Graphic design is so important in marketing today but many don’t realize the power of great graphic design and your business. Great graphic design can leave great first impressions, build confidence through a consistent front, attract more customers, and increase sales and revenue. Let’s learn more.
Great Graphic Design = Positive First Impression
It takes customers 50 milliseconds to decide if they are going to continue on your site.
Pretend for a moment that you know nothing about your business at all…you’ve never even heard of it. Visit your website and take a good honest look at how it is presented. Would you want to continue on your site? Do the same with your social media channels. Try to imagine what first impression you are giving your audience. Hopefully, it is a good one.
First impressions in the digital world come from website design, social media posts, and ads. All of these elements are visual so great graphic design and your business must go hand in hand. Great graphic design is more than just a good-looking logo- it is the culmination of everything as a whole. This “everything” is what gives your business a great first impression.
The human brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than text and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual in nature. Do you see the power in great graphic design and marketing? It is the first impression you give your customers-make sure it is a good one.
Great Graphic Design = Consistent Identity in Graphics
Great graphic design provides consistency in its design concepts. When all the graphics used are side by side there is a cohesiveness that all points to your business. This is a key component of good branding and building brand awareness.
Many businesses put a lot of time and effort into crafting a good logo or website but don’t apply the same visual concepts to social media platforms and posts, ads, or even printed advertising. A style guide helps to correct this by outlining fonts, colors, the style of photos chosen, and graphic elements to the overall design. Style guides make further graphic design projects simpler because they have already laid out the rules and guidelines of creating them.
Kristen, our Creative Director here at Dogwood, has put a lot of work into creating a consistent identity in our graphics. Below are screenshots of the services page of our website, our Facebook page, and our Instagram page. Do you see how cohesive and easily recognizable they are? Great graphic design helps you to always present your best foot forward in our visually driven digital world.
Attractive Graphic Design Attracts Customers
Perhaps you have already put some work into the graphic design elements of your website and other platforms, paid someone else to do it, or are planning on doing so in the future…make sure it looks attractive. Yes, this seems rather simple and straightforward but attractive graphic design attracts customers.
For those untrained in graphic design services, you may not be able to say why some graphic design looks good but you know when it does look good. In the same way, you may not be able to recognize why some graphic designs look bad, but you know when they do. It is common sense to say that customers are attracted to good graphic design.
Human instinct is to believe that what looks good is good. Using that same logic, great graphic design means your business is good and worthy of learning more at least in the eyes of consumers. Attractive design attracts customers. Yes, there is so much more that goes into what makes a business good and successful but at least on the most primal level, visual impressions are a big influencer.
A Note on Graphic Design Elements and Those with Disabilities
Just as your place of business has standards to help those with disabilities patronize it, websites also have compliance standards to help those with disabilities navigate your site. Those with low vision, sensitivity to flashing lights or bright colors, and other sensitivities can all be affected by graphic design elements implemented on a website. Web regulatory agencies are working to make sure that the internet is available to everyone.
How does this affect your graphic design practices? Web accessibility features can help anyone with disabilities or sensitivities navigate your site and can be easily implemented into your site.
Web accessibility features are accessed by a small icon on the site that then gives the user access such as:
- A low-vision profile
- A seizure safe profile
- A cognitive disability profile
- An ADHD-friendly profile
- A screen reader
- A keyboard navigator
- Many more options
If you would like to see a web accessibility feature in action, visit our home page and try it out yourself. Look for the green circle with a white human figure on the left side of any screen and click on it.
Great Graphic Design Increases Sales and Revenue
Great graphic design does increase sales and revenue. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers.
- 92.6% of people say that the visual dimension (what they see) is the #1 influencing factor affecting purchase decisions.
- 94% of consumers will abandon a website with bad design.
- 71.2% of all Facebook posts are images and another 16.6 % is video.
- Using color in your graphics and ads improves readership by 40%.
It is difficult to determine an exact return on investment by incorporating great graphic designs consistently and branding focus because the efforts are cumulative. They will build over time. It is not a “one and done” feat, but as the statistics show- investing in great graphic design can encourage audience growth, audience trust, and ultimately sales.
The Power of Great Graphic Design and Your Business
We hope you realize the power of great graphic design and your business and choose to take advantage of it. The biggest struggle for businesses is creating consistent graphic design that reflects their branding. Dogwood can help with that. Our talented graphic designers can help with your branding, create a style guide, or handle all of your graphic design needs. Contact us today to learn more.
