The way businesses are marketing is changing and there are a plethora of reasons why. Many Jamaican business owners still feel that digital-based marketing is something that isn't worth investing in or has yet to touch down in yaad. Word of mouth is still the crutch for many businesses in a failure to step into a field of the unknown.
Communication, in general, is rapidly evolving with a sharp shift towards the visual. More and more people would prefer the usage of a single image, gif, meme or emoji than writing what’s on their mind. Whether this is the fault of the new Internet culture set by big social media websites like Twitter, where written communication is limited to the minimum, one thing is for sure- everyone’s on board.
Visual communication is faster, more efficient and easily digestive. In a world where the consumption of information and media is faster than ever, your marketing methods have to rise to match that speed. People are just not spending the time they used to on ads or stories anymore. A few years ago communicating via images was considered to be a teenager thing, but nowadays is commonplace in the workplace as well. Jamaican companies such as Fontana, Sagicor, PICA, etc. are pioneering this space and creating a variety of graphics for their brands daily. Online platforms (facebook, Instagram, Pinterest...) also are rewarding businesses and users for the use of video and gifs, promoting the narrative even further. This means, the more visuals, the more return on engagement and reach you will see in your analytics.
According to studies, in 2 weeks time after a movie, people recall only 10-20% of the spoken or written lines next to 50% of the visual content. Visuals express positive vibes, they mark jokes and underline statements. Although they won’t be completely replacing the text communication anytime soon, the visuals help to provide a more accurate interpretation of what needs to be communicated. Visual business communication is crucial to a company and its strategic plan. Messages with incorporated images and videos tend to benefit the sender and the receiver equally.
In Jamaica, the most commonly used social media platform is Instagram, an entirely visual-based platform. The rise of the Instagram influencer is also being seen, and fashion brands, event planners and tourism channels are using them to participate in hyper-targeted marketing. In speaking with small business owners in Jamaica, I commonly found that people were very proud of their strong customer base and that their services were strong enough that people would come and look for them regardless of a public ad, or digital representation. This, however, is a horrible lack of foresight. The world, including Jamaica, will continuously become more used to having everything available to them online and if a business fails to represent, they will fail to secure a future influx of new customers. Take the next step with your company or business, and invest in visual marketing with video and image content creation.
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