While a picture is worth a thousand words, graphic design in any business can be worth thousands of dollars.
Graphic design is more than just a form of communication between your company and its audience. Graphics are used by businesses at all stages of the marketing funnel to inform, engage, and ultimately persuade prospective customers to make a purchase or take the desired action.
According to Adobe, companies with strong design outperform companies with weak design on the S&P Index (a stock market index) by 219% over a 10-year period. In fact, 48% of people polled by Tyton Media said that a company’s website design was the most important factor in determining its credibility. So, not only is good design linked to success, but it is also linked to trust.
Let’s look at reasons why graphic design is essential for any business to increase brand reach and profit.
1. Good design creates a favorable first impression
Colors, shapes, textures, space, forms, images, and content should all be used in a harmonious, balanced way in good design. A strong brand is the foundation of good design.
Entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones who make the mistake of using generic logos; businesses of all sizes make the same mistake, only to discover that rebranding is even more expensive.
After all, memorable logos are 13% more likely to capture the attention of consumers and 71.6% more likely to elicit a positive response from them. That can make a big difference in a noisy world.
2. Good design makes your company stand out
Think again if you thought you had no competition.
People will gravitate toward your products if your designs are current, modern, and impressive. It’s an unavoidable fact of life. When you go grocery shopping, go down a random aisle that you never go down and ask yourself which items on the shelves catch your eye first. I guarantee it will be products with outstanding design, branding, and modern packaging.
What if you could spend less money but get more attention simply because something looks better than the others? Would you not invest more upfront to achieve those kinds of results? That’s the great thing about good design: you don’t have to spend more money to attract more attention.
According to Steven Bradley, author of Design Fundamentals, people are inherently biassed toward beauty:
“Humans have an attractiveness bias, which means that we perceive beautiful things as better, regardless of whether they are. We prefer beautiful things, and we believe that beautiful things function better. Function, like form, can follow function in nature.”
3. Customer relationships are strengthened by good design
Customers are frequently emotionally connected to a company because relationships are based on emotion.
For example, To demonstrate the emotions that someone may experience when seeing a beautiful design, we use a fun illustration to demonstrate that crowd spring’s clients will receive a design that their customers will enjoy.
4. A well-designed website is simple to use
Good design is more than just how something looks. To be effective, design must serve a specific purpose.
A good design is concerned with how something appears and functions. A well-designed website for example, aids in the conversion of visitors into customers.
When people have attention spans shorter than a goldfish, you know you don’t have much time before they give up. Websites and online products are easier to navigate with good design, and bounce rates are usually lower. People are more likely to abandon poorly designed websites because they can’t find what they’re looking for or it takes too long to find the information they need.
Good design and usability aren’t about overloading the customer with information or tons of animations – they’re about giving the customer the bare minimum that they need while still expressing your brand.
According to a Microsoft Corporation study, the average human attention span has decreased by 4 seconds since 2000. Today, that attention span is 8 seconds, while a goldfish has a 9-second attention span. While the difference appears minor at first glance, it is actually quite significant.
Websites and online products are easier to navigate with good design, and bounce rates are usually lower. People are more likely to abandon poorly designed websites because they can’t find what they’re looking for or it takes too long to find the information they need.
5. Brand consistency is promoted by good design
It would be odd if Google suddenly began displaying search results in cursive. Or if McDonald’s decided to change their logo on a daily basis. You’re probably cringing because you’ve never imagined a purple McDonald’s logo or a script Google search results page. We’re not surprised.
Google’s search results layout and McDonald’s logo are more than just design elements for the companies; they are part of their brand. Because those designs are so memorable, it’s difficult to imagine them changing, which is a good thing. When it comes to developing a cohesive brand, consistency is essential.
In fact, having an inconsistent brand is a critical mistake that could cost your company its existence. Because the brand connects the customer to their emotions. When a brand is inconsistent, it appears disorganized and chaotic. People are hesitant to invest in chaotic brands because they lack trust in the company.
6. Good design is essential for social media success
Think again if you thought that a well-designed website was all you needed to succeed. Many marketing efforts today are conducted through social media platforms.
Social media, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or another platform, is one of the best ways to connect with customers, go viral, and make a name for your business. However, in this day and age, poor design will not get you very far with your social media strategy.
Buffer investigated the impact of graphics on social media engagement on Twitter. They discovered that tweets with images received 150% more retweets than those without images. A closer look at these images revealed that businesses frequently took the time to post something other than a stock photo.
Take a moment to absorb that.
Even if your company is small today, a good design can help it grow into a large one tomorrow.