New infographic highlights importance of visual content

Content marketers who supplement engagingly written articles with videos and relevant images receive 94 per cent more views and substantially higher conversion rates on average, according to a new infographic published by cloud service Hightail that outlines the growing importance of visual content.

The new resource shows that blog posts, social media, email newsletters and videos are now the top tactics employed by B2C content marketers to drive traffic and broaden reach and that content campaigns are now widely considered as an ongoing business process rather than as campaigns that operate in silo.

McDonald’s recently revealed that it will be doubling the amount of marketing content it creates during the next 12 months, and that upward trend is prevalent across a variety of industries, as 73 per cent of B2C marketers are planning to publish more blog pieces, news articles and other content in 2017.

Creative content

Delivering high-quality content consistently is also critical to content marketing efforts, as nine out of the ten most successful marketers now use platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to post relevant content on a regular basis. Visual engagement is key here, with other reports claiming that video will account for 80 per cent of web traffic by the end of the decade.

The final part of the infographic highlights some of the challenges that content marketers face when managing their campaigns. While content is becoming a core marketing endeavour, almost half of enterprises still only use small content teams to serve the entire organisation, while three-quarters still don’t have a process in place for effective collaboration. This is not helped by the fact that 85 per cent are not using any software to aid content collaboration.

Content creation is also among the top three challenges for marketing organisations. “Content marketers are struggling to keep up with the demands of their jobs. They must consistently produce the breakthrough creative that powers their existing and new content programs,” Hightail’s Marketing Vice President, Deborah Holstein, said. “The survey results reveal that a majority of marketers still struggle with the creative development process and it is hurting their programs’ results.”