Digital marketing is one of the foundational elements of business success in 2023.
Besides the actual quality of the product or service you’re offering, it’s your brand — and the digital marketing around it — that will make all the difference in whether you succeed or fail. This is not news — most business people know the value of digital marketing, but they tend to focus exclusively on creating catchy logos, slogans and campaigns that they hope will go viral on social media.
Frequently lost in all this, however, is the critical role of graphic design in digital marketing. But that’s a crucial error. The ability of your brand to visually convey its messages in a way that is appealing and engaging can make or break your marketing efforts.
What Is Graphic Design?
It sounds like a basic question, but it’s important to define graphic design. Graphic design is the art and practice of creating visual content to communicate information or messages to an intended audience. It involves combining text, images, color and other design elements to create a visually compelling look and feel for your brand.
Picture your logo or the layout of your website. Think about all the white space that makes your page feel open and lean. How about those cute drop-down menus or the shape of the Buy Now buttons? Those are all examples of graphic design.
5 Reasons Graphic Design Matters for Your Marketing Strategy
It’s not just about looking good, though. Graphic design matters for business success. Here are five key reasons why.
It Provides an SEO Power Boost
Good graphic design delivers a pleasant website user experience. As a result, users are likely to stay longer. The amount of time users spend on a webpage sends a positive signal to search engines and helps you to rank higher.
When graphic design principles are well executed, page load times will be faster, files will be reduced in size and optimized, and page flow will be improved. Altogether, pleasing graphic design leads to more engagement, which ultimately improves your SEO performance.
It Improves First Impressions
Before visitors start reading your content or looking at the offers you have available, they engage with your graphic design. It creates a vibe immediately. In most cases, users don’t even realize it. But graphic design is the first thing most people notice on a web page — whether it’s the colors, fonts, layout, or images. It all creates a first impression, and that’s hard to overcome if it’s a negative one.
If you give attention to detail and insist on a high level of professionalism when it comes to your graphic design, you are sending a subliminal message to potential customers that you are a worthy business partner.
It Boosts Conversion Rates
Graphic design plays an important role in creating a positive user experience, establishing trust and credibility, and communicating a message clearly, all of which can lead to increased conversion rates.
Why do visitors remain on a page? Because they find it a pleasing space to visit, information is well laid out, they can find what they’re looking for, and you’re meeting their needs. That’s all thanks, in large part, to your page design.
Consider, for example how you lay out your page navigation. If it’s confusing or unclear, customers will quickly grow frustrated and look elsewhere. In fact, 42% of website abandonments occur for just that reason.
It Strengthens Brand Identity
A strong brand identity is one of the most effective tools you have to set your business apart. A study by Lucidpress found that companies with a consistent brand identity can expect to see an average revenue increase of 23%.
Branding is about so much more than just a logo — it tells people who you are, what you stand for and what makes you different from the competition. A graphic designer should be able to provide a consistent look for your brand across the various channels and spaces that you use.
When you’re cross-marketing on the web, you want consumers to identify your brand in an instant, and that’s something that quality graphic design can help you to achieve.
It Paves a Path Through the Sales Pipeline
When your graphic design is doing its job, your web properties will take prospective customers on a journey down the sales funnel — all the way from curious to committed to, if you’re lucky, becoming a cheerleader for your business.
Your goal should be to lead consumers seamlessly through the various stages of the sales funnel toward a purchase in a way that feels natural and organic. The sales journey will build upon itself and take potential customers deeper and deeper into your offerings. Using visual hierarchy to guide the viewer’s eye toward the most important information is critical, alongside illustrations, infographics and other visual elements that help communicate the features and benefits of your products and services.
Ultimately, a well-designed website or app that is easy to navigate and visually appealing can help to increase engagement and lead to a sale
Graphic Design Matters
You can have the best products and services in the world, but if you’re not displaying them properly — both in-store and online — then you’re not going to have the success you deserve. But the good news is that graphic design can help you get there.
Excellence in graphic design is foundational to our work at Orpheus. Everyone knows that today’s online culture is built around great visuals. That’s because they work. Every piece of content you create — from infographics and printed materials to advertisements, business cards and web graphics — deserves a vivid, clear design that accents and highlights your copy and works in harmony with your brand.
If you’re ready to bring a fresh, cohesive look to your graphic design, then reach out, and let’s start talking about your brand. We collaborate closely with our clients so that we’re never imposing our ideas on you — instead, we work together to find a graphic design approach that works for you.
Find out more about our approach right here.
