The pandemic has had a major impact on the way marketers work and reach their audiences. With the virtual world becoming the primary mode of communication, it has become more important for brands to use visual content in their marketing strategies.

Venngage has been conducting an annual study on visual content marketing practices across the world. We reached out to 200 marketers again this year (with the help of Typeform).

In our survey, we asked marketers how visual content has been included in their marketing and growth strategies. We also asked them about the impact of the pandemic and where they think visual content marketing will be in the future.

Also this year, we decided to segment the report based on the country the strategy focuses on. In this article, you can find out the data from experts from Australia.

If you want to check the general report or the other countries’ reports, take a look at the links below:

Visual Content Marketing Statistics to Know for 2021 – Australia Report

Our survey of marketers around Australia focused on how they used visual content in 2020, and what changes they had to make due to the pandemic.

Here’s an infographic that highlights the data we collected. We’ve also got some expert insights on visual content marketing that you can read.

Visual Content Marketing Statistics to Know for 2021

Why has visual content become such a crucial aspect of marketing strategies? Because the amount of content online has grown exponentially.

For your marketing message to be seen by your audience, brands need to go that extra mile. The best way to do that is via visual content marketing.

The results of our survey indicate that marketers have had to adapt their strategy due to the pandemic and that they are using more visuals now to reach customers. Here are the major takeaways.

1. Did you pivot your visual content marketing strategy in 2020 based on the pandemic?

We asked Australian-based marketers if the pandemic had changed their business communication strategies. 64.3% of the respondents replied in the affirmative, while 35.7% said they did not have to pivot their strategy despite the global changes.

2. On a scale of 1-10, how much did you change your visual marketing strategy due to the pandemic?

As a follow-up to our opening question, we asked those surveyed to rank how much their visual marketing had had to be adapted. All respondents said that the pandemic had resulted in some changes being made to their visual strategy.

There was clearly a large change in the production of visual content with the majority of responses falling in the 8-10 range. An average of 7.1 was the scale of change, indicative of the scope of change that marketers had to adapt to because of the pandemic.

3. What kind of visuals did you use most frequently?

In 2020, the majority of the Australian content marketers surveyed said 91-100% of their content includes visuals, with 64.3% of respondents choosing that category.

21.4% of those surveyed said they included visuals in 71-80% of their content. 7.1% include visuals in 31-40% and 81-90% of their content.

We also asked marketers what types of visuals were used in Australia. 42.9% of the votes went to stock photos, which is really different from the results for the other countries. 28.6% of the marketers surveyed use original graphics while 14.3% uses charts and data visualizations.

Vídeos and presentations along with multi-page documents were used by only 7.1% of Australian marketers.

4. Which type of visuals helped them reach their marketing goals in 2020?

57.1% of respondents said original graphics are the most effective for achieving their goals.

Videos and presentations ranked far second, along with charts and data visualizations with 14.3%. Multi-page documents and stock photos represented only 7.1% of the votes, respectively.

5. Which type of visuals did not help you meet your marketing goals?

The results of the previous question gave us an idea of where this question would be heading. The responses for this question were overwhelmingly skewed towards stock photos, at 42.9%.

Multi-page documents received 21.4% of votes from respondents as the least effective.

Original graphics, along with charts and data visualizations were much more effective and received 14.3% of the votes for this question. GIFs and memes received 7.1% of the votes.

6. How much time did you spend each week producing visual content?

35.7% of respondents in 2020 said they spend less than five hours a week producing visual content. An equal number, 35.7%, said they spend 5-10 hours creating visual content, while 28.5% spent between 10 hours to more than 20 hours creating visual marketing content.

7. What tools did you typically use to create the visual content? 

35.7% of Australian respondents said they use online solutions, such as Venngage, while 28.6% use in-house designers.  Advanced design software is used by 21.4% of the marketers surveyed and 14.3% represent the percentage for freelance designers.

8. What was your biggest struggle when it comes to producing engaging visual content?

Amongst Australian marketers, 42.9% said their biggest struggle was production visual content consistently.

Sourcing data and statistics came in second with 21.4% of respondents voting for it. Finding the right layout to show data and statistics had the same percentage, 21.4%. Creating great designs represented 14.3% of the votes.

9. What percent of your budget was spent on visual content in 2020? And how will that change in 2021?

With so much visual content being creating for marketing strategies, we asked our respondents what percentage of their budget is being allocated for visuals, and how that is set to change following the pandemic.

7.1% of respondents said that less than 10% of their budget is being spent on visual content. 35.7% said 21-30% of the budget is used for visuals.

In 2020, 28.6% of Australian marketers spend between 11-20% of their budget on visual content marketing. Close behind were 28.5% of marketers who spent over 30% of their budgets on visuals.

And how is that set to change following the pandemic? 28.6% believe that marketing spend will increase to 21-30% and 31-40%. While 14.3% said their budgets would reach the 11-20%, as well as the 41-50% category.

Only 7.1% believe marketing spend for visual content creation would be more than 70% in 2021.

10. What do you spend the most on for visual content?

Since budgets for visual content are increasing and set to grow even more in the future, we wanted to know what types of visuals Australian marketers are spending on.

28.7% of those surveyed said that budgets are used for design, the same number voted for tools & software. While 14.3% of votes were allocated each to video production, animation, and stock photos.

11. If you could automate one part of creating visual content, what would that be?

We also asked Australian marketers how difficult they found it to produce branded visuals consistently. The average for respondents was 6.58.

It wasn’t surprising that, when asked what part of the visual content creation process they wanted to automate, marketers responded with the ability to auto-generate multiple types of design. 50% selected this option.

28.6% of respondents wanted social media auto-resize choices, while 14.3% wanted better automation when applying branding across visuals. 7.1% of the marketers surveyed did not want to add automation.

With Venngage for Business, marketers can access a variety of features including live team collaboration, auto-branding, and automatic resizing, along with priority support.

12. How essential is visual content to your marketing strategy?

71.4% of Australian marketers surveyed said that visual content is either essential or very important to their strategy. 28.6% of respondents feel visuals are quite important or somewhat important for their marketing. Nobody felt visuals weren’t important at all.

13. Which platforms do you create visual content for primarily?

We asked marketers what platforms they create visual content for regularly. There has been a clear pivot to using visuals for social media.

While 35.7% regularly create visuals for blog posts, the numbers for social media combined were a great deal more.

Visuals for Facebook represented 21.4% of the votes. Visuals for Instagram, LinkedIn, and Landing Pages represented 14.3% each.

14. How frequently do you publish content that contains visuals each week?

Following on from the previous question, we asked Australian marketers how often they publish visual content in a typical week. 50% said they publish visual content between two to five times a week. 35.7% published visuals between five and 10 times a week.

7.1% of respondents published visual content more than 10 times a week, as did those publishing posts with visuals less than twice a week.

15. In 2021 and 2022, what percentage of businesses do you think will rely heavily on visual content as part of their marketing strategy?

We ended our survey to Australian marketers by asking them to share what they thought would be the percentage of businesses that rely on visual content marketing in 2021 and the future.

The overwhelming majority, 85.7%, said that over 60% of businesses will use visuals. Only 14.3% of marketers said believed that between 31-60% of businesses would incorporate visuals in their strategy from 2021 onwards.

16. In the last decade, what were some of the biggest wins for content marketing in general?

We also asked some of the marketers we surveyed to share their insights about the biggest wins for content marketing and design over the last decade. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“Leaders have embraced quality content as a way to be genuinely useful to customers.”

Jody McDonald
Writer & Marketer | Content Specialist at Quill Studios

“Some of the biggest wins for content marketing include the popularity of various social media platforms that have enabled communication and reach to specific demographics of people. This has been a win for all B2B and B2C brands that previously only had a company website to interact and speak to consumers. Consumer data is the gateway to successful content marketing. As more data is collected on the consumer behavior purchase process, businesses can begin to refine their content marketing to ensure successful positioning and conversion.”

Celisha Mailoto
Community Content Creator and Digital Marketer at Arcare

“Everyone has their own publishing channel now: businesses can shape the narrative and help people get to know them.”

Rebecca Cofrancesco
Marketing strategist and content creator at Marketing Goodness

“More nuanced search engine algorithms which encourage high-quality content and reward subject matter experts. This has inspired a more strategic approach to content production and positioned content marketing as an essential tool in attracting and engaging the right online audience.”

Danielle Keightley
Content Marketing Specialist at Playbook Creative

“The biggest win for content marketing in the last decade has definitely been the shift to quality over quantity. Brands are investing in long-form storytelling that still captures important data points, is presented in a visually appealing way, and is written in a tone of voice specific to the brand.”

Courtney Goudswaard
Director at Scribble Content

17. What do you think some of the biggest wins for design and visual content were specifically in the last decade?

Lastly, we asked marketers to share the biggest wins for content marketing and design over the last decade. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“Video content, GIFs, new social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, Snapchat, Augmented reality has all helped to push the boundaries of design and visual content.”

Dilate

“The ability to take data, draw insights then present them in an unmistakeable and engaging way has changed the landscape of B2B marketing. Long live the infographic!”

Clare Robinson
Content Strategist at Shippit

“New technology innovation has made the design of visual content more accessible to marketers than ever. Thanks to user-friendly platforms that make design easy, as well as automated creative platforms, anyone can now create great content at a fraction of the price of hiring a designer.”

Michelle Lomas
Founder – Marketing Consultant and Advisor at Xtrordinate

“As people become more digitally savvy and aware, design and visual content has become significantly more important. Now that there is a range of tools that can help to streamline the process of developing this type of content, businesses of all sizes have the opportunity to create stunning graphics.”

Amaka

Conclusion

Visual content is going to be a force to reckon with in the world of marketing. More brands are seeing positive results from using visual content marketing to engage with audiences.

We have seen steady growth for visual content in the last decade but the pandemic has supercharged content creation and distribution. This is a strategy that going to be essential for Australian marketers in the coming years.

Do you have any other marketing insights to share about visual content for the Australian audience? Have success stories about using visuals in your marketing strategy? We’d love to hear all about it. Leave us a comment and share your visual content story with us.

If you want to check the general report or the other countries’ reports, take a look at the links below:

Not a designer? No problem. With Venngage, you can start visualizing your ideas without any design experience.