Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Importance of Visual Presentations In B2B Marketing

The mainstream business format has always been plain and simple, or formal to be specific. There is nothing really artful about business, everything has to be lucid. However, we cannot deny the fact that we are living in a visual world. Everything in this world is seemed to be perceptible. People would rather look through the pictures, or analyze charts and tables, than reading the descriptions that follow. Relatively, technological advancemement mobile devices also paved the way for people to entirely rely on images when acquiring information. Thus, making social networks that focus on more visual content become more popular in the online community. Certainly, Pinterest and Instagram are taking the lead in today’s social media trend.

According to a study conducted by +Experian  Marketing Service during the period of July 2011 to July 2012, social networks such as Pinterest and Instagram have grown in terms of share of visits to all sites in Asian countries. Based on their findings, the popularity of Instagram has risen to 8,121% in Singapore, and 132% in Hong Kong over the said timeframe.

Pinterest meanwhile has also stepped up in the popularity ranks, especially in Hong Kong, where its share of use increased by 2,373%. It also gained a 623% increase of popularity in Singapore.

This is now where the importance of images in B2B marketing enters the picture. So how exactly do pictures fulfill a significant role in this process?

More than just a bulk of words - the adage still applies, “a picture paints a thousand words.” Truly, a single image can help send a message. Of course, words and figures are still important, but integrating pictures and images will surely stimulate your costumers and will eventually initiate necessary actions.

Wordy is boring - research says that retention of information in our brain is lessened when visual presentations are absent. Therefore, to ensure that your target customers will notice and remember your products and its information, you might as well want to add pictures on your blogs and articles.

Reliability and Authenticity - people will more likely to believe in your products if they are able to see its physical features even in pictures only.

Just because it’s B2B marketing, doesn’t mean you no longer have to stir-up its creative side. Creative multimedia is still a must in the latter. After all, we are all living in an image-filled era.