Top 10 Content Marketing Tips from Top Creators

In a sea of content, how do you stand out? Visual storytelling is your answer. We’ve gathered insights from experts at Superpath, The Washington Post, and Entrepreneur Magazine to share their best visual storytelling tips.

Dive in and discover how to engage your audience. Have a great tip? Share it on social and tag @photoshelter!

• Storytelling
• Video
• Photography
• Design
• Brand

Storytelling

Let’s start with the basics. No matter what format you choose, stories are the best way to engage your audience. Without a good story, people will scroll right past your content. These tips will help you catch and hold your audience’s attention.

James Cuthbert | ROCK THE BELLS | @MrCuth

Make it personal. Leverage a true personal story that makes the topic real and authentic to your personal journey. This will draw listeners in and make you more approachable and relatable.

Erin (Herbert) Disney | CSG | @CSG_I

Plan ahead. Choose rich, impactful imagery and let the visuals guide how the story will be told.

Haley Hamblin | The Washington Post | @washingtonpost

Don’t be afraid to put your personality into the story! Your excitement and passion will help draw the viewer in and set your work apart.

Video

88% of marketers use video as an important part of their marketing strategy – and it’s no wonder. Research shows people are highly likely to watch a video, recall it afterward and share it with friends. 91% of people say product videos are helpful in their decision process. These tips will help you improve your video marketing.

Khalil Garriott | American Bankers Association | @khalilgarriott

Avoid “boiler-plate” thumbnails that don’t differentiate your property from all the others out there. Put yourself in the user’s shoes: What would draw YOU in to the piece of content? Be edgy. Take risks. Capitalize on big moments in real time.

Phil Nottingham | Formerly Wistia | @philnottingham

Aim for an integrated aesthetic. By this, I mean that the visual style should match the literary style of the story. If it’s a dramatic and symbolic story, allow the visuals to adopt this too.

Photography

Senior marketers say photography is important to their overall marketing strategies. Content with good images gets 94% more views than those without. The right photography can help your brand stand out, especially on crowded newsfeeds. These tips will help you create stunning photography.

Michel Leroy | Gittings Global | @michelleroy

To tell a compelling story you have to consider how it looks from every angle. A little girl picking an apple from a tree can be seen from the onlooking parents, through the eyes of the child or from the apple’s vantage point about to be plucked from the tree. I try and find the image that will surprise the viewer.

Design

How do you make text and imagery work together seamlessly? These tips will help you create thumb-stopping graphics.

Jimmy Daly | JimmyDaly.com | @jimmy_daly

If you can’t draw an idea, you don’t really understand it. I try to include visualizations that I create in Sketch to support any post I write. This helps me put a fine point on the idea and makes it way easier for the reader to comprehend. (Example)

Brand

Once you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to hone your craft. These tips will help you focus on the details and make your content more effective.

Jason Feifer | Entrepreneur Magazine | @heyfeifer

Don’t overly complicate your visuals. Sometimes people fall so deeply in love with their visual concept, they forget that the point of it is to communicate information in an efficient way. You want the visuals to compliment the information—to make it all more organized and easier to understand. If your visual presentation isn’t doing that, it’s time to pull back and reconsider.

Nancy Harhut | HBT Marketing | @nharhut

Show faces. Human beings are hardwired to look at other people’s faces, especially their eyes. So show faces looking at your reader/viewer to attract attention, and use eye gaze to direct your audience to look where you want them to.

Sonja Likness | DUKE CORPORATE EDUCATION | @SONJALIKNESS

“Right-size” your content for the platform you’re using. That means, of course, changing image sizes, but also thinking about what kinds of content works well on different platforms, and what features you can use on those platforms (like links on Instagram Stories or location filters on Snapchat).

 

Cover photo by Chris Owyoung.