Why,then, would you want the visual side of your company blog to give theimpression that it’s simply a plain, uninteresting directory of article links?
Youneed to give the graphics of your blog a little TLC, just as is the case withthe rest of your brand’s site. Here are a few reasons why blog graphic designcan be such a wrongly overlooked aspect of online marketing for small business.
Your blog is key to spreading brand awareness
Theblog of your organisation is a key frontier through which it communicates withthe wider world. A lot of people might land on your blog because they weresearching Google for information on a particular topic, and one of your firm’sblog posts popped up. Alternatively, you may have members of your targetaudience regularly visiting your blog for your brand’s take on relevant topics.
Whateverthe circumstances in which someone sees your blog, they will also be seeingyour blog’s graphics. It is therefore a part of your organisation’s websitethat presents invaluable opportunities to perpetuate your brand image – whetheryou wish to present your firm as high-end and sophisticated, formal andprestigious, or perhaps something more idiosyncratic and offbeat.
The graphics on your site are important to communicatingprofessionalism
Whileorganisations differ in terms of the brand image they wish to convey throughtheir online presence, all firms should aspire to the most professionalstandards of graphic design.
Whilestock images, for instance, are not necessarily a no-no on your company blog,any such images you do use should be sharp, reflective of your brand, and notso familiar that visitors will immediately recognise them as stock images.Graphic design can therefore be crucial to convincing your target audiencesthat your brand is a professional and authentic operation.
The right images can also maximise the chances of your blogposts being shared
Thevalue of any brand’s blog isn’t just for luring potential future customers ifthey stumble across one of the company’s blog posts via Google. That’s becausethe use of your site’s blog is also likely to be closely interlinked with yourbrand’s social media strategy; indeed, there’s a good chance you will haveshared plenty of your blog posts through your organisation’s social channelsalready.
Andwhen each blog post of yours does incorporate at least one image, thiswill give the social platform something to work with to make the link to thatpost more appealing. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter automaticallyinclude an image in links that users share, but an image needs to be present onthe linked-to page first – and it needs to be as suitable an image as possible.
Betterblog graphic design, then, will almost certainly help your blog to gain moresocial ‘likes’, visits and shares. Just one image could be instrumental inmaking your latest blog post more immediately attractive and easier to digest.
Thetextual content of your blog is naturally critical to its chances of gainingthe results you want from it. However, the images you use on this part of yoursite can also represent so much more than a mere ‘finishing touch’.
Reach out to the PENNInk Productionsteam now for a more in-depth discussion ofour expertise and services in onlinemarketing for small business– including the highest-quality graphic design.
