You’ve started up a new business or have a legacy organisation that has been catering to customers for decades – either way, a key goal is to effectively get the word out about your offering, and great design in marketing is at the core of your success. In today’s digital age where we are faced with too much information, the need to break clutter with powerful design is even more important for impactful advertising.
Here are a few key steps in creating design that matters.
Identify your key message.
Whether you are designing a social media post or e-flyer, firstly identify what your singular most important message is. Your design and content writing will all revolve around this core to avoid multiple messages that would otherwise leave the audience confused and make your advertising less memorable.
Visual harmony.
Colour is an important aspect of the visual foundation of your brand as the human mind connects with colour at an emotional level. Choose a ‘colour palette’ or range of colours that best define your brand in terms of emotional associations – e.g. a spa brand may select pastel blue and green tones that depict calm, whilst an energy drink could choose vibrant colours such as red and orange.
Colour and visual tone are a core element of design and create a lasting identity for your brand, making customers easily connect with your marketing.
Pictures speak.
An image can say a thousand words, and never has this been more important than in a time of information overload. Truly captivating images can be the make-or-break where an audience stops scrolling on your social media post or takes the time to read your e-flyer. For designers, it’s great that there is now easy access to stock imagery, including images that can be accessed for free.
As far as text for your design goes, less is more – use short and simple yet impactful descriptions. Basically, get rid of everything that is not important to making your point.
Lead with benefits
Your audience needs to know the benefits of consuming your offering. A common mistake is the over reliance on showcasing ‘features’ as versus ‘benefits’. By leading with benefits in a visual, we are telling the consumer what we can do for them, rather than sharing too much information on specific details. In the case of the spa treatment, the features of a treatment can be the oils used and massage duration, whilst the benefits that matter would be stress relief and overall happiness.
Remember, the audience will remember how you made them feel, rather than too much information.
Be courageous.
Whilst we’ve listed out a few key guidelines that serve as parameters to work within, remember to be courageous. The best design is born of creative freedom, and it is important to experiment and try new things!
Great design doesn’t only come from top rated design agencies. Small groups of passionate people or even a talented individual who works freelance can sometimes roll out the most impressive campaigns and have often been behind some of the most successful brands. These might just be the people you need to work with!