Begin Your Internet Marketing Efforts with Design in Mind
This post was originally written back in November 2010. As I browsed my 12 month old posts as I regularly do, this one caught my attention again and so I decided to do a brief rewrite and add some new tips to it!
Take a look at the most successful companies that leverage the Web well and try figuring out what they have in common.
I’ll save you the time … Those companies design with function in mind!
And what is that function?
I don’t know … whatever it is you’d like to accomplish beyond the post click or your 30 second Youtube spot. Except don’t think of what you want to happen, think in terms of creating experiences for your visitors.
Eventually and while creating that experience, you gently guide the visitor thorough the sales or marketing funnel.
Design has never been more important, especially in the storytelling and content creation aspects of Social Media marketing and digital marketing in general.
The message simply has to reside somewhere, and though many have drank the kool-aid, I’m still of the opinion that you should have your own site or blog as your primary content hub, and not rely solely on social networks as your main identity residence.
Let’s face it, unless you are Craigslist (the ugliest site I’ve ever seen!), you need to pay attention to not only how your site looks but more importantly at how it creates and enhances user experience. But does Craigslist need to look pretty? Probably not, it just needs to work … so its current design serves the function it provides, period.
I’ve lost count of how many business owners have told me that their site doesn’t really do much for them, – they have it because everyone has one these days. But that it doesn’t play a part in their overall marketing strategy. In other words, it doesn’t add to their bottom line.
Well if it looks like it’s 1999, I agree, it shouldn’t be part of ANY marketing strategy!
There could be a lot of reasons why a site is not performing. The design-function relationship is only one of them.
But what if the site were to be redesigned to beget function, enhance usability and provide the rare experience of finding ultra relevant content?
If it did, it would scale as far as being more than just a site with your contact info, it would deliver fresh, relevant and valuable content in a cohesive editorial format. Because of this, it would rank well with the search engines, enhance social engagement and build direct and indirect relationships with people that will get to know, like and trust you, which is how you attract traffic and earn authority… Then it would be a different story wouldn’t it!
I don’t care what you sell! Wiggly wigglers. If you apply this you will break through!
The main reason it will work is because now you have a different animal in your hands. You’ve gone from a static hub of nothingness to a digital publishing and remarkability marketing platform!
The reason why most people with excellent business models and profitable ones I might add, have such crappy sites is not because they are lazy, budget tight, or ignorant of the web’s potential.
The reason is that most of them don’t think of their website as a revenue source, so they don’t believe or know how to actually generate business from it and so there’s no effort in time or investment (very affordable these days btw to get something decent and effective up and running!) to add some real function and digital style to their brands.
Here’s a very simple exercise:
Do a search for your business’s primary keywords – 1st Check out the organic results on the first page. Then take a look at paid search ads and check those sites as well.
The idea here is to get a whiff of the design scope and creativeness that some people are putting into their digital brands and presence.
Here is Google’s search basics page for more specific ways to conduct search queries.
When you look at a site including yours, don’t just look for aesthetic elements. Ask yourself,
- What’s its primary function?
- Why should anyone care about what I’m saying?
- Where does the design take me?
- Do I get it right away or does it take me a while to figure it out what they are talking about?
- What functional elements are in play?
- How social is the site, is there a feeling of community?
- Are there calls to action?
- Do you see a trend in design based on types of businesses?
- Are there free value-offers throughout the site?
- Is there a blog?
Learn from the good sites and toss the crappy ones. Read reports and books on usability and UX(user experience)
Looking at sites including your own, in a less paternalistic and more objective way will take some time, but is a great skill to learn in this Socio-Digital era.
Design should follow function, but that doesn’t mean that you have to give up your creative graphic design brain, it just means that design works better in that sequence.
Any thoughts? Would love to hear’em!
