Companies that want to capitalize on new business opportunities or growth with visual communications can learn something from Canva’s 2024 Visual Economy Report. The 48-page resource includes takeaways from a survey of more than 3,700 global business leaders regarding embracing visual communication tools and practices in the workplace.
We’ve summarized insights from the report to highlight the most vital points, providing decision-makers with useful information that can inform their creative teams to increase brand awareness, improve engagement, and boost the effectiveness and efficiency of visual content production at scale.
What is visual communication?
Visual communication—conveying ideas and information through images, videos, graphics, and other visual elements—has quickly become the medium of choice for consumers. Beyond just its appeal to those who prefer it to reading or listening to messaging, visual communication was cited by the surveyed business leaders to provide the following top three benefits:
- Enhanced idea articulation (93%)
- Increased efficiency (91%)
- Increased business performance (77%)
Proficiency in design literacy has become so vital that 92% of the global business leaders surveyed reported that they expect employees in non-design roles to have design skills and knowledge. In the United States, that percentage was even higher (94%).
Embracing visual communication tools
When asked for their top three priorities when evaluating visual communication solutions, business leaders listed:
- More efficient workflows (93%)
- Real-time collaboration (93%)
- All-in-one functionality (92%)
While business leaders have their own ideas about the problems visual communication solutions should solve, employees have their own needs when it comes to tools. Prioritizing user-friendly visual communication tools is a must, but so is integration and the ability to improve collaboration.
Luckily, visual communication tools quickly bridge the gap between what bosses want to see happen and what their employees need to get there. The results are improving results across a variety of functions, including:
- Sales: Has accelerated sales cycles (90%)
- HR/People leaders: Has accelerated hiring cycles (89%)
- Marketing: Has helped articulate ideas better (93%)
- Remote/hybrid teams: Has helped members stay connected (91%)
- Overall: Has improved efficiency (91%), improved collaboration (90%), and
achieved more with fewer people/resources (75%)
Perhaps the biggest takeaway across the board is that visual communication tools have created a positive ROI (90%), ensuring that a company’s investment in the right solutions more than pays for itself.
Using AI in visual communications
The benefit of AI lies in its ability to automate mundane tasks, which saves employees time and frees up their energy to focus more on creative and relationship-focused tasks. By pairing human-powered quality with AI-powered quantity, businesses can scale their visual communication efforts in a way that’s balanced, authentic, and empowering for teams.
Today, 82% of business leaders report using AI-powered tools to produce visual content in the past year. It’s hardly surprising considering the technology’s potential to enhance productivity, efficiency, and creativity, even as budgets tighten and content needs grow.
So, just how are marketing and communication leaders using AI daily?
- Create social media copy (50%)
- Research/summarize client activity (46%)
- Draft blog outlines (45%)
- Brainstorm pitch ideas (45%)
- Build media lists (45%)
- Research/summarize industry news (44%)
- Draft landing page copy (43%)
- Draft press releases online (42%)
Choosing a visual communication platform
The key to choosing a visual communication platform isn’t adding more tools but prioritizing the right ones. When comparing cloud-based solutions to help your employees create, manage, distribute, and track visual content, it helps to start with your team’s needs and wants. After all, they’re the ones in the trenches, and they best understand the existing challenges that may be keeping them from reaching the company’s goals.
Here are the top 10 survey results regarding key considerations when evaluating visual communication platforms (VCPs):
- Cost (88%)
- AI capabilities (90%)
- Integrations with other apps (91%)
- All-in-one multi-functionality (92%)
- Keep content on brand (92%)
- Quickly create high-quality visual content (92%)
- Security and privacy controls (93%)
- Create more efficient workflows (93%)
- Collaborate in real-time (93%)
- Easy of use (93%)
Not sure where to start when choosing an end-to-end software solution to help your company thrive in the visual economy? Compare the core capabilities of the top VCPs that align with your company size, budget, current needs, and foreseeable scaling challenges. Ideally, these capabilities will include:
- A centralized visual workspace
- An extensive library of tools and templates to create content
- AI-powered tools and assistance
- Integration capabilities (e.g., Slack, Amazon ads, Meta, Microsoft Teams)
- Effortless team collaboration
- Multichannel distribution
- Brand management (e.g., fonts, logos, color schemes)
- Analytics on engagement
- Security and compliance
- 24/7 client support
Visual communication is improving the way companies do business with the public and behind the scenes and those who don’t adapt will be left behind. Investing in the right tools can help your teams work smarter, not harder, which will pay for itself in no time.
