The term ‘Content Marketing’ is all the rage. It’s talked about as the “fuel” to drive high search rankings and new web leads as well as the armor to help sales reps nurture prospects that have shown interest but have not yet purchased.

In addition, more companies in business-to-business (B2B) industries are investing in content to ensure their prospects and customers are receiving relevant and interesting information from them that will make the relationship more sticky.

Creating compelling and interesting stories is half the battle, but it’s equally important to consider the design ‘structure’ and ‘look’ of each content piece to help convey the message visually and to stand out from the competition. Unfortunately, many B2B companies are not investing as heavily and thoughtfully as they should in great design and visual storytelling. And yet a great design and visual structure can help create an emotional connection one needs. Many articles give advice and supporting research about the best content tactics, but from my experience all of the companies that do a great job at this invest heavily in design too. Look at any of the examples out there, and you’ll see they took the design seriously.

Below are some nuggets on ways to take “visual marketing” to the next level to help increase traffic and conversion metrics. Consider allocating more of your budget to the design aspect of your content—it will help you stand out and get a faster return on investment.

1. Slidehshare Presentations

Interesting Slideshare presentations are a great way for B2Bs to expand their digital footprint and share a story or message in an interesting way.

This article from the Content Marketing Institute gives some great tips on ways to optimize the ‘presentation’ channel.

 

 

---

2. Infographics

Did you know that deploying Infographics could bring a 12% increase in traffic? That combined with the realization that “Information can be beautiful” are two takeaways from this article from The Seen. One point made is an opportunity to take a set of dry stats, facts and figures and create dynamic visual content from it. People love “at-a-glance” stats so the point is to invest in design to help turn that information into something unique and “snackable”.

Here’s another good one from buffersocial. It also highlights the importance of visual content marketing with some examples of great Infographics.

---

3. Real-Time Images

It can be very compelling to share visual images about events, employees and customer success stories real-time (e.g. on social media channels). This overview from Social Media Examiner shows some great examples. While some may consider this approach more appropriate for B2Cs, it’s a big opportunity for B2Bs as well (if you want to engage folks and get them to share your content). For example, you could post photos of your customer support team in action, or show community events your company has attended.

---