Visual Content Marketing Statistics

Virtual communication is vital in getting brands’ messages across. Creating compelling content that can be easily distributed across all channels was a must in 2021 and will be even more important in the years to come. Visual content marketing statistics show this type of content has played a major role for Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, particularly since the beginning of the pandemic. These stats might be useful for marketers trying to keep up with the latest trends. Let’s check them out.

Visual Content Marketing Statistics (Editor’s Choice)

• Around 84% of all marketing communication in 2020 included visual content. (SAG IPL)
• Viewers remember 95% of a message watched on video compared to a textual one. (Axon Garside)
• 56% of marketers used visuals in 100% of their published articles. (IMPACT+)
• In 2021, 23% of marketers spent 21-30% of their budget on visual content. (Venngage)
• Roughly 36% of marketers generate visuals primarily for blog posts. (Venngage)
• 80% of marketers use visuals in their social media campaigns. (MarketingDigiBook)
• Tweets with images get 150% more retweets, unlike those without. (Adweek)
• 56.6% of marketers confirmed that the pandemic had affected their visual content marketing strategy. (Venngage)

General Visual Content Statistics

1. 70% of people remember what they hear and see.

Many marketers fail to recognize the importance of this fact, as only 20% of people remember what they hear and 30% what they see. Meanwhile, when these two are combined, two-thirds of people remember what they hear and see. Still, the importance of visual content remains unprecedented, with 85% of Facebook videos being watched with the sound off.

(SAG IPL)

2. Around 84% of all marketing communication in 2020 included visual content.

In line with the latest video marketing statistics, by the end of 2022, 82% of online traffic would come from video content. These stats hold firm ground, considering that landing pages that feature videos generate 800% more conversions.

(Cisco, SAG IPL)

3. According to visual content marketing stats, there was a 10.5% rise in the use of visual content between 2018 and 2019.

30% of marketers were involved in creating their visual content in 2020, which signaled good news for many companies that needed to start using this tool. It is particularly important now since most companies and customers have gone online.

(Finances Online)

4. 96% of online shoppers first watch the video content to determine if they want to buy a product or a service.

In line with the visual content stats, most people decide what to buy based on the video content about the desired items. Research confirmed that people are 144% more likely to purchase a product or a service after watching a video about it. For this reason, an increasing number of businesses started working with the top video production companies to meet customer demands and preferences.

(SAG IPL, Digital Commerce 360)

5. Viewers remember 95% of a message after watching it in a video.

Alternatively, users exposed to a sales message in a text form retain only 10% of it. Hence, more B2B companies understand the actual value of visual marketing strategies. Since the competition across industries expands and becomes fiercer due to the effects of the pandemic, videos have become an optimal tool to approach users on every channel.

(Axon Garside)

6. Roughly 93% of companies obtained a new customer after sharing a video on social media.

In line with the visual content marketing statistics, video ads on social media platforms are the number one way for consumers to discover the brand. In addition, the majority reported that it resulted in new customers, with 94% confirming that paid video ads had positive ROI.

(Cision PR Newswire)

7. The word ‘video’ in an email subject line increases the open rates by 6%.

Other than open rates, click rates increase by 65% when using video in the subject line of emails going to customers. At the same time, unsubscribe rates decrease by 26%. Moreover, a video thumbnail improves subscriber engagement by nearly 41% when included in an email. All of this speaks volumes about the importance of visual content in marketing.

(Campaign Monitor)

8. Every second, a million minutes of video content passes through the internet.

As visual content statistics suggest, by 2023, 2.72 billion people are bound to watch video content from their mobile devices.

(Finances Online)

9. 68% of consumers believe that the pandemic affected the amount of video content they watch.

96% of these consumers say it affected them by increasing their video consumption. At the same time, visual content marketing stats show that 91% of marketers understand the importance of video for brands, especially after the 2020/2021 pandemic.

(Axon Garside)

10. 56% of marketers used visuals in 100% of their published articles.

As content marketing statistics have proven, visual content marketing is gaining more ground each day. Aside from the number of marketers using visuals constantly, 88% confirmed they included them in 50% of their published articles.

(IMPACT+)

11. Out of all visuals, marketers use stock photography most frequently, or 40%.

After stock photography, original graphics have the next biggest share (37%). Charts and data visualization come third with 12%, followed by videos and presentations (7%). Finally, gifs and memes are used least frequently (4%). However, looking at engagement rates, stock photography fell to 12%, original graphics skyrocketed to 40%, and videos rose to 23%, visual marketing statistics show.

(IMPACT+)

12. 50% of surveyed marketers said they spent less than five hours a week producing visual content in 2020.

Moreover, 22% of marketers claimed they spent five to 10 hours generating visuals. Finally, 29% spent between 10 and 20 hours per week designing and creating visual marketing content.

(Venngage)

13. 41% of content marketers use online solutions to create visual content.

In previous years, marketers hired more in-house designers and freelancers for these tasks. Based on visual content stats, now most of them use some online solutions to generate visuals, with 18.7% utilizing advanced graphic design software. Yet, 27.1% of companies still use in-house designers, while 16.2% rely on freelancers.

(Venngage)

14. 69% of consumers watch brand videos without audio.

This stat speaks in favor of content marketing graphics and visuals delivering the brand message. Moreover, as visual marketing statistics show, most customers prefer to watch videos with captions, so it’s important to enable this feature as well.

(Forbes)

15. Articles with an image after every 75-100 words receive double the amount of shares compared to those without it.

A study by BuzzSumo on a sample of over one million articles demonstrated that blog posts with images more frequently placed get shares, unlike those without them. So, the blogs with images after every 75-100 words get a minimum of 30 shares more than articles with more words between the visuals.

(BuzzSumo)

Visual Content Marketing Strategies

16. 58.4% of marketers measure their shifted visual marketing plans between 5 and 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Six is the average on the scale of one to 10, which most marketers chose when asked how much they had altered their visual content strategy due to the pandemic. Yet, some chose higher numbers — 32% rated the changes eight or higher, while only 9.6% picked four or less, as visual content marketing stats suggest.

(Venngage)

17. Infographics and illustrations perform better than other visuals (41.5%).

According to most content marketing agencies, infographics and illustrations produce solid engagement, despite not being the most commonly used visuals. Other than these, charts and visualizations also perform well (25.7%); next come videos and presentations (20.2%), stock photos (7.6%), and gifs and memes (5%).

(Finances Online)

18. The search for infographics has increased by 800% since 2000.

Infographics are one of the original visuals that provoke the highest engagement rates. The search volumes for the terms ‘infographics’ and ‘infographic’ multiplied many times in the last two decades. As a result, the number of infographic-specialized services has increased accordingly.

(Content Writing Jobs)

19. People share infographics three times more than any other visuals on social media.

According to visual content statistics, infographics provoke the best engagement. So no wonder 65% of B2B marketers used them during 2020. In fact, 41.5% of marketers believe these are their most important tools for media campaigns.

(Finances Online)

20. Around 40% of video marketers use webinars as a visual content marketing tool.

Marketing visuals such as video can be distributed through other channels - not only on social media and websites. So 37% of marketers plan to use webinars for video marketing in the near future. In fact, 83% of those that have already used it consider themselves successful applying it.

(Finances Online)

21. 23% of marketers projected that their spending for visual content would increase to 21-30% of their total budget in 2021.

Based on visual content marketing statistics, most marketers expected that their budgets for visual content creation would increase in 2021. While the largest number believed they would rise to 21-30%, 21% expected their visual content marketing budget to be in the 11-20% range.

(Venngage)

22. 39% of marketers want to automate generating multiple types of design.

For most digital marketing agencies specialized in producing visual content, automating the generation of multiple designs is a must. Auto-resize options for social channels are next on the list, selected by 20.5% of the surveyed marketers. Visual marketing statistics show that 16% want to automate team collaboration, while 15% hope for more automation when applying branding on visuals.

(Venngage)

23. Over 68.7 million people in the US might use AR once per month.

Augmented and virtual reality are new trends shaping visual content management and the industry. According to the forecasts, 42.9 million Americans might use VR once a month at least, on top of those using AR. That translates into 13% or 20.8% (for AR) of the total population, respectively.

(eMarketer)

24. Roughly 36% of marketers primarily generate visuals for blog posts.

Other than blog posts, most marketers create all types of visual content for social media. So 19.3% generate content for Facebook, 13.9% for Instagram, and 12% for LinkedIn. Another 12.7% create visuals for landing pages and 6.6% for printed and branding materials.

(Venngage)

25. Producing visual content regularly (at 36.7%) is the top hurdle for marketers.

According to visual content marketing statistics, besides providing regular output, another critical struggle to produce content includes finding the right layout to present data (22.9%). The next challenge is designing a good infographic or any type of visual content (20.5%). Lastly, sourcing data and statistics represent the final big obstacle (19.9%).

(Venngage)

26. About 63% of marketers thought that more than 60% of companies would rely on visuals in 2021/22.

Aside from the majority of marketers that expected companies to rely heavily on visual content, 22.5% stated that between 30% and 60% of organizations would use visuals in 2021 and 2022. Unlike them, 14% of marketers said that 30% of businesses would use visual content.

(Venngage)

27. 85% of online users consume content on multiple devices simultaneously.

Today, most users possess various devices to access online content. Visual content marketing statistics confirm that many users have started shifting toward mobile devices. Despite this fact, Twitter users watch 90% of the network’s video content on mobile. The rest (10%) watch it on desktops.

(Finances Online)

Social Media Visual Content

28. 80% of marketers use visuals in their social media campaigns.

Many statistics confirm the advantages of different visuals used in social media. Not only do 80% of marketers and social media marketing agencies use visuals in their posts, but 60% use video alone.

(MarketingDigiBook)

29. 55% of content marketers choose Facebook as the most important social media platform.

According to visual content marketing statistics, Facebook is the most popular platform among content marketers. Considering that its users watch over eight billion videos per day, it’s quite popular for visual content. In fact, Facebook users spend 3X more time watching live videos than traditional ones.

(SAG IPL)

30. Tweets with images get 150% more retweets than those without.

A recent study indicates that visual content on Twitter receives much more clicks, favorites, and retweets than tweets without it. So tweets with images see 18% more clicks. At the same time, they get 89% more favorite button clicks and 150% more retweets.

(Adweek)

31. Facebook live streams produce 10 times more engagement than regular videos.

Aside from producing six times as many interactions, live videos on Facebook often get 10 times more comments than regular videos. According to the latest Facebook Live stats, the top-performing videos last 15 to 20 minutes.

(BloggingX)

32. Most social media marketers use visual images (80%).

Based on visual marketing statistics, images take up 80% of the content types used by social media marketers. Next is the pre-recorded video with 63%. Also, marketers tend to use blogging (60%) and live video (35%). Finally, at 9%, podcasting has also been gaining popularity.

(Finances Online)

33. 70% of YouTube viewers watch ‘How to’ videos.

Worldwide, YouTube is the leading source of video content, at 83%, even though YouTube stats show it’s blocked in nine countries. The video giant is followed by Facebook at 67%. Typically, the majority of viewers tend to watch videos that offer help with a challenge they face on their job, studies, or in general.

(HubSpot)

34. 87% of video marketers use YouTube as a channel for content.

YouTube is one of the leading platforms for video content online. It only falls behind Google in this sense. Visual content marketing stats suggest that 65% of senior execs will visit a website featured in the video they have watched on this platform.

(Finances Online)

35. 70% of surveyed users said they prefer Facebook Stories compared to other platforms.

Although Snapchat and Instagram pioneered the stories feature, out of 275 consumers across the US, Facebook seems to be the number one choice for the highest number of surveyed users. Social media marketing statistics show that only 17% chose Instagram, while 13% picked Snapchat.

(HubSpot)

36. Around four million companies use Stories ads on Instagram each month.

According to Instagram marketing statistics, 90% of Instagram users have a business account, and most businesses use Stories to present their brand and spark interest in their products through engaging visual content. In fact, 58% of the people surveyed said they became genuinely interested in the brand’s products or services after seeing them in Stories. Moreover, 50% said they even went to the company’s website to purchase a product or a service, visual content marketing stats indicate.

(Instagram)

37. The ideal length for video content is between two and five minutes.

A recent survey has shown that this is the optimal length that stimulates intent and provokes repeated viewership of the audience. The same study findings indicate that ideal live videos last over one hour when the engagement rate increases between 0.26% to 0.46%.

(Social Insider)

38. Pinterest’s Lens registers over 600 million visual searches each month.

According to the visual content stats, many people use its visual search tool, Lens. For example, people are twice as likely to use Lens today than six months or a year ago. Lens has been online for several years now, but visual searches are 140% up year over year since its establishment.

(VentureBeat)

39. For 89% of B2B marketers, social media is a favorite tool for content distribution.

Out of all social media B2B marketers use, LinkedIn has the greatest potential. So, 89% of them use it for B2B lead generation. Moreover, 96% of B2B content marketers turn to it for content marketing, both visual and textual.

(Hootsuite)

Pandemic-Related Visual Content Stats

40. 83% of organizations made quick modifications to their content marketing due to the pandemic.

Approximately 70% of marketers claim that the pandemic impacted a great deal of their visual content marketing, prompting them to change. While 83% of organizations have made some changes already, 86% expect these changes to stay active for the time being.

(MarTech Alliance)

41. 56.6% of marketers confirmed that the pandemic caused some changes in their visual content marketing strategy.

During the pandemic, most companies went virtual, and marketers had to re-invent their approach to engage customers and the right audience. Visual content statistics suggest that more than half of the responders felt part of the business communication changed. However, 43.4% thought it was still business as usual, despite the pandemic.

(Venngage)

42. The number one change that 70% of B2B marketers made during COVID-19 was modifying messaging and targeting strategy.

This is the number one adaptation (70%) made in many B2B content strategies. Other than that, adjusting the editorial calendar was next (64%), followed by a change in the distribution of content and promotion (53%). Website change was next (40%) and allocating more resources for social media and online communities (40%). Finally, many re-examined the complete customer journey (31%), while others increased the time spent with customers (30%), digital marketing statistics confirm.

(Finances Online)

43. 54% of organizations believe their content marketing campaign was successful to a certain extent.

During the pandemic, most organizations feel that their campaigns have been, at least moderately, a success. Namely, 5% think they have achieved extreme success; 26% feel they have been very successful, while 14% claim they have had minimal success, visual content statistics confirm.

(Finances Online)

The Bottom Line

Users can easily judge a homepage or a blog post simply by glancing over the content and assessing the visual aspects. If it’s bland and lacks visual content, users might assume that not much effort has been put into it. Alternatively, if the visuals are used properly, it gives the business a headstart with its customers. As you can see, based on the above-mentioned visual content marketing stats, this field is crucial for every marketer. It’s up to you now to take advantage of what you have learned and ramp up your visual presence.

Visual Content Marketing FAQ

How effective is visual content?

Human eyes process 36,000 visual messages in an hour, and the sense of a visual scene is felt in under one-tenth of a second. So it’s only natural to use visual content to get messages across, especially if we know that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. In fact, the brain processes visual messages 60,000 times faster than any text, as visual content statistics reveal.

(Smart Insights)

How much of marketing is visual?

Based on the recent graphic design statistics, in 2018, marketers claimed visuals comprised about 64% of their content. In 2019, this figure increased by 10%, reaching 74%. With the pandemic's start in 2020, most content marketers (48%) said that 91-100% of their content consisted of visuals, while 23% said they incorporated 70-90% of them. Further, about 8% claimed visuals comprised 61-70% of their content, and finally, 4% added visual content into 11-20% of their marketing materials.

(Venngage)

Do people prefer visual content?

Based on visual content marketing statistics, people expected at least some visuals in content in 2019. Now, 91% of people prefer visual over textual content. Traditional static media and texts are outdated, and consumers crave interactive content and engaging visuals.

(Poll Everywhere)