Did you know that 62% of people are more likely to buy from brands that produce unique content?
If you haven’t updated your organization’s business images within the past year, you need new content.
But, where should an average business start? How can they ensure success?
Here’s what you need to know about creating captivating visual aesthetics for your brand.
- All Content Should Have the Same Goal
Your visual strategy should be as intentional as the other strategies you have in place for enhancing and managing your business. For all of these strategies (social media, website, media relations, your visual brand, etc.) to work optimally, they need to align with one another and work towards a common goal.
Thoughtfully thinking through an aligned marketing strategy takes some extra effort. But it’s usually one of the key practices that separate enviable branding from unsuccessful marketing campaigns.
So, how should you get started? Gather your team together for some high-level, thought-provoking, productive brainstorming. Ask yourselves what you’re ultimately trying to accomplish and how visual content can serve that purpose. Consider the logistics of your ideas, and create systems that enable your team to set reachable goals and deliver high-quality, original content consistently.
- Get to Know the Fundamentals of Design
Many visual branding and marketing strategies at large fail due to decision-making that’s based on uninformed feelings versus data and basic fundamentals. You need to like your brand, but you also need to familiarize yourself with how to properly judge design to be able to have an educated and ultimately valid opinion about it.
- Don’t Be Afraid to Get Emotional
Emotion will benefit your brand if you consider what emotions your visual branding could evoke from your audience. Many of the most memorable brands and campaigns are ones that draw strong, value-based emotions from us. This is why it’s vital to really know who your audience is (not who you want them to be) and to refer to them throughout the design process.
Developing personas to represent the segments of your audience can really help through this process. Putting a face and personality to members of your audience makes it easier for you to empathize and understand what really drives them.
- Generic Business Images Aren’t Helping
An Instagram account that posts one or two high-quality, shareable images per week will outperform any profile that’s populating daily generic and uninspiring visual content. Your visual imagery should be a reflection of what your organization is all about. It should tell a story.
You don’t need a large in-house team of creatives to accomplish this (if it’s not in your budget). Instead, you could work with an agency or creative freelancers on a quarterly basis creating a bulk amount of content to schedule out and use through to the next quarter. You will be amazed by the difference even a photography or videography intern can make in your visuals.
If you must use stock imagery, alter it, never post a stock image or video clip as-is. Using resources like an infographic, social media, or meme template can help you along the process. A professional designer or editor can make magic by combining original photography and design with stock imagery.
Creating a Visual Marketing Experience
These few tips are only the beginning. There are entire books and documentaries about the magic of visual branding.
It might all seem overwhelming at first. However, focusing on staying on brand and making one move at a time will set you on track. Revamping your business images is a great starting place.
Want more ideas for bringing your business into the new decade? Check out our other business articles.
