What is the value of Visual Storytelling?

B2B folks everywhere:

You’ve probably heard of “visual storytelling” and how important it can be for your brand and for your presentations. 

However, like many a buzzword, we’ve seen the phrase thrown around so much, we fear its true meaning is often confused with a focus on style, rather than substance.

Visual storytelling goes beyond decoration, embellishment and off-brand AI imagery. True visual storytelling helps marketers achieve clarity in their communications—it helps to bring the core of our messages to life with meaning and memorability.

In our constant journey towards Presentation Excellence, we’re focusing Q2’s content around Visual Storytelling and unpacking its definition, how it works, why it matters now and the immense value of investing in it at all.

To join us in this Visual Storytelling deep dive, we invited Creative Director of GhostRanch Communications, Allie Wilson onto the Presentation Thinking podcast. 

(Listen to the full podcast episode with Allie here).

What is visual storytelling and how does it work? 

In Allie’s words:

 It's really the art of using, you know, images, graphics, combined with type and even thinking deeply about how you're using color and thinking about it as a greater system to communicate a message or an idea.

Visuals, of course, are anything you can see—font choices, shapes, graphics, photos and the branding all play into that. However, don’t just assume you need to be a professional graphic designer to be a good visual storyteller. 

We know that opening a blank page or slide in G-slides may seem daunting. But simple shapes and even stick figures (yes, doodles count as visual storytelling) can go a long way! 

Allie continues:

Even beyond that, it's about how to make really, really complex things—which we deal with all the time in presentation design—really complex ideas and simplifying them so that they're really easy to understand and to make them really memorable. It’s especially important to have them create an emotional connection with your audience too.

It's all about the combination of visuals with your own strategic story.

How does that play out in the blending of our Right-brain + Left-brains? 

Well, we know that because of the “picture superiority effect” that when presented with only verbal information, humans will only remember 10% when tested a few days later. But that number goes up to 65% when you add a picture or visual element. McKinsey also tells us that people will remember something with 22x more accuracy when that information is packaged into a story format. 

So using strategic visuals AND storytelling? Phew, that’s a double whammy.

This is where spending a lot of time on your messaging and brand narrative will pay off.

After establishing your purpose for a particular deck, whitepaper or keynote, the visual storytelling is the strategic execution of visuals and words working together to create something memorable.

Why does visual storytelling matter right now? 

Visual and cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Carmen Simon studies how business content affects our brains. One of Dr. Simon’s most recent studies shows how participants were made to stare at a beige wall for 30 seconds and then consume B2B content right afterwards.

What they found?

There wasn’t any significant difference in the brain’s reactions between that beige wall and B2B content. 

“Woof” Allie says. But she’s not altogether surprised. 

 The market is crowded. Things are just starting to all look the same. I think I called it ‘the sea of sameness.’ It's just everything is kind of looking the same and melding together. People are getting exhausted by just the amount of options that are out there that all kind of look the same. How do you pick one out?

Let’s face it, the B2B market is crowded and not getting any less so. Elliott Rayner cites that each of us, on average, consumes about 32GB of information DAILY.

If you need to stick out from this “Sea of Sameness”, then the focus has to be on differentiation. 

A few red flags adding to the “beige wall syndrome” that Allie calls out include:

• Walls of text
• Long bullet point lists
• Familiar canned templates
• Tiny text on graphs/data 
• Lack of builds within a deck
• Cliche imagery your industry has seen 

Good visual storytelling has the power to break through all of that. 

Being able to differentiate from stock, random AI generated stuff and cliche imagery in a consistent, ownable style will ultimately support you in building brand equity—and we know the stronger the brand equity, the stronger the value.

The value of visual storytelling 

While it’s great to have fun and fresh messaging and visuals, the value of good visual storytelling isn’t just looking cool or new—it’s the ability for your story to live on after you present it. 

Allie shares a great idea from speaker and author Tim Pollard wherein he suggests in a sales context, it’s not necessarily the conversation you have with a prospect that’s most important—it’s the conversation they go on to have ABOUT you. 

Allies talks about this idea:

 Even if you dump a bunch of stuff on 'em and your product's great, they need to then go and convince other stakeholders or the other people who are managing budgets or whatever to buy your product. And if what you're saying to them is not memorable or he called it re-tellable, it’s not gonna happen. If they can’t tell the same story that you told them. 

By its definition, illustration means to clarify or explain, to give an example of or provide pictures. But a more interesting definition is that illustration is the act or process of illumination, shedding light into a topic that remains unclear. 

Visual storytelling is extremely important in this regard—it gives you the ability to distill ideas into a simple blend of shapes, colors and words. 

At the end of her deck on visual storytelling, Allie harkens back to the Right-brain Left-brain imagery she opens with—and puts GhostRanch in the sweet middle spot. She’s made a relatable, emotional appeal to B2B marketers and PMMs, shown some data around the “why now?” (ahem, beige wall syndrome beware!) and instead of simply slapping the GhostRanch logo on, she closes her visual story.

Visuals aren’t just decorative, they should help you communicate. 

It’s simple but it’s re-tellable. Pass it on—that’s the value of visual storytelling!