Did you know that about half of US adults visit Facebook and YouTube daily? With that number of social media users, newsfeeds can quickly become loaded with so many posts, ads, and reels that it’s easy for content to get lost in all the noise. This means brands have to get creative with their marketing design. Fortunately, there are some tips, tricks, and best practices for getting your content seen and ensuring it stays top of mind.
Design Clear Visuals
The human brain processes visual imagery incredibly fast. According to MIT researchers, the brain is able to process images in as little as 13 milliseconds. That’s literally faster than the blink of an eye. Since our minds process visuals much more quickly than blocks of text, it’s clear that visual imagery is an effective marketing tactic—especially when done the right way.
Visual imagery can include photos, videos, infographics, and other marketing design elements. To ensure your visuals pop, use contrasting colors for the text and background. Guide the viewer’s eye through the use of negative space and visual hierarchy. Visual hierarchy leads the viewer to points of interest in an image, ensuring they’re easily understood.
If everything is cluttered and jumbled, your viewer may wind up confused and miss your message altogether. When everything on a page is well-organized and cleanly constructed, on the other hand, your message is much more likely to be effectively conveyed.
For example, photography often employs the rule of thirds. Based on the rule of thirds, each image is divided into nine equal parts. Rather than frame your subject front and center, align it with the grids in the right or left third of your image. By balancing your subject with negative space, you create a well-composed shot that enhances visual interest.
Bring your message into focus with design elements that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to comprehend.
Maintain Brand Consistency
A strong brand identity is the foundation for building brand awareness and trust. Brand consistency cultivates authenticity—a trait highly favored by an overwhelming majority of consumers.
Establish brand guidelines to ensure everyone stays on the same page. According to experts from the Forbes Communications Council, brand guidelines should include a standard font, layout style, color palette, and size dimensions.
These brand guidelines should be adopted across all platforms. Regardless of where consumers interact with your brand, the goal is to make it instantly recognizable to them. To save time and enhance uniformity, create style templates that can be used across multiple channels.
Never leave your audience second-guessing about your brand. Consistently reinforce who you are and where you stand.
Create Tailored Content
While your content should be consistent across the board, it must also be appropriate for each platform. For example, YouTube is a good platform for long-form video content, such as explainer pieces or in-depth tutorials.
TikTok, meanwhile, is more geared toward short-form video content. Think quick life hacks, influencer product reviews, or pro tips and how-tos. According to a report from Sprout Social, social media users rated short-form videos as the type of brand content they’re most likely to engage with on both TikTok and Instagram.
Trick of the trade? While you should strive to deliver original content on each social media platform, you can save yourself time and energy by repurposing some of your high-performing evergreen posts.
For instance, a popular blog post can be transformed into an infographic or video content, while a long-form video can be repackaged into a shorter Instagram story or reel. Rather than start from scratch, come up with fresh ways to make what’s old new again.
Develop Strategic Messaging
Content should always serve a purpose, whether it’s to entertain, inform, or inspire. The more value your content provides, the more likely people are to engage with your brand.
Another way to generate excitement around your brand? Get people talking. Ask a question, create a poll, or invite them to share their insights or feedback. Social media followers want to feel as though they’re part of a like-minded community, so create opportunities for them to interact with your brand and each other. Make them feel seen, valued, and heard.
Incentivize followers to continue the conversation with your brand by inviting them to share user-generated content (UGC). This invites collaboration, building brand awareness, and boosting credibility and trust.
Consumers are much more likely to trust peer recommendations over branded content. UGC serves as social proof that your brand is one worthy of checking out.
Include Strong Calls to Action
You’ve done the hard work of creating marketing design with impact. Now it’s time to ensure you see the fruits of your labor. Include strong calls to action in each of your posts. Clearly communicate what step users should take next to continue interacting with your brand. If you want to grow brand awareness, for example, you may want to encourage them to share your post.
Perhaps your goal is to build your social media following. In that case, remind them to like your page or subscribe to your channel. Looking to increase conversion rates? Include a link to your product page so it’s quick and easy for customers to complete their purchase.
Never leave your followers wondering what comes next. Guide them toward the next desired step, allowing them to continue engaging with your brand.
Need some help with your marketing design or feel you could benefit from the expertise of a social media strategist? Consider partnering with an established marketing agency, like InnoVision Marketing Group. In the digital age, social media is the modern-day word of mouth, and that word has the potential to travel fast, far, and wide. Leverage it to your advantage and make your brand the talk of the town.
