Any guy would know that when you are wooing someone, you have to put your best foot forward. When you are wooing hearts, minds and even business agreements, you need to show up with something that is, well, exciting. What you want to do to win hearts and minds is for you to look good, impressive and beyond reproach.

Great visuals will get you somewhere. In the same manner that simple but eye catching visuals will help your marketing collaterals greatly. Consider these: simple pictures on flyers, logos on notepads, icons on letterheads will get you noticed.

Visuals make a big difference. Audiences remember 80% of what they see and only 20% of what they hear. A picture supported by text keeps an audience awake, on track and reinforces your message. Whether designing letterheads or notepads, pictures can make your design more alive and more visually delightful.

Visuals work because they grab your audience’s or your prospective client’s attention. Have you ever attended a presentation where the speaker used slides full of text only? Observe these slides and you will note that the audience becomes more attentive and engaged if they see visuals on your slides.

Visuals also increase retention. They make information easy to grasp. Overheads with words may help a speaker organize and deliver the message; but to the audience’s eye, text on the screen becomes just a blurred, gray pattern, with no take-away value. When words appear, most of us bounce back and forth reading to listening, and lose vital information in the process. Your name in a notepad printing will be forgotten but add a logo or seal or even your picture and you have your clients hooked on to you.

We have to consider that the mind thinks and stores information visually. Maps, blueprints, diagrams, logos, stock market arrows are all part of our visual memories. The right symbol brings the idea to life and tells the story. A logo on a notepad printing will make it more real and convincing than a notepad with just plain text. In other words, if you can not picture your concept, you have not thought it out. Make it simple to make your audience feel smart.

In closing, always remember that an audience forgets a speaker’s words 30 minutes after a presentation. But they can surely remember the pictures even a week after the presentation. Visuals work for you because they clarify your ideas, keep you on track, break down barriers and add interest. So the next time you find yourself in a slump, just remember this: visualize.