The pen may be mightier than the sword, but images are even further powerful than words!

Images excel at certain types of communication, but are not as effective for other types. Still, it’s important to understand what visual content works better than verbal content so you can choose the best medium for your message.

Here are 3 secrets to help you unlock the power of visual imagery in your content marketing.

SECRET #1: The human brain is designed to process images.

Leonardo da Vinci said, “All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.”

Humans have five main sensory pathways, but most people rely heavily on their sense of sight. Scientists estimate that about 90% of the sensory information that enters our brains comes through our eyes!

It is estimated that 50% of all the resources of the human brain are dedicated to seeing and interpreting what we see. Approximately 30% of our gray matter contains neurons for vision, compared to just 3% for hearing. Of all the nerves that connect to the brain, 40% of the nerves come from the retina of the eyes.

Our brains are obviously wired to prioritize visual information over other types of sensory information. Vision is clearly the primary pathway of sensory information for most people.

The brain can process visual information 60,000 times faster than it processes textual information. More researchers have found that visual aids can increase learning by up to 400% compared to teaching with verbal methods alone.

What is all this visual information that our brains are so busy processing? Much of it is processed by our subconscious brain and used for countless snap decisions to keep us safe.

SECRET #2: Written content is No mainly visual.

The role of written content is often misunderstood; we think it is visual because we use our eyes to read. But reading is more correctly classified as a verbal than a visual task.

Consider for a moment that not everyone uses their eyes to read. Visually impaired people can learn to read perfectly well using the Braille writing system processed with their fingertips, not with their eyes.

Reading is a unique task that involves multiple parts of the brain. But one thing is final: Reading is a high-level abstract reasoning skill. performed primarily by the conscious brain. Reading is a very different brain process than the subconscious visual input described above.

Although most people use their eyes to view a printed page or screen, that’s not the most important part of the reading process. We must use the verbal processing part of our conscious (logical) brain to translate those lines and scribbles into thoughts and ideas.

The visual part of the reading task is useless by itself; the verbal part of the task determines the meaning of what we read. It is the coordination of those 2 brain functions that makes reading such a complex skill.

In short, it is more accurate to classify written text as verbal content than visual content, regardless of whether those written words appear in a book or on a PowerPoint slide or on a video screen. Sharing written text on the screen is verbal content, NOT visual!

SECRET #3: Sharing visual content offers unique benefits.

Traditionally, we have assumed that pictorial information can be translated into words and vice versa, giving rise to expressions such as: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

But cognitive research has discovered that these two ways of representing knowledge are qualitatively different and the same information cannot be easily converted from one mode to another.

The dual-code or dual-channel learning theory states that humans use separate channels for mental processing of verbal and pictorial information.

Active learning requires time and mental space to process input. Working memory, with its limited capacity, is where this active processing occurs and involves the integration of input from the verbal and visual/pictorial channels.

When a learner mentally integrates spoken or printed verbal information from one channel with visual/pictorial information from the other channel, this active processing achieves the most successful learning outcomes..

According to Walt Disney, “Of all our inventions for mass communication, images still speak the most universally understood language.”

Educational researchers have documented that we learn and remember better through picturesnot through written or spoken words.

Images are the language of the subconscious. Visual communication reaches the subconscious mind of your current and potential customers, regardless of the specific medium, form or platform of exchange.

The images are concrete and are closer to reality. Our eyes and our brain perceive all parts of an object simultaneously as a whole. Rather, reading involves scanning different letters in a linear sequence to recognize the individual letters as a word.

There is a whole category of information that is processed visually without any thought involved. Thesis “preattentive attributes”like color, direction, and pattern, they can convey a huge amount of information visually at blazing fast speeds—in 250 milliseconds!

An example would be using color to highlight certain elements of written content from the rest. The effect is instant! Preattentive processing is one of the ways our visual system can process far more input than all the other senses combined!

Much of the sensory information we process is entirely subconscious, and as stated above, 90% of that information is visual. That subconscious flow of visual information forms an impression in the mind of your audience. This is extremely powerful and has been used by many politicians and world leaders, for better or worse.

IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT that you haven’t been creating and sharing more visual content.

If our brains are optimized to handle visual input, then why do so many people rely on a preponderance of text-based verbal information to get their message across to their target audience?

The subconscious part of the brain is busy processing sensory stimuli, while the conscious brain is mainly focused on processing internal information. The conscious brain focuses on its own thoughts, using activities such as planning, abstract thinking, reasoning, and analysis. These thinking tasks are often completely independent of external sensory stimuli.

While our subconscious brains are processing all of that sensory information, we’re unaware of all of that activity…because it’s happening on a subconscious level. Most of us rarely think about what our subconscious brain is doing, let alone how we can improve our brain’s effectiveness by providing information in a more desirable format.

If we are not aware of these issues in connection with our own mental processing, then we are not very likely to think about the same issues when we communicate with others, such as in the marketing messages we deliver to our customers and prospects.

So, my dear reader, you are to be congratulated for understanding the importance of the ideas in this article, and for considering changing the way you deliver your educational marketing or content marketing, or even changing your communications in general.