Did you know that you only have an average time of 8 seconds to impress prospects visiting your website or social media account? Graphic design in digital marketing has a monumental role and has been increasingly important for online marketers in the last few years.
What is the reason for this growing interest in graphic design?
The online media are already flooded with content from countless entities and finding your place in today’s digital world means your presence needs to be unique.
No matter how much dedication you put into developing quality content, if it doesn’t create that spark for users, they will not read it. People are increasingly unwilling to read through content that doesn’t stand out to them; even if they start to read it they will abandon it if they find it uninteresting. Add in other factors such as website speed and user experience and you already have multiple factors to consider and control in order to retain user interest.
What should your business’s approach be when it comes to digital marketing design?
What do we mean when we say graphic design and digital marketing?
Before making the best use of graphic design in digital marketing, let’s see what each of these fundamental concepts means.
The American Institute of Graphic Arts defined graphic design as “the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content” – in other words, conveying ideas or messages in a visual way. Graphic design includes visuals of different sizes and complexity, from a simple logo to full webpage layout.
Digital marketing, on the other hand, is considered “all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and websites to connect with current and prospective customers” (Hubspot)
Combining the two definitions gives us graphic design in digital marketing as using visuals on the Internet to communicate an idea or a message.
What can these do for your business?
Does your business need graphic design and digital marketing to grow? These two practices are not just some of the latest trends you could try. They already represent the norm in a digital world where people and brands interact with each other online.
Benefits of graphic design for business:
Spreading messages effectively
There is an old saying that goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Every business needs to use graphic design at some point to communicate to their audiences. Using text only will never attract your prospects’ attention in our highly-visual world.
Helps building your brand personality
Consumers prefer brands that can transmit emotion and have a strong personality. Your brand can display one of multiple values, such as excitement, sophistication, competence, or ruggedness among others. Images help with building your brand personality and communicating it more efficiently and effectively.
Attracting humans, who are visual creatures
We are visual creatures and spend at least a couple of hours on social networks consuming visual content every day. So, people are attracted by visual things and will only react or engage if your brand imagery says something to them.
Benefits of digital marketing for business:
Having a digital marketing strategy nowadays is a must as most people research products and services online before deciding to buy. The main benefits of promoting your business online include:
Better return on investment and achieving more with less
Online marketing is more cost-effective than its traditional counterpart and you get the same or better results by spending less money. Printing, distributing, and paying for ad space is very expensive, while getting started online requires as little as a good website and professional help. Digital marketing is less resource-intensive than the previously mentioned traditional marketing methods. This will allow you compete with the big brands using a limited budget. Being creative and applying digital marketing techniques the smart way will allow you to compete at the same level as large companies.
Reaching a larger audience
Traditional marketing is limited by cost and exposure, while digital marketing allows you to reach a significant amount of people who could be interested in your products. You can even reach people from all over the globe if you apply the right targeting, as opposed to advertising on local TV and communicating your message to people from a more limited geographical area.
Easy to measure
Digital marketing software comes with built-in instruments for tracking results; this enables you to quickly determine the outcome of your campaign and even make tweaks while it’s still running.
Creating a relationship with customers
An active online presence enables you to keep in touch with your audience and, more than that, build a long-lasting relationship with prospects. Applying the right digital marketing strategy enables you to maintain your brand’s presence in your client’s life.
Why is graphic design such an integral part of digital marketing?
Graphic design and digital marketing services provided by the same company allow for efficient branding. The two components should ideally be interdependent, an objective which is easier to achieve when the same agency provides both graphic design and digital marketing.
Moreover, this perfect marriage between graphic design and online marketing make lots of specific everyday problems easier to solve. For instance:
- Graphic designers who create graphics for advertising and marketing purposes collaborate directly with decision-makers and marketing professionals;
- The graphic designer and the online marketer will collaborate to create the perfect balance between the aesthetics of a design and functionality;
- Visuals are at the service of sales and conversions;
- You make sure the graphic designer keeps their vision in a direction that matches the content and the brand message;
- You are provided images at the right resolution that can easily be uploaded to a functional website or other marketing platform.
What good graphic design can do for ANY business:
Graphic design is not just for ‘creative’ businesses. Think about your industry and the market which you are targeting, what speaks to them? It is critical to think about the market you’re speaking to when it comes to each aspect of your design. Consider colours, fonts, images and icons. No matter how ‘serious’ or ‘boring’ your industry may be you can make it feel exciting by incorporating the right visual elements.
How you can utilise design
To begin with, set up an initial brand and branding guidelines. Guidelines must be understood throughout the whole company as they set a basis for your team to work from. Think about how clever design can be adapted for seasonality, or to meet promotional needs, or as communication material internally and externally.
A good graphic designer will contribute to creating an effective digital marketing design that speaks the language of your prospects and draws their attention. How can you achieve that? Keep on reading to discover some graphic design tips you too can apply:
Graphic design tips for small business
- Draw inspiration from successful brands
The most successful companies that everyone knows have not invested just in products and services, but also in great design. Their logos are iconic and every visual element conveys the company’s values and supports functionality.
- Be creative
It’s a simple piece of advice, but sometimes difficult to put into practice. Everyone can be creative if they dare to express themselves, but if you need assistance in this area, a graphic designer can help.
- Keep it simple
And simple does not equal ‘plain’. For instance, big brands like Apple, Nike, IBM, and Microsoft all have simple, yet meaningful and memorable logos. Keep your digital marketing design simple if you want it to stand the test of time.
- Take advantage of design tools
Creatively speaking, it is now far easier to unleash your creativity as you have access to lots of supporting tools. An empty piece of paper and a pencil are far more intimidating than a friendly app that provides you with templates and tools for creating designs. Consider logo maker tools, email signature tools, and custom products designs tools – even non-designers can use them with excellent results!
- Be consistent with fonts and colours (set up branding guidelines)
The human brain is wired to maintain and seek out consistency. When noticing an element that stands out as odd, your message recipients become suspicious and lose trust in your brand. This is why having a set of solid branding guidelines is vital. Guidelines help your brand stay consistent and assist with the creation of new visual elements to match your original vision.
Graphic Design Services from VMA
Visual Marketing Australia offers Gold Coast Graphic Design services to set your brand apart from your competitors. We perfectly integrate graphic design in digital marketing. We have the experts that can handle both areas in a professional and creative manner. Find out more about our graphic design services!
