You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to create great visual content for your business. Anyone with a will to learn and some creative spark can create great visuals to complement their website, business logo, branding, and content.
While some software knowledge is a must, these how-to tips will help you elevate your brand regardless of the platform. It’s well worth the effort to produce quality visual content. Visual content earns more engagement than text-only. Further, visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are growing rapidly.
Visual content can easily be implemented in advertisements, websites, branding, or even social media content to name a few examples. However, there’s a difference between creating content that is visual and creating content that stands out. These tips will help you bridge that gap.
Graphic Design & Content Marketing
Everyone knows that visual content adds a significant amount of value. The problem is that the approach to it is often random and undisciplined. It’s a bit like assigning someone to build a house who knows that they need wood and nails, and who knows what a house is supposed to look like. They just don’t have skills or training. They might create something that looks like a house, but they’re going to miss a lot along the way.
You can create visual content without formal training as a graphic designer. Still, you’ll be much better at it if you learn enough to understand the basic principles of design. After all, these exist because they work and are proven.
How-to Tips For Designing Great Visual Content
These tips use some of the basics of graphic design. Implement them as you work on your visual content, and you’ll be impressed with the results.
Great Written Content Matters
There’s a lot written about the growing popularity of visual content in comparison to written content. Don’t be fooled. A great content strategy will employ both, on their own and combined. Fortunately, there are many platforms available for creating and editing written content. You can also use free slogan generators. Never treat written content as an afterthought. Instead, treat them as elements that complement one another. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and resources for creating and editing written content.
Customize Your Visual Content
There’s a ton of great visual content out there. People have made amazing videos, engaging infographics, photographs, you name it. If it’s relevant to your audience, by all means, curate this content. By doing so, you enrich your content offerings and make your social media and website interesting for your followers.
Just keep it to a minimum. Your primary focus should be creating original content and customizing it to meet the needs of your audience. Visual content informs your brand. How can you get very far if your creations aren’t original?
Use a Limited Color Palette
Colors are another important branding element. When people think of major brands, they don’t simply create associations with the best logos and other symbols. Many also associate a specific color or color palette. For example, beauty logos usually use red and pink. More formal brands like law firm logos will use blue and black.
This familiarity happens because of consistency and the use of limited color palettes. It may be tempted to experiment with color. Unfortunately, if you stray too far from a single palette, that could make your brand a bit less easy to recognize.
Top Logo Colors Trends That Makes Modern Logos Standout
Don’t Be Afraid of White Space
Implement Coco Chanel’s advice here. Less is more. White space helps to create content that is more attractive, and easier to read. It makes your content scannable, and the practice is mobile-friendly.
Use Contrasting Colors
One way to get readers to focus where you need them is by using contrasting colors. If a CTA button stands out, it’s going to get more attention. We love to use orange for CTA, it’s drawing attention and creates excitement. This can be done by using a contrasting color, using size to set an element apart, or using a font variation as mentioned above. Use A/B testing to verify the success of these changes.
Don’t Forget to Experiment – to an Extent
Great visual content balances using tried and true techniques with innovation. Remember that really cool design trends often start with someone trying something new. Still, this is another area where balance and purpose matter. All experimentation should be done with a purpose and should be balanced with proven design techniques.
No More Than Three Fonts
Fonts are really on-trend right now. It’s not surprising. A cool homemade font is a great way to incorporate visual design directly into written content. Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to overdo it. Then, things just look thrown together.
It’s best to stick to two fonts. Using one font for headings and subtitles and another for text is quite common. At most, three is acceptable if the third font is used for accents and visual elements like quote cards. Always check out the trending fonts that can go well with your brand identity.
2022 Best Free Font Websites To Download Free Fonts
Technical Visual Content Tips
Here are some technical tips and shortcuts for creating winning, visual content.
- Optimize your images by tagging them and using relevant images names
- Consider investing in professional editing tools for video content
- Source stock images from reputable pages for better quality
- Learn Photoshop or another tool to properly edit images
- Use a tool like Canva is an all-in-one source for creating visual content
- Use visualizations to make important data resonate with your audience
- Make liberal use of screenshots to explain concepts and keep things above board
- Use analytics to track the performance of visual content
Conclusion
Take some time to learn about graphic design. Even just taking a short, online class can give you some background and skills that you can apply moving forward. It’s important to then use your eye-catching logo in the form of digital marketing and signage. Vibrant eye catching logos on digital signs can make businesses outshine competitors and draw in customers. This will also help you to apply the tips here much more effectively.
Business Branding And Logos
Take a few moments to think about the most memorable brand names in the world. The chances are high that firms will come to mind. While each of these sells different products and services, they all share one aspect in common. Their branding and logos are immediately recognizable.
What are some of the factors which have influenced such well-known reputations? Simplicity plays a key role in this sense. This is why those who are looking to design an eye-catching logo from scratch need to learn about which are the most effective approaches to take from the very beginning. Let’s take a closer look at two key takeaway concepts.
Straightforward Logo Design And To The Point
We need to step into the shoes of the average online customer for a moment. It is important to appreciate the sheer number of brands available on the open market. Many of these offer extremely similar products and services. Thus, the presence of a recognizable logo is key in terms of standing out from the masses. The main issue is that overly complicated designs can often appear confusing and as a result, they may even detract from the quality of the product itself.
Straightforward logo designs are therefore critical elements to take into account. Of course, it only stands to reason that this very same concept needs to be embraced when engineering the layout of a website.
The bottom line is that clean and simplistic logos tend to imbue the brand in question with a sense of transparency.
Resonating with Your Overall Brand Identity
While simple is all well and good, this approach will serve little purpose if the logo design does not match your brand identity. This can be slightly more complicated and a bit of experimentation will likely be required. However, the primary takeaway point is that the visual aesthetics of the logo should always work in synergy with the “personality” of the brand itself. Examples include using organic hues when designing the logo for a distributor of organic foods and employing the use of Courier New fonts when creating imagery associated with a financial advisory firm.
It is a good idea to create a digital “sandbox” that will allow you to play with different variations until you come across the most relevant imagery. Also, never be afraid to utilize the tools like our free logo maker online. These can come in very handy during the creation process. The chances are still high that a few different designs will be required until you happen upon the most relevant choice.
Creating a logo should always be associated with a sense of simplicity. However, simplicity does not necessarily signify a dull and boring product. Take some time to perform additional online research in order to better appreciate how the most recognizable brands in the world have established their visual presence in such a manner.
How to Make Your Local Business Flyer Stand Out
A digital flyer or printed brochure can be an effective way to increase your profitability and brand recognition when running a small, local business. However, many people will be tempted to throw a flyer straight in the trash from their mailbox or email. That is why you need to make sure it grabs their attention and has Great Visual Content.
To acquire more customers and boost your brand awareness across different neighborhoods, check out these handy tips on how to make your digital flyer stand or printed brochure out from the crowd.
Add a Professional Logo Along With a Great Visual Content
A poor-quality logo will equal a poor-quality product or service to your customers. Showcase your professionalism by designing an eye-catching logo that reflects your brand’s image and service.
Make it pop on the flyer with striking logo colors and an attractive font, which will encourage residents to learn more about who you are and what you have to offer.
Promote the Benefits of a Product or Service
Customers don’t want to read an endless amount of content when picking up your flyer. For this reason, you must narrow down the benefits of a product or service, which you should promote within a flyer.
You also should use powerful words to promote your business, such as “free,” “save” or “guarantee.” Also, grab people’s attention by breaking up long paragraphs and using bullet points. There are many ready-made flyer templates on freepik.com you can choose from to get started.
Create an Attractive Layout
People don’t want to read wall-to-wall text when browsing your flyer, which is why you must organize your pages with borders, boxes, high-quality images, and contrasting colors.
Adding white space can also make various design elements stand out, which will make a flyer easier to read.
A High-Quality Print
Poor quality ink will only detract from a flyer’s design. Ensure it doesn’t stand out for all the wrong reasons by investing in high-quality, compatible cartridges from Cartridge People. You also should invest in premium printer paper to reflect your brand’s professionalism, such as glossy or matte.
Proofread Your Flyers – Visual Content and Grammar
However, before you hit print, you must proofread a flyer. Grammatical and Visual Content mistakes will indicate your business lacks attention to detail. As a result, your target customer might throw it away over buying your product or service.
Don’t forget to make any corrections to your company information, such as:
- Telephone number
- Website
- Email address
- Address
- Product or service pricing
- Updated logo design
Offer a Discount or Limited Time Price
Prevent people from throwing away your flyer or placing it in your spam folder. Firstly you can do so by designing a coupon that could save your customers money, which should feature on the bottom quarter of a flyer. A discount or limited-time price could convince people to buy from your business; however, you should clearly state the deadline date and terms and conditions to avoid confusion.
A professional flyer is a cheap and effective way to boost your brand awareness and revenue and following the above techniques can help a design to stand out from the crowd in a person’s mailbox. The more brochures you post in your city, the more customers you could acquire, and the greater your annual revenue will be.
Business Signage Will Help To Boost Your Brand
Developing a new business into large dimensions necessitates excellent marketing and branding strategy. A part of a perfect branding and marketing strategy is outdoor signages.
With efficacious outdoor signs, your business could attract more walking customers. But what exactly is signage? Signs are perfect tools for the best graphic or visual representation.
However, if you really want your business to stand out and grab more attention from the public, you need to be creative and innovative with your outdoor signages. For a little help, here are some of the things that you need that can help you form a solid customer base. Read on!
Prominent Signage Makes Your Logo And Brand Stand Out
The reason why businesses or retailers use and take advantage of outdoor signages is to help consumers understand what your brand is all about. Keep in mind that an average person would, for the most part, spend at least five seconds reading your signage.
With that said, it is crucial to create an excellent eye-catching and attention-grabbing strategy. By doing so, you can gain more attention, attract more customers, and make them all understand what it is that you want to convey,
Ideally, for every 10 feet of distance, the height of the font must be at least one foot. All in all, you need to create a sign that presents your business clearly, and what better way to do that is to have excellent signage visibility.
Readability
If you really want to make your outdoor sign effective, make it readable. By that we mean, making the content or the copy bigger and uncomplicated to read from any distance. Great use of the white space, adding short, concise graphics, and content with bold contrasts are critical for great signage. When adding your business logo, make sure the letters are big and bold.
Furthermore, it is essential to know and consider the normal speed of traffic of the location you’d like to place your signage. Keep your content concise so that the fast-moving traffic can also read and absorb the message of your sign.
However, there’s one thing that you need to avoid or steer clear of when designing great signage. And that is to avoid clutter because it has a significant impact on your signage.
Get Rid Of The Things That Blocks Your Signage
What is the point in putting a lot of effort and investing lots of money, when your signage will just be hidden under bright lights, trees, or under electrical wiring? Remember that the reason for making signage lies in attracting customers and establishing solid customer response.
With that said, the line of sight to your outdoor sign must always be clear and heightened. Therefore, situate your signages in places that are, for the most part, visible enough. Additionally, ensure that all of the components of the signages are distinctly visible and hold a definite place.
Gauge the Sizes
Do you know what the most significant difficulty in designing signage is? Well, that is to determine and decide the right size as well as scale them accordingly. One thing that will you help overcome this problem is to know where your signage will be placed.
It may be on a rental board, parking lot, or at subway stations. Knowing the location will aid you in determining the right size that you need to work on. The larger the size, the wider the reach because it makes it easier for the public to read the content of your signage.
To scale the letters of your sign, consider using power kerning. It is a tool that can help you better scale letters for excellent visibility. All in all, keep in mind that the human eye is a hefty tool that can detect or see all the flaws, and so it does when your signage is blocked due to insufficient spacing or over styling.
Color Scheme in your signage
We all agree that Great Visual Content is important, also in your signage. So what kind of color attracts or entices more customers? You should also consider what colors you integrate into your signage because some colors may not do well while others do. With that said, you need to think deeply about what color to apply as it can make or break your sign.
The human eyes discern and appreciate the colors first, and it plays a crucial role in strengthening and promoting the identity of your brand. In fact, according to studies, about 80% of the recognition of the brands is because of the colors. And eventually, it can become the trademark of your brand.
Matching lighter shades against a darker background is, more often than not, the best pairing. However, one thing to keep in mind is to not the letters go shady or dark against the background. Selecting vibrant and bright colors that are cool and funky, gains more attention from the public. Whatever background you choose, make sure there is good contrast between it and your logo design.
Less is More is the key to a Great Visual Content
Last but definitely not least, make your signage clutter-free. Keep in mind that an effective sign needs minimal content or copy that could convey the message of your business. Indeed, less is more. Fewer words, the higher the understanding. Create a profound impact on essential information only.
Location
Location is definitely that one factor that you need to take into consideration. It is one of the critical elements in making effective signage. Some factors can help you identify how your sign should be placed and designed. These are the point of transit, point of sale, and point of wait.
Takeaway
Every business owner out there would, without a doubt, want a broader reach to their industry. Thus, if they’d like such scope, they need to aim their attention and focus on advertisements that boost and strengthens branding and identity.
If you are looking for ways to enhance your business, these things or elements should be considered. Implementing these ideas will, most probably, help you reach a wider audience. Furthermore, keep in mind that the signage cost may vary depending on the material, color, and size.
