With so many different social media platforms to choose from, each boasting their own preferred formats from videos to reels, images, infographics, and more, creating visually appealing content which both supports your marketing strategy and drives customer engagement can be tough.

The fact is that strong and visually appealing content is not only crucial for driving engagement, but is also responsible for making users stop scrolling and focus on your content – with trends around what is hot and what is not making it pretty difficult to keep up.

To help, we’ve created this mini guide for creating content which converts, which engages, and which enhances your social media in the eyes of users.

But before we get into it, a quick definition on what we mean by visually appealing content.

What do we mean by visually appealing content?

Visual content embodies everything from videos to images, with the best performing visuals encouraging users to not only stop and look but to interact with the post accordingly. Across all social channels, the posts which spotlight images consistently receive the most likes and the highest engagement, with the captions and text serving to support the visual on show – whether that’s a carousel of images, a short video, or an entertaining reel.

In recent years, video has become the latest hot trend to hit social media, with various video formats enabling brands to do more with their content and inject creativity as well as personality into their posts. TikTok has become a major driving force in establishing trends, while the arrival of integrations like Instagram reels and Facebook stories has further enhanced the use of visual content which engages users.

For brands and businesses, visual content is what lets you spotlight your products, showcase your branding, and introduce members of your team. It presents an opportunity for you to connect your branding with your vision, incorporating creativity into even the most corporate of brands.

Without further ado, here are a handful of tips for creating visually appealing content which not only engages users but encourages them to interact with, buy from, and support your brand or business.

Harness the power of visual content on social media

One of the best things you can do to enhance your visual content is create a colour palette which compliments your branding and which ensures that not are your posts attractive and visually enticing but also recognisable as being part of your marketing.

Whether or not you choose to integrate your logo and branding into each post, some of the best social media strategies embrace the idea of visually stunning posts which all reflect the same mood and use the same templates and layouts for consistency.

Consider adding text to your visuals

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words – but that doesn’t mean you can’t add a couple of extra words just to ensure that the point you’re making hits home!

Layering text atop images is a great way of utilising the space available, ensuring that the point of the image is very quickly understood by those scrolling. In addition, layering text on top of videos in the form of subtitles is recommended to ensure that your video content is accessible for all.

Image Quality

We probably don’t have to tell you this, but the most visually appealing content is that which is of a high quality. If you’re sharing photographs in particular, make sure that they are high in quality and crystal clear.

Similarly, when creating graphics, pay attention to the overall look of the image as well as the individual features, making sure that any text is legible and that the colours compliment each other.

Consider video thumbnails and introductions

It doesn’t matter how short your marketing video is – if you want it to stand out on social media, and if you want users to watch the entire video, you need to ensure it has a great thumbnail and an enticing hook introduction. One way of starting a great marketing video is with a question, another is with a “did you know” type heading, or why not open with a controversial statement that will cause users to look twice.

Focus on trends

Finally, if you’re stuck for ideas and want to generate visual content which speaks to the market, then the easiest thing to do is focus on and jump on the back of trends. TikTok is a great place to see what’s trending right now, whether it’s video concepts, audio, or specific products.

Is your visual content doing its job?

Here at Social Loop we have a team of expert content creators who don’t just talk the talk – we walk the walk too, working with brands across all sectors to create genuinely engaging, unique, and creative visual content that has a positive impact.

Visit our website and our own social media profiles to learn more about some of the client work we do or get in touch to discuss your own project needs.

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