Short SEO Blog: A Graphic Designer’s Little Known Secret of Persuasion

A Graphic Designer’s Little Known Secret of Persuasion

Would you believe me if I told you that the best graphic designer websites almost always include good copywriters?

I mean, just think about it…

Most professional graphic designers (usually junior graphic designers or senior graphic designers) are solely focused on their zone of genius, which is centered around visual concepts.

Back in the day, when I was an independent graphic designer myself, I had no idea how important the text was in the magazines, book covers, and advertisements that I was putting together…

That was until I became an in-house graphic designer for a small digital marketing startup, working alongside a professional copywriter who effectively opened my eyes.

That professional copywriter introduced me to a very intentional framework of taking customer pain points and desires and using them to inform how his writing would help sell our company’s products and services alongside my graphic designer website setup.

It was at that moment that I finally learned that the words he used for our project were specifically designed to be just as persuasive as the shapes and colors I took the time to select.

We basically became the Batman and Robin of marketing when our efforts came together. I was the lead graphic designer, and he was the copywriting guru.

Many years later, and that realization of how important copywriting is to graphic design still stuck with me.

Now, copywriting skills certainly aren’t a requirement for graphic designers by any means, but knowing even the fundamentals of copywriting deepens your understanding of the psychology and persuasion behind human behavior, both of which apply to graphic design projects as well. For example…

If you’re a motion graphic designer, it’s important to know that you need to grab your audience’s attention in the first five seconds, which may include a script written to catch the viewer’s interest before they click away, forgetting your video even exists five minutes later.

If you’re a WordPress graphic designer, you may need to target a list of keywords (much like this piece of writing) to increase the flow of organic traffic to your WordPress website.

If you’re an informational graphic designer, you’ll almost certainly need persuasive writing to present your information efficiently and effectively.

I think you get the idea. Whatever your graphic designer description may be, it doesn’t hurt to have an understanding of how the skills of graphic design and copywriting coexist with each other to create impactful ideas that resonate with their intended audiences.

It’s worth noting that when most businesses are seeking to hire a graphic designer, they almost never expect you to be an expert in both areas- in fact, the split focus could potentially take away from your bandwidth to be the best graphic designer you can be if you spend too much time deviating away from it.

Being an expert at both doesn’t necessarily equate to a higher salary, either.

As someone who has hit six figures just offering graphic design, I can guarantee you that adding copywriting services isn’t a requirement to hit a financial goal. Very few people are masters at writing copy and graphic design, but the good thing is…

That doesn’t have to be you. Being familiar with the basics of copywriting and how it complements your beautiful designs already puts you ahead of the majority of graphic designers.

Now, go find your Robin and create something that resonates with your audience.

Project background

This project was written to show competency in SEO writing. The following keyword clusters were included in the draft:

graphic designer

graphic designer websites

junior graphic designer

senior graphic designer

graphic designer website

motion graphic designer

graphic designer description

lead graphic designer

WordPress graphic designer

jr graphic designer

independent graphic designer

informational graphic designer

best graphic designer websites

professional graphic designer

in-house graphic designer

Creative Process

These keywords were pulled from Semrush during a keyword research process. During that process, I search for relevant keywords, seed keywords, and keywords with the highest chance of being ranked by the writing. They were exported from Semrush into a spreadsheet where they could be used and tracked with future pieces of writing for this client to take over the keywords completely.

Of course...good copy helps too! :)