5 Tips for Creating Successful Designs for Marketing Campaigns
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Small businesses tend to look at the bottom line when they are endeavoring to create new marketing campaigns. They do not budget to spend a lot of money on marketing campaigns and yet, they definitely hope to gain positive results. The trouble with this approach is that chances are, they are setting themselves up for failure rather than success. The digital age requires more innovation in terms of marketing, and campaigns have to be loud and consistent, to be successful. You need marketing designs to stand out from the crowd.
Tip 1: Choose Custom Design Options for your Business Marketing
What is your competitive advantage when you choose a template hundreds of other businesses chose before you? The one thing I have learnt as a marketer is that customization is the true path to success. There are tens of sites that offer DIY tools, and a huge selection of templates to choose from for your logo design, website or marketing materials. However, any designer worth his or her salt will tell you clip art and templates are not appropriate for a professional business identity. Clip art may look charming, and templates may seem ‘unique’ but the truth is, hundreds of businesses are using the exact same design. No matter how much money you save in the initial phase, in the end it’s a failed marketing technique. Only a custom design for your marketing needs will ensure your business success.
Tip 2: Validate your design
Marketing is all about strategy and insight. Before you finalize your designs create a small survey poll using tools like surveymoney.com or surveycrest.com. This will allow you to present the design to your projected audience and let you know whether it appeals to them or not. It will also allow you to gain deeper insight into your future client requirements. By validating your design you allow the audience to have a stake in your success and personalize your business even before it is launched.
Tip 3: Make your logo design versatile
The biggest mistake a business can make is using the same logo design for all media channels- online and offline. A logo created for a business has various elements to it. Some elements maybe too complicated for print media, while having the ability to look great online. Have your logo designer work with you to extract the various elements of the logo for the different channels so that your marketing campaign can be customized across the different channels of media communication.
Tip 4: Good Artists Copy, But Great Artists Steal
Picasso is quoted as having said, “Good Artists Copy, But Great Artists Steal”. Inventors like Steve Jobs have used this very phrase to promote their own ideas. The Apple products are so innovative they have to be original right? Wrong. The war between Android and Apple is just one example of people asking the question: What came first the Apple or the Android? Which product is the original and which the duplicate?
There is a fine line between using someone’s idea to be inspired and plagiarism. Find a designer that knows the difference between inspiration and duplication. There are thousands of graphic design elements that are used in logos, websites and other marketing materials. You may provide the designer examples of logo designs, websites or brochure designs that you like or dislike. Yet, to actually create a design that is unique, the designer has to use those ideas in a way that it cannot be traced back to the original-in fact it has to be original.
Tip 5: Be clear on your goals
One mistake made by business professionals and many a marketer is that their goals remain blurry. The question to ask yourself before you start any design project is what do you want? Just a simple design or a brand identity?
If you want just a ‘design’ then you can hire a designer to create your logo design, opt for another to design and architect your web site. Then yet, another one to design your brochure….you see where I am going with this?
On the other hand if you want a brand identity find a small firm with a group of designers that can work collectively yet, apart. They will have a supervisor to ensure your goals are met and when the final designs are created they will be consistent with one another. That way any marketing campaign launched will be to create a long term brand identity-essential in today’s digital world.
