All of your content in a social media campaign is targeted at one target. How use design tips to take your social campaigns to the Next Level?
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Why is visual design so important to you?
Marketing is a complex business. Visual design is a key part of it. For one, your visual design is your audience’s first impression of your product/service/solution. Research has shown that users only have 50 milliseconds for a first impression.
You can increase your credibility and your audience’s trust by making a strong first impression. Consumer Reports says that people will judge a website’s credibility based on its visuals and not the content. Although this may seem daunting, it can be very helpful and beneficial for your brand if done correctly.
A beautiful campaign design will set you apart and help to define your campaign’s purpose. Preserving your brand’s identity is a good idea, but that doesn’t mean you have to put your creative away forever. Adding new creative elements to your campaigns while still adhering to the brand’s guidelines is possible. Visual design is a great way to boost your campaign’s effectiveness and help propel it forward.
Design Tips to Take your Social Campaigns to the Next Level
Think more, design less. Understanding the goals of your campaign
Before you jump into the creative phase of social media, it is essential to think about the goals of your campaign.
It will help you keep your creative process focused and relevant by understanding why you are running a campaign. You can save time and effort by thinking more and less at this stage.
Once you have established your campaign goal’s, these should guide every design decision, from the overall concept to the color palette. Ellen Lupton suggests designers “Think more, Design Less.” This mindset will help you save valuable time, effort, and money.
Once you have established your overall strategy, it’s time to design the next phase.
Keep your brand aesthetic.
Your brand’s overall look should be reflected in your campaign. Your content should follow the same branding and color scheme. When your campaign appears in a crowded feed of users, they can tell it is from you.
Alo Yoga has a consistent look across its social media feeds, making identifying the brand easier. Define your brand’s voice too. Your copy should be consistent with your visuals and help create a strong brand image.
Make sure to create a style guide for all your Instagram followers so that they can see how things should look.
Have a brainstorm with your team to create variations.
A productive brainstorming session is the best thing. This type of design thinking is very popular with marketing and design teams. It allows you to come up with wild ideas. These sessions will allow you to use lateral thinking to solve problems creatively. You’ll be able to cover more angles by considering, building, and harvesting your team members’ ideas. Alex Osborn once stated, “It’s easier to reduce a wild idea than to come up with a new one.”
These are some tips to make brainstorming sessions more productive.
- Ask the right questions
- Do not be afraid to invent and share your ideas
- To increase your innovation potential, think beyond the obvious and find a solution.
- Combine the strengths and perspectives of all members of your team
- Discover new areas of innovation
- Your options will be more varied and large-scale if you create a volume
- Find the best ideas you can all agree on.
Make use of existing platforms in a new way.
Eurostar, a high-speed railway service, used Instagram to launch its new fleet. It used Instagram’s “horizontal profile gallery” to do so.
AKQA, an agency behind the campaign, created an illustration showing the train journey. It is nearly 200 images plus animated videos. Each post describes a Parisian or London destination and hides a special deal (e.g., You can get 2 tickets for the price of 1 to museums, or you can tell a benefit from the new fleet to encourage Eurostar’s customers to explore the whole profile.
Eurostar also collaborated with Instagram users to promote the campaign and hosted social media contests where its followers were asked to submit a photo with the #eurostar hashtag.
This campaign generated 9.7 Million impressions on Instagram and helped Eurostar grow its social media following.
Make mood boards improve visualization.
A visual mood board allows you to consolidate your creative ideas in one place. This will give you a clear view of the themes, fonts, colors, and styles you are using. They work well together.
You can make sure your designs are varied by choosing 2-3 styles and combining them to create something new. One style could be focused on art deco while the others are minimalistic or retro. This allows you to explore new design options. The bottom line: Don’t be afraid of trying new ideas.
These are some apps that we use to mood board:
Carefully Choose Your Color Palette
Design is only as good as the color you choose.
Your campaign’s colors can set the tone and often carry subliminal connotations.
Pastel colors can be perceived as gentle and calming, while bright neons are associated with danger and youthful energy. You should also consider how your campaign colors will fit in with your overall branding. You can revitalize your social media presence with a new color palette, but keeping the same gradient is best.
Professional designers spend hours pondering colors and their associations and how to combine them to create an impression.
Typeface
It is best to think about your target audience before you choose fonts. To create a successful design, it is essential to understand what typefaces appeal to your target audience.
It is a great asset to understand the meanings behind different fonts. Large, bold sans-serif fonts, such as full caps sans serif, are easily visible but are also more striking. This can increase the meaning of certain words in your design.
Display fonts can be used for decoration or headlines. Large fonts, for example, will grab your viewers’ attention immediately. This is one of the most effective ways to give specific phrases visual significance. These use cases depend on the theme of your campaign, brand, and overall messaging.
You should also consider the following essential points:
- Point size
- Tint
- Weight/Density
- Tracking/spacing of letters
- Spacing of lines
- Texture
- General spatial distribution
- Positioning
- Legibility
Creative Apps for Professional Templates
You don’t have to be a professional designer to create social media campaign’s that look professional.
Canva, Adobe Spark, and Overall offer pre-designed templates. These templates are great for anyone starting in design apps. Design apps offer a cost-effective way to enhance your visuals on social media with pre-populated fonts, color combinations, and cool layered layouts.
You can also customize the available designs to create your own creative identity. Adobe Spark, Canva ,and Overall allow you to upload your custom font.
Preview your designs in advance.
This is undoubtedly one of the most critical points you should incorporate into your design process. It’s a good idea for your campaign to preview the designs before it starts to take shape.
This will help you to verify any changes and give you an overall view of your campaign with all your social media channel’s.
