Welcome to our series on writing tips for business owners and content marketers. In the first two parts, we laid a strong foundation for creating readable and authoritative content, and we explored techniques to captivate and persuade your audience.

Today, we're shifting our focus to the visual side of content creation—an often overlooked but crucial component that can amp up reader engagement, emotion, and understanding.

Mastering visual consistency and content skimmability

Imagine a potential client landing on your blog post or landing page. In those critical first few seconds—50 milliseconds to be exact—they decide whether to stay and explore or move on. How fast is 50 milliseconds?

To put that speed into perspective:

The blink of an eye lasts between 100 and 400 milliseconds.
One beat of a hummingbird’s wings takes 20 milliseconds.

People make decisions about your content FAST—faster than the blink of an eye. RENAE GREGOIRE

Bottom line? People viewing your content decide whether to stay or go faster than the blink of an eye and just a hair slower than a single beat of a hummingbird’s wings.

Skimmability and visual consistency are the keys to grabbing and holding immediate attention. From formatting for easy scanning to using visual elements that highlight essential information, the way your content looks can make all the difference.

In this installment, I’ll share five tips for improving the visual appeal of your content:

Format for skimmability—structure content so readers can quickly grasp main points.
Use callout boxes, charts, and tables—improve understanding and engagement.
Use whitespace to give readers a visual rest—make your content more approachable.
Choose fonts and colors wisely—enhance readability and brand identity.
Maintain visual consistency—reinforce your brand and build trust.

Let's dive in so you can make your next piece of content a visually appealing, reader-friendly masterpiece.

Tip 11: Format for skimmability

Does your content capture a reader’s attention in 55 seconds? Research confirms that may be all you have because more than half of all page views don't last longer.

It makes sense. Think about your experience when you land on a page. Do you dive right in and start reading what’s in the first fold and then continue down the page? Or do you scan the page length first, looking for signposts and signals of how long the experience might last?

I do the latter. And for your readers who do the same, consider making your content skimmable. Structuring your content for skimmers hooks your reader faster. It also gives your organic standing a nice bump because content that's easier to digest keeps readers around longer and interacting more. And when it does, search engines know it.

The critical elements of skimmable content include:

Headings and subheadings—think of these as signposts. Clear, compelling headings help readers navigate your thoughts, pulling them deeper into the most essential parts.
Bullet points and lists—perfect for distilling complex ideas into bite-sized, easy-to-chew pieces. Lists are your go-to when conveying steps or highlighting core features.
Short paragraphs and varied sentence lengths—Each paragraph should hit one idea hard and fast. Mix your sentence lengths to keep the reader's brain engaged.
Bolded and italicized text—Guide your reader's eyes to the essential nuggets in your text. A little bold here and some italics there will make your key points pop and stick.

Highlight with highlights

Highlights are another way to help readers know what you find essential in a piece of content. Yellow highlights, green highlights, pink highlights—it doesn’t matter. You’re good as long as readers can see the text through the highlight.

Medium is an excellent example of how highlights point to what you—or, in this case, others—find most potent on a page. The following screenshot from my article about great editing shows how one reader highlighted what they enjoyed or felt was important.

Colored highlights help skimmers quickly consume key pieces of information. RENAE GREGOIRE

Thanks, Carole! I appreciate the vote.

Hyperlinks and where you place them affect skimmability, too

The last thing I want to mention about skimmability comes from a fascinating study in the National Institutes of Health’s database. It reveals how hyperlinks in text ramp up perceived importance.

In other words, sentences sporting links capture more attention, especially links placed higher up on the page. This nifty trick makes sentences stickier, particularly for skim readers. Today, when everyone’s scanning, strategically placing those hyperlinks can make your content seen—and remembered.

Tip 12: Use callout boxes, charts, and tables

When weaving a tapestry of words, you sometimes need to highlight a pattern, make a knot stand out, or frame the piece just so. That’s where callout boxes, charts, and tables come into play. These visual elements improve understanding and engagement without cluttering the narrative.

Callout boxes: Your content’s spotlight

Imagine callout boxes as spotlights in a darkened theater, drawing the audience’s attention to actors—or, in your case, pieces of information. Callouts are perfect for emphasizing significant points, quotes, or statistics because they act as visual rest stops that invite readers to absorb essential messages.

The following is an example of a callout box that highlights a quote. The quote from Benjamin Zander is one of my favorites. It doesn’t directly relate to the focus of this article, but it indirectly points to the power of inspiring readers—making their eyes shine.

Callout boxes are great for showcasing quotes, statistics, and other crucial pieces of information. RENAE GREGOIRE

Nestle callout boxes at natural pauses in your article to complement the flow rather than disrupt it. Although mine did not, your callout boxes should echo the context of the surrounding content, acting as organic extensions of the narrative.

Make callout boxes pop with a dash of contrast—think a subtle color shift or a distinctive border—but keep them tied visually to the theme of your page. Inside, keep the text brief and potent.

Charts and tables: Simplifying complexity

Charts and tables transform complex data jungles into neat, navigable gardens. They're invaluable for presenting trends, comparisons, and statistics in a visually digestible format so readers can quickly grasp what might otherwise require lengthy explanations.

As with callout boxes, position charts and tables close to their related text so readers can easily correlate the visual data with its narrative without flipping pages or scrolling back and forth to look between the visual and its text explanation.

Design these visuals to be as straightforward as possible. A clean, uncluttered presentation with limited color use and clear, readable labels makes your data accessible at a glance.

Speaking of accessibility, make your visuals accessible by adding clear captions and alt text for screen readers to help all people understand.

Sprinkling callout boxes, charts, and tables into your content gives you extra points for aesthetics. But it also sharpens clarity, boosts engagement, and keeps your readers cruising smoothly through your narrative.

13. Use whitespace to give brains a visual rest

When you use negative space well, your marketing content will look clean and professional. RENAE GREGOIRE VIA DALL-E 3.

Think of whitespace—the borders around a Google Doc, the space around images in an ebook, and even the line breaks between paragraphs—as visual breathing room.

Use whitespace to separate elements and group related items. By grouping associated items and separating distinct sections with whitespace, you create a visual hierarchy that guides the reader’s eye, helps them navigate more intuitively through your content, and—my favorite—improves readability.

Think about it:

Reader perception is everything. If readers think your piece looks easy to read, then, to them, it is easy to read…

…at least until they begin digging into the words. At that point, your writing must carry the load.

A study by Lin found that the proper use of whitespace between lines of text and around blocks of text can increase comprehension by up to 20%. Whitespace makes content more scannable and reduces the amount of text the eyes must read at once.

Google's search page is a classic example of using whitespace to focus the reader’s attention. The minimalist design—pretty much all whitespace—directs our focus to the main functionality of the page, reducing distractions and simplifying the search task. The clean-looking page also minimizes cognitive load, what I think of as the tax on your brain caused by visual and verbal clutter.

Google's search page is clean, helping visitors focus on the task at hand—which is to search. RENAE GREGOIRE

Now consider the start page on Microsoft’s Bing search page. It’s a world of difference, and not in a good way. The cognitive load is heavy.

Edge's new-tab search page is another matter. It's cluttered, flickering, and busy—but only because I haven't changed my search page settings. RENAE GREGOIRE

Whenever I open a new tab on the Edge browser, I’m distracted by flickering stories in the upper left that call out to my eye, not to mention the cornucopia of ads, offers, and more stories, most related to things I’ve been doing around the web. Granted, you can opt for a cleaner experience if you want. I just haven’t yet wanted to.

14. Choose fonts and colors thoughtfully

Fonts and colors aren’t just aesthetic choices; they carry meaning and affect readability. The right combination can elevate your content from good to great, making it visually appealing and easy to read. Here’s how to choose and use fonts and colors effectively.

Font style

Choose a primary font for your body text and a secondary font for headings and subheadings. Stick to these fonts across your marketing content to maintain a consistent look. Sans-serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana are generally easier to read on screens. Serif fonts like Times New Roman and Georgia can add a touch of elegance to printed materials.

The New York Times uses fonts consistently across its print and digital editions, with a serif font for body text and a bold sans-serif font for headlines. This consistency reinforces its brand identity and makes NYT content easily recognizable.

Font size hierarchy

Varying font sizes for different elements on the page creates a clear hierarchy. For example, choose a larger font size for headings, a slightly smaller size for subheadings, and a standard size for body text. This hierarchy helps guide the reader’s eye through the content and makes it easier to skim.

Line spacing and paragraph breaks

Proper line spacing and paragraph breaks improve readability by preventing the text from looking too dense. Aim for 1.5 to 2 times the font size. Keep paragraphs short to provide visual relief.

Font contrast and readability

Using the proper contrast between text and background colors makes your content easy to read. Dark text on a light background is typically the most readable combination. Don’t use light text on a light background, or dark text on a dark background, lest you strain the reader's eyes.

Colors for engagement and readability

Use your brand’s color palette consistently to reinforce brand identity. The palette includes the colors you use in your logo, website, and other marketing materials. Consistently using the same colors creates a cohesive look and makes your content instantly recognizable.

Look at this page from my website. My brand’s colors are yellow and purple, which I use everywhere.

A page from my website illustrates how I use my brand colors — yellow for the logo and purple for hyperlinks and heading text. RENAE GREGOIRE

Here’s a screenshot of an email I sent subscribers of my Beyond Copy newsletter. The yellow in the box behind the words Beyond Copy is the same as on my website, and the purple lines surrounding the header image match the purple of my website’s heading text.

My brand's yellow and purple colors carry through to my Beyond Copy newsletter. RENAE GREGOIRE

And here’s an image from one of my old lead magnets. The yellow is a little deeper, but you can see that I use the same colors everywhere.

Visual consistency helps people recognize your brand. My yellow and purple colors appear here in a lead magnet. RENAE GREGOIRE

Color psychology

Colors can also evoke emotions and influence how readers perceive your content. For example, blue often conveys trust and professionalism, while red can evoke excitement and urgency.

I chose purple for my brand because it’s my favorite color. But it also represents creativity, imagination, and inspiration. It stimulates the mind and makes me think of innovation and originality. Purple can also evoke thoughts of luxury, wealth, spirituality, and mysticism—all essential to my identity.

I chose yellow because it represents joy, cheerfulness, and optimism. It's a bright, uplifting color that can create a sense of warmth and positivity. Yellow also speaks to energy, attention, intellect, and mental stimulation—words I associate with myself and my brand.

When choosing colors for your brand and content, consider how color associations match your message and the emotions you want to evoke. For instance, if you're going to:

Evoke trust and dependability, try blue.
Fire up a sense of passion and urgency, use red.
Evoke harmony and growth, try green.
Spark thoughts of elegance and sophistication, consider black.
Inspire warmth and friendliness, try orange.

By strategically using different colors, your content can whisper the emotions and messages you want to convey, enhancing your communication's overall effect and effectiveness.

15. Maintain visual consistency

Keeping visuals consistent reinforces your brand’s identity and fosters reader trust. It makes you credible when your content—whether an email newsletter, a blog post, or a LinkedIn header image—looks and feels like it belongs to your brand.

Apple is a prime example of maintaining visual consistency.

I bet I don’t even have to show you a screenshot from Apple’s website; you can probably envision Apple the way its marketers want you to just because the brand is so consistent and familiar.

From its website to its product packaging and advertisements, Apple uses a clean, minimalist design with consistent fonts, colors, and layout. This consistency reinforces its brand identity and creates a seamless customer experience.

Want to achieve visual consistency like Apple? Focus on logo placement, design elements, colors, and layout.

Logo

Always place your logo in the same location on all your content, such as the top left corner of your website, the header of your emails, and the bottom right corner of your social media graphics. This consistency builds brand recognition.

Design elements

Design elements like icons, patterns, and shapes can also become part of your brand’s visual identity. Your chosen elements should complement and reinforce your brand’s look and feel.

Primary and secondary colors

Define a primary color palette that includes your brand’s main colors and a secondary palette for accents and highlights. Use these colors consistently across all your content to create a cohesive visual identity.

Apply your color schemes consistently in all your content, too. For example, use the same background color for your social media graphics, the same button color on your website, and the same highlight color in your blog posts.

Layout consistency

Use a consistent layout for similar types of content. For example, all your blog posts might follow the same structure with a header image, an introductory paragraph, subheadings, and a conclusion. This consistency makes your content more predictable and more manageable for readers.

Design templates

Create design templates for different types of content, such as blog posts, newsletters, social media posts, and presentations. Include predefined styles for fonts, colors, and layout elements to maintain brand consistency no matter who uses the templates.

Canva is probably the best-known tool for templates—especially for non-designers like me. As a paid user, you’ll get access to a brand toolkit to store your brand colors and fonts for easy access. Free and paid plans give you access to many design templates for everything from Instagram posts to videos, ebooks, and cheat sheets. Using Canva templates, you can create professional-looking content that adheres to your brand guidelines without much work.

What’s next? Stay tuned for Part 4 of this series

Integrating these visual strategies into your content will create a more engaging and reader-friendly experience that keeps readers returning for more. Visual consistency, skimmability, and thoughtful design choices improve aesthetics, enhance comprehension, and retain reader interest.

Ready to elevate your content? Use what you learned in this article and watch as your engagement metrics climb and your audience's appreciation grows. In the next installment of this series, we'll look at deepening reader connection through empathetic and persuasive writing.

Follow me on Forbes or sign up for my newsletter to get the rest of the tips in this series. By doing the latter, you’ll see how I maintain reader interest and enthusiasm with excellent writing and, yes, visual consistency.

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Originally published on Forbes.com.

25 Writing Tips for Business Owners and Content Marketers: Part 3

Mastering visual consistency and content skimmability