What is the best way to choose a visual style for your content?

2 Define your content goals

Your visual style should also support your content goals, which are the specific outcomes you want to achieve with your content. Your content goals could be to inform, educate, entertain, persuade, or inspire your audience. Depending on your content goals, you may need to choose a visual style that is more formal or informal, more serious or playful, more authoritative or friendly, or more simple or complex. To define your content goals, you can use tools such as a content strategy, a content plan, or a content brief.

3 Know your audience preferences

Your visual style should also appeal to your audience preferences, which are the characteristics, needs, and expectations of your target audience. Your audience preferences could include their demographics, their psychographics, their pain points, their motivations, or their preferences. Depending on your audience preferences, you may need to choose a visual style that is more relevant or relatable, more engaging or captivating, more accessible or inclusive, or more trustworthy or credible. To know your audience preferences, you can use tools such as a buyer persona, a customer journey map, or a user feedback survey.

4 Consider your content format

Your visual style should also fit your content format, which is the type, structure, and medium of your content. Your content format could be a blog post, a video, a podcast, an infographic, a ebook, or a webinar. Depending on your content format, you may need to choose a visual style that is more text-based or image-based, more linear or nonlinear, more static or dynamic, or more interactive or passive. To consider your content format, you can use tools such as a content matrix, a content outline, or a content template.

5 Experiment with different visual styles

Finally, you should experiment with different visual styles and see how they work for your content. You can use tools such as a design software, a color palette generator, a font selector, or a stock photo library to create and test different visual styles. You can also use tools such as a content audit, a content analytics, or a content testing to measure and evaluate the performance of different visual styles. By experimenting with different visual styles, you can find the best one for your content that meets your brand identity, your content goals, your audience preferences, and your content format.