For most brands, Instagram is very valuable for brand promotion given its reach to a captive population of more than one billion monthly active users.
Brands leverage the popularity of Instagram for maintaining and growing a loyal online following and to increase brand visibility and engagement.
While there cannot be any debate regarding the utility of Instagram in the brand’s social media marketing strategy, there are many elements that can influence its success – like using the best times to post on social media.
Since Instagram has always been about aesthetic appeal, it is evident that unless a brand is careful about the aesthetics of its Instagram account, it cannot aspire to a huge exposure of the brand with the associated engagement, recall, and loyalty.
Because Instagram aesthetics are vital for success, it is important not to make graphic design mistakes that could scuttle the effort and flush the investment down the drain.
Top Graphic Design Mistakes to Avoid on Instagram
Inconsistency in Visual Representation
When developing and designing the Instagram feed, it is vital to keep in mind that your target audience will follow you not for the content that you have posted but for their anticipation of what may come from the brand in the future.
While it is important to have a fair bit of variety in the content to prevent boredom from setting in, it is imperative that the design and aesthetics of the content are kept consistent because otherwis, it will not only dilute the impact but also lead to confusion among the target audience.
Remember, the target audience expects a certain uniformity of appearance because that equates to a sense of stability, credibility, and reputation of the brand.
The best way of being consistent is to develop a style guide for content a visualization that you and your team members can use as a reference for creating and posting content on Instagram.
Important things to include are color schemes, tone of the brand voice, writing style, and typefaces, as well as the use of editing apps and filters.
Forgetting About the Audience
When you have a brand to promote, it is important that you focus on what catches the pulse of the target audience because they are the people who will dictate the health and success of the brand as well as the business.
It is vital for marketers to be absolutely clear on who the potential customer is and what are his needs, wants, and aspirations as well as buying behavior.
Once this is identified and validated, all the content in the Instagram account should only have the aim of being relevant, useful, and entertaining so that they are encouraged to transact and be loyal to the brand.
By figuring out who your customers are and what accounts they follow, you will get a deep insight into their preferences that will allow you to customize your content appropriately.
Brands must necessarily adopt a tone that appeals to the target audience and graphic design is a very important part of that. Powerful calls to action can also be designed with high-impact graphics and get more Instagram likes.
Ignoring the Competition
Brands often make is to attempt to carve out a unique brand personality in the hope that they will be able to cut through the clutter and make a distinctive statement. However, not finding out what the competition is doing can be a big mistake.
By inspecting the accounts of the competitors, brands can get very valuable insights regarding the design principles and account aesthetics that are being favored.
Moreover, by seeing the Instagram accounts of the main competitors, brands not only can get inspiration but also know what to avoid to be perceived as too similar to other brands.
According to Inc.com, analyzing competitors can often help in discovering niche markets being overlooked.
With all the inputs brands can gather they can make a mood board that takes into account whatever feels inspirational, looks aesthetically appealing, and can convey the right kind of messages that the brand aspires to send out for the maximum impact.
Overdesigning
There are such a significant number of extraordinary tools and procedures that occasionally it is a pity that one can’t utilize every one of them simultaneously.
In any case, a designer is an individual who needs to keep a composed mind to accomplish the objective. It is likewise essential to keep awake to date and at Depositphotos, we attempt to assist with our visual patterns reports each year.
All things considered, the Oxford word reference says that the action word “structure” signifies doing or arranging something in view of a particular reason.
Recall the way that plan isn’t just about to feel however about message correspondence and critical thinking.
In the event that you figure out how to spot regular slip-ups in your own plans, you can rapidly dispose of them and proceed onward to another design pattern that will assist you with your manifestations.
Utilizing such a large number of typefaces and confusing textual styles
At the point when a fledgling uses various typefaces and textual styles that don’t generally, coordinate together, two things occur:
A crowd of people is driven away
Different fashioners focus on the goofs you’ve made.
In this way, before filling your design with words, ensure they are suitable. How to coordinate them together? Become familiar with the typography nuts and bolts and build up the taste by seeing great designs.
It’s likewise acceptable to stay by the standard of utilizing fundamentally 2 text styles, and a limit of 3 in configuration to not make disorder and conform to the establishments of good (and neat) design. Any design with multiple wellsprings makes confusion for the watcher.
Being a Bad Host
Think about your image as an anchorperson. How intriguing would any television show be if the host was the one in particular who talked the entire time, and the visitors never had a chance to speak?
In case you’re just hurling photos into the Insta-ether and not focusing on how your adherents are responding, your image is that having.
Make a point to discover approaches to connect with your supporters by doing things like answering to pertinent remarks.
Instagram highlights a hashtag include like Twitter – clients can peruse photos tagged with explicit hashtags by essentially choosing a tag as it appears in their channel.
This can be an extraordinary device for brands to make challenges and drive brand commitment – whenever utilized appropriately – for example, NH Hoteles urges clients to transfer Instagrams of when they have ‘wake up minutes’ and hashtag them with #wakeuppics.
The Wake up Pics site grandstands Instagrams caught by clients with the hash, opening up an exchange with the brand.
Distorting Your Brand
You don’t need to utilize a logo to appropriately speak to your image. Indeed, this can at times add mess to your pictures.
In any case, without it, some online networking records to post content that does not have a reasonable association with their items or administrations. Doing so can leave devotees scratching their heads.
The visual substance ought to reflect:
- What your image depends on
- Your image’s special or separating values
- The themes your crowd is keen on
- Posting Similar Images too frequently
The stock images with helpful statements may acquire a tick from a couple of adherents, however, your visual content methodology is constrained if it depends on persistently having similar sorts of pictures.
To build commitment, add these visuals to your content stash
- Screenshots: Educational photos of your item or administration in real life, similar to this one:
- Infographics: Visualizations of information or other supportive data – commonly long, however, can be short and to-the-point for social
- Preview Images: Graphics that give a sneak look at news, occasions or content
- Funny cartoons: Cartoons, regardless of whether interesting or educational, that help your informing
- Photography: Photos that add life to visual substance systems loaded up with illustrations – a be stock or unique
- Images: Popular image macros altered to reinforce your post or mirror your image – can positively give your follower’s giggle
- GIFs: Looping cuts that are clever and pertinent to procure likes and offers
- Video Clips: Videos from YouTube, Periscope and different stages implanted in your posts
Marking for yourself and not your prospective customer
This is an error that numerous individuals regularly make in the marking procedure. We have numerous a customers come to us and let us realize that they love bolts, plumes, and blossoms and that their preferred shading is blue.
It typically doesn’t fit with their undertaking or the sort of customer they’re attempting to reach.
At the point when you consider what your image should be, you ought to consider what might be engaging the individual that you need to reach. Think about the area, gender, salary level, and more when you consider what may be speaking to your intended interest group.
At the point when all else comes up short, ask somebody that coordinates your intended interest group.
While we certainly need for you to adore your logo and feel associated with it, it’s unquestionably progressively significant for your intended interest group to interface with your logo, since they’re the ones purchasing your Products!
Not Remembering the Bigger Picture
It is important to keep in mind that photographs on Instagram show up in a grid. By forgetting to take into account the bigger picture, you can end up with aesthetics that are so poor that potential followers can easily be turned off. Remember that the Instagram gallery comprises a mixture of visuals, all of which have to relate to each other.
By maintaining a consistent theme, it is possible to make them tell the brand story. A very effective and exciting way of doing this is by splitting images. It is a simple way of presentation that involves the splitting up of one image across six or even nine tiles on the grid.
Conclusion
By avoiding the mistakes discussed above, you can make your Instagram account more impactful. Your posts will be more relevant to your followers, you will be able to learn from the success of your competitors, and be able to present a more unified brand image by keeping the larger picture in mind.