3 Unexpected Benefits of Using Design Templates

In just one week I’ll officially be adding branded Pinterest templates to the shop, and I’m so excited to add these digital products for you because I know just how beneficial they can be for your business.

In fact, there are a ton of obvious reasons to start using Pinterest templates for your content: it makes creating graphics faster, you images are always branded, no more trying to figure out design on your own, getting more page views, and so on.

However, there are a few unexpected reasons I believe everyone should use templates (whether you buy pre-made designs or a designer makes custom ones for you), and today I want to share those with you!

1. Be seen as a trusted expert

Have you ever stumbled across a graphic on Pinterest (or any social media platform) and been so impressed you clicked through to read the content and learn more even though you’d never heard of the author before? I know that lots of people may do this, but as a natural born skeptic I generally try to seek out people who I trust as experts in their niche when I’m looking to learn about something.

Using a design template makes you look like more of a professional and more of an expert on your topic, which is automatically going to make more people want to read what you’re writing about. Don’t believe me? When I found Krista on Twitter back in 2015 and she messaged me about featuring my site in a round up on her blog, I thought she’d likely been blogging for years just like I had. So you can imagine my surprise when I later learned that she’d actually just started her blog and business.

Here’s the thing: I thought she looked like she’d been doing her thing for a lot longer because her design was on point. She sounded like an expert, which didn’t hurt, but she also had a great blog design, her graphics were all on brand and designed well. This is why it’s such a great idea to invest in things like graphic templates in addition to a well designed theme for your site. You automatically position yourself as an expert even when you’re just getting started.

2. Increase your opt-in rates

Now, this one may be a little more obvious, but when you promote your content that has content upgrades or some kind of other special offer are you including anything on the graphic to tell people about that? I’m not just talking about a simple line or two saying “get this freebie!” either.

Using design templates to make it easier to show off your free content can drastically increase your opt-in rates when you’re promoting your content. You can see this is true when you scroll through Pinterest. Check to see which graphics you’re drawn to – are they ones with just text? Or do they show off a worksheet or two to help you learn even more about the topic you’re interested in?

Just take a look at these two graphics, and tell me – which one would you be more likely to click on?

For me, I’m naturally drawn to the image on the left the mockups of the free downloads included on the graphic because they stand out so much more than those with just text on there. Because of that having your graphics show off your opt-ins and stand out on Pinterest are a no brainer when you’re looking to grow your email list, and using design templates makes it so much easier and faster to create those types of graphics.

3. Improve your SEO

Ah, SEO! That thing we’re always trying to figure out how to crack the code on, right? Earlier this year I invested in a course on SEO so I can (hopefully) actually crack that code at some point in 2019, but that means is that I’ve been doing research and trying to learn more. One thing that keeps popping up is how images can play an important role in where you show up in Google searches. Did you know that?

Aside from the fact that you always want to use an image in your posts (we’re creatives, who doesn’t want to use images?!), according to Yoast “the image should reflect the topic of the post or have illustrative purposes within the article of course“. That means that what your graphics look like actually matter to search engines.

Instead of grabbing any ol’ stock photo, picking a generic design in Canva, and calling it a day just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Taking the time to be intentional with your graphics will not only help you stand out to an audience that may have already heard of you, but it’ll also help you organically reach people who have never seen your site before.

So, would you use templates now?

Okay, I don’t know about you, but those are some pretty interesting benefits of using templates that I wish I’d thought about years ago when I was still trying to get my business off the ground.

If you need a few templates to get you started, be sure to grab 8 of my branded templates totally for free using the link below!