Are you creating branded graphics in your business? If not then we’re here to help you see why you should be, and why it doesn’t have to be a time and money sucking process. You can create branded graphics with ease!
Regardless of what your business is, it’s likely that you’ll need to make use of text based branded graphics across your social media channels at some stage – quotes, testimonials, tips/tricks – all are important content pillars that help to add value, engage your followers and make your brand more relatable.
It’s no longer enough to simply share the cute quotes you find on Instagram, or whip up something basic – but boring – with a mobile app.
To really take your business to the next level, you need to be using branded graphics.
But what are they, what benefits do they provide and how can you start creating your own? Keep reading to find out!
What Are Branded Graphics?
Branded Graphics are, simply put, graphics that you design or create that align with your business branding and are recognisable as “yours”.
Essentially, these graphics will all feature elements that are unique and recognisable as belonging to your business, such as your logo, brand fonts and brand colors.
As a business, it’s a good idea to create a suite of templates that you can use for various types of posts across your social media channels. This includes things such as sales/promotional templates, quote templates, tips/tricks templates, announcement templates, testimonial templates + any other branded graphics that your business may require.
Why Should You Be Using Branded Graphics?
There are a number of reasons your business should be making use of branded graphics, including:
#1 Increases Brand Awareness & Recognition
Think of Nike, McDonalds, Google, Facebook, Coca Cola… All of these brands are instantly recognisable, whether it be through a certain color, font, logo or slogan.
These brands do a fantastic job of making sure their most recognisable elements are consistent across all of their marketing materials. Once you see their branded graphics you instantly know who they are and what they do!
The content you share across your various channels will become synonymous with your brand, so you want to make sure you are using your branding across your posts so that your followers can instantly recognise you when scrolling on Facebook of Instagram.
Those who make use of branded graphics will find that their followers remember their brand and their story quite easily. On the flip-side, those who have no consistency and have a jumbled feed with lots of clashing colors, fonts and other elements will find it much harder to build the same brand awareness.
At the end of the day, you want your brand to be memorable. When someone thinks to themselves ‘Hey, I really need to buy X’, you want your business to be the one that instantly pops into their mind, because your content has stuck with them.
Hot Tip: Carry your colors, and fonts and not just your logo through each branded graphic. It’s not just your logo that carries your brand.
#2 Creates A Uniform Look
The one thing all big, successful brands have in common is that they are consistent when it comes to how they portray their businesses.
Whether it’s online advertising, print media, billboards, social media or online newsletters, big brands ensure that they are consistent when it comes to their styling. Creating this uniform look across all your available channels will not only help with your brand recognition and awareness, but it will also help your business appear more professional.
Remember – first impressions matter! When a potential customer or client clicks through to your profile and sees a mess of posts that have no apparent consistency, are they likely to choose you, or your competitor who presents their content beautifully, with a uniform look?
Hot Tip: The “uniform look” of your brand needs to carry across digital media and print media.
#3 Attracts Your Ideal Customers
The overall style that you use across your social media channels can tell a lot about your brand to those viewing it online. Psychologically, different colors and fonts are associated with different emotions, concepts and even thoughts.
When working on your branding, it’s important that you are choosing elements that align with what your brand stands for and who your target market is. For example, if you’re a business who targets primarily females, it’s likely that you will focus on more feminine features, color palettes, flowing fonts – as these are elements that will appeal to your audience the most.
By ensuring you’re using graphics with branding elements that resonate with your target market, not only will you be capturing their attention, but you’ll also be drawing them in and hopefully getting them to engage with you as you work to show them how your brand aligns with their needs.
Hot Tip: If your ideal customer loves sports and fitness, then let them know with your branding that you’re catering for their needs!
#4 Makes Your Content Shareable (While Preventing Stealing)
Everyone loves to see beautiful imagery on social media. The more attractive and appealing your content is, the more likely it is that people will want to share it! In most cases, having users share your content is a great thing, as it helps get your brand and your message out there to a wider audience.
Unfortunately, as is the nature of social media, people can sometimes take images and pass them off as their own without providing appropriate credit to the original creator. That’s where branded content can be beneficial!
When people do share your content, it’s instantly recognisable as yours through the design elements themselves. It’s about more than just your logo! If you include a website, logo, social media handle or watermark, it can easily be tracked back to you, even if they choose not to credit. And if you use particular colors, fonts and palettes… it’s even harder to break up your brand.
Hot Tip: if you use branded colors, fonts and styling… it’s even harder to break up your brand and takes the pressure away from your logo.
#5 tells your story with visuals
“A picture tells a thousand words”. Yes, it might be a cliche saying, but it does ring true. Visuals can help enhance certain aspects of a product/service and show things off in a way that you simply can’t achieve through your words alone.
When it comes down to it, social media has a strong emphasis on the visual aspect. With thousands of posts made every day, you need to make your content stand out amongst the rest. When your followers are scrolling down Instagram of Facebook, it’s natural that the graphics that are presented nicely are going to capture their attention more so than those that look sloppy or un-engaging.
If you want them to stop scrolling and pay attention to what you have to say, you need to make your graphics appealing! Ultimately, being consistent with the style of content you share will help make it easier for your followers to recognise your posts in their feeds.
Hot Tip: It’s not just Facebook images that can stand out. Branded graphics for Instagram Stories are eye-catching and engaging and will draw viewers into your story.
create your own branded graphics!
Here at Easil, we make creating your own branded graphics super simple. There are plenty of pre-made templates that you can make use of and simply adjust to suit your needs, or if you’re feeling creative, you can even design something from scratch, and turn it into your own Template. Save your brand fonts, colors, logos and imagery to your Brand Kit, so they’re easy to access at any time.
OVER TO YOU
Whether your goal is to increase your brand awareness, attract your ideal customers or even help tell your brand story, we hope we’ve made it clear how important and beneficial branded graphics can be to your business!
Now you know they why, the what and the how, it’s time to get started! Head to Easil now to view our range of pre-made templates, and start customising and designing your own branded graphics straight away.
