How to Use Visual Content to Drive More Traffic

Do you create images?

Do they inspire your readers to take action?

When used strategically images, slide decks and infographics can drive traffic to your business. They also offer the opportunity to provide further value through your content.

In this article I'll share three creative examples from businesses that used visual content to drive traffic and get results.

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Why Images Matter

Images are not just separate pieces of content. They are doorways to more valuable information. Use visuals to drive traffic to your website, blog, products and services.

The key is to design each visual in a way that asks your fans or followers take some sort of action.

• Would you like visitors to engage with it (like and comment)?
• Would you like them to share it?
• Would you like them to click through on a visual to arrive at your blog post or podcast show notes?
• Would you like them to go from one social media platform to another?
• Would you like them to click through from a social media platform back to your website?

Identify the end point, and then craft the appropriate call to action.

Here are three ways to use visual content to drive traffic to your website or blog.

#1: Integrate Images Across Platforms

Amanda Smyth from the blog Cooker and a Looker featured a blog post about how to create the Perfect Pavlova dessert in celebration of Australia Day.

It was a perfect example of how to drive traffic back to a website from multiple social platforms using visuals.

Here is what Amanda did that was so cool.

First, she created a series of six images with “Tips for the Perfect Pavlova.”

The images to promote the blog article were posted as a set on Facebook and individually on other platforms like Instagram. Additional descriptions on each image provided a clear call to action so followers could click back through to the original blog post.

Amanda also embedded a portrait-sized, Pinterest-optimized image with additional text in the blog post. That way, when the image was separated from the blog post and pinned to Pinterest, users could see immediately what they were clicking through to.

Additional details on a pin could be enough to entice someone to click through back to the blog post for more information.

Finally, Amanda squared the images, so they were ready to post on Instagram and Facebook.

Look back up to the Pinterest image. Can you see what Amanda did with the image? She included a square-shaped image as part of the overall design. She was then able to separate the square image from the Pinterest image above. Here it is below, pulled directly from the Pinterest image, and ready for posting on Instagram and Facebook.

Traffic-Driving Tips: Post your most important content on your blog, since all roads lead from social platforms back to your website. When planning traffic-driving images, try to incorporate at least two image shapes: square, landscape and/or portrait will cover most of the major sites. Remember to create images in batches if possible; a series of tip images is almost as easy to create as just one tip image.

#2: Drive Traffic From SlideShare

To help new readers discover my blog, I created a SlideShare presentation around an already popular blog post called 36 Visual Content Tools the Pros Can’t Live Without. It was content-rich and featured 36 tools loved by experts in visual social media.

I used quotes from the blog post for the SlideShare presentation. I uploaded it to SlideShare and then embedded the presentation back into the blog post. That way, readers could view the slide deck within the post, without leaving the website.

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The presentation was awarded SlideShare of the day and retweeted by SlideShare on a number of occasions. In just a few weeks it attracted over 100,000 views on SlideShare and the blog post was shared more than 4,500 times.

To drive traffic, the SlideShare presentation included a call to action for users to click through to the original blog post to download a handy cheat sheet of the top 5 tools out of the 36 tools mentioned.

The combination of the blog post, cheat sheet and SlideShare presentation attracted almost 600 new subscribers (and counting).

Traffic-Driving Tips: Add SlideShare to your marketing mix. Create a well-designed helpful or inspiring presentation and you may attract the attention of the SlideShare team. If you follow a few key actions, your SlideShare can make it to the SlideShare home page or, even better, SlideShare of the Day. It might also be featured in the Trending in Your Network section. Any of these opportunities would give your traffic a huge boost.

#3: Create Helpful Infographics

Infographics are traditionally data-filled and statistic-heavy. While they can be made attractive with an attention-grabbing, creative design, the reality is that after an initial view, pin or share, they are rarely viewed again. In many cases they are repinned even without any click-through back to websites.

Create a super-useful infographic, and it is more likely to be bookmarked, kept, referred to and used by Pinterest users.

Outrigger Resorts in Hawaii achieved this with their series of Beach Infographics, showcasing activities on the major islands in Hawaii. I randomly found one of these infographics on Pinterest when searching for visual content examples for a presentation.

When I clicked through from the infographic, I found a series of four infographics, as well as a convenient booking form.

Outrigger Resort's infographics are designed to help guests plan their holiday, and give them a memorable experience in the process.

If you look closely at the landing page for these infographics, you can see that, although it is designed to drive potential guests to the accommodation website, it also provides visitors with more great value and content when they arrive.

To get an idea of how often these four infographics are being shared, do a Pinterest source check on the visual content being shared from the Outrigger website. Visitors are continually pinning the four infographics. Once pinned, others find the infographics and click back through to Outrigger. It is a perfect example of organic sharing, leading to free marketing for Outrigger.

In addition to the infographics, there is a Beach Quest Chart, which allows a potential guest to search for the right type of beach on the right island. This takes the infographic content even further.

Traffic-Driving Tips: Create an infographic that not only drives traffic, but also creates an emotional connection with your readers. This type of content is perfect for the tourism industry, since they can do more than just showcase a product, attraction, accommodation or venue. They can showcase a region and the experience. It's the experience that wins the hearts and minds of customers.

Conclusion

If you're going to invest time and/or money in creating great visual content, always ensure you know:

• What you want people to do with your content (like, comment, share or click through to your website)
• What awesome content you will provide (a content-rich blog post, free download, podcast show notes)
• What you want your audience to do at the destination (subscribe, download, purchase)

Once you have all of the details figured out, you can skyrocket your results by using visual marketing.

What do you think? What visual content do you create? Have you used images to drive traffic to your website, blog, event or podcast? What types of visual content provide value to your readers while guiding them back to your business? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Blackboard call to action photo from Shutterstock.

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