Today, we're talking about the buzzkill of bad design.
I'm part of this online community and a couple of weeks ago, someone had posted a question in our Facebook group saying, "Hey, I'm working on a website. So what's more important...that it looks good or that it performs well?"
And all these people were jumping in and taking a side. And I was like how about both?"
Because one of the things that I know from my experience my whole life being around words, pictures and strategy is this: design and performance are go hand in hand. They're like peanut butter and jelly.
And in fact, Bad design can actually harm your business.
Take a listen to this video for some mind-blowing stats about design (and how important it is), along with pro tips on how to create great design even if you're not creative.
Rooting for you!
xo, Heather
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THE BUZZKILL OF BAD DESIGN
Hey there. This is Heather Campbell and with a little pro marketing advice, because when you know what the pros do, you, my friend can do what the pros do.
And today I'm going to be talking about the buzzkill of bad design. It was a couple of weeks ago. I'm part of this online community and someone had posted a question in our Facebook group saying, "Hey, I'm working on a website. So what's more important...that it looks good or that it performs well?"
And all these people were jumping in and taking a side. And I was like how about both?"
Because one of the things that I know, just from my experience in marketing and running an agency and just my whole life being around words, pictures and strategy is that design and performance are go hand in hand. They're like peanut butter and jelly. And so they are not mutually exclusive at all.
And in fact, Bad design can actually harm your business. So this is so interesting. So first impressions, as you can imagine are 94% design-related.
Think about when you meet somebody, how they present, are they clean? How do they smell? What kind of shoes are they wearing?
It really tells a lot about someone how they show up. So not surprisingly first impressions are going to be largely driven by the design and how your brand shows up visually for people.
And it also is how it's going to show up as how easy is it for someone to navigate your process, to buy what you're selling.
So we not only design for the visuals, we also design for the experience.
So when it comes to design a really good place to focus on is the website because let's face it for the vast majority of my clients transactions happen on the website. And so on a website. You won't even believe the stat.
You have a half second to make it like that's when people start forming their impression...immediately! And 38% of people will actually stop interacting with the website if they the layout or the content isn't served up in a really nice, easy to consume way, which is really interesting. 78% of consumers make a judgment call on the credibility of a business based on the quality of their design.
That's a huge correlation, your credibility and good design again, go hand in hand. 57% of consumers say they would not refer a website to a friend if it's a poorly designed website and that number goes even higher if it's a poorly designed website and it doesn't render well on a mobile phone.
And get this 88% of people will not return to a website after they've had a bad experience. So design can absolutely solve all of those problems. And one of the things that I do know, and the reason we love branding and good design and getting all those foundational elements in place all at the right time. Is because 86% of consumers say that they'll pay more for a product or service if they know that they're going to have a great experience too. So that is what we're always shooting for is what is that great experience? And so how does design help you create that great experience?
You get people to say, you know what? I would actually pay more because I have such a great experience. So number one design can help your business. If it asked yourself these questions, does it reflect my pricing? If I'm a premium product, does it feel like a premium product? Does it also reflect my customers?
Do my customers see themselves in my language and the visuals I use and the colors that I've chosen for my brand identity. Does it feel congruent with what they're expecting to see when they come to my website? Does it, does your design, how does it support your business goals? So one of the most important things is always attaching everything you're doing to a business goal, and that is so important when it comes to design, because that's going to dictate where you place a photo, where you place it, content, or you might put a button on your website where you place a phone number on a piece of, a takeaway brochure that someone has, so you just want to be thoughtful about how you're going to connect this to your business goal and make sure that you're creating this clear path.
This is super important. When it comes to good design, is there space from the eye to rest? I see people put together these. Online lead magnets. And they're like margin to margin content and top to bottom, and it's just so much. And the reason we like white space as designers is to give the eye a place to rest and to let people know Hey, you're moving into a different section of this website or a different place in this brochure. And I'm letting you know visually that we're shifting gears a little bit. That goes a long way in creating this nice, easy flow where your messaging so much easier to consume when you have that nice clean design.
Is your design professional looking, there are way too many free resources out there.
Like Canva is an amazing resource with all sorts of predesigned templates. And so you always want your stuff to look professional, everything that you're producing. And one of the ways too, that you make it even look more professional is you want to make sure that it's also connected to your brand. So using the same colors, the same type, face, the same image, style, those kinds of things, help to build up what we call brand equity. And it makes it easy for people to pick you out of a crowded marketplace. Having that consistency and that connection to your brand is important.
And then you always want to have a clear call to action. And design is going to help make that call to action clear that there's no question on where people can go and what you want them to do. And then once you ask them to take action, is that path to that action clear.
So if you want them to download a free lead magnet, do you have a landing page and a good button and a thank you page and then the email delivery, you want to make sure that you have that nice, smooth delivery.
Is it, if it's a purchase, is it very clear from the, "Yes! I want this!" to the checkout page to the post transaction to the purchase. Making sure that you make it as easy as possible for people to do business with you and design is going to help facilitate that in a big way. So let's recap.
So we talked today a lot about how design and marketing performance go hand in hand. It is so important that you are fluent in form and function. Those two things are not mutually exclusive of each other. So if you ever have a question, should this look good or perform well, it have it look good to perform well or to perform even better than you thought.
And just remember when it comes to clean design it is going to absolutely encourage people to engage with your content and stay with you. You have a half second to make a good impression and more than half of your consumers will stop interacting with you and your brand if you have bad design.
When it comes to good design and the key elements are, does it reflect my category, my pricing, my customers. Are they able to see themselves in my brand with the colors and images that I choose? Does it support my business goals? Number one, does it make it easy for people to figure out what their call to action is?
Is there lots of good white space and a place for the eye to rest? So I'm not overwhelming somebody with too much content where they're shutting down and saying. No, I'm going to stop consuming with this content. And believe me, that is a thing that is a real thing. Is it professional looking? Do I work with a professional designer or do I use a service like Canva where I can create really polished, professional looking marketing materials that all are cohesive and tie together to help to advance my brand.
And then is the call to action clear. And is that path to the call to action? We just want to make sure that path is unobstructed all the way through. So if you're thinking form or function, it's both all of the above. And when you get it right, those things are going to definitely work together to help you not only feel better about your brand, cause it just will allows you to good design helps you sit up taller in your business. And it's great when you feel proud about how you look, how you feel, how you present yourself, and then the experience that you create for someone to come into your universe and to learn more about you, to eventually buy what you're selling.
That's what it's all about. So with that, I hope that you have some good takeaways from this. Leave those in the comments. I would love if you have any before and after design examples, that would be incredible. And if you have any questions by all means, let me know in the comments cause I am here for you! And speaking of which, wherever you are in this beautiful, crazy, ever changing world of ours, please know that there's someone right here in Denver, Colorado, and that is me, Heather Campbell, who is 100,000 percent rooting for you. Take care, guys.
I'll see you here next Thursday at noon mountain time. Bye bye.
