As a marketer, many of your goals are surrounded with campaign conversions, lead generation, content marketing engagement, and brand awareness.
To do this, you most likely create content for blogs, email marketing, digital marketing campaigns, social media, etc. Accompanying your written content, you might use stock images or graphics — and if you don’t, you should consider adding digital illustrations to your content assets.
Why? Well, did you know that consumers will remember 65% of your message when you add visual elements in it as opposed to a mere 10% recall without graphics in it, three days after seeing your content?
Additionally, 32% of digital marketers say that visual images are the most important type of content in marketing.
In this post, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about using digital illustrations for marketing purposes as a non-designer.
Digital Illustration Styles
1. Freehand digital illustrations.
2. Vector graphics.
3. Fantasy.
4. Realism.
5. Comics.
6. Anime.
7. Fashion.
8. Line Art.
9. Flat illustration.
10. Caricature.
11. Cartoons.
12. 3D.
13. Fine Art.
To start, let’s go over some basic digital illustration styles. However, keep in mind that the role of the illustrator will be to decide what type of digital style to use. Additionally, a custom illustrator will have a unique take on each of these styles.
1. Freehand digital illustrations: These illustrations are created in the same way that artists use pen and ink except with a tablet and stylus. This can be used for storyboarding, animation, recreation, and marketing.
2. Vector graphics: Vector graphics are computer images that use lines and shapes in a 2D or 3D space. These images can be scaled up or down to any resolution with no aliasing.
3. Fantasy: Fantasy is a style of illustration that is meant to look fantastical. It’s a mixture of reality and imagination.
4. Realism: This style of digital art is meant to look exactly like the object does in real life. It’s supposed to look as real as possible, as the name implies.
5. Comics: This type of art is comic book style. It typically takes the form of a sequence of panels of images that tells a story.
6. Anime: Anime art is a uniquely stylized form of two- and three-dimensional illustration and animation. Anime is a style of cartoon that doesn’t emulate reality — instead it’s supposed to be a more romantic, elegant, cute version of reality.
7. Fashion: Fashion art is used to design fashion. This is the style of art that designers use to sketch a design before making it. Fashion Illustration is the art of communicating fashion ideas in a visual form with custom illustrations.
8. Line Art: Line art is any image that consists of distinct straight or curved lines placed against a background, representing a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object.
9. Flat illustration (2D): A flat illustration is a 2D graphic that looks flat. It uses simple, two-dimensional elements and bright colors. This means that viewers won’t see drop shadows or 3D effects.
10. Caricature: A caricature is a style of digital illustration that imitates a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect.
11. Cartoons: Cartoons are simple drawings used to animate a sequence of drawings instead of using real people or objects.
12. 3D: A 3D graphic is one that uses shadows and real-life elements to give an image perspective and interactivity.
13. Fine Art: Fine art is creative art that is meant to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative, aesthetic, or intellectual content. This style of digital illustration is usually used for creative expression.
Now, you might be wondering, “Okay, I get the different styles. Now, what does this mean as a marketer?” Let’s dive in below.
How Digital Illustrations Can Make a Difference in Selling a Product or Service
Using digital and custom illustrations will give your company a unique identity. This will help bring your brand to life. Instead of a corporation, your company becomes a living, breathing entity.
By doing this, you can increase your sales because:
- Graphics will convey a message more than words.
- Digital illustration will drive customer loyalty.
- Custom illustrations will create engagement with your audience.
- Graphics can explain complex ideas in a simpler way.
- Visual elements will attract attention.
We know that humans are visual creatures. We are attracted to beautifully designed things because they evoke emotions, memories, personality, and an experience. This means your logo, business card, website images should be carefully curated to attract an audience.
Additionally, digital illustrations are a great way to explain complex products or services that can be confusing to a consumer. The more images = the better understanding from your audience.
So, now we know that digital and custom illustrations can make a difference in your marketing and sales, but where will you use this content? Let’s review that now.
How to Use Digital Illustrations for Marketing Purposes
1. Logo.
2. Business cards.
3. Blog images.
4. Email marketing campaigns.
5. Digital advertising campaigns.
6. Infographics.
7. Annual reports.
8. Social media images.
9. Promotional or tutorial videos.
10. Packaging.
1. Logo.
One of the first ways that you’ll use digital illustrations for marketing is when you create your logo. Your logo will be an illustration that you want people to remember. You want your logo to stand out and use a unique style that customers will associate with your brand identity.
2. Business cards.
On top of your logo, you’ll also want to create business cards that use some of the same design elements as your logo. This will help consumers remember your company.
3. Blog images.
Another way that custom illustrations can be used for marketing is for blog posts like this one. Content marketing is a major tactic that companies are using to attract audiences to their websites. To differentiate yourself among the competition, you can use custom illustrations in your blog posts.
4. Email marketing campaigns.
Email marketing is another great avenue for using digital illustrations for marketing purposes. You can use graphics and link to blog posts or other marketing assets like landing pages. Custom illustrations in your email marketing campaigns will give your emails something beautiful and interesting to look at.
5. Digital advertising campaigns.
Of course, a great place for digital illustrations is for your display advertising campaigns, whether on social media, search engines, etc. Display ads are all about creating visuals that are interactive and engaging, so your audience clicks on the ad and learns more.
6. Infographics.
Like we talked about above, graphics are an excellent way to communicate complex ideas in an easy-to-understand way. One type of digital illustration that makes this possible is the infographic. These can explain a concept, review how-to steps, or discuss statistics in a visual format.
7. Annual reports.
Nothing is more boring and harder to get through than an annual report, right? However, with custom illustrations, you can communicate the information and break up the text in an interesting, engaging way.
8. Social media images.
When you post on social media, especially visual platforms, it’s important to use graphics. You can create custom illustrations to use on your social media pages to encourage engagement and increase brand awareness. Additionally, these images will help you create your brand identity.
9. Promotional or tutorial videos.
Promotional or tutorial videos don’t always need to be live-action. They can be animated as well. Creating a promotional or explainer video using digital illustrations is a great way to explain a concept, or show how to do something.
10. Packaging.
Another unique area that you can use digital illustrations is your packaging. While packaging might seem like a boring subject, it’s actually a great place to show off your personality and use fun graphics.
Request Custom Illustrations from Penji
Creating your own digital or custom illustrations can be a difficult challenge for non-designers. While you can definitely do it yourself, you can always go the professional way. Penji offers unlimited graphic design services that are affordable. Let our team of designers create amazing marketing designs so you can focus on the other vital aspects of your business.
