How do you pull readers into your printed or electronic pages, and then help them feel confident that they can trust your message?
To get people reading at all, you must first snag their interest, and you have to do it within a couple of seconds. Creating pages designed to be easily scanned—providing headings and subheadings that interest your reader— will pull them into the text and get them reading almost before they realize it.
Integrating the visual brand of your business or organization into your pages goes a long way to building trust. Your organization’s branding confers the perceived credibility of that brand on your message, and on you as an emerging leader. And just as positively, your well organized, concise, and clear content elevates and enhances your organization’s brand.
Using the following visual brand “building blocks” to enhance the scannability of your print and electronic documents powerfully aligns these two important components.
Color
Using the colors of your organization’s visual brand automatically makes your page more recognizable and familiar to your reader. Frame the page, enhance scannability, emphasize important points, and create graphic components using your organization’s colors. (Use restraint or your page can become distractingly busy and look overworked.)
Typefaces
Type choice is important to brand consistency, and works subliminally to reinforce the credibility of your message. People often overlook type as a branding component, and want to use “interesting” alternatives. Stick to the typefaces associated with your organization’s brand and the “sound” of your message will be more credible.
Logo
As the most instantly recognizable component of your company’s brand, the logo positions the hard earned reputation of your business squarely behind your message. Be sure to incorporate your company’s logo into your print or electronic pages, or use their branded templates.
Consider: both of these pages look like reports and are easily scannable by the reader—which of them also carries the credibility of a company or industry leader?
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