We live in an age of image-centered content. The written word is losing its significance and being replaced by illustrations that put information in an easy-to-understand format. Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without images (source: Kissmetrics). Even something as simple as putting a relevant photo or two in your blog posts increases engagement with your audience. Don’t entirely discount the importance of the written word – well-crafted and easy to read content goes a long way. Pair the two together, and you have a content marketing powerhouse.
Infographics
Infographics have been around in many forms for thousands of years, effectively communicating important information in a visual manner. From graphs and pie charts in Excel to infographics explaining complicated information, visual arrangement of facts and directions is shown to be 323% more effective than text alone*. Look complicated? Not at all. There are many sites on the internet with resources to make your own infographics; try www.visme.co.
Flesch Reading Ease Scale
This test is a great way to see if your content is appropriate for your target market. This content, for example, is a 51.53 on the Flesch scale; it would be appropriate for a quality magazine or book. Depending on the audience you are writing for, aim for the score bracket that is most appropriate. Are you writing content for a B2B blog? A lower Flesch score is more appropriate. If you are writing a blog post about patio furniture for a landscaping company, a higher Flesch score would be more appropriate. The target audience for the patio furniture post isn’t interested in using too much brain power to read an information-rich post. There are lots of free online tools for grading the Flesch Reading Ease Score of your content.
*Levie, W. Howard and Richard Lentz. “Effects of text illustration: A review of research” ECTJ vol. 30 (1982): pp195-232.
