If you’re reading this article, probably you’re somehow involved in the digital business. Spending most of our time in a digital world, we — designers, developers, marketers, business analysts, product managers — work, communicate and shop online. We order food, pick our next travel destinations and schedule doctor’s appointments by interacting with our devices. That’s why when we have some brand name in mind and try to google it, we get confused if we can’t find any brand mentions online. How is it possible that a business hasn’t established a minimal online presence?
No matter the company size and type, being online is a necessity for almost any business nowadays. Otherwise, companies lose great potential by neglecting online marketing opportunities.
What Is Web Marketing?
Web marketing brings together marketing activities conducted online.
It includes:
- SEO
- SMM
- Email marketing
- Display advertising
- Referral marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Video marketing
- Inbound marketing
Web marketing spreads your message to a huge online audience. Unlike offline marketing, it is more focused, more effective, and less expensive. With web marketing tools, you’re able to track activities at any marketing funnel stage and measure ROI.
Even though some web marketing activities can be done with a zero budget, like creating social media accounts and uploading videos on YouTube, they still should be implemented by professionals. This especially refers to the design for business. You may hire a designer or reach out to a design agency in order to nail the first impression with your branding and visuals.
Today we’ll address the following:
- Why web marketing and design go hand-in-hand
- What kinds of designs you need to execute your marketing strategies
- What answers you should have before setting a task for designers.
Landing page design for Colony
Why Web Marketing and Design Go Hand-in-Hand
Web marketing and design collaborate because of the same goal.
It’s common for marketing and design teams to work separately. Marketers prefer not to share their strategy details and designers prefer not to discuss interim results till the task is completely done. The lack of collaboration leads to misunderstanding and extra work. Despite having the same goals, marketers and designers talk past each other, which causes difficulties in communication.
It happens that stylish and professional-looking landing pages receive high-quality traffic but don’t convert because they were initially designed for the wrong target audience.
When creating interfaces, illustrations, and logos at Tubik, we don’t distinguish our works from the strategic business goals but rather think of our designs as extensions of our clients’ brands. With this approach, we know that our designs will work for our clients on a long-term basis.
What Kinds of Designs You Need to Execute Your Marketing Strategies
Now, that you realize the importance of professional and thoughtful design in online marketing, it’s time to think about designs you’ll need to implement your marketing strategies.
Landing page design for Dance Academy
UI and UX
No matter if you’re planning to go for a single-page website or for a complex structured one with multiple sections, you should consider a well-thought-out UI and UX design. A solidly designed and developed website requires a lot of work and investment. But the truth is, not every business needs this kind of website. If the specifics of your business exclude the possibility of converting leads with the help of your website, don’t go for fancy and challenging solutions. Limit yourself to a nice single-page website.
If you plan your website to convert, go for marketing and sales-oriented UI/UX design which is based on market and user research, psychology, business nature, and competitive analysis. This will make each element of your website work hard for your revenue.
Website design for The Gourmet
Graphics
Graphic design elements can be used with the intention to provoke emotions and encourage actions. This is the main reason why you should consider graphic design as another way of communicating your message. Use the benefits of graphic design to enhance your brand’s online presence.
Website illustrations designed for Florence
Motion
The use of motion graphics is widespread in marketing. Apart from being eye-catching, animations have higher engagement and conversion rates. With nicely designed motion graphics, you’re able to transform boring into exciting and complex into simple.
In our recent blog post, we’ve highlighted 5 reasons to make animated videos for your product or service.
Explainer video designed for OffCents
Branding
Branding is a mix of promise, reputation, identity, and positioning. It’s a broad term that covers a whole bunch of activities including brand identity design. Branding design is a way to broadcast a company’s message by means of a logo, style, and visuals. With the carefully considered branding design, marketers set the company’s name apart from competitors, build trust, and enhance brand recognition.
Think of brand identity design as your company’s face. If someone says Nike, what is the first image that comes to your mind? The home page of the Nike website or the latest model of their runners? No, the first visual association with the word Nike is their simple yet remarkable logo. That’s why you’d better involve professional designers in order to create visuals that will perfectly reflect your company’s nature.
Brand identity design for Lunnscape
What Answers You Should Have Before Setting a Task for Designers
You know that in business, communication is everything. Depending on your ability to negotiate and convey your messages, you may expect a different result. The same goes for communication with designers and design agencies. In order to spend your budget effectively, you should have a clear understanding of your goals and expectations before you sign a contract.
Here is a general list of questions you should have answers to.
What is your product/service?
Start with your business first. Talk about your company’s nature, mission, and values.
What is your value proposition?
Give insight into what makes your company special on the market and what differentiates your company from competitors. Talk about product or service benefits that your customers pay for.
What is your goal?
Share the main points of your business strategy. Talk briefly about your short-term and long-term objectives. Discuss the reasons that have prompted you to contact designers. Define the goals you want to achieve with the designs. You don’t have to disclose all your strategic business goals; however, you should specify some of them so that the final designs meet your expectations.
What are your target audience and target market?
Talk a bit about who your clients are: basic information including age, location, gender, profession, etc. Client profiles help designers to pick colors and shapes that best work with the specific target group.
Who are your competitors?
Make a list of your main competitors. This list will help designers to differentiate your brand from similar businesses on the market.
What are your don’ts?
You should talk not only about designs you like but also about designs that you don’t like, whether it’s a case of your personal preferences or your target audience’s perception (for instance, some symbols considered appropriate in some countries may look rude or even offensive in other countries). This will save your time and budget significantly.
What are your budget and timing?
Schedule and budget are still touchy subjects for some business people. However, these topics should be discussed at the very beginning. It’s not enough for you to know how much the design agency charges per hour. A lot of factors influence a final bill and they may vary from agency to agency. That’s why you should clarify how much money and how much time you’re planning to spend on this particular activity.
Who are the decision-makers?
Unclear communication is another time and money waster when it comes to outsourcing services. Describe the review process, list the stakeholders, share their contact information and define the communication methods and tools that are most convenient for you.
We have recounted general questions, but depending on your task (UI/UX design, illustration, icon pack, motion graphics), this list will be expanded with technical questions that you’ll find in the company’s brief.
To wrap up:
- Being a significant part of web marketing, the business-oriented design requires a thorough approach and should be done by professionals.
- If you want to get the most out of your design, you should make marketing and design teams work together.
- When you know your goals and communicate them properly, you’ll almost certainly hit the mark.
Useful Articles
5 Must-Have Elements for Any E-Commerce Website
7 Factors That Influence Webpage Conversion Rates
5 Reasons to Make Animated Video for Your Product
Mobile App Branding: Tips, Strategies and Examples
Social Media Graphics: Design Tips and Best Practices
FAQ: Does a Small Business Need a Website?
