When we think of marketing, we tend to think of customer personas, creatives, landing pages, KPIs, benchmarks, among other things. What always gets left behind is design. But as any seasoned marketer will tell you, the role of good design in marketing is immense.
In fact, good designs can complement marketing strategies in ways you may not have thought of. In this article, we explore the role of design in marketing and why you should seriously invest in some good design work.
Table of Contents
Good Design Grabs Attention
In a survey conducted by SurveyMonkey, 1 in 3 marketers revealed that getting customer’s attention is their primary challenge.
If you look at marketing from an execution point of view, then it’s all about earning and retaining customer attention. A random wifi user is surfing through the internet, jumping from web page to web page. Then suddenly, he lands on a website that is designed in such a way that it’s almost irresistible to click the back or close button. He’s hooked on reading through the content. That’s where clever marketers inject their marketing message and deliver it to the readers.
Although there are no official figures, we come across 6,000 to 10,000 ads and marketing messages every single day. So what makes some of them stand out? While other factors exist, good design is one of the reasons why ads and web pages stand out.
(Source : Google Images)
The concept of attention is not only applicable to websites but also to social media. Every social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat revolves around attention. You upload pictures, videos, and write posts to get the attention of your friends and followers. But you’re not alone. Other people, too, upload their own stuff. As per stats, every second, Twitter sees about 6,000 new tweets. So you’re basically competing against 5,999 other tweets to grab the attention of the users.
To help you in this regard, you must use good graphics and copy in your posts. Without these, they’ll look bland and just get lost in the seas of tweets and posts.
Creative Design Helps in Branding
One of the main reasons why companies spend billions of dollars in marketing is to build an authentic brand. Branding is the key to success in this competitive world where there are dozens of copycats.
If you look at the top 10 most valuable companies in the world, then the list is dominated by brands. In the list, you’ll find the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, among others. While their products and services are unmatchable, it’s a strong brand behind them that’s driving the business.
(Source : Google Images)
The design has a prominent role to play in branding. And who else to demonstrate this better than Steve Jobs, the founder of the most valuable company in the world.
He believed that great design makes products more user-friendly and useful. Thus, consumers will be willing to spend more, even if the features are nearly the same.
This mindset is now adopted by other companies in Silicon Valley. Whenever you look at the website of a major tech company, you’ll notice a similar design throughout the property.
If you have an app and it looks entirely different than your website, your marketing materials, and so on – you risk confusing your customers and failing to capitalize on the benefits of branding.
(Source : Google Images)
That’s design working behind the scene, creating a positive brand image. Over time, you’ll get comfortable with it and trust the brand and its products. That’s the power of branding a business. But branding goes much beyond design and is out of the scope of this article. Just keep in mind that design is an integral part of the branding and can transform your business.
So if you’re in a highly competitive sector or industry and want to differentiate yourself, the good design might be the solution. Luckily, there are SaaS marketing agencies that can craft effective designs tailored to your brand’s unique identity and audience preferences.
Design Helps Capture More Leads
If you think the design is all about the look and feel and you cannot speak it in business terms, then you’re wrong. You can, in fact, measure the ROI of design just like other marketing campaigns.
To see how design can help drive conversions, you need to understand “Color Psychology.” Color psychology states that different colors can trigger different emotions, and this can have an impact on the conversion rate.
(Source : Google Images)
White light represents purity, red light stands for danger, blue light stands for calmness, green for correctness. Colors are also used in therapy. The red light will stimulate your mind and increase blood circulation. Similarly, exposure to blue color will soothe illness and create a calming effect.
For example, let’s say you’ve designed a landing copy. It has a catchy headline, appealing product description, illustrative images, and finally, a Call to Action button. But you’ve colored the button red with black letters on it. When the user reads through the page and sees the red light, then it will impact his decision making. He might skip clicking on the CTA button because red represents danger. By changing the button color to blue or green, you can increase the chances of conversion.
It’s just one of the many ways designing can help you generate more leads.
You can also make use of design to make your marketing materials stand out. You can highlight the important section of the product page that will attract attention.
By designing out-of-the-box graphics and implementing immersive components, you can create catchy landing pages. This will prompt users to take action once they land on them. By measuring the stats, you can gauge the ROI of your design efforts.
You will realize the importance of design in website development once you sit with a UX designer. These people are tasked with designing user interfaces that drive engagement and, ultimately, conversions.
A good design on your website simplifies navigation. Users find it easy to move from one page to another. And Steven Krug, in his book “Don’t Make Me Think,” explains the concept of a good user interface that helps users accomplish a task the easiest way possible. This will create a positive image of your company in the user’s mind. This, as you know, is important when asking for a sale.
With good design, you will also lower your bounce rate. Web visitors will stick around in the website and view multiple pages before signing off. This is an important indicator for search engines like Google. This is a fundamental strategy taught in the top affiliate marketing courses and blogging resources.
Sharing (or overall engagement) is the currency of social media. This is known as social currency in general terms. People share on the internet for various reasons. They find the content engaging, interesting, entertaining, which makes it share-worthy.
With good design, you can make your content share-worthy. Maybe you can create typography that the users have never seen before and want their friends to see it.
(Source : Google Images)
So they hit the share button. Perhaps you can use images in a way that will trigger the sharing button. Whatever it might be, you can use design to make your content and marketing material shareable across the internet.
As more and more people share your content, it builds high social currency. This phenomenon of rapid sharing also increases brand visibility. So more people learn about your business without you having to pay for it.
See also: Whiteboard animation videos for business.
Basics of Good Graphic Design
Now that you know how good design can help in marketing strategies, you must be wondering what constitutes a good design. Although the approach would vary from company to company, there are some commonalities. Consider these as the basics of good graphic design. You should, at the bare minimum, get these right.
Balance and Contrast
Balancing your graphics work is perhaps the most important designing concept. The design should be stable and symmetrical. Also, you should take care of contrast. This will make the reader’s job easier to navigate through the pages.
Hierarchy
Good design should also incorporate concepts of hierarchy. This states that not all elements should have the same priority. That’s why H1 tags are bigger than H2, which is, in turn, bigger than H3 and so on. When creating hierarchy, take help from the concept of AIDA or Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action.
Color and Spacing
Good design also requires a good coloring scheme. You should use colors based on the messages you’re trying to deliver. We’ve already briefly discussed color psychology. Along with colors, you also need to apply even spacing among the elements.
To Sum up
Good design may seem overwhelming at first, but it shouldn’t be. The simpler, the better. With good design, your marketing activities will surely receive the boost they needed to reach the goals. Also, they’ll be for the long term. Good design doesn’t fade, it leaves a legacy behind.
Does your business, website, brand, or other project need good design? We can help.
