3 common mistakes in visual marketing

Every day I bump into at least 10 articles with the same theory, in different words, on the importance of visual in content marketing, on how to use visual content, x applications free to use, on how to get more followers on Instagram and how to stand out through your visual marketing strategy.

The problem, however, is not that these articles are being written, but that everyone must now create content to attract readers who may then be converted (easy in theory, not so much in practice).

Unfortunately, these types of articles, of tips and tricks and how to’s experience a problem of context.

Each platform has been created with a specific purpose for specific people with a distinct feature.

Cliché and simple, but at the same time difficult to understand by the majority of “specialists”.

So after weeks of reading and analyzing these articles and “tips” on how to create visual content, I will try and highlight “how NOT to do visual marketing“.

Attention! Before you go on reading I want you to consider that everything depends on the strategy of a brand and what I say that it shouldn’t be done, might actually work for you. I am just pointing out what I would not want to see from a brand and what can be improved in another context, on a different platform.

1. Quotations on Instagram

I am personally not a fan of quotations on Instagram. Of course, everyone uses these types of content with a specific goal: to attract more followers, to inspire people who have a bad day or simply “because a certain specialist said so”.

And I’m going to tell you why I disagree with them.

Instagram was created to primarily capture moments in the life of the user, using a mobile phone. You can upload a photo just by using a cell phone (I refuse to use different applications that “help” me upload content through my desktop as well).

If we take a look at the accounts promoted by Instagram (on their blog and their official account) you’ll see that most of them (Instagram makes mistakes too) are made with a mobile phone.

Of course, we could talk about the issue of photographers who upload their work taken with a camera but I stand by my idea- if Instagram would have wanted you to upload photos taken with your camera, don’t you think it would have made it an option? Exactly.

This is the reason why, regarding the communication strategy of a brand on Instagram I don’t think quotations and motivational text are the way to go. For that type of content there’s Tumblr and Pinterest and/or Facebook.

Instagram should be used for behind-the-story human communication and to generate emotions among followers.

2. Infographics on Facebook

The biggest mistake a brand can make when it comes to infographics is to upload them on Facebook. Why? Because most infographics have a vertical format and sometimes even surpass 8000px, and Facebook is not the platform for this type of content.

My recommendation is to upload your infographics on a blog post (attention, create embed code to be able to track i) or on platforms like Pinterest, Slideshare (.pdf recommended) or Visual.ly.

3. Photos of your blog post on Instagram

You know how some specialists recommend you to advertise your latest blog post on all possible networks, even Instagram?

I saw that this nonsense is quite popular- photographing your laptop screen to show that you wrote a new blog post and then uploading it on Instagram to let your followers know .

Why would you do this? Why would you photograph your blog post on your laptop screen for Instagram? You want to let your followers know that you wrote a blog post? Very well. There are other channels for you to share: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, E-mail, Google, etc.

Don’t cram all social network users in the same box; make a difference and you’ll have more to gain in the long run!

At the moment there are just these 3 practices that I’ve seen and I recommend you not to use! If you have others in mind as well, let me know in the comments section!