Why You Must Use Graphics in Sales and Marketing Campaigns

As strange as it might seem, I’ve been asked more times than you would imagine “why should I use graphics in my marketing?”

The obvious and intuitive answer is that graphics make it much easier for your audience to hear, understand, and remember your message.

But obvious and intuitive isn’t always right so let’s look at some facts.

The University of Minnesota School of Management did a study that showed without a combination of words and images a prospect is a lot less likely to remember the marketing message; professional, visually appealing, graphics actually increased the likelihood that someone would remember by 43%.

The 3M Corporation (the “scotch tape” people) found that people process visual images 60,000 times faster than text; sounds weird and unbelievable I know, but that’s what they found. Facts like that make it understandable why literally billions of dollars are spent every year to find and create “just the right image” for marketing.

Don’t believe it? How about these facts:

Together, Nike and Anheuser-Busch (the Budweiser people) also spends well over half a billion dollars (with a B) on brand identity and image-based marketing.

The U.S. military alone spends well over half a billion to increase “brand identity”.

And, get this, Pepsi spends over $1 billion on its image and advertising.

Of course, not to be out spent by Pepsi, Coca-Cola spends one and a half billion dollars for its own image.

Think about it, when you think about “brand identity” don’t you think “graphics”.

Why?

Graphic images “paint a picture” in your prospect’s mind of who you are, what you stand for, if done right, and how the prospect will benefit.

Graphics influence the buying decision more quickly and graphics get the message read and remembered, in fact, the way you use graphics greatly affects the perception of you, your business and your products.

You know that’s true if you think of your own experience and the visuals of companies you know.

Want more facts? How about these…

Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab surveyed 2,440 people asking them to evaluate the credibility of various websites they were shown.

Almost half (46.1%) said that the look of the site look was the number one thing they looked for when deciding the credibility of a site.

Studies at the Wharton School of Business, 3M Corporation and the University of Minnesota Management Information Systems Research Center found that (1) people pay closer attention and have more positive reaction when graphics are used; and (2) people agree more with a message when that message is presented with graphics.

What to do

What To Do?

When you look for marketing graphics you should consider the following factors:

• Who is your target audience and what type of graphics they would better respond to?What style is best (informal, humorous, classy, etc.)?What colors are best? (see my blog post on using color in marketing)And so on…
• What message do you want to convey?This, of course, depends upon the audience but also the product or service you’re marketing and where the graphics will be placed in the marketing piece.For example, security seals placed on a Web site are much more effective next to “buy buttons” than elsewhere.
• What is the best way to convey the message or emphasize the point?For example, sometimes a big bold animated arrow is applicable where in other places a little hand drawn scribble is the best way to go.

Just remember that the most important element is the benefit to your prospect and how you are solving their “problem”, use your graphics to help convey that message.

A few last tips to follow when use marketing graphics:

• Use the appropriate colors (see my series of blog posts) because the correct colors increase recognition by over 75% and improve prospect motivation by 80%.Also, be consistent in the use of your colors and don’t use too many — a 1 or 2 primary background colors, 2-3 accent colors are best in most situations although there are situation where strictly black and white are best and other when a myriad of colors is appropriate, but those times are rare.
• When using photographs of people, generally have the demographics of the people match your ideal audience, and show them happily benefiting from what your products help them with.Now, I don’t necessarily mean showing them happily using your products — although if that’s applicable that would be okay — I mean show them happy AFTER they’ve used your products.For example, if you market wedding dresses, show them happily wearing them or if you have a help someone with chronic back problems show them happily playing tennis or holding their children or anything else that would convey the benefit after they’ve invested in your product or service.
• Use fonts that tie into the style and expectations of you audience.
  However, research has shown that, in general sans serif fonts like Verdana, Arial, and Helvetica are best for display on computer screens and serif fonts like Times and Garamond work best in print (that is, everywhere not on a screen).Of course, like colors, don’t use too many fonts in any one marketing piece, one for primary text, one for headlines, one or two for specialized/highlighted areas.

As you’ve seen there are many compelling reasons to use graphics in your marketing material and if you’re not you’re just helping your competitors!