Everyone knows how important content creation is for the success of any business. However, creating appealing and relevant content is one thing, and getting the target audience to consume it is another.
Marketers all over the world are battling with the twin problems of creating original, relevant, and interesting content to offer to their audiences on social media platforms like Instagram and encouraging them to read and interact with it for driving brand awareness and raising engagement.
According to Statista, the number of people using social media in 2021 is estimated to be 3.78 billion, and many of them will likely be your target audience; it is still not very easy for you to attract followers. To be successful, not only should your content be great but also the graphic design of your posts must wow the users. Some handy tips for creating Instagram graphic design that your audience will love:
Establish Your Goal
Identifying your goal for executing graphic design is akin to drawing up the architectural blueprints for your house. When you know the purpose your graphic design will serve, you are better equipped to set the direction for your creative design process.
Because regardless of the niche you are serving, you are likely to be against stiff competition, you need to focus on creating graphics specifically to engage your target audience. Since you cannot hope to please all customers, it is far better to target only those customers whom you can reach out to and impress with your designs.
Researching the target audience to get an idea of the profile is important. You will be able to develop better graphic designs if you know the needs and aspirations of your customers, the device on which the customer will view your designs, the emotion you want to evoke from them, and what action you desire they take after viewing your design.
Communicate Visually
Users of Instagram, or for that matter, any social media, are notoriously fickle and impatient. Most of them access social media while on the go or when multitasking, which makes it difficult for them to be attentive.
However, you can get across to them more effectively by using outstanding visuals that have the potential to stop them in their track whatever they are doing then. Though it is important to add a caption to add more information to the visual, you must not make it too long as typically social media users do not like to read too much.
In any case, the human brain processes visual images faster than text and also remembers them far better. Photos with smart and short captions tend to get real comments on Instagram more.
You must choose your visuals to evoke the specific emotions in your target audience required by business exigencies. The visual can suggest a solution to a consumer’s pain point or even evoke enough curiosity that will make him click on the website link in the bio section to try and learn more on your website.
You need to appreciate that regardless of what your graphic design is trying to communicate, you need to make the visuals in such a way that they can be understood quickly and clearly by the target audience.
Use Good Contrast to Make Your Designs Outstanding
According to graphic design experts, good contrast is one of the most important elements of graphic design for social media. By using the right balance of the subject and the background, you can make the visual pop and draw the attention of the target audience despite the clutter in his feed.
The best way to create contrast is to use color combinations that appear on the opposite sides of the color spectrum. While the conventional black against white still has the power to stop users in their tracks, other effective color combinations with good contrast include yellow with purple, pink with aquamarine, etc.
It can be a good idea to avoid using a color palette that clashes with the brand identity of Instagram because you would end up competing with the platform for attention. However, the use of contrasting colors should not be arbitrary; you should try and develop a distinctive style of your own that people can easily distinguish your designs with.
Conclusion
Because social media, particularly Instagram, sees millions of posts being shared every day, the feeds of all users are typically very crowded. This makes it quite difficult for a particular post to attract the attention of users unless it has eye-catching qualities that will make users stop and view it in detail.
Even though as a graphic designer, you would like to show off your skills with complicated designs, for maximum effectiveness, you should keep the design very simple. Use a large arresting visual, limit the use of typefaces to a maximum of two, use not more than two or three complementary colors, and let the design breathe with liberal white space for the best results.