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Where do I even start I hear you ask! Well like most areas of marketing we advise you start with a strategy. These strategies we refer to don’t have to be full lever-arch folders. Cue the Gen Z’s asking which software has lever-arch format 🙂. A strategy can be a one pager if you like, but given what a design strategy should entail, we recommend a bit more effort for this one.
A design strategy extends beyond just aesthetics; it is a comprehensive plan that defines the way your brand communicates with its audience. This blog will hopefully make it clear what a design strategy entails and why it is vital to help guide the creation of your content design, as well as outlining what good design is.
A design strategy is a detailed point of reference, portfolio and library of a company's branding, everything from font style and colours right up to logos, button style and phraseology. It incorporates your website and all content linked with your brand. Considerations on user experience, functionality and aesthetics to create a cohesive and consistent external image across all aspects of a company's products, services or communications. A design strategy aims to align the design vision with business objectives to enhance overall market impact, user engagement and consistency.
The design strategy fits into your content strategy, it is an integral part of it, moreover the design strategy is the guide for the content creation, all material created must conform to your design strategy. At the very least, in the absence of a design strategy then the conformity to a preset of design elements is essential.
Table of Content
Creating Your Design Strategy:
If you are an avid reader of our material you will have heard of our “Notorious Nine”, which is our 9 key points to creating a content strategy. If you’re new to our material then firstly, feel free to browse our other articles, secondly let us introduce you to the nine key points now. As a content strategy is guided and structured by your design strategy, it makes sense to follow the same nine points relative to design.
1. Project Management:
From the outset, you will either be creating design in-house or outsourcing to freelancers or an agency. Who will be responsible for ensuring design is produced on schedule, edited, published and promoted? Assign clear roles and responsibilities.
2. Allocate Resources:
Determine the resources required to execute your design strategy. This includes budget, tools (software for image or logo creation, font suppliers and formatting platforms) and people (design creators, editors, copywriters).
3. Purpose:
With the roles assigned, start by determining what you want to accomplish with your visual material. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, overhaul your whole image, conform to established colours and styles? Having clear goals will guide your design strategy and help you measure its effectiveness. Your brand identity is more than your logo. It encompasses your brand’s values, personality and mission. Your design elements should consistently reflect this identity.
4. Know Your Audience:
Understanding your audience is crucial in developing successful content. You need to know who you're creating the content for. Research your competitors, what does their material look like, what is the market interacting with most?
5. Review Current Content:
Review the content you already have. Get feedback on your branding and image. What do people like and more importantly not like? What do your staff like and not like? The key here is to recognise you may not be right about your image and branding and if there is a general consensus against your view then guess what, you’re wrong. Your website design for example should be SEO-friendly. Fast loading speed, easy navigation and proper site structure are design elements that contribute to SEO.
6. Decide on Type of Content:
Based on your business aims and your audience's preferences, decide on the types of design you’ll produce. This could be a new logo, company font, company colour palette, videos, iconography, button style and any other visual aspects. If this is your first foray into content marketing you might need to experiment with different styles for your content to see what your audience responds to best. Visuals can significantly impact how your audience perceives your brand. Therefore, ensure you use high-quality images and graphics that resonate with your brand identity.
7. Schedule Your Content:
A content calendar is a schedule that details when and where you'll publish upcoming content. It helps organise your content strategy and ensures regular posting, but in the aspect of a design strategy, it allows you to consider how your design items might adapt to key marketing objectives. Key dates or events that are important to your business or industry, Public Holidays, Festivals, Functions etc. Consistency in design enhances brand recognition. Whether it's your website, social media posts or marketing collateral, maintaining consistency in your visual elements strengthens your brand image in the minds of your audience.
8. Create, Distribute and Promote Your Content:
Now comes the fun part, creating your material! Make sure each item aligns with your identified goals and speaks to your researched audience. Once the branding is ready be sure to test it. Ask for external opinion again on its impact and brand cohesion, try it out yourself, does it achieve its purpose? Does it speak to your audience and conform to what your brand is? With the increase in mobile usage, a responsive design that performs optimally across various screen sizes is crucial.
9. Measure and Analyse:
Use analytics to measure the success of your content which is the end use of your design and visuals. Compare it to how your old material and visual performed. Look at metrics like page views, social shares, time spent on page, conversion rates, etc. to understand how your content is performing and how you might need to adjust your image. Again don’t be rigid or unwilling to adapt to what the analytics are telling you, getting it wrong only helps you get it right, but going live with content should only really be after the visuals are finalised.
Your design strategy is a powerful tool that can effectively communicate your brand's values and personality, create a memorable impression and ultimately drive customer engagement. It's worth investing time and resources into creating a design strategy that truly represents your brand and resonates with your audience.
Crafting Effective Content Marketing Material Using your Design Strategy
Design plays a pivotal role in every aspect of digital marketing, from your website to social media and blogging to email marketing. An appealing and consistent design can enhance your brand image, engage your audience and drive conversions. Let’s explore how to develop a compelling design strategy for your digital marketing content.
1. Colours that are Relevant to your Business:
While consistency is key, it’s also crucial to tailor your designs to reflect who you are. For instance, if your existing material is blue, grey and green, why would you deviate from these colours? Do they already conform to the products you provide, are they linked with what and who your company is? Or is it time for a complete overhaul and change? Be sure to pick the colours you will use in every aspect from buttons, highlights, text and banners and stick to them.
2. Optimise for Mobile:
With more people accessing content on their smartphones, ensure your design is mobile-friendly. Whether it's a blog post or an email newsletter, your design should look and function well on smaller screens.
3. Use High-Quality Visuals:
Incorporate high-quality, relevant visuals in your design portfolio. In reality your imagery will develop and evolve as your online presence evolves. But it will conform to what your company represents and have a general feel or impression behind it. Visuals amplify your message and engage your audience more effectively. Think Coca-Cola’s Santa, Dove’s kindness to skin, McCain’s family centred messages.
4. Logo and Name:
A brand logo is a key marketing methodology and should be considered carefully. Just think of the Amazon “tick-smile”, Apple’s “bitten apple”, Adidas’ “3 stripes” or the Rolex “crown”.
5. Design for Accessibility:
Ensure your design is accessible to all, including people with visual impairments. Use contrasting colours for text and backgrounds. Clear fonts to improve readability are key but don’t shy away from picking a font that is your only font for all written material.
An effective design strategy can significantly improve the impact of your social media, blogging and email marketing efforts. By ensuring consistency, optimising for each platform and prioritising the user experience, you can create designs that not only attract your target audience but are immediately recognised and connected with your brand, product or service.
Unpacking the Cost Elements of Creating Design Material
Design is powerful and essential when shaping your brand image, engaging your audience and improving your online presence. But, what does design cost? We’ve researched the various cost elements for you that you should consider when planning your design strategy. We’ve decided to keep Website design and development separate as it is a whole other level of consideration, but we’ve got you covered over on that blog.
Professional Designer or Agency Costs:
Depending on the scope of your design needs, you might consider hiring a professional designer or an agency. A cohesive branding strategy can require substantial investment. It can involve logo design, branding guidelines and social media branding, which can collectively range from £500 to £10,000, depending on the depth and complexity of the consultancy.
Software and Tools:
Design involves several tools for things like graphic design, prototyping, image generation, video creation etc. While some tools have free versions, comprehensive features often require paid subscriptions ranging from £10 to £50 a month or more per tool. You simply will not make the impact you want to make with the free versions, these are for school coursework.
Fonts and Imagery:
While many free options are available, unique fonts or high-quality images often come at a price. Stock images can cost from £1 to £20 each, while premium fonts can range from £10 to £100+. Custom imagery and design of a company logo come in at anywhere from £500 to £5,000.
Printing Costs:
If your design strategy includes physical materials like brochures or business cards, consider printing costs. These can vary based on quantity, paper quality and the type of printing.
Revisions and Updates:
Design is a dynamic process and changes are part of it. Consider the costs for revisions or updates to your initial design. Designers often charge an hourly rate for these additional services but the genuine agencies will include one or two revisions in their fee. Our earlier statement of “if there is a general consensus against your view then guess what, you’re wrong” applies equally to designers.
While a design strategy itself doesn’t require investment, a well-crafted design strategy can focus the creation of your design material. It's essential to view the above costs of producing the material as investments in your brand's future. Keep in mind the saying, "you have to spend money to make money," and consider your design creation a valuable investment for the success of your company.
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