We’ve all heard the old cliche: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” While there is no replacing well written content, exactly how much does an image boost the quality of the overall story you are trying to tell? In fact, what other purposes does an image serve when paired with your content?

Tell Your Whole Story

There are some things words can’t do, regardless of your talent as a writer. When you get into the nitty gritty of your blog, it’s about storytelling. With everything from tech blogs to “mommy” blogs, at the end of the day, you should be telling your story. And who likes only getting a PART of the story? Using images is a great way to support your story; Although your words should paint a picture, you can’t compete with a literal image! According to a study by the Social Science Research Center, over 65% of your traffic consists of visual learners. So, let’s say you have succeeded in telling a great story. Although this is quite the accomplishment, you want people to remember your story, and hopefully more than just 35% of your audience.

Increase Your Shareability

If you’re writing a blog, more than likely you have a social media presence, or at the very least, social sharing options embedded within your content. If you want to drive traffic to your content, social media provides a variety of great platforms and a unique way to connect with your audience. From a shareability standpoint, including an image in your blog accomplishes two things. One, it allows you to control what image is attached when people share your blog (i.e. your brand). Additionally, your blog will have a higher social media click rate if there is an image. According to internet marketing expert, Jeff Bullas, your audience is 94% more likely to click an article with an image attached!  Give your audience more reason to click AND more reason to share with some graphics!

Let’s Get Personal

A large part of any story is the personal connection that the author establishes with their reader. One way to build this connection is including a personal image. If you can get personal and show your audience that this blog or article is written by a human and not just  a faceless corporation, by all means, do it! By humanizing your blog, you’re providing your reader with an additional incentive to come back because they’re now connected with the author. This can be a short author biography and picture that is attached to every post, a picture of your entire team who contributed to the post, or even something more whimsical from your personal life.

10418479_10153134712213393_6433358476841371113_n

While usually, you want your image to relate to the written content, seeing the dogs of RPS was a nice interruption, right? As a reader, it’s easy to get lost in a wall of text AND now you have a personal connection provided by this quick window into the RPS office! Next time you are writing a blog post, consider including an image and comparing your traffic with past posts that were imageless. We would love to hear your traffic success stories! If you manage a blog and see a noticeable increase after including graphics in your posts, let us know so we can share your story!

Categories: Marketing