5 Avoidable Design Mistakes in Digital Marketing

5 Avoidable Design Mistakes in Digital Marketing | Pel Hughes

Digital marketing is one of the most effective tools for reaching your audience and establishing your brand. With a talented graphic designer, companies can deliver visual messages that bring their vision to life and create graphics that stick. Unfortunately, small mistakes in final design products can leave lasting negative impressions in potential clients, and even cause you to lose business. 

In today’s digital world, companies are not only competing for consumers attention, but for graphic designers that help them grab their attention and convey their product. To do this, many graphic designers try to set themselves apart and, in the process, overlook many mistakes that are avoidable. 

Below are five of the most frequent avoidable mistakes that graphic designers make in digital marketing today.  

 

 

  • Using Free Images Too Often

 

Although some graphic designers may consider the use of free images to be the ultimate sin in the design world, if they’re used correctly, they can be a huge asset. If you’re operating on a budget or creating a simple design, a free image can be the perfect item to jazz up your scheme or add context to your message. 

However, when used too often they can become a sign of laziness or lack of creativity in your brand. Free images are just that – free. Meaning everyone has access to them and they are used often. Moreover, reusing any image too much shows that you aren’t putting much effort into your digital marketing. Why should consumers think any different about your product or service?   

 

 

  • Too Many Font Types 

 

Using too many fonts is a common mistake with amateur graphic designers. Often designers will overthink the creativity in their product, leading to a message that contains three, four or even five different fonts. This leaves the viewer confused about where to look or where to focus their attention. Once this happens, you’ve lost them forever. 

Although choosing the correct font isn’t always easy, and in many cases using one or two is perfectly acceptable, the best designs use fonts correctly and strategically. Your audience should be able to appreciate the creativity in your design, while at the same time understand your message. Too many fonts is the quickest way to lose them. 

 

 

  • Forgetting Your Client 

 

Graphic design is a practice that is highly sought after in today’s digital world. Unfortunately, many designers let this go to their head and forget that they are part of a larger marketing team. Even worse, they forget (or disregard) what the client wants entirely. 

While you may be the most creative designer on the planet, this means nothing if you aren’t meeting your client’s expectations. It’s extremely important to keep the client’s vision in the back of your head while you exercise your creative prowess. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter how good you believe the final product is, the client will find another designer that will respect their wishes. 

 

 

  • Overcrowding 

 

In the digital marketing world, less is more. This is particularly true when it comes to graphic design in digital marketing. There’s no doubt that a creative logo combined with a simple message makes your brand stand out. However, you want your audience to be able to quickly recognize the excellent design you’ve created and leave them feeling satisfied, not overburdened. And the quickest way to overburden your viewer is by forgetting the importance of white space. 

Overcrowding images, graphics or text leaves your audience constrained to find the real message. An effective use of white space balances out your design and helps the viewer glide seamlessly through your creation. Don’t make them work for it.  

 

 

  • Overdesigning 

 

We’ve saved the best (or worst) for last. If you consider the top four avoidable mistakes we mentioned above, you may notice that there is one common theme throughout them: they all deal with thinking too much, or overdesigning. 

Graphic design in digital marketing is a fragile communication medium in that it combines creativity with brevity; imagination with practical. Graphic designers too often try to design a logo or schematic that combines several design traits, and in the end, they’re left with a product that simply does too much. It’s overdesigned. 

Remember, you want to market a product or service by appealing to the visual side of your audience. Keep your graphics simple, convey your message, and don’t think too much. Be objective about your designs and never forget your client’s desires.