How would your life be different if you were able to generate more sales?

Would you be able to quit your day job?
Spend more time with your kids?
Take that vacation that's been taking up space on your bucket list?

The key to making sales is trust, and building trust with your potential customers starts with making a killer first impression through visuals.

Your promotional photos, graphics, and videos should not only look amazing; they need to be intentionally designed using strategies that are proven to increase sales.

If the potential to build trust with your audience, create a killer first impression, and make more sales isn’t enough to convince you to step up your business’s visuals, the following stats might.

5 Surprising Stats About Your Business's Visuals | Elle & Company

Marketing has been evolving - especially these past few years - and it’s becoming increasingly visual.

From videos to interactive infographics and everything in between, visuals are taking over the marketing scene.

And after looking at some simple statistics, it’s easy to understand why.

1 | The brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text

Visual content is processed faster, which means it takes precedence in grabbing people’s attention.

In fact, the time it takes the human brain to process visual information is 60,000 times faster than the time it takes to decode text (source).

While writing a blog post on your favorite fonts or the best times to post on social media will help your SEO, creating an infographic to convey this information will grab readers attention faster and likely see great success on Pinterest.

Takeaway: Do you have a blog post, newsletter, webinar, or social media post coming up? Consider how you can communicate that information even better through visuals like photos, infographics, slides, or even a video. While it may take some extra time on your end, you’ll likely see more engagement.

2 | Visual content makes up 93% of all human communication

Source

This should come as no surprise considering 70% of all human sensory receptors are located in the eye and 65% of people are visual learners.

We naturally remember content and interact with it when we’re able to associate it with a visual of some sort. The data proves that it’s just how we’re wired.

So it should come as no surprise that visual content also gains more engagement and exposure.

In fact, businesses have the potential to generate up to 94% more views on social media, simply by adding a compelling visual element or graphic to their posts.

It’s also worth noting that color increases a person’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%.

Takeaway: Do you create content on a consistent basis? Consider how you can incorporate visuals - like photos, infographics, and videos - into new blog posts, social media posts, webinars, and emails.

3 | Visual content, as a whole, is 40 times more likely to get shared

Source

Visual marketing tools like infographics and memes have a greater chance of going viral through an increase in likes and shares.

And if the visual content is syndicated in a form that’s clickable, like a pin or a mention on another website, you have the potential to gain numerous inbound links.

High-quality and relevant inbound links can boost your ranking in search engines.

Takeaway: Still a little skeptical? Add a gif to your next tweet, newsletter, or Facebook post to see if a simple visual will generate more engagement with your audience.

4 | People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions without illustrations

Source

Visual content encourages people to take action.

40% of online users provide more favorable responses to visual content as opposed to text-based content.

You can easily increase the number of people who follow your call-to-action by adding visuals to your sales pages and social media posts.

If you’re a blogger and share how-to posts, including visuals with your post will increase the likelihood of your readers taking action on your how-to, and if they see success, will build trust with your audience!

Takeaway: Anytime you share a how-to or tutorial, include graphics to help your audience understand the steps and see more favorable results.

5 | When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later

Source

Visual content is more memorable.

This quote from Forbes says it best.

“Harnessing the power of images and visuals will make your marketing more powerful and more memorable. Images, when done deftly, can turn concepts and intangible things into something concrete. That helps people envision your brand and your message in their mind’s eye - and remember you when it comes time to buy.”

Visuals turn intangible concepts and ideas into something tangible and memorable.

And if you’re memorable, you increase the likelihood that people will follow along with you, take interest in your business, and buy from you.

In order to effectively market your offerings, it’s necessary to have strong visuals.

Takeaway: Are you launching a new product or service? Create consistent graphics to promote it. The more your audience sees them, the more they’ll recognize them and remember the offering when it comes time to buy.

Helpful resources for bumping up the quality of your visuals

Creating beautiful visuals is much easier said than done though, isn’t it?

Here are some helpful Elle & Company resources to help get you on the right track.

1 | 4-Week Brand Challenge

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone laid out all of the steps of the branding process for you in order, along with instructions on how to accomplish each one?

I thought so, too.

In my 4-week branding challenge, I share 20 action steps for creating a streamlined brand from start to finish.

This guide is designed to help you tackle one action step each weekday, and it provides all the information you need to complete them.

Enter your name and email address in the form below and the challenge will immediately be sent to your inbox!

Download the Free Brand Challenge Workbook!

Subscribe with your name and email address to access to the in-depth workbook for Week 4 of this month's Brand Challenge.

2 | Adobe Illustrator Basics

If you've been a business owner for longer than 5 minutes, you know design needs have the tendency to pop up everywhere.

You need a logo, a website, promo materials, business cards, blog graphics, pricing guides, packaging materials...

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. But how do you create them?

My Adobe Illustrator Basics course uses video lessons and practice files to teach you how to create custom, one-of-a-kind graphics for your business using Adobe Illustrator.

Students receive simple, practical tutorials on the basic functionalities of Illustrator and create items like inspiration boards, blog graphic templates, and website buttons to help set your business apart.

I offer the course once a year and the next round will be available Spring 2018.

Are you interested in learning more? Sign up for the waiting list here:

3 | Elle & Company Library

The mission of Elle & Company is to be a helpful resource for online creative entrepreneurs, whether it’s through blog content, e-courses, or design work.

So with that mission in mind, I created a convenient, inexpensive online collection of workbooks, templates, and files to help entrepreneurs organize and customize the behind-the-scenes of their business.

I call it the Library.

Most of the items are printable PDFs, but some are Adobe Illustrator files (like the business cards) which allow for more versatility and customization.

I add new items to the Library 3 times a month, so the collection is always growing.

Out of all of the different aspects of my business, the Library is an accessible, simple way to help creative entrepreneurs.

Unlimited access to all of the files in the library is $6.99/month. In the past month I have added Instagram story templates, blog post graphic templates, a May desktop calendar background, and a social media scheduler workbook.

Subscribe to the Library here