Less is More: Simplifying Your Marketing Collateral for More Effective Messaging

Do you have a moment? We need to talk about your business’ marketing collateral. It’s crowded and cluttered, and there’s no clear visual direction. That’s a surefire way to confuse and lose the customer.

By simplifying your graphic design and allowing it to “breathe,” you can increase message resonance and amplify the efficacy of your marketing collateral. Here are just a few ways simplified design techniques can be applied to create more effective messaging.

Focus On Message

The first step is all about simplifying and streamlining your message. Without clear, laser-focused messaging, it’s practically impossible to create any sense of cohesion for your brand.

You don’t need every piece of marketing collateral to communicate your entire backstory, so it’s important to keep things tight and right. Identify the strongest customer-centric message and lead with it. Support it with a few relevant details and stop. If you’re dealing with print collateral, then don’t forget to encourage the user to interact with your online properties by including social media icons and your website’s URL.

Craft every message so it’s concise and to the point — in other words, it needs to have a beginning, middle and end. This can result in streamlined collateral with a clear call-to-action, which raises your chances of driving some kind of profitable action.

Embrace the White Space

The benefits of white space and minimal design are practically without end. The key is to focus on the “less is more” principle, and leverage it in a way that results in more action. An effective, but minimal, design with a clear purpose and call-to-action is much more likely to generate sales, which is the the ultimate goal of any marketing or advertising campaign.

Strip your collateral down its visual essentials, allowing you to emphasize key messages and important supporting details. Like Marie Forleo said, “If you confuse people, you lose people.” Over-complicating what you’re saying will make it too easy for people to zone out on what you’re trying to tell them. Keep their attention with a short, sweet and well-crafted message.

Make sure all your messaging (visual and verbal) is working together to enforce your key point. Cut anything that doesn’t support your objectives directly.

It’s Simple. Just Simplify.

Once you’ve created a message and decided on a design, take a fresh look and consider simplifying even further. Do you really need that fourth bullet point? Does it confuse your objective to have two paragraphs between your headline and call-to-action instead of one?

Speak to your selected audience. Don’t use technical jargon unless you know you’re talking to a highly technical audience; instead, speak in terms that people actually will understand. Otherwise, you’re crafting your message with the marketing equivalent of “business attire.” The suit may look sharp, but if your audience is in jeans and a t-shirt, you will lose them to the next piece in their mail stack. Don’t dumb it down; make it smarter.

You Only Have a Few Seconds…

Many of these principles of successful graphic design can be applied to the message and will make content more effective, engaging and easy to understand. You only have a few seconds to grab the customer’s attention and sell your message. Make it easy for people to follow you, and you’ll be making the most of your advertising investment.

Do you need help with how your brand communicates its message? Mediagistic’s marketing production team is on it. Contact us today to get started.

Max Pomeroy is creative lead for Mediagistic. Along with 14 years of service with Mediagistic, he was worked in the Tampa Bay area for forty years. With a broad range of crafted expertise, Max has worked on multiple projects for major national brands such as General Motors/Cadillac, Lucasfilm Ltd., Nintendo of America, Inc., World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., International Speedway Corp. and Domino’s Pizza. Connect with him on Linkedin.

Image via Thinkstock