Brand recognition is a primary objective for every brand especially when it is just starting out. This is where the value of having a great design for digital marketing campaigns plays a huge role. More brands are realizing the importance of an awesome marketing design because it has been proven that the audience can retain up to 65% of the information when a visual medium is presented for brand awareness.
Graphic design as a business marketing strategy is not a new thing or something that just goes out of trend. Up to 60.8% of seasoned marketers are aware that adding graphic design elements is essential to achieve marketing success. Design can affect buying decisions so you have to be capable of creating a good design if you want to be effective at persuading people.
A graphic design can only be two things: one that captures attention and one that barely holds a quick glance. As a business owner or the one in charge of marketing, there will be instances where you may need to create designs to promote your brand. Hence the importance of knowing the best design tips for marketers that will help catapult your brand to success.
Not all marketers, however, are skilled at using design in marketing. To help you be successful in this feat, we have gathered all the essential information about the fundamentals of graphic design in marketing plus handy design tips for marketers for a visually-appealing business marketing strategy.
Why Every Marketer Needs to Be a (Part-Time) Designer
Truth be told, designers can survive even if they do not know a thing or two about marketing. They can do well as long as they listen and understand the specifics of the design concepts that they have to work on. Marketers, on the other hand, absolutely need to be acquainted with design fundamentals if they want to make something great out of it.
The reason is that knowing design better will tremendously improve the marketing efforts. If you are not entirely convinced yet, here are the top reasons why marketers need to learn about design too:
1. Communicate Better
When creating a campaign, you can articulate your thoughts well if you are aware of the intricacies involved in the design process. You will be able to communicate the message better so that the customers will be able to clearly understand the concept behind the design. It will also help you make meaningful conversations with the rest of the marketing and design team.
2. Inspire Better
Design is a creative concept and learning more about it will only make you creative as well. This would allow you to creatively think of ways to solve problems and come up with bright ideas. It would even help you understand the competitor’s designs and uncover their strategies.
3. Sell Better
Just like knowing about the product inside out, being aware of how design works is an edge because you can support it endlessly. You will be able to create designs that are tailored to the target customers’ preferences. This makes your brand authentic since you are practically customizing the design to fit your consumers.
To sum it up, learning design is an advantage because it opens your mind and fills it with fresh ideas. From a business standpoint, being creative will allow you to understand your marketing strategies better so that you can effectively communicate with the customers. This would ultimately result in having meaningful relationships with the consumers.
Marketing strategies where good visual designs are essential
Social Media Marketing
Professional-looking design on your social media posts will help build a strong brand. Not only will it increase brand awareness but will also get them engaged with your content. It will give your brand a sense of strong authority that the audience tends to gravitate towards.
Pitch Desks and Presentations
Convincing someone to work with your company or presenting your strategy with to team can be challenging. You need to be aided with stunning visuals alongside the text and data parts of your slides in order to impress the audience. If you have a good design for your pitches and presentations, it reflects on the way to approach the business in general. It sends a message that you are a creative person that can drive the team to success.
Infographics
Infographics are integral in supporting marketing materials. Facts, data, and visuals tend to be boring content. Creating highly visual content will help present data or fact-based information in a fun and more memorable way. The visual elements will bring the graphics, data, text, and images together to provide a a piece of comprehensive yet concise information that would be useful to the audience.
Webs and apps
A good website or app design contributes a lot to the whole user experience. The way the pages look and respond is critical in achieving success in terms of engaging the audience or doing certain actions. It is crucial that you attract the users with good visuals for them to have a positive perception of your website or app.
Newsletter and email marketing
You cannot force a customer to read marketing emails even with great content. Not unless you have a good design that instantly attracts attention and will entice the receiver to keep reading. Newsletters are only effective if the recipients could digest the content. It is therefore essential to not only have relevant content but also to ensure that you motivate the customer to read and take action by using an irresistible design in your emails.
Web sales landing pages
Landing pages are meant to encourage visitors to purchase your product, services, or choose your brand. You need to design a page that draws their attention toward the most important pieces of information. This should guide them to do what you want them to do so that you can achieve your business goals.
Print Ads Designs
Whether it be posters, brochures, or direct mail, print ads with a good design can help get the message across clearly. An eye-catching design can help bring your ideas to life and let the audience excited to learn more about your brand or the products that you sell.
Web Ads Designs
How your web ads look can deliver a huge impact on the way the customer perceives your brand. You need to create a positive impression by having a well-designed ad that will encourage them to take a deeper look. Setting a good first impression will eventually help build trust and encourage them to buy from you.
The power of good visuals is immense especially when it comes to marketing strategies. It attracts attention and drives engagement, factors that you need to see significant improvements in your marketing efforts.
15 Design Tips for Marketers
Given the power of visual content in today’s marketing standards, it is a must that you learn how to create good designs even if you are a non-design folk. Here are the top 15 design tips for marketers that will help you design marketing materials like a pro:
1. Know Your Audience
Although you need to create something that you think would look good, you always have to consider what your target market likes above all else. Research your buyer persona and preferences. Their tastes matter more than the trends. You need to have a design that resonates with what your customers favor so that they can identify with it.
2. Solve a Problem
A design is all about fulfilling a need or solving a problem. Just like how you can design a product as a solution, you need to ensure that you are able to simplify and present it in a non-complicated manner. From a marketer’s point of view, the problem is how you can encourage the audience to try your solution. Create a design that grabs attention so that you can proceed with introducing the product fully. Point out the product features while highlighting the product pleasingly.
3. Be Original
Even seasoned designers will find it challenging to create designs from scratch but it does not mean that an amateur cannot do it. The only thing that you need to do is to do research on what is already out there and simply avoid replicating those styles. It is okay to be inspired by other designs and content but you simply cannot copy someone else’s work or concept. The best thing to do is to come up with a list of all the designs that inspired you. Then, try to see why each one of them had an impact on you. Take note of these and research how you can adapt and improve it to look better for your brand.
4. Use Lots of White Space
Trying to fill every bit of space is a common mistake. What looks better is a good balance of content and white space to provide a more aesthetic appeal. It instantly declutters the content and even makes the main subject stand out. Aside from that, whitespace is said to increase comprehension to as much as 20%. This means that you only do not make the content look neat but you also help make it more understandable.
5. Mind the Typography
Having one to two fonts is acceptable if you are aiming for a simple but impactful design. Fonts, like colors, can also say a lot about your brand personality. One can tell if you are either serious or having fun by the fonts that you use on your content. This indicates that you need to choose your fonts well if you want to appear dependable, like a bold sans-serif font.
6. Use Contrast
Contrasting images, colors, textures, and other elements is the easiest way to add interest and create a variety in your design. The contrasting sections also give a bit of drama to the whole design making it more captivating and unique.
7. Keep It Simple
Complex designs are discouraged because it would take a while for a viewer to process. Once you lose the initial impact that you need, it makes the design and the message harder to remember. This is why when using design for marketing, always remember that simplicity is the key. A visually-pleasing design can be simple and minimal as long as it is executed beautifully. Your brand or the message that you want to come across will instantly pop up in the audience’s head if you are able to communicate in a direct and succinct manner.
8. Pick Appropriate Colors
Colors have meanings and it would be very rewarding if you will study color psychology. This is important because colors are not only giving life to your design but also help convey the tone and personality of your brand. Get the most impact by limiting the colors and go for a simple and neat appearance. You can do this by choosing color combinations that complement each other or with your brand colors.
9. Have Relevant Imagery
Images draw attention and make the content more memorable. Use it to your advantage by having images that are relevant to your content. Although you can use stock photography, custom graphics are more encouraged because of its ability to support the message better. Also, stock images tend to look generic thus making your campaign less sincere. Make your brand feel more reliable by having personalized imagery, like infographics and icons, to illustrate the benefits of choosing your brand or products over others.
10. Be Consistent
It is important to have a distinct style for your marketing content. This should be used across all materials and channels to boost brand recognition. You can easily achieve this by creating a style sheet and templates. This will ensure that you maintain consistency in the design from your newsletters to landing pages. By doing this, your audience can easily pick your brand even in a sea of social media posts.
11. Use Content Hierarchy
Content hierarchy is simply creating a sense of order in your visual content. An excellent arrangement of the different elements of the design will guide the audience on where to focus their attention first. This would allow you to display the focal point of your message so that the audience will never miss it. Content hierarchy ensures that you get to communicate the message at first glance giving you sufficient time to hold the audience’s interest. It would make sure that the most important content is viewed even if the audience allots only a few seconds of their time on your page.
12. Create Infographics
Informative content can be lengthy and it can be a challenge to get the gist of the information across to the audience. This is why you need infographics in your design. Instead of rambling about industry statistics, you can create visualizations that are clearer but still contains high-value content. Visual aids are easier to digest and will even help avoid boring the audience with too much text.
13. Aim for a Mobile-First Design
Most digital consumers are now using mobile phones to access the internet. Instead of desktop-first thinking, you need to level up your game and think mobile-first. The design should have high-resolution graphics that would look great on mobile devices. This should be applied across all digital marketing materials, including social media posts, website content, landing pages, etc.
14. Ask For Feedback
It is critical that you know if your design is effective or not. Be brave enough to gather feedback about your design from your trusted friends, family, or colleagues. You can even ask the audience directly if they like the design of your site or not. This can be done through online polls and surveys or you can request feedback through emails. Take note that asking for feedback alone will not do the trick. You also need to study the responses and try to see the reason behind both negative and positive feedback.
15. Adapt and Evolve
Avoid being stagnant by seeking out new trends within your industry. Being able to adapt and evolve means that you are capable of elevating your game so to keep your brand modern and relevant. Just remember not to steer away from your brand. You can also use the information you got after asking for feedback. It should guide you as to what you should improve or change so that it will be appealing to the audience. Again, it will boil down to knowing who your audience is and what they want.
What you should notice in these design tips for marketers is that the goal is to not overcomplicate it. You may be struggling at first to create designs that will launch your business to success but always remember that everyone started from the bottom. Let your hard-earned knowledge be your edge so that you can create stunning visual designs that provide valuable information to the audience.
Takeaways...
Graphic design knowledge and skills have become an essential skills for non-design folks, like digital marketers. This is primarily due to the fact that visual platforms are taking over the internet where most of the consumers are. Understanding design principles in marketing is the only way to create the most captivating digital content that will improve your online brand marketing performance.
There are many design tasks that only professional designers can do but being able to do simpler tasks can be beneficial. Having some design skills can be more valuable than having none at all. It is an edge that will help you elevate your marketing skills. Even you will be amazed at what you can do with your newfound skills.
Although it is unrealistic to have marketers go through extensive design courses and training, it can help to have a better understanding of design fundamentals. By being armed with design tips for marketers and being aware of the importance of design in marketing strategies, you will significantly improve your visual approach, develop your design eye, and be better at understanding what will work for your brand.
Hopefully, this post will improve your design-making skills and get you started with creating the most awesome brand marketing content.
.jpg)
