Content marketing and blogging have become increasingly important for businesses over the last half decade, which means there is more content on the web than ever before. With your content fighting for engagement with the rest of the websites, solid blog topics are simply not enough anymore. This is where design and visual storytelling come into play and make your posts stand out from the competition.
People naturally respond better to visuals; give yourself a competitive advantage and enhance your blog posts with design!
Add Infographics
Infographics are the most knowledge-packed visuals online today, so consider adding more to not just your posts, but other content pieces too (brochures, website, white papers, etc.). If you need an example of one, here is an infographic we created about our 2016 highlights.
If you’ve never created an infographic, a great place to start is by repurposing your existing posts. By taking your best-performing blog posts and converting them into infographics, you can communicate the post’s information effectively through design, while also recycling your valuable content. Talk about a win-win!
Social Images for Sharing
If an infographic sounds out of your realm at this time, that’s okay! There are plenty of other ways to use design for engagement boosts.
Creating social media images to promote your content is a very simple way to use design for exposure. Do you have a default featured image for your blog posts? If so, when you share your posts on social media, it’s this featured image that your followers will see every time you share. This can get stale really quick, and it doesn’t differentiate your posts from each other. To avoid this, try designing unique, social-only images for your blog posts. These one-of-a-kind images allow you to distinguish your posts and offer a more visually-appealing experience for your followers.
Here are some examples of effective visuals to add to your custom social images:
- Quotes: Tease your blog by adding a quote from the post into its featured image.
- Visual step-by-steps: If your blog post is a step-by-step guide or a “how to” post, you could illustrate each step in an image. This will give the audience a visual overview of what to expect in the post and entice them to click the link to learn more.
- Screenshots: When all else fails, take a screenshot of the blog post itself, which will provide a sneak peek into your post.
The best part about these three visuals is they are extremely easy to create! All you need are some basic photo-editing/Photoshop skills and you are good to go.
Include Videos
Finally, videos are not only a great visual, but they also make people stay on your website for longer. This, in turn, will contribute to lowering your website’s bounce rate.
Writing Your Posts with Design in Mind
Along with photos and other design visuals, it’s also important to keep your text in mind for your posts’ design. When writing your content, break it up into smaller paragraphs and avoid heavy blocks of text. Consider also adding bullet points and numbered lists wherever it makes sense. This will make the content easier to digest and not overwhelm the readers at first glance.
Harness the power of design for your blog posts and enjoy a better engagement with your blog!
To learn more about design or blogging, contact GreenMellen Media today!
