Connect, inspire and engage. These are three great marketing terms, and are most impactful when accomplished together. Over the past several years, the methods of connecting, inspiring and engaging have evolved in dramatic ways. While visual communication is older than the hills, the effectiveness of it may be greater today than perhaps at any point in time.

Text has long been the popular means of conveying a message. However, technology has taken photography and video to incredible levels. Humans process images hundreds of thousands of times faster than text, leaving us at the intersection of technology and availability that allows visuals to produce profound results.

Digital technology has created a population rich in photographers and videographers, evidenced by sites like Pinterest and YouTube… which just celebrated its tenth birthday and lays claim to more than four billion video views per day. While both the volume and consumption of video and photography continues to explode, so does the opportunity to connect visually with an audience in the most impactful way: emotionally.

Here are five considerations for incorporating photos and videos into your marketing strategy:

1. If you take only one thing away from this blog, let it be this: take the time to find exactly the right visual that captures the emotion and essence of your message.
2. Consider complementing the visual with relevant text.
3. When using video, keeping the length under one minute dramatically increases retention and engagement.
4. Use only high-quality images. Unprofessional, low-quality images distract more than connect.
5. Recognizing the value of great imagery, prioritize the treatment and placement within a website or article to showcase the photo.

Need help? There are websites, apps and resources available at every turn offering stock photography and suites of creative services that can turn an ordinary campaign into extraordinary success. Given articles and posts that include images and video far outperform those without, now is the time to incorporate photos and videos into your communication efforts.

A picture truly is worth a thousand words and, positioned correctly within your marketing efforts, can be worth a great deal more.