How can you create on-brand graphics for your content strategy?

1 Define your brand guidelines

Before you start creating graphics, you need to have a clear idea of what your brand stands for and how you want to communicate it. Your brand guidelines should include elements such as your logo, color palette, fonts, icons, images, and tone of voice. These elements should reflect your personality, values, and niche, and be consistent across all your channels and platforms. Having a brand style guide can help you ensure that your graphics are coherent and recognizable.

2 Know your audience and purpose

Another important factor to consider when creating graphics is your target audience and the purpose of your content. You need to understand who you are talking to, what their needs and preferences are, and what action you want them to take. This will help you choose the right type of graphic, the appropriate format, size, and resolution, and the most effective content and layout. For example, if you are creating a graphic for a blog post, you might want to use an infographic, a chart, or a diagram to illustrate your points, while if you are creating a graphic for social media, you might want to use a quote, a meme, or a video to catch attention and generate engagement.

3 Use tools and templates

You don't need to be a professional designer or have expensive software to create on-brand graphics. There are many online tools and platforms that can help you design graphics easily and quickly. Some of the most popular ones are Canva, Adobe Spark, and Piktochart. These tools offer a variety of templates, features, and resources that you can customize and adapt to your brand style and content. You can also create your own templates and save them for future use. This can save you time and ensure consistency.

4 Optimize your graphics for SEO

Creating on-brand graphics is not enough if you want to reach and grow your audience. You also need to optimize your graphics for search engines and social media. This means that you need to use relevant keywords, alt text, captions, titles, and descriptions for your graphics. These elements can help you rank higher on search engines, increase your click-through rate, and boost your social media shares. You also need to optimize your graphics for different devices, platforms, and channels, by using the right size, format, and quality.

5 Test and improve your graphics

Finally, you need to test and improve your graphics based on the feedback and results you get from your audience. You can use tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Instagram Insights to measure the performance of your graphics, such as views, clicks, likes, comments, and shares. You can also use tools such as A/B testing, surveys, or polls to compare different versions of your graphics and see which one performs better. Based on the data and insights you collect, you can tweak and refine your graphics to make them more effective and on-brand.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?