As you begin the process of designing your next marketing campaign, one very important factor that should always remain at the heart of it all is your message.
Ultimately, the best-looking print mailer or poster won’t mean anything to the consumer unless its has a clear and concise message.
So, here are some questions to ask yourself in order to determine whether or not you may be diluting the message in your marketing materials.
Question 1: Is the design visually overloading the reader?
Sure, graphics, interesting fonts, and more can all be great assets to get your message across to readers in an aesthetically pleasing way.
However, those elements should be complimentary, not supplementary.
Remember: If an element is not contributing to your marketing message, it is only taking away from it.
So if you find yourself looking at a marketing piece that has tons of bright colors, flashy images, logos, etc., there’s a pretty good chance you’re actually accomplishing the opposite of what you set out to do.
Steer clear from the direction of “a lot of style, very little substance.”
Instead, start designing your materials with your message in mind and then lay everything else around it.
Don’t design the best-looking print material you can and THEN try to cram your message in.
Question 2: Does it take longer than 30 seconds to find the message?
To really achieve a high level of effectiveness, your message needs to be as simple as possible.
“This company is the one you can trust.”
“This product is the one that can solve your problems.”
“This service is the one you need to make your life easier.”
Yes, these are quite basic, but nonetheless, the marketing message can be identified and absorbed quickly and easily.
Remember: If it takes longer than 30 seconds for your target audience to realize what you’re trying to say, you’ve probably already lost them.
And let’s be honest.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Question 3: Is there enough white space?
As dog is to man, so is white space to the designer.
People don’t want to read a wall of text to find out what you’re trying to say.
They want to be spoken to directly and succinctly.
If you design a particular material that has very little white space left over at the end of the process, perhaps you should take another look.
There are most certainly elements, whether it be graphics or text or something else entirely, that you can drop without harming what you’re trying to say.
Remember our first reminder?
Anything that isn’t directly contributing to your marketing message is only serving to take attention away from it.
And we can say for certain that taking attention away from your message is something that you do not want to do under any circumstances.
Remember: People shouldn’t have to work to figure out what you’re trying to say – it should be immediately clear.
By keeping these tips in mind when designing your next marketing piece – no matter what it is, you’ll place yourself in a better position to establish a direct line of communication with your target audience… in the way you actually intended.
