Business is and has always been a competition. You put your best foot forward, display your products in the best possible way and send out your marketing messages. You fight to ensure that when a customer comes along, that customer will choose to do business with you and not the store next to yours.
If everything goes to plan, you’re assured of generating leads around the clock and making sales with minimal effort. With your marketing messages doing the bulk of the work and delivering consumers to your doorstep, you can rest easy and focus on other areas of business such as growing your inventory and opening new stores.
The problem is – it doesn’t always work this way, especially when your marketing messages are poor. When your website is so dull that visitors click away within seconds of landing there and your business cards so uninspiring that people throw them away at the earliest chance, your business is bound to struggle. You might still make sales but you’ll at the same time lose so many leads.
That’s where professional graphic design comes in. Graphic design combines photography, illustration and typography to deliver compelling marketing messages. These messages will keep your customers coming back while consistently generating new leads for your business.
If you’re not working with a professional graphic design company for your business, here are five reasons you should start doing so right away.
#1. Graphic Design is Critical for First Impressions
The phrase “You will never get a second chance to make a first impression” is one you’ll frequently hear in business corridors, and for good reason. If you want your business to succeed, you need to get it right on the first call. If you miss an opportunity, you’ve lost everything.
This applies to both offline and online business environments. Offline, people walking the streets come across all kinds of ads. They see banners and signboards everywhere with business names and logos scripted on these boards. The intention behind these marketing materials is to capture attention. But, if your banners are hideous and your flyers not appealing at all, how could you attract traffic or generate leads?
Graphic design can help change all that. With graphic design, you hire a professional company such as Simplemachine to create amazing logos, flyers, and marketing messages for your online and offline marketing campaigns. With extensive experience in the field, they know exactly what is needed to grab the attention of your target audience. Once the audience’s interest is piqued, it’s usually only a matter of time before visitors turn into leads and leads turn into customers.
#2. Design Tells a Story
Every success has a story behind it. Similarly, your brand likely has an emotional story that got you where you are today. Maybe you started out as a home-based business before going big. Perhaps you want to be associated with the green revolution. Or, perhaps you’re an all-natural company. These are just some of the stories that make brands worth following. They are the stories that evoke an emotional attachment from consumers.
Good branding should let these stories come alive. From the logos on your emails to your social media profiles, right through to your banners on and off the web, consumers should immediately “feel” your story from the first moment they see your brand. They should instantly connect with your history and values.
Designers use their skills and creativity to tell stories with graphics. They can use imagery to engage the user. By incorporating clean visuals, stellar photos and interesting illustrations, they can they can grab attention and make customers see exactly who you are as a brand. They can also use graphics to develop a persona that consumers identify with. When consumers begin identifying with your branding, you’re on the way to success.
#3. It Can Be Your Key Differentiator
It is an open secret that you need to stand out from the crowd to be successful in business. You need something that is unique to yourself. Something that when consumers think about, they quickly recall your brand. Without this unique aspect of your business separating you from the rest, consumers won’t have a reason to pick your business over the others.
Interestingly, most SMBs think that the differentiator should always be something huge. Most think that price should be their most significant differentiator. While that’s not a bad idea, competing on price can be challenging for the long-term, especially considering that bigger companies can consistently offer lower rates.
Professional graphic design can help bridge that gap. If consumers can’t remember you for your prices, let them recognize you for your standout logos and mesmerizing banners. Let new customers come to your website or store because they fell in love with your business card. Past customers will return because your classic logo is always at the top of their minds.
#4. Good Design is Great for Engagement
The extremely competitive nature of the current economy means that you need to keep your customers close and your prospects even closer. But, how do you do this? It’s simple; engage them.
Engagement means keeping your brand in front and center of users’ minds. Whenever they think about a product or service that you offer, they should think only about your brand. Whenever they go out shopping, the first store on their mind should be your store.
Often, brands turn to social media networks, blogging and forums such as Quora for engagement, which isn’t bad at all. But another strategy that you can use to engage the masses and stir conversations about your brand is graphic design.
- Want people talking about your brand on social media? Give them a majestic logo.
- Want them looking forward to your blogs and social media posts? Ensure that your content is accompanied with compelling visuals
And, guess what? A professional graphic design company can get you both!
#5. Spend Now; Save Later
Finally, graphic design can also improve sales and savings. There is no denying that when done well, graphic design has the potential to generate traffic and even convert leads. The people coming to your store, website or even those interacting with your brand on social media can be converted to customers and lead to sales.
Additionally, although you need to initially fork out a sizeable amount to get the best graphic design, the initial investment can save you plenty of money in the future because you won’t need to re-brand every time. Instead, you can focus your spending on other areas of the business that leads to faster growth.
Choose Simplemachine for Your Graphic Design
Simplemachine has the experience, skill and personnel to create unique, emotion-evoking graphic design for marketing. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, we service clients throughout Northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and across the United States. Contact us today for design services that will keep your brand at the top of your audience’s minds.