The statistics on visual marketing don’t lie. It beats out text content, gets shared more often, effectively engages your target audience and drives sales. The fact is that people just prefer to consume their content via images and video as compared to reading. This phenomenon raises an important question for marketers when it comes to branding: Are internet users lazy or is there something more to it? The answer might surprise you, as there’s proof that humans are hard wired to interact when presented with visual marketing.

Our brains were made for visuals: The brain is what humans use to make sense of the world around them and it does so primarily through the eyes. What we take in visually is processed by our brain and then sent to the other areas to combine with memory, emotion and understanding – which gives imagery meaning far beyond what the other senses produce.

Color and movement grab attention: Color is the marketer’s friend and has a huge impact on branding. Color increases the recall of technical information by up to 82% and can bring attention to details that are otherwise somewhat bland. Movement has a similar impact, as there are certain parts of the eye that more sensitive to movement. The eyes remain more focused and alert when the object of their attention is moving.

We’re watching from Day 1: Even infants respond to movement and light, before they have the ability to do anything much more than eat and sleep. They haven’t learned to process the information the eyes capture yet, but the mechanisms are there. Early on, we’re wired to be attracted to what we see.

The mind craves stimulation: The eyes may be the primary information gathering organ, but we do have other senses that deliver information to our brains. When these combine with vision, they satisfy our brain’s craving for stimulation. This is the reason that video is so effective in marketing, because it appeals to our eyes and ears.

Visuals increase understanding: This point is especially true when presenting information of a complex or technical nature. Humans can read about how to do something or how a device works, but they’ll get a lot more meaning out of the material if they see it in action. Plus, we understand certain images in an instant. An example would be street signs: As compared to a sentence, these images tell us more with a picture and they do it faster.

Imagery helps us remember: Visuals are critical to marketing because they help our target audience remember information. Eighty percent of people who view a video online will remember the material for up to 30 days.

Visual marketing isn’t just pretty and easy on the eye: There’s actual scientific proof that humans are drawn to imagery and videos, which means a lot for your branding efforts. As such, the job of a marketer becomes quite clear: Focus on the visual aspects of your content when trying to facilitate the connection between your company and its message for branding purposes.