Five Ways Images Impact Your Brand

A picture is worth a thousand words, but in marketing, pictures do more than any number of words can do on their own. When used correctly, images can help you connect with your audience and make your brand instantly identifiable. They can break down communication barriers and generate emotions. 

As digital technology advances, visuals are essential to attracting consumer attention. Photos, artwork, videos, and logos are a part of every platform. Images can help you cut through the digital noise to improve your brand in these five critical ways.

1. Grab Attention

The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. In a visual world where consumers are constantly bombarded with different types of imagery, your images can have an immediate impact. From thumbnails for videos to product packaging or a single image in a print advertisement, a picture can focus a viewer's attention. 

A good image prompts individuals to learn about a specific focal point, like a new product. Brands must compete against millions of images posted by competitors and general interest topics to gain customers' attention. You can stand out in various marketplaces by presenting captivating images to gain credibility as an industry contender. 

2. Build Recognition

Often without realizing it, brands build their personas around imagery. The colors, shapes, and features used in advertising and communication quickly become hallmarks of a brand. Consider how you can recognize the world's most famous brands by their logo alone. 

Consumers instantly attribute Nike's famed swoosh, McDonald's golden arches, and Apple's bitten apple to the brands that created them. Similarly, Coca-Cola's swirly red and white font and Visa's simple streamlined emblem make brand names pop. No matter where these logos appear, customers recognize them. 

As company globalization becomes more common, businesses localize content to connect with various audiences and cultures. However, some images remain universal to connect branding across all platforms and locations. When organizations get these ever-important visuals right, there is no reason to rebrand, as consumers depend on such images to retain trust. 

3. Generate Understanding

Images and media are powerful communication devices that grab attention and convey concepts and information. Businesses can use them to reinforce information supplied by text. They can even include text snippets to connect points of information. 

Sixty-five percent of the population are visual learners. Visuals condense content into smaller chunks, making concepts easier to process. Furthermore, images are more likely to be stored in long-term memory.

Businesses across industries use various types of images to share essential information about products, services, and value. Some popular visuals that aid in understanding include the following:

Infographics

A powerful way to share information, infographics help present complex subjects in an easily digestible and memorable format. They can help describe a product, service, dataset, or action in a visual way that's easy to comprehend. Infographics are 30x more likely to be read than text articles and are liked and shared more than any other type of content on social media.

UX Design

ustomers often look at a business’s online presence before visiting in person. This makes a quality website essential for modern business. An intuitive user experience (UX) also makes a website more enjoyable. Product images, icons, logos, and navigational images can improve UX design and help customers relate your brand to a satisfactory experience.

Instructional Imagery

Product assembly can make or break a customer experience. Images combined with text on instructional brochures will help users identify specific parts and improve their understanding of how pieces fit together to make a final product.

Graphs

Tables, charts, and graphs help consumers and stakeholders quickly understand valuable information about products and services. They can display multiple datasets easily and digestibly to convey information effectively.

Maps

As digital communication increases, consumers turn to web content before interacting with local businesses. Maps included with directions provide powerful visuals to help potential customers locate the company.

4. Evoke Emotions

Businesses are required to seek ways to connect with consumers. Images have hundreds of subtle nuances that relate to emotional experiences. Product images provide potential customers with a clear view of the vital details of an item. Larger imagery projects display how using a product will make the consumer feel. 

Consider the powerful emotions generated by an image of a happy family gathered around a picnic table or by the simple act of a parent swaddling an infant. These images don't simply share a product. They show feelings of love, happiness, and togetherness that will help viewers instinctively connect those emotions with your brand.

A single picture or a short video can place viewers in a story and imagine themselves using the product. Choosing the images most likely to connect with your target audience makes you more likely to prompt such an emotional response. For instance, when marketing to international audiences, image localization can help you connect with your target audience by depicting familiar scenes. 

5. Expand Your Reach

There are about 8 billion people around the world, and 4.9 billion of them use social media. Over two-thirds of internet users and 1 in 3 people worldwide are on social media platforms. 

Like other digital platforms, social media depends heavily on visuals for success. However, robust social media marketing requires more than just showing up. Everything from your profile to each post or interaction will likely only gain traction with carefully chosen images. After all, web content with visuals like images or videos receives up to 94% more views, and tweets with images get a 35% increase in retweets. 

By using images in digital media, you can grow your audience organically as audience members connect. When you apply consistent branding and color schemes to your images across multiple platforms, you can build brand recognition through continuity. By presenting various types of imagery across digital platforms, you can expand your reach to target more potential customers and interact with audiences worldwide. 

As technology grows, the human attention span is pulled in all directions. Images allow consumers to process information quickly and determine its relevance to their lifestyle. When you take the time to research your ideal customer and generate images they can relate to, you can build brand loyalty through a sense of connection. 

Your visual branding style will present meaning, share your personality, and make you memorable to consumers. It can instantly draw customers in, engage their attention, and evoke an emotional connection with your products or services.