Amp Up the ‘Wow’ Factor and Enhance Your Content

How Images Make or Break Engagement

Imagine: a Medium article without images, just blocks of endless text.

Would your audience be “clicking” to read more? Most likely, NO.

Or, you bought a writing coach package for $600. and your coach said, “If you want to be successful as a content creator, leave out images in your stories.”

Would you say, ok, no images?

Probably something in your gut says: “she’s telling me b*ll sh*t.”

With more than 50% of our brain involved in visual processing, it’s hard to believe a block of text without an image would engage your audience.

We are visually wired!! That’s the №1 fact. Not many people understand this.

70% of our sensory receptors are in our eyes. That’s big, really big.

Moreover, we “get” a visual scene in less than 1/10th of a second!!

This isn’t true for words or text.

Here are a few ways images boost content — from a neurological standpoint:

Visual images are universally understood. A person in the Congo understands a picture as easily as a person in Belgium or the United States.

Language and culture are bypassed through images.

The brain quickly processes images vs. text.

• The occipital cortex, which is dedicated to visual processing, becomes activated and understands an image immediately. On the other hand, text involves multiple brain regions involving language comprehension and other cognitive resources.

Image reading uses parallel processing — a brain function that enables you to analyze multiple aspects of a situation all at once .

Reading text involves sequential processing which is more labor intensive.

• Colors, shapes, and spatial relationships are processed by the brain all at once. We have specialized neurons called “edge detectors” - refined through evolution- to immediately detect patterns, designs and color shifts.
• Comprehending words and text is more labor intensive.

Images are emotionally engaging and memorable.

• Visual images evoke a strong emotional engagement since they tap into our limbic system deep within the brain. The limbic system plays a crucial role in regulating various emotional and motivational experiences.
• Online audience engagement is directly connected to excitation of the limbic system.

Conclusion:

Are images important? You bet they are!

“A picture is a poem without words.” — Horace, an ancient Roman poet

In the age of information overload, we look for ways to filter out unnecessary information. Images are primo in today’s world.

No matter how well-crafted your content, without an image, it suffers.

With highly efficient brains, we prefer something we can understand quickly and effortlessly.

Visual images are the ticket.

So, think wisely about the image you place in your Medium article and how it describes your content.