If you are not getting the traffic or lead flow you are looking for from your company website, you may want to ask yourself if your website is engaging enough. While written content can be essential for conveying core brand values, explaining details and summoning calls to action, visual content is equally important in that it attracts the eye and gives viewers something to remember. According to the semantic overlap hypothesis, people remember written content most when it is accompanied by relevant visuals. And let’s face it, small business owners want their companies to be memorable and top of mind for customers, who have many choices.

Our brains process visual content about 60,000 times faster than text—something you should be using to your company’s advantage. Your website should have ample visuals in a variety of places (note: our eyes naturally gravitate to the lower left-hand corner of frames) to trigger viewer engagement with online content. After all, what is the point of having a website if those who look at it are not captivated and do not remember anything about it?

Three Types Of Visual Content Ideal for Small Businesses

Infographics: Infographics help to convey information or attributes in an organized, captivating way. Through the use of charts or graphs, diagrams and maps, having infographics past your homepage will keep your audience interested and allow them to benefit by engaging with your site.

Photos: Photos, images and graphics are the most basic form of visual representation and, like infographics, help to keep your audience engaged and help them to develop associational juxtaposition in their minds. When people see certain objects or read about something related to your company, they will certainly think of your product or service if they have a picture readily accessible in their minds.

Videos: Unlike infographics and photos, videos aid any marketing effort in that they can more adequately relay a brand essence or company personality. Your videos can include both written and visual content that support your company’s promotional mix and incorporate your company’s contact information.

At the core of effective marketing is storytelling, or revealing a company’s brand attributes, how a company’s product or service works and why consumers can benefit from it. Today, more and more companies are telling these stories through visual content. Take UnderArmour for example:

The picture on the home page of UnderArmour’s website, shown above, is trying to convince the consumer that the company’s shirts are not just t-shirts, but in fact make you a better performer. Note the usage of visual and written content to convey this message to help the consumer retain the message.

Cisco is another company whose website is visually engaging. One of America’s top B2B companies, Cisco makes products that are technologically advanced. It makes sense that one of the pictures on its homepage tells the story of and shows a woman using Cisco Intelligent WAN with Akamai. Written content also accompanies the picture, with a call to action that says “Learn How [Cisco Intelligent WAN with Akamai helps you speed innovation].”

Quick Tips When Placing Images on Your Site:

• Use images that are licensed
• Create your own unique imagery when possible
• Optimize images for search engines
• Optimize image file sizes to ensure fast page load speeds
• Share images on social media

Remember that that written content does have some advantages over visual content, such as the ability to explicitly describe how something works or provide CTAs; however, the increasing importance of visual content in digital marketing can not be overlooked.. Visuals should be plentiful on your company’s website because they stimulate audience engagement and will allow your customers to remember your message and brand.