Getting a start-up off the ground can be exceptionally difficult. Competition is everywhere, and sometimes the only way to get ahead is via promotion. It doesn’t matter how high in quality your products or services are; they’re not going to help you to break through unless you learn how to market them properly. The thing about promotional materials, however, is that they need to be properly designed in order to truly be effective. Poorly designed marketing visuals aren’t going to help you. They may even hurt your chances of converting new customers or clients.
No matter how you go about creating promo materials for your business, it’s essential that they look as attractive as possible. From trade show banners to print advertisements, here are a few things you can do to avoid any missteps.
Choose Your Fonts Wisely
A lot of people who aren’t particularly well-versed in the world of graphic design don’t realize just how much of a difference choosing the right font can make. An attractive, legible font will no doubt help to keep your promotional materials looking classy and professional. Novelty fonts, on the other hand, can ruin even the finest design, making your company look amateur. Choose a sans-serif font like Helvetica, which will look good in both small and large formats. It’s always alright to use a custom font or one of the many that are available for free online, but just be sure it doesn’t stray too far away from traditional, business-ready fonts such as the one listed above.
Take a Minimalist Approach
It can be tempting when designing promotional materials to pull out all the stops. After all, when you’re going to be printing multiples of something, you want to fit as much information as possible in the design, right? The truth is, a design that is minimalist in nature will almost always look better than one which is full of clutter. Cluttered designs are not only childish-looking, but they can be exceptionally difficult to read or glean any information from. Try to narrow down your designs to feature only what is absolutely necessary, and whatever you do don’t try to fill excessive white space with superlatives like stock images or useless graphics. Even the least marketing-savvy individuals will be able to pick-up on the ineffectiveness of a “busy” design.
Stick to Your Brand Identity
When designing promotional materials for an event or product, you might think it to be wise to go with a unique color scheme, or perhaps some other way to differentiate them from things you’ve done in the past. Brand identity is everything in marketing, however, and if you don’t stick to it, you’re likely to cause a disconnect. You’ve already taken the time to choose your brand’s colors and build an identity package around them, so why stray from what is already working for you? Sticking to your brand identity shows that you are embracing confidence and solidarity when it comes to your company’s image, which is always a wise idea.
Designing promotional material can certainly be tricky, but you’ll find that the process will go quite smoothly if you head the advice outlined above.
