It’s difficult deciding exactly what to say in your marketing materials and business correspondence. Many business owners spend hours poring over sentences figuring out the best way to get their message across - but few of them give any consideration as to which font to use to create the perfect impression.

Using the wrong font is like going to a job interview in fancy dress. You may have all the right credentials, but it is unlikely that your potential employer will pay attention to your resume while you are wearing your inappropriate attire.

When choosing a font, take a few moments and think about the message you are trying to convey, and the impression you hope to create.

The right font can help your reader form an opinion about you and your company, and even help convey your message more effectively.

For example, which of these two lawyers would you be more likely to hire?

 

Chances are when you are looking for a lawyer you’re looking for someone who will take you seriously, someone who will take a responsible approach to your affairs. The fun font used by Jefferson & Jefferson may be eye-catching and different, but the traditional, conservative font used by Jameson & Jameson is more likely to inspire confidence in prospective customers.

Additionally, the message you are sending is a factor in choosing your font. A birthday or Christmas greeting would be written in a different font to a professional recommendation or final payment notice.

Business Correspondence

Accepted practice in business correspondence is to use a standard font such as Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman or Century Gothic. Unlike more decorative fonts (which are often difficult to read after the first few lines), these fonts are simple, professional, easy on the eye, and will not distract from the message you are conveying. It is standard to use size 10 – 12 point in the body of the message, with larger sizes for the headings. The text should be typed in lower and uppercase, making it easier to read than UPPER CASE ALONE.

As a general rule, fonts used in titles and headings are bold or underlined, making them stand out from the rest of the text and creating a inbuilt document outline, catching the reader’s eye as they skim through the document.

Marketing Materials

When choosing fonts for marketing materials, it is important to consider the impact of fonts when the reader is glancing over your flyer (in this case, bigger usually IS better). You have barely a second to capture your audience and entice them to read on, so it’s important that your key message is likely to cause an impact.

While for large areas of text it’s often best to stick with tried and true easy-to-read fonts, for headings and attention grabbing slogans go all out and choose a font that that will really stand out. Keeping in mind the impression you are hoping to create and the message you want to get across, find a font that jumps off the page. Use bold or italics to create impact, even use a different colour to ensure that no one will miss your message.

Websites

Visitors to your website may be unable to see your painstakingly chosen font if it has not been installed on their computers. So stick to basic fonts such as Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana. If you want to use a special font on your website, create it as an image and use that instead.

For large areas of text on a website, follow the same guidelines as those outlined in Business Correspondence. Ease of reading is very important on a website, with web surfers quick to close a site that isn’t easy to navigate or read.

Where to get new fonts

If you are looking for something new and exciting, search the internet for free fonts that you can download straight to your computer.

To use your new font after you have downloaded it, you need to install it. Check your File Explorer to check whether it has a file extension of .EXE or .TTF.

If it is an .EXE file, go to the Windows Start/Run menu and select the font file through the Browse option. Click run, and the font will automatically install on your computer.

To install a .TTF file, go to the Windows Start/Settings/Control Panel/Fonts. Go to File/Install New Font and choose your font or choose Select All, and click OK.

It’s easy to forget how much impact your font choice can have on your reader. However, by using these guidelines, you can use fonts effectively in reinforcing your message and create a stronger impression than you ever anticipated.