Now that's an image that will catch your eye.

So as my last blog post suggested – we are becoming an increasingly visual society. We want things quick, easy, beautiful and easily digestible. That’s not to say we’ve stopped reading altogether, but let’s be honest, we are skimming more and more. So a picture, when done right, can say a thousand words and quickly convey a message without us having to look for the hidden meaning. Therefore, if you’re in marketing, you need to start altering your tactics to coincide with this growing trend. It’s time to step away from lengthy wording and fancy wordsmithing and start thinking more visually.

Don’t believe me? Checkout the transition to Facebook’s timeline (that became mandatory for businesses last month), the rise in infographics, the popularity of instagram and oh yea, that little social app called Pinterest. What do all of these things have in common? They focus their efforts on being visual and appealing. The more stimulating, beautiful and shocking you can be, the better.

Now some of you might be saying “well, gee, thanks for the obvious tip, but I’m not in retail, photography or the beauty industry, so this doesn’t really apply to me”. Not true. Even if you’re in software, health care or business to business marketing, you can still take advantage of this trend. The trick of course is to be creative.

Think of your customers, your community, your message and what you want to convey. If you’re in software for instance, you don’t have to post pictures of your wires or screen shots of your program. Look more towards the big picture. What does your software DO for its customers? Does it improve communities or workflow? Share photos that portray the overall message of your business as well as any related items that your customers may care about. If you’re in business to business marketing, ask for images and photos from your clients business along with success stories. Make it worthwhile for them to check in with you, comment back and help them to convey their message as well. After all, the end result is to increase your interaction and level of engagement – the best way to do that is to make the first move!

So go out there, take photos and start sharing images. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you’ll find!