How Important Is Professional Graphic Design for Your Business?

In June of 2018, Instagram surpassed one billion active monthly users.

The popularity of the app might seem surprising. After all, you can basically only post and view pictures, right? You can’t even post links.

But behind that number is an important lesson: users love visual content.

This lesson has massive implications for marketing. Many businesses are still trying to reach customers without giving much attention to the visual aspects of their marketing strategy.

If that’s you, there’s bad news: good graphic design isn’t something you can ignore anymore—if you care about attracting new customers, anyway.

Here are a few reasons why you need to care about graphic design.

Good Graphic Design Makes a Good First Impression

As the old saying goes, “you only get one chance to make a first impression.” This is especially true in marketing.

Every day, your ad campaign is seen by hundreds or thousands of users for the very first time. And most of those people will probably make a decision about your company in about 17 milliseconds.

If your design is lackluster—or just plain bad—it can send them in the other direction.

On the other hand, an attractive design can garner respect and curiosity.

This first interaction will inform the rest of your relationship with the consumer. A great graphic designer can help you create ad campaigns that can make the most of this opportunity, leading to future success.

Brand Recognition Creates Trust

One of the most important parts of any company is the overall brand.

Your brand is essentially the identity of your company. It’s your logo, your company colors, the fonts you use. It’s the tone of your ad campaigns. It’s even the values of your company.

As consumers get to know your company, they put together a picture of your brand identity. If that identity is inconsistent, it sends the message that you’re unprofessional, unreliable, and untrustworthy.

If your website is ugly or hard to read, visitors can’t reach the back button fast enough. On the other hand, a great looking website is an invitation to stay and explore.

But it’s not enough for your company to have a bunch of different attractive designs. Your company’s marketing has to be cohesive and consistent.

A good graphic designer knows how to work within the confines of your brand identity to create a variety of designs that feel consistent without seeming boring.

Stand Out From the Competition

You’re probably all too aware of who your competitors are and how they’re crowding your market share.

Earlier, we pointed out that Instagram has surpassed one billion monthly users.

You can bet that your company isn’t the only one that’s noticed that they need to step up their visual marketing.

A few years ago, many companies were once ignoring graphic design altogether. Any brand that thought to focus on visual marketing at all stood out from the competition by virtue of there not being much competition.

But the last few years, there’s been a huge shift in priorities.

Now, it’s a marketing arms race. If you aren’t posting visual content, you’re falling behind. Even construction contractors are putting focusing on creating captivating visuals to market their services.

If you’re trying to reach new consumers, it’s not enough to just create visual ads and post them. All of your competitors are doing that too.

You have to post great designs. In a sea of mundane, mediocre design, great graphic design shines like a lighthouse.

Boost Your Shareability

In the world of content marketing, there is one thing that nearly every brand hopes for: going viral.

Under normal circumstances, a post might reach a couple thousand people. But if it goes viral, it racks up views by the millions.

You may never have a post go viral, but you can still benefit from the mechanism by which things go viral: sharing.

When you create a piece of content, it gets pushed only to the people who are following your business. But if one of your followers share it, all of their followers see it too.

After a few rounds, your post could be seen by ten times more people than you have followers.

Not only does shareability boost your reach, but it also can help increase your SEO.

Obviously, shareability is a good thing. But achieving it is often a struggle.

Luckily, good graphic design can help. If a design is beautiful, inspiring, funny, or otherwise moving, people might share it even if they aren’t personally interested in the company that created the image.

While that lack of interest might discourage you, there’s a good chance that it will be shared to someone who is interested in what you offer who wouldn’t have otherwise heard about your company.

Tell Your Story Better

At its heart, marketing is storytelling.

You tell your customers a story about who they will become if they buy from you. You tell stories about the world your company is trying to create.

If you’re not proficient in design, it can be really hard to tell that story to the world. The message gets muddied up and homogenized in the muck of bad design.

However, a good graphic designer can help you streamline your message so you can tell your story more clearly. And when that message is clear, it resonates with more people (read: customers).

Need Better Designs?

Good graphic design is no longer a superfluous piece of your marketing strategy that you can ignore without consequence.

Rather, it is a necessary part of every company’s toolbox.

But great design doesn’t happen by accident. It’s intentional.

If you need help creating your vision with a great design, contact us today.