Visual content is used throughout social media by a wide variety of industries and companies in order to promote a product or service. Although many of these have excellent visual media strategies and do a great job of engaging followers with their brand, there are others, such as the financial services industry, which could do a much better job of doing so.

Part of the problem is undoubtedly that finance professionals are used to reading reports in written form, or viewing figures in a way that only they would understand.

The opportunity for financial services when it comes to utilising visual media, however, has nothing to do with financial professionals. Instead, visual content could be used to best effect in attracting members of the lay public to use financial services, or at the very least show an increased level of interest in the industry.

What are the visual media tools that could be used to best effect?

Webinars and Guides

Webinars are an excellent way to get interactive when talking about financial services and how individuals can get involved with them. Whether it is in the form of a guide to the private equity market, or talking about how to use a spread betting platform, webinars can be exceptionally authoritative and a great visual tool for putting across the benefits of a financial product.

After carrying out the initial webinar to subscribers, you can then always take the step of uploading it to YouTube and promoting it through other social media streams.

Infographics

Write three paragraphs about how much money a particular investment platform or private equity fund could make for you, and a member of the public reading it would probably be lucky to get halfway through.

Present the same information in less words and use infographics instead, and your chances of engaging people increase dramatically. The great thing about using infographics is that they are easy to share across social media sites. They can be attached to sites such as Instagram and Pinterest, for example, to be shared by your followers. An infographic is much more likely to be shared than a piece of written content, too.

Short and Long Term Benefits

Used correctly, financial businesses could use visual media to benefit themselves in both the short and the long term. Short term, a business could adopt a strategy of promoting a daily infographic of which markets or products moved significantly the day before, or a prediction for the day ahead. Another option could be to have a trader or advisor in their business record a short, snappy 30-second video each morning with trading or investment tips for the day ahead.

The same options are available over the longer term, obviously adapted for the purposes of the message you wish to convey. An infographic can be excellent for demonstrating to novice investors the value and benefits attached to committing to a long term investment, for example, rather than shorter term deals.

As the popularity and engagement potential of visual media continues to grow, it will be crucial that financial businesses are in a great position to take advantage by creating unique and exciting content.

Dealmarket offers an extensive global private equity platform that is more efficient and accessible.