"Vision Trumps All Other Senses"

Photo: Dreamglow
We recall information better when we see it. How much better? Try SIX TIMES better.

In his book Brain Rules, John Medina cites a study by LJ Najjar, about information recall. If we hear something, we remember 10% of it three days later. If we see something, we remember 35% of the visual. If we see and hear the information, we remember 65%. Adding a visual increases recall by a factor of six!

What does this mean for your company?


1. Marketing

Long copy's not dead. Remember, long copy still sells. Long copy, by itself, may even be effective. But it's not as effective as it could be. Graphics and/or images make marketing more striking and more memorable.

If someone is still peddling all-copy direct mail or newspaper ads to you, remind the ad peddler that we're living in the 21st century. We can do more with images today. It's easier than ever, though never easy. And we know it makes our marketing more effective. Tell the ad peddler to put more effort into his craft can come back with visually appealing, graphically exciting support for the persuasive, sales-in-print copy.


2. Training

If you want better recall of your training, add visual support. Seeing may or may not be believing, but it is remembering.


3. Coaching

What works for service meetings also works one-on-one. Maybe you won't whip out a computer and LCD projector when coaching individuals, but you can draw diagrams.


4. Managing

Rather than simply report performance numbers, create visuals. These can be as simple as a bar chart or pie chart. Charting performance improves recall and drives home the results.


5. Selling

In sales presentations, seek ways to make points visually. This can be through the use of props (mentioned in an earlier Comanche Marketing post), presentation books, sales literature, and/or physically pointing something out to the homeowner.

Note: I got the statistics from Medina's book by way of the following presentation. This is worth watching if you ever give a PowerPoint presentation.