Businesses rely so much on promotional materials for acquiring customers, leads, and sales today. The sad thing is, not all promotional designs have been created equal. A well-designed flyer, poster, or brochure drives conversions, while a poorly designed one can be utterly a waste of time and money. This guide will take you through the necessary steps to create promotional materials designed for conversions.
Knowing Your Audience
Probably the most important thing a designer needs to know in designing effective promotional materials is who his target audience is. Who are they? What do they value? What problems do they need solutions for? These key pieces of information will help tailor your design, messaging, and overall strategy to resonate with your audience.
Take, for instance, professionals who are very busy and may thus want to immediately know that the message provided should be clear and efficient. This translates to clean, readable layouts, concise messaging, and communicates the core offer fast. On the other hand, to an audience that is more artistic, such as artists or designers, one may want to experiment with bold visuals and dynamic layout treatments that capture attention.
Remember, conversion-focused promotional material design needs to revolve around the customer. So, if you’re looking to print flyers that stand out and communicate clearly, mastering visual hierarchy is key.
Simplify the Message
One of the worst things businesses do is load up their promotion materials with information. Sure, it’s tempting to include every detail possible, but what this does more often is overload your audience while burying the “meat” of your message. Lastly, messaging needs to be kept simple and focused on one thing: the most important benefit or call to action you want to highlight.
If there is a sale or some promotion, for instance, it should be the most prominent element on the flyer or poster. Make sure, too, that the call-to-action is really outstanding and one that’s simple to undertake. Using action-oriented language, such as “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” or “Get Your Free Quote,” enacts and urges the viewer to take the next step in interacting with your business.
For business promotion, if you need professional and high-quality flyers, then you can get the customized printing service that can allow flexibility in tailoring to specific campaigns.
Use Visual Hierarchy
Visual hierarchy is a strong design principle guiding the viewer’s eye through your promotional material in a logical manner. With the help of size, color, and placement of the elements, you are in control of the flow of information. A strong visual hierarchy means the most important information-like your CTA, offer, or product name-grabs attention first, and supporting details are uncovered as the viewer continues to view the design.
To do this:
Use larger font sizes for headlines or key offers. This automatically draws attention to them upon view.
Use contrasting colors to make your key elements pop – like your CTA or price – from the rest of the design.
Use white space around critical elements so they’re not competing with other items and are, therefore, more readable.
This means when driving conversion, you should make the important information as accessible as possible and enable your audience with ease of taking action in turn.
Leverage Colors and Fonts for Emotional Impact
Colors and fonts can do much more than making your promotional materials look good; colors and fonts can actually provoke feelings and make decisions about buying. For example, red, orange, and yellow possess warmth and hotness that show urgency, while blue and green are cool colors, showing trust and dependability.
Also, fonts are effective in setting the tone of your promotional materials. Modern, clean fonts give a professional and trusting feel, while a playful or creative font can make your material more engaging and fun. Stick to colors and fonts that always stick to your brand and what message you are trying to get across.
Just the same, be keen not to overdo it with too many colors or too many fonts. A limited color palette-a couple, three colors, and consistent font choices-makes the design professional and cohesive.
Include a Strong Call to Action
One of the important parts of creating promotional materials to drive conversions is a call to action. Of course, you can’t just highlight your product or service but go that extra step by encouraging the reader to do something.
In writing your CTA, make sure it is highly specific and action-oriented. Avoid vague phrasings, such as “Learn More,” while using immediate and actionable phrasing, such as:
“Get 50% Off Today!”
“Sign Up for Free”
“Claim Your Discount Now!”
Make your call-to-action big and fat on the content, and consider putting a deadline or urgency, such as “Offer ends soon” or “Limited spots available.” You will be surprised by how much better the conversions are, considering people need to act sooner rather than later.
Quality of Images
High-quality images will help to make your promotional materials pop. Whether a product photo, stock image, or an illustration-it needs to be high-resolution and relevant to the message being communicated. Poor-quality images detract from the professional quality of a material and may even deter a prospective customer.
The images should also complement your CTA and the overall goal of your promotion. For example, when you promote a new product, you should use clear, detailed images showcasing the best features of that product. If you are promoting a service, use images depicting satisfaction of customers or the service in action.
Tracking and Measuring Success
Last but not least, tracking and performance measuring will be paramount in order to understand whether your promotional materials actually drive conversions. First, set up clear KPIs that will indicate performance for your objectives, whether it be lead generation, website traffic, or even direct sales. To help you do that, you could use unique QR codes, landing pages, or promo codes showing just how well each promotional piece is working.
That way, from the results analyzed, you can review your designs, messaging, and CTAs for improved campaign runs. It is an ongoing process where you learn and optimize.
Conclusion
Designing promotional materials to convert is both an art and a science in itself. Knowing who your audience is, simplifying your message, applying visual hierarchy, using colors and fonts that are appealing, and creating a strong call to action can all lead to the creation of on-target materials that don’t only look good but drive results. Remember, always track performances for improvements in marketing efforts.