Imagine I had five pens and I wanted to throw them at you so that you could catch them all.

If I threw them all at once you might catch them, but chances are you would miss some if not all the pens.

A better strategy would be to throw one pen at a time. That way you would likely catch them all.

The same strategy applies to your PowerPoint deck. You need to throw one pen at a time.

That means one headline and an image at a time. As we have said, the ability to match the headline to the image is the foundation skillset for all modern communication.

Generally, the words come first closely followed by image. The image needs to match the words. This sounds simple, childish even, but every day we see headlines and images that do not connect. I would go so far as to say if you can match a headline to its image you are in the top 20% of content makers.

Go big

There are many ways to judge the quality of an image. The first can be, does it have people in it? The world can be a cold place and we like to look at human faces. If you put a person in it, engagement will likely go up. (Look at the Mail Online. Every image contains a person).

Another criteria can be emotion. As well as matching the headline, does the image make you feel something?

Another criteria is “display the benefit.” It is more engaging to show  the benefit of the thing you are describing rather than the thing itself. So don’t show a bottle of wine. Show people enjoying the wine with friends. Don’t show me a train, show me the pleasure of train travel.

 

Once you have chosen an image, believe in it. Don’t crowd it with lots of others. That smacks of insecurity. Go big. Remember: content is an all-in bet. There are no prizes for hedging.

Posted in: Infographic of the day