The Role of Design in Marketing
Over the years, design has been an increasingly important component in marketing. Design is a creative and crucial process that can make or break a campaign. It also leaves long term impacts on your brand and how people perceive it.
A business only has a few seconds to make an impression. This will impact how all future communications and messages are read and interpreted. Therefore, design has been evolving in recent years to leave stronger, lasting impressions. It is about creating a relationship with your target market.
In some instances don’t be afraid to push the boundaries. I’m sure we can all remember some quirky designs. By pushing the limits you leave a far greater impression.
In this post we will be going into this further. Increasing levels of competition and quality mean companies need to do more to stand out. This is crucial for not only marketing success, but also business growth.
Brand Strength
One of the most important benefits that good design brings is brand strength. The ultimate goal is for an individual to instantly recognise material and know it’s from your company. You can achieve this through consistent use of colours, fonts, logos etc. Over time individuals will automatically associate these factors with your business. A well organised strategy and team will ensure that all of your designs match and promote your business in a way that is engaging for recipients.
This not only increases your strength but also your credibility. If your messages are engaging and consistent, you are seen as a reputable and trustworthy seller/source. This will increase an individual’s confidence about purchasing from you. They are also more likely to tell others. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing methods out there and this can have incredible benefits for your business.
Many companies have already accomplished this e.g. red and yellow often being associated with McDonald’s. This is the result of excellent brand strength. These colours, even when not used on a McDonald’s campaign are still associated with the brand. The design has had such a large, widespread and lasting impact that has lasted for years.
Brand strength links very closely to memorability. High quality designs leave a lasting impact. They are not forgotten straight away and people will often share and discuss them. If you think of the most memorable advert you can remember, that was the result of expert planning and design. It may have only been a 30 second advert or a poster but it is still there. This makes someone more likely to purchase from you down the line as your marketing has had a greater impact than your competitors.
Think about the marketing method you are using. Some branding methods work better with specific channels e.g. a catchy song will work well on the radio/TV.
Calls to Action
A good design always includes a call to action. Well designed marketing materials are not only visually appealing but they also portray the message effectively. The benefits are presented in a clear manner with a clear and simple call to action. These perform at a higher rates because not only is an individual engaged with the design, but the message is clear and they know how to get in touch.
Evolution of Marketing
Marketing is an ever changing industry. New technologies and methods come into play all the time. These effect and alter the way companies market to maximise their exposure. A key part of this evolution has been design. Better technologies and skills of employees have led to incredible, stand out designs. In order to keep up with competitors, companies are investing more in design services.
Companies cannot afford to fall behind so design has become imperative in today’s business world. This helps them not only stand out, but create designs that have lasting impact. The UK spends billions of pounds on marketing every year. This further highlights how companies are having to do more to not only stand out, but to keep up, all the while making their designs engaging.
Take direct mail as an example. New printing methods allow more out of box thinking when it comes to designs. Direct mail has been making a comeback and this is partly due to the creativity aspect of it. It presents the opportunity to produce high quality and well designed marketing materials that individuals spend more time looking at than one of many emails sitting in an inbox. The designs are memorable which as mentioned above is a key goal for designers.
Furthermore in the digital age we are living in, social media is huge. Companies spend large sums of money creating stand-out, value bringing content that individual’s watch and share. This is a creative way of marketing but the design of this content is still crucial. It needs to have appeal and stand out from competitors using the same tactics. Expert designers are therefore able to create truly outstanding designs that give the user an experience. Providing an experience is also becoming a big factor for businesses as these have the highest interaction rates from consumers.
Summary
Design is one of the most crucial elements in marketing. It must be creative and engaging and encourage the recipient to get in touch, buy your products, share with their friends etc. This is achievable through highly skilled designers and a marketing strategy that promote your business effectively to your target audience. Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you operate in, your marketing materials be of high quality.
Impact Marketing provide high quality designing services for our clients. This is available across a wide range of marketing services. Our in house team have the skills to make your business stand out from your competitors and design marketing materials that have a lasting impact. Combined with our in house marketing services, we are able to offer a complete marketing package.
Get in touch today and a member of the team will be happy to assist with any of your marketing needs.