If you want to impress potential investors, shareholders, and current employees, a branded Annual Report design will hold their attention. While these documents are a common legal requirement for most businesses, any company can benefit by using it as a strategic marketing and communications tool. If executed properly, you ensure your messaging and goals are clear. But if you inundate readers with lengthy content, lack of visuals, and volumes of data, you’ll lose interest quickly. Here’s how you can turn your Annual Report into a branded story that people will engage with.

1. Build your brand into your layout.

As a rule of thumb, every piece of marketing material that leaves your office needs to be on brand, including your Annual Report design. Integrate your colour palette, typography, and professional photography into your layout. Working with a graphic design team will ensure proper execution of design elements and appropriate font sizing to emphasize messaging and keep readers engaged.

2. Use graphics to visually communicate data.

Having a graphic designer create infographics, charts, and icons that are on brand will guarantee data is clearly communicated and digestible in your Annual Report. It gives your readers a visual reference to connect with so they understand your messaging and goals. And it maintains a narrative flow to the information presented so they know exactly where you want to take them.

3. Make content skimmable.

Think of your Annual Report more like a magazine and less like a novel. Layout information in skimmable blocks and keep it concise. Working with a copywriter will help your brand voice and personality shine. And they can strategically build headlines and bullet points into your copy to create a narrative structure.

4. Go digital.

Not every Annual Report needs to be printed. Consider going digital and have a web development team create a section of your website you can send your readers to. You’ll have more freedom to play with mixed media formats and it gives an extra level of interactivity with your content. You can also strategically target people by having a digital marketing team identify keywords and optimize your copy. This will ensure it shows up on search engine results.

Need a creative partner to help your Annual Report design shine?

At Array, we’re a robust team of creative experts that are ready to help at any stage. With graphic designers, web developers, copywriters, and digital marketers, your Annual Report is in good hands. We’ve worked with several businesses across Vancouver Island and B.C. to create visually compelling reports and are ready to support you no matter how you choose to tell your story.