Why Create Visual Content?

Visual content is another way to describe visual rhetoric. What you see is just as important as what you read! To name a few forms of visual rhetoric, there are videos, PowerPoints/slideshows, and infographics that can supplement or replace writing, web pages, emails, blog and/or social media posts, etc. and encourage engagement. 

Disclosure: There are affiliate links within this post. This means that if you purchase a product using the links in this post, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Creating Visual Content

One of the first steps to creating visual content about your business/organization is storyboarding- the part of the project that is spent on creating the “essay” portion of your visual media. It’s the part when you think to yourself about what you want to say in this video and how you want to “say” it.

Ask Yourself:

• Is this video going to be about your business/organization as a whole? Or will it talk about a very specific component of your business? A product, program or promotion? 
• What do you have to say? What are the most important pieces of the information you want to show viewers?
• How do you want this video to flow? Will it be quick, slow, will there be a lot of transitions, a lot of reading, or will images be enough to tell your viewers your amazing message? 
• How long is the video going to be? How long will your infographic be? (I don’t know about you, but if I see that it is going to be a very long rectangular graphic, I skip it…)

Elements of Visual Content

Videos for Visual Content and Rhetoric

Consider how much text, if any, you want in your video? You want the visual aspects (the pictures/screenshots and/or video footage) to speak for themselves just as much as if you were writing a blog post. Text shouldn’t distract a viewer from photos/videos, it should supplement your visual content. Will the images give the sense of a brochure, is the message debating pros/cons- or more importantly, is the video convincing your audience to choose you?

If you’re video/PowerPoint includes transitions, you need to ask yourself how you want the transitions to be perceived? Is it going to be something simple like just switching slides? Or will it be dynamic like crossing over, refocusing the image and making your text take over. Will your transition include a “page turn”? My recommendation is that you ask yourself these questions and experiment when you’re in the creating process of making your visual media.

It’s suggested that videos shouldn’t exceed 3 minutes. I would venture to claim that videos shouldn’t exceed 90 seconds if it is something you are not Boosting on Facebook/Instagram. In my experience, 30-90 seconds has been the sweet spot.

Audio matters too!

It can determine the pace of someone’s reading, and show when there are shorts lulls in the video. Music can set the tone for what your message means too, it can determine your audience’s emotions towards the video. Will the music make them sad, stoked, energized, excited? Ever notice how much of an influence the music on Grey’s Anatomy (or other favorite drama) can have on your expectation or reaction to a character’s dialogue!? Have you ever imagined what the scene would be like if there wasn’t music? The soundtrack in movies/tv shows are just as important as any other character and it should be applied to your videos too. 

Example

The Montana Boss Babe Campaign for 
The Montana Woman Foundation 

I created a 30-second video about the components of what makes a Montana woman a Montana Boss Babe. Earlier in 2021, I had created a lengthy web page about it. Each component of what makes up a Montana Boss Babe was linked backto what we offer to women in Montana (workshops, mentorships, scholarships, and words of encouragement via our social media posts and overall sense of community). Then I decided to turn it into a short video. By this time, I had created 3 previous videos all of which were around the 2-3 Minute range. To increase ThruPlays of this Montana Boss Babe video (in comparison to the 3 minute videos), I decided to make it much shorter. 30 seconds is not a lot of time to squeeze around 425 words + 3 images. There are so many things that make up what we want to call a Montana Boss Babe. The message had to be whittled down to its very core. 

The first thing I did was choose a short audio selection in iMovie that said “this is badass”. I picked Neon (if any of you are interested in using something that creates excitement and a certain level of energy). Not only was it badass, but it was almost exactly 30 seconds! That way I was forced to limit my message to the short time frame. Next, I decided that 1 image would suffice for the purpose of this video- to avoid distractions and keep the attention on what Montana Boss Babe was all about for The MWF. The image I chose was a landscape photo I had taken a few winters ago while on the road home for Christmas. The picture has a view of the hills, a perfect blue sky for a Montana winter evening, and a glittery corner because I had taken the picture from the inside of our frozen car window. To me, it said Montana. To me, the ice in the corner of the image gave it a special dazzle that I wanted everyone to feel when reading about being a Montana Boss Babe. I wanted to make sure that women reading this info felt like they were being told that they were a Montana Boss Babe. 

The next challenge was boiling the content I created for the MWF web page and turning it into something that focused on the most essential components of Montana Boss Babe. This was quite the challenge! I’m a woman of many written words so it was hard to fit it into 30 seconds. But throughout this process, I kept asking myself and imagining what this video will look like if it pops up in someone’s Newsfeed? How long can I keep their attention with this video? What is going to be the most important information that will keep them from scrolling past what I have to say? Read below to see how short the video text turned into:

Text in The Montana Boss Babe Video

Be a Montana Boss Babe

1. Challenge Yourself & Learn New Things

Attend Montana Woman Foundation Workshops throughout the year, work towards a new health goal, or learn a new skill.

2. Uplift Others

Join our Mentorship program to help other Boss Babes, share about other Boss Babes, write articles for our blog, or commit to other volunteer work. 

3. Commit to Good Habits

Boss Babes need to always be setting good habits and new goals. Follow our Instagram/Facebook to receive daily inspo!

Boss Babes are women who feel totally jazzed about what they are doing in life. Moms, working with nonprofits, rocking it at the office, nurses, students….

We are all Montana Boss Babes!

Web Page vs Short Video

– 425 words + extra links to other places in the website – 3 engaging images (1 of which directs to the online shop) – 1 long page (scrolling required regardless if it was a cell phone, tablet or computer screen)  – 8 hashtags

– 115 words – 1 plain image as a background – 6 transitions  – Music that encourages someone to feel excited, engaged and/or part of the Community that MWF is creating

Using HTML Codes as Visual Content

You can insert HTML codes to make content stand out or give accurate representations of your favorite products. Sometimes I don’t want my blog post text to just be hyperlinks leading to my favorite Amazon or Thrive Market products, so I use pre-written HTML codes. If you become a little more tech-savvy, you can even adjust certain parts of the HTML code such as dimensions and alignment of the block. For example- the below affiliate HTML code was originally left aligned and twice as large.

Final Thoughts on Visual Content

Visual Content/Rhetoric is a way to bypass reading a lot of information (compared to a blog post or web page) and condensing your message into something easily digested. The process of creating a storyboard and ultimately, the form of visual media (slideshow, video, infographic), can include a lot of planning before sticking things into sections on a movie making program, PowerPoint or infographic. 

You can apply the same information above to making PowerPoints and the adjustments you want to make if you decide to create an infographic is to make sure you keep things simple. Making your information as easily digestible as possible is what will make sure that someone not only finishes reading this form of rhetoric, but also has a clear understanding of who you are as a business/organization and what it is that you are offering. 

Do you have any advice to share? Share in the Comments.