Writing Content that Works Harmoniously with Design

By: Sandhya Ramanujan

As a marketing outsourcing company, we routinely develop content and design marketing collaterals such as brochures, flyers, presentations, website content etc.  More often than not, clients who require content to be developed also require it to be put into design. It has been our experience that the key to producing a great piece of published content is the ability of the content and design teams to work collaboratively from conceptualization to production. 

 Some things that content writers can do at each stage of the collateral’s lifecycle to ensure collaboration and quality output:  

• Brainstorm & conceptualize with the design team - This involves looping in designers from the beginning and sharing content ideas in a template form – something as simple as a word doc template serves the purpose effectively.
• Identify themes and key messaging ideas - Passing these on to the design team before they hit the drawing board helps them produce design elements compatible with content messaging.
• Share benchmarks, best practices & study the competition – This helps shape designers’ ideas and mold their output to best suit the content being developed.
• Understand the technical limitations of the design software/platform – This ensures the development of content most suited to the intended software/platform and also enables fruitful discussions and ideation with colleagues in the design department
• Edit/change content, if necessary – In order to suit design requirements, changes such as additions, deletions should be factored in, if the need so arises. This fosters a give and take relationship between the two teams which in turn helps in enhancing the quality of output
• Provide constructive, quality feedback – The content writer’s feedback helps tweak design to make it more high impact. By editing and offering suggestions on content layout, page breaks, line breaks etc. designers can incorporate the content in a format that conveys the message most effectively.  

The simple lesson here is that working collaboratively with a team spirit applies as much to content and design teams as it does to any other area of business.