How graphic design can help your business

You want to do everything you can to help your brand⁠(opens in a new tab or window). But how does graphic design for business play into the equation? In this article, we take a deep dive into the way graphic design can help you stand out, establish your brand⁠(opens in a new tab or window), and elevate your business to new levels of success.

There are plenty of things you can do to help your business, from research and development to exploring different marketing channels to running focus groups to get feedback on your products.

But there’s one thing that’s absolutely instrumental in taking your business to the next level: Graphic design.

Let’s take a look at the different ways graphic design⁠(opens in a new tab or window) can help your business (and take your brand to an entirely new level in the process):

Social media is one of the best ways to connect with your audience—but only if you can break through the clutter of noise and competition and grab their attention. And a great way to do that? Through graphic design.

Images are key to connecting with your audience. 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual—and 40% of people respond better to visual information⁠(opens in a new tab or window) that plain text. Including well-designed graphics in your social media posts will help them jump off your audience’s screen, grab their attention, and start a conversation. Don’t believe us? The data⁠(opens in a new tab or window) doesn’t lie:

• Facebook posts with images get 2.3x more engagement than Facebook posts without
• Twitter updates with images can generate 150% more retweets than text-only tweets
• Adding relevant images to blog content can increase Pinterest traffic by 62.5%

If you want to break through the clutter on social media, look for opportunities to incorporate graphic design into your strategy. Have a new product launching? Release a series of product photos on Instagram in the days leading up to the launch to get people hyped about the product. Have an event coming up? Include in your event proposal⁠(opens in a new tab or window), instead of releasing the details in a text-only Facebook post, design a flyer⁠(opens in a new tab or window) with all the key event messaging and send it out to your audience. Moving into a new office? Tweet photos of your new space to your followers to start the conversation about the new, exciting things going on in your business.

The point is: Graphic design can help you stand out on social media. And standing out on social media can help take your business to the next level.

When you have impactful information to share, presenting it in a visual way packs an extra punch. Canva’s templates, like the Blue and White Triangle Shape Marketing Proposal⁠(opens in a new tab or window) or the Charity Infographic⁠(opens in a new tab or window), can help you organize your information in a way that’s going to pack the most visual punch.

Chances are, there is a ton of information about your business that you want to get out in the world—everything from annual sales to performance data to engagement statistics. And all that data can be super impactful if you get it in front of the right people (like investors or potential employees).

But if you present it in a way that falls flat, it doesn’t matter how impactful the information about your business is, it’s not going to connect with your audience. Who wants to read through an endless stream of spreadsheets, bullet points, and huge blocks of text?

The answer is no one. And that’s where graphic design comes in.

Leveraging graphic design allows you to present key data, information, and statistics about your business in a way that’s going to pack a powerful punch and make a real impact on your audience.

When it comes to transforming your data into visually impactful assets, the sky’s the limit. Getting ready to present at your company’s end-of-year meeting? Pull all of your key messaging together in a well-designed annual report. Not sure what to do with the results from a recent customer survey? Pull the statistics into an infographic, share it on social media, and use it as a way to generate leads (infographics have been shown to increase web traffic by 12%). Launching a new product? Instead of writing out your instructions, put together a visual how-to guide to get people up to speed on how to use your product.

If you have information you know will make a big impact on your audience, the best thing you can do is present it in a way that’s going to pack the most impactful punch.

Crafting a digital marketing report? Capture all of the metrics you want to include in your marketing report⁠(opens in a new tab or window) in a visually-pleasing report.

The right pitch deck can mean the difference between walking out of an investor meeting empty handed or with a nice, big check. Use a presentation template like the Teal Cityscape Business or the White and Yellow Photographic Presentation to nail your presentation—and get one step closer to finding funding for your business.

Speaking of presenting key information in an impactful way, when you’re first launching your business (or trying to scale your business to the next level), there’s no one you need to impact more than investors.

When you pitch to investors, you need to frame your brand in a way that builds value, and clearly communicates why they should funnel resources into your company. Well-designed presentations and pitch decks are key for driving funding. Not only do they present key information in a way that’s attention-grabbing and visually impactful, but they also show that you know how to communicate clearly and effectively.

Bottom line: As a business, you need money. Sometimes, you need that money to come from investors. And if you want to get that money from investors, you need to leverage graphic design to create a presentation or pitch deck that shows them why you’re worth the investment.

When it comes to designing key branding elements, you want to be unique, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to do this. Customizing an industry or genre-specific logo template (like Black and Orange Barbell Sports Logo⁠(opens in a new tab or window), Pink and Blue Badge Logo⁠(opens in a new tab or window), or Black with Utensils Icon Restaurant Logo⁠(opens in a new tab or window)) will help you come up with a one-of-a-kind logo design to act as the face of your brand—without starting from scratch.

Think of your branding as your corporate DNA. It’s who you are as a company. It tells your clients and customers, what you’re about, what they can expect, and why they should work with you. Your branding says a lot about you, and a lot of that communication is visual.

The right visual branding elements can make or break your brand—they’re that powerful. Which is why it’s so important to get it right!

But before you can bring your branding to life visually, you need to be crystal clear on who you are as a brand and what message you want your branding to send to your audience. If you’re not totally clear on your branding, you’re going to want to do a little investigative work before you start designing.

Ask yourself questions to dig a little deeper on who you are as a brand:

• If my brand was a person, who would they be?
• If I could describe my brand in three words, what would they be?
• What’s my point of difference? In other words, what sets my brand apart from the competition?
• If my brand could talk, how would it speak? (So, for example, would it be silly and quirky or serious and buttoned-up?)
• What does my brand do better than anyone else?

The clearer you can get on who you are and what you have to offer your audience, the better that will come across in your visual branding elements.

Once you’ve honed in on your brand’s personality, it’s time to bring it life visually. There are a number of visual elements you can design to strengthen your branding, connect with your audience, and drive engagement, including:

• Logo. Your logo⁠(opens in a new tab or window) is, hands down, the most important thing you’ll design for your company. It acts as the face of your brand, and will be the element people most closely associate with you and your company.

• Website. Think of your website as your brand’s real estate on the web; it’s where people will go to discover who you are and what you have to offer. In order for it to serve its purpose, it needs to be on-brand and well-designed.
  

• Brand color palette. Color is an extremely powerful thing, and the colors you choose for your brand color palette will send a very specific message to your audience. Before you settle on colors, do a little research on color psychology. A blue and green color palette is going to send a very different message from a palette made up of shades of red, orange, and yellow, so make sure the colors you choose inspire the right emotions in your audience.
• Fonts/typography. The same thing goes for typography. Using Comic Sans as your font is going to send a very different message than using Arial or Helvetica. Make sure the fonts you choose—and the way you use them—are in line with your brand.
  

Well-designed marketing materials are key to staying top of mind with potential clients and customers. Build the marketing arsenal that will do the work for you with templates for business cards⁠(opens in a new tab or window) (like the Red Monochrome Concert Photos Photographic Business Card⁠(opens in a new tab or window)), flyers⁠(opens in a new tab or window) (like the Yellow Bold Text Tutor Flyer⁠(opens in a new tab or window)), and brochures⁠(opens in a new tab or window) (like the Teal Creative Trifold Brochure⁠(opens in a new tab or window)).

When you connect with a new business contact, you want to stay top of mind long after the conversation is over. And the best way to do that? Graphic design, of course.

Well-designed marketing assets (like business cards, flyers, or brochures) are crucial for growing your business because they continue to deliver key messaging to potential clients and customers when you’re not around. They also give you are also worth the time investment, once the initial design is done, all that’s left to do is get your marketing assets out into the world.

If you want your marketing assets to drive results for your business, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Stay on brand⁠(opens in a new tab or window). Your branding should be consistent in all your communications—and that includes your marketing assets. Make sure you incorporate your logo, brand color palette, fonts, and any other key branding elements.
• Keep things concise. If you’re designing a marketing brochure or flyer, there’s no need to write a novel. Keeping things short and to the point. Ensure your key messaging doesn’t get lost in a sea of text.
• Don’t forget contact information. Obviously, you’re going to include your contact information on your business cards, but don’t forget to include it in your other marketing assets, too. The entire point of designing marketing assets is to drive business, but if your clients and customers don’t know how to get in touch with you, chances are, they’re going to drive their business somewhere else.

Related: Explore how you can make you can make your cover photo for LinkedIn⁠(opens in a new tab or window) stay-on brand and look professional