Your business might be small, but that doesn’t mean your marketing aspirations have to be.

And with today’s consumers knowing good design when they see it, your marketing quality has to equal that of the big corporations.

If it doesn’t, consumers simply won’t do business with you, no matter your size.

But the good news is, great design in marketing for small businesses has never been more achievable or affordable.

So, there’s no reason why you can’t compete, even on a small business budget.

In this post, we’ll tell you how to go about it.

By showing you the importance of design in small business marketing.

And by the time you’re finished, you’ll know which marketing strategies to invest your small business dollars in to receive the highest return.

The Importance of Design in Marketing

Nature takes design quite seriously. It’s how flora attracts insects for pollination and fauna for reproduction. It doesn’t send mixed messages (unless intentional), it’s simple (even when it looks complicated), and serves one purpose, engagement.

And the importance of design in marketing is no different.

It attracts attention to your campaigns, simplifies and enhances your message’s quality, cuts through the noise, and communicates it in the most effective possible way.

Most importantly, it makes your marketing memorable.

Why First Impressions Matter

Have you heard the quote, “The first impression is the last impression”? By British essayist William Hazlitt.

Or how about “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”? Attributed to both Oscar Wilde (Irish poet, playwright) and Will Rogers (American Cowboy, actor, newspaper columnist). Both equally worthy.

All legends, and of course, all entirely right.

And that was in a time when the average American saw a couple of advertisements a day, at most. Now we’re bombarded with up to 10,000 each day, so I think it’s fair to say those quotes are more valid now than ever before.

And it doesn’t matter what your small business is or where you’re advertising; people will form an opinion about you quicker than the blink of an eye. Google research tells us that assertions are made within the first 17 to 50 milliseconds when it comes to your website. The average blink of an eye is 100 to 400 milliseconds!

So, what does this mean?

We’re now screening content before we engage, only choosing marketing that has something we’re interested in and connects with us. By trigging past experiences and feelings, engaging our emotions, and compelling us to take action.

It means you have to make an excellent first impression!

And one way you achieve that is by creating a well-designed brand identity:

Create a Brand Identity for Your Business

If I say Apple, Mercedes, and IBM, can you picture their logos?

Perhaps you pictured them in perfect detail, including the shape, fonts, and colors, even before I finished asking the question!

If so, it wasn’t by chance, and neither are the designs these giants of industry use for their branding. Every element has been carefully chosen to mimic what nature does naturally. To engage, connect emotionally, and become memorable.

Yes, it’s how they look, but it’s also how they make us feel when we see them that makes them memorable. And you achieve that by using colors and fonts that send messages to our subconscious and connect with our emotions.

Creating branded elements like a cool logo design has got easier. But, there is more to brand identity than a logo. Your logo is only a small piece of the whole!

The Psychology of Color:

There isn’t a single successful brand, big or small, that hasn’t consulted color psychology before designing their marketing materials. We’ve been using the principles of color psychology and its effect on people since marketing began.

It’s why high-end brands use black, grey, gold, and silver (evoking feelings of prestige, value, timelessness, sophistication). The wellness industry use green (evoking emotions of wealth, health, serenity, generosity, safety). And Banks and insurance companies use blue (producing feelings of trust, dependability, security, responsible, confidence).

The last example is an example of the power of color!

Typeface and Your Brands Identity:

In addition to your color scheme, selecting the correct typeface, style, and size is essential when developing a small business identity. You must also choose your typeface carefully to ensure they suit your brand’s personality and speak your target audience’s language.

How you design them is equally important, such as weight, point size, and kerning. Every font and character arrangement you use reflects your brand, and all play their part in how your message is conveyed.

Increase the Visual Awareness of Your Campaigns 

There are now 1.3 billion websites, and with so many businesses competing for online consumer attention, great design is your best way of standing out from your competitors and engaging your audience’s attention.

As we are now scanning content to locate what’s important to us, we’re ignoring anything that doesn’t stand out. Designers now focus on creating marketing designs based on elements that resonate with the target persona and avoid strategies that are unappealing to that niche.

But grabbing your target market’s attention is only one part of the design equation; next, you have to keep it, and that’s what a simple but effective design does.

It’s why the design trends of 2020 were simplistic in their approach and websites with a clean layout, providing an easy-to-use UX experience.

Drive Conversion Rates and Increase Your ROI

Any small business marketing campaign aims to raise brand awareness, drive conversions, and increase your investment return. Great design attracts customers and influences people to take action.

The action you want them to take is dependent upon your business and marketing objectives. Smart businesses know this and use design to connect on deep emotional levels to significant effect. It’s why high-quality photos and videos of products and people are now crucial to running an effective marketing campaign. Social media enables you to use them to increase your engagement and, ultimately, your conversion rates.

It’s about creating trust with your consumers and enabling them to see themselves using your product or service. And recent statistics show that consumers are 85% more likely to buy a product if they can see a video about it, and posts with relevant images produce around 180% more engagements.

Conclusion

Now you know the importance of good design, you can invest your hard-earned dollars where they’re needed most.

By doing so, you’ll create a level playing field with big business corporations.

Engage your target audience, and drive conversion rates skywards.

And the beauty of great design is it will continue to pay you back long after your initial investment.