic when deciding on the best one for the situation.
