Investing in good, professionally delivered graphic design is worth it. Don’t just take our word for it. The Design Council can help put a figure on it…
‘Every £100 a design-led business invests in design repays £225 in increased sales.’
Clearly, within the school environment such a a quantitative figures isn’t indicative of what you do and how you measure success. Pupil progress, 100% of places filled, Ofsted reports, staff happiness and retention, attendance statistics…the list is a great deal longer and more varied.
But that statistic is worth remembering, as investing in good graphic design does have positive outcomes for schools. Here are a few ways…
Good graphic design can help you stand out from your competition
Successful school marketing to help achieve full classrooms has never been more important to help ensure your school maximises its funding. And with increased mobility of parents leading to greater choice, your approach to your marketing material can have a very real impact. Badly designed graphics, such as a school logo, school website or brochure can have a damaging effect on your school’s brand.
Whilst on the plus side, investing in good design can help you stand out as a school that places value in itself, its marketing, its pupils and its staff. All making your school more attractive to perspective parents.
Good graphic design can help you reach more people
Humans are humans. We seek attractive things. It’s in our DNA. So when we’re looking to buy something we are naturally swayed by visual cues. Often we might not be aware of it. Occasionally we might know perfectly well we’re responding to something well designed. But more often than not, the graphic design of a brand identity, piece of information, packaging, poster, direct mail piece, or website will have played a part in our decision making.
Good graphic design can make your school feel more relevant to your audience’s needs and therefore more attractive. Which means if your school marketing material is well designed you’ll make a much better first impression, which will make you a more desirable option by prospective parents.
Good graphic design can help you build loyalty
An established marking notion tells us that once a customer has bought something from a brand they are (assuming their experience was a positive one!) much more likely to buy from them again.
Through professionally designed school marketing material, you can improve and deepen stakeholders’ relationship with your school. Which will be reflected in loyalty. A loyal parent will speak highly of your school, improving the first impressions of people they speak with. In addition, you can build up positive relationships with local organisations, providing a mutual benefit for you both.
Loyalty can manifest itself in many ways. Building it and maintaining it provides schools with a firm foundation on which to build.
Good graphic design can help you get your message across
Good communication doesn’t result in what’s being said. But instead, in what’s being heard.
Messaging and its effective delivery is therefore key for every school. Identifying your key messages, to your various stakeholders, is the start. Through considered graphic design these messages can then do their thing. Which is to get noticed and then actioned upon. It’s that simple.
Of course, the above are all interlinked…such as getting your message across helps build customer loyalty, and, standing out from the crowd should help you reach more customers. And there are more ways that investing in graphic design can help your business.
But what’s important to remember is that it’s not just good design that can help your school grow. Bad or unprofessional design can have significant negative consequences too, which can far out way the price of investing in it in the first place.