Marketing Design: Definition, Types, and Tips

Marketing design applies graphic design principles to the ultimate goals of a marketing effort. It encompasses both the creation of a recognizable visual identity that will appeal to potential customers and the marketing team’s deployment of that identity in the form of internally consistent assets.

Marketing design is an essential piece of a business’s marketing strategy since good design is one of the primary ways to grab your target audience’s attention. The marketing graphics that a design team creates are also vital to a positive user experience since welcoming visuals will make customers more likely to return.

No matter what type of designed assets a company plans to distribute in its marketing materials, they should align with the overall brand identity design—a codified set of ideals and aesthetic guidelines that the content marketing team uses to connect with customers. Here are some of the more common types of content through which designers communicate brand identity:

1. 1. Email marketing: Once you’ve persuaded a customer (or potential customer) to open an email from you, you need to ensure that the email contents make the reader want to engage. Great design can help catch the readers’ eye. Learn more about email marketing.
2. 2. Landing page and website design: Customers will quickly navigate away from messy or overloaded landing pages. However, intentional and considerate web design can guide them from the landing page to your online store or mailing list sign-up page.
3. 3. Miscellaneous digital ads: For promotional partnerships with other brands’ sites or run-of-the-mill banner ads, you need particularly great marketing design to appeal to people rather than annoy them with unwanted visuals. Learn how to make the most of digital advertising.
4. 4. Print advertising and marketing: Anything in the real world that features your branding requires a designer to adapt your brand’s visual language, whether for a sweatshirt or a billboard.
5. 5. Social media assets: If your brand has a presence on social media, it should feature an eye-catching design to make people stop scrolling and look at your content. Visual branding and graphic design should play a significant role in your social media marketing strategy.

A marketing campaign requires a solid and clear design. Here’s what you have to gain from investing in a cohesive design plan:

1. 1. Memorable design sticks in consumers’ minds. A positive and engaging brand experience makes customers more likely to remember you when making their next purchase or considering a service provider. Customers are also more likely to opt for a brand they’re familiar with, and graphic design can help with brand recognition.
2. 2. Make an emotional connection through visual storytelling. An invested customer is a repeat customer. By using design tools to appeal to people’s emotions, they’ll have more of a stake in your company’s success.
3. 3. Marketing design is what sells a product. Copy is important, but your target audience may overlook your messaging if you don’t pair it with an attention-grabbing design.

Marketing design is all about staying adaptable while maintaining your brand consistency.

1. 1. Follow your core design principles. Codifying your design principles makes it easier to maintain a consistent visual language. Your business should operate with a style guide that lays out the typography, colors, and templates designers should use in their work.
2. 2. Keep your messaging in mind at all times. From big-picture projects like logo design to more everyday social assets, the most crucial part of your design is the message it conveys. An asset can look great, but it’s not doing its job if it doesn’t communicate your business’s message.
3. 3. Stay on top of changes in the market (and in your audience). While your branding should be consistent, it must also change over time as you try to appeal to different audiences or adjust to remain current. Periodically reevaluate your brand’s goals and target audience.

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