Most huge and modest businesses have their own exclusive
brand. This includes their logo, packaging or any other
type of graphic. Writing a fantastic enterprise proposal frequently
demands some thought no matter whether to use graphics and color.
Analysis recommends utilizing color and graphics except for
those rare situations where the consumer explicitly forbids
it. Government bids are much less prevalent than it used to be.
But, they will need to be used with some judgment. Throwing in
clip art or colorful logos will possibly do even more damage
than wonderful.
There are a number of aspects that contribute to a excellent
package: page layout, legibility of the font, use of white
space. But, two of the a lot more fundamental tools you can use are
color and graphics.
Study indicates that making use of color and graphics can
enhance the reader's interest, improve retention, and
enhance comprehension. In reality, the results showed the
following impact from color:
1. Increases comprehension up to 73% 2. Increases retention
and recall 55% to 78% 3. Increases motivation up to 80% 4.
Sells merchandise and ideas 55% to 85% alot more efficiently
If there's any poor, it's the reality that the investigation was
sponsored by Hewlett Packard. They just may well have a vested
interest in getting small business many people to use more color
printers.
But the group that basically did the analysis was an
independent, third party, with decent credibility. And those
figures are consistent with other study completed by
publishers and educators.
A study conducted by the University of Minnesota found that
the use of uncomplicated graphics increased the persuasiveness of
a message by 47%. To measure the impact, they had a group
of people today read a passage of text and rate it for
persuasiveness. Then they had yet another group rate the exact
exact same text, only this time it included a graphic. The score
jumped by 47%!
Why does this function? One factor is that some many people find out
more very easily by means of graphics than they do by means of words.
They are appropriate-brain oriented. Also, some individuals are
skimmers, and graphics are more likely to slow down the
skimming process so that they absorb the content. Finally,
oftentimes graphics, especially those based on statistical
analysis or other quantified data, seem to carry a lot more
authority than mere words: for much more persons a bar chart
showing the average annual temperature in 3 cities will
be a lot more convincing than comparable data presented only in
words.
Here are some suggestions for employing color and graphics to improve
your document:
¡è Use your customer's logo on the title page of your
proposal and balance it in terms of size and impact with
your own logo. If you know that the consumer completely
hates having their logo employed by outsiders, clearly don't
do this. Too countless proposals go out with a cover and title
page dominated by the vendor's logo. It comes across as
self centered and obnoxious.
¡è If the customer has a "business color," incorporate it
into your design. For example, making use of a line at the top of
the page in their color to separate the header from body
text, or putting significant headings in their color, are subtle
methods of communicating to them.
¡è Avoid using clip art. It normally doesn't improve your
document. It's not intelligent to throw some thing into the
document just given that it's offered. Your goal is to
include appropriate graphics that reinforce your message.
¡è Steer clear of extremely technical graphics, complex diagrams and
charts. Straightforward graphics are better. They will attract alot more
attention and they will be less complicated to understand. If you
must incorporate schematics, drawings, network diagrams, or
similar technical visuals, give consideration to putting them in a
technical appendix or offering them as attachments.
¡è Graphics should be oriented horizontally on the page,
just like the text. The reader must in no way need to have to turn
your document sideways to look at your graphic.
¡è Write an active caption that not only explains what the
graphic is showing but also emphasizes a consumer benefit.
In lengthy documents, it's a good idea to number the graphics,
too.
¡è Discussing an thought in the text and then illustrating it
graphically is additional helpful than showing the graphic and
then discussing it. By no means put all the graphics at the end
of the document. If people today have to flip back and forth
between the text and the graphics, they won't get the full
value of either.
¡è Use the kinds of graphics that are appropriate to the
role of the audience. For example:
CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and other senior executives are likely to
look at payback calculations, ROI charts, or gap analyses
Technical evaluators will appreciate a compliance matrix
alot more than any other kind of graphic. A compliance matrix
lists each requirement, shows your level of compliance with
it, and references where in the document the evaluator can
find detailed data.
The "business beneficiaries" of your remedy- that is, the
people who will use it or maintain it will be most
interested in graphics showing the cycle of operation, function
flow, escalation policies for handling issues, and so
forth.
Feel about graphics while you're outlining or organizing
your document, before you have written any text. Graphics
that are thrown in as an afterthought typically look like
following thoughts.
By following these strategies, your documents will be extra
colorful, additional interesting, and will quite possibly have even more
impact.
