Companies that overlook the value of pictures - even stock images - are doing their content marketing a disservice… and even losing leads.

Industry: Building technologies
Content: Daily blog articles
Highlights: Trialed photos and saw traffic increase 30 percent

We all know pictures are important. People say they’re worth a thousand words, and they can have a powerful impact on recollection. It’s estimated that 65 percent of people are visual learners, and companies that don’t pair text with images are alienating those customers. One Brafton client that trialed pictures for three months saw its blog traffic increase 30 percent, and it also experienced stronger engagement with its brand content.

Images make blog content eye-catching

It might be hard to imagine the impact photos have on ROI for daily blog content, but this business saw results that show exactly how much brands stand to gain by giving visitors something to look at. Even companies as large as Chipotle are experimenting with ways to keep customers engaged during their buying experiences.

Infographics shared 3x more than text documents

This client had been publishing daily blog articles without featured images, but agreed to run a test for a business quarter to see how pictures could improve website performance … and it saw a noticeable change.

Comparing data from the business quarter before the trial, the client noticed:

  1. Higher traffic: There was a 31.3 percent increase in sessions during the trial
  2. More unique visitors: There was a 29.2 percent uptick in users
  3. Better engagement: Pageviews increased 35.83 percent and visitors checked out 3.4 percent more pages per session

Visuals encourage longer dwells

More traffic is always a welcome change for marketing teams looking to boost ROI on a web presence, but it’s not the only metric that can make or break content campaigns. That’s why it was so crucial to see that the client’s engagement rates were also climbing – at a rate higher than the traffic increased.

Visual content encourages people to dig deeper in the sales funnel.

During the trial period, the business’ website also experienced:

  • A 3.3 percent increase in the average session duration (the amount of time readers spend on an article and clicking around to other pages)
  • A 14.3 percent decrease in bounce rate (visitors performed another action after landing on the blog, whether opening a related article or heading to another part of the page)

At the end of the test-run, the company was successfully getting a higher volume of internet users to come to its website to read content and creating an experience that piqued users’ interest. By making a simple change to the way its content looked – adding relevant stock photos – the company made impressive headway in results.

Fact: Visuals increase willingness to read by 80 percent! Find more evidence about why your site’s appearance matters in this Brafton infographic. 

Want Google’s take on stock photos? The experts say they’re just fine for now, but originality is still the way to get more attention.

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.