30.7 million. That’s how many small businesses are in operation in the US, according to the U.S. Small Business Association. And there, squat in the middle of them all, is your own startup. There are probably thousands competing just in your little niche corner, vying to be heard by your target audience with promotions, announcements, and ads. This means consumers are bombarded with all of these conflicting messages, and even if they catch a glimpse of you now and again, they’ll forget you as soon as you’re not directly in front of them.
If you’re going to make conversions, you’re going to have to stand out in the crowd. Here’s the trick: since the brain processes images 60,000x faster than text, the best way to get seen is by using unique, eye-catching visuals in your marketing that promote engagement and make your consumers feel they’re building a relationship with someone real instead of a corporation.
Since unique, creative messaging is so crucial, it’s not surprising that the typical marketing budget for a successful business is extensive. Many companies are spending big bucks on graphic designers to come up with a steady stream of quality, professional promotional content. It is expensive and not always within reach of smaller businesses but it is no longer the only way to get the graphics you need.
Professional, eye-catching content is now available for anyone willing to spend fifteen minutes in front of the computer-- and you don’t even have to pay anything for it. With online graphic design programs, design has become easy, quick, and affordable.
Professional Graphics, Affordably Made? Yes Please!
Online design programs take graphic design from the realm of the professional and make engaging, stylish graphics attainable for everyone. Take PostermyWall as an example. It’s an online graphic design software that provides thousands of ready-made, professionally designed promotional design templates and millions of high-quality stock images, all in an easy to use, intuitive editor.
Think of it as a free graphic maker where all the ground work is done for you - you don’t have to hire a design expert or spend hours on your own trying to create engaging marketing visuals for your brand anymore. You can simply choose a template you like, customize it to your needs by changing anything from the text, fonts, colors to even the imagery of the template.
Don’t forget to ensure that all your marketing graphics are on-brand so that your brand identity is strengthened and your audience is able to identify your brand more easily. Upload your logo and add your brand’s fonts to all your designs for consistent branding, or create a logo using any of the hundreds of logo templates available in the gallery. You can pick fonts that reflect your brand from the wide range available in the editor, and select clip art or images from the extensive built-in libraries.
Making a Splash on Social Media
You can use your online graphic editor to put together traditional marketing materials, but that’s only the beginning. As a small business, you stand to gain most if you center your marketing campaigns on social media - and if your social media game is good, you’ll have it made. A Texas Tech study showed that brands that engage on social media have stronger, more loyal followings. And with all the people on social media these days-- just Facebook, alone, is boasting 2.45 billion monthly users in 2019 - that gives you the potential to build a very large loyal following.
What does it take to win on social media? Real, personable posts that your target audience can relate to. Engaging, eye-catching visuals. And consistency - regular posts, and a regular presence, that your fans discover they can count on.
That’s digital marketing strategy for startups, 101. But it isn’t as hard as it might sound. If you’re authentic, on and offline, you’ll have the first one taken care of. Online graphic editors like PosterMyWall, with their full catalogue of social media templates, will set you up for success on the second. Choose stunning templates, customize to your needs, and then resize for any platform you need - for free.
A little bit of planning in advance should enable you to keep your brand marketing on target when you feel like it and when you don’t. Even if you can’t count on yourself to remember to post those visuals when you mean to or need to make posts according to different time zones, you’ve got another good option: social media scheduling. With PosterMyWall’s Premium plan, you can schedule all your posts as you create them. They will appear, automagically, on the designated day.
But wait, there’s one thing more. Pictures aren’t everything anymore. That scroll-stopping social media post that you pause to look at, finger poised in mid-air? More likely than not, it’s a video.
Visuals that Move, Visuals that Win
Video used to be the niche of the favored few; the few who could afford to hire spendy videography teams to shoot and produce promotional clips that sold their ware. Not anymore. In fact, the very same tools you’ve just learned how to use for your graphics can be used for videos too.
Videos are important for social media. Research shows that, when faced with a choice, 72% of consumers prefer to learn about a product through video than by any other means, 87% want more video from brands, and 79% of people have been convinced to buy a piece of software or app after watching a brand’s video. 72%. 87%. 79%. Those are very tidy majorities. So, take full advantage of online video-production tools that let you create stunning, professional videos in a matter of seconds. PosterMyWall, for example, has a huge library of thousands of video templates, easy to customize and resize for different platforms.
Not just on social media, small businesses can also make use of digital signage videos to put themselves on the map. Digital signage templates - in 4K resolution - are available on PosterMyWall, and it only takes a few minutes on your computer, laptop or mobile phone to brand one as yours.
If you’re out of inspiration, a scroll through the template options will probably be enough to get your creative juices going. One feature to love about this video editor is the way you can mix and match galore - upload your own video for business and use their stock audio options, for instance, to liven it up. Or take an image design you love and turn it into a video by simply replacing the image with a video from the stock video library. The sky is the limit, and you’ll surprise yourself with the winning combinations you dream up.
Visual Content: Your Way To Stand Out in the Crowd.
Visual content is where it’s at these days. If you’ve got engaging, eye-catching visual content, you’ll be able to stand out and win conversions-- even if there are a million others vying for your niche. The best part of it is that it doesn’t have to cost anything, and you don’t need special skills. With online graphic design software, you can start a successful advertising campaign today and revolutionize your small business.