What is Design Marketing?

Design Marketing, a confusing topic.

I hear this question a lot. What is design marketing? How does investing in design marketing make money for me? I’ll give you a hint, it has much to do with consumer engagement.

Design is visual communication. So let’s put that into perspective. Website’s are largely a visual experience. You have to communicate your product and value…visually. Get the picture?

So where does design marketing come into play?

Before I go into this, throw away one crucial misconception. The effectiveness of design first comes from functionality then beauty.

Basically, a website should be functional and beautiful but not just beautiful. So, how do we track this? How do we know it’s engaging?

A simple technique is to measure click paths. Eliminate as much clicking as possible. This is impacted by design because it’s the website’s design that is steering the user through your website. Design elements should direct the user as quickly as possible to the payment gateway or wherever you want them to go.

Why?

Give them less time to change their minds and make it easier for them. If they have to struggle to purchase your product or service, that can become a missed opportunity.

Design Marketing: Pick A Goal

So pick a goal. Let’s say you’ve noticed your conversions come from your monthly newsletters, so naturally you want to direct people to sign up to your newsletter as simply as possible. Eliminate the clicks, make it fast and efficient, communicate the value quickly. Less is more in the web world. Throw away your assumptions and think about it as though you are a user.

If you want people to make an account to try your product. Make it easy. Streamline the registration process. Advertise it without clutter and distraction. Companies put teams together that are devoted to making this as easy as possible.

Design Marketing: Separate Your Assumptions

Often times, as a business owner, you throw your perception in front of what needs to get done. You have 50 sale specials and you think they all need to be displayed on the homepage. That’s wrong. Pick a goal. Decide what product is most profitable or sells the most, push what your user wants. It’s not about you it’s about them.

Measure it.
Use analytics. If your website is set up to get people onto a certain page and they are falling of the click path and landing somewhere else, think about why they are going there. Often times, it’s a design solution because we use design to guide the user’s path through the website. Fix those errors.

Design marketing is connected to user engagement in the web world. A good designer can work with your business goals and align the website’s user experience towards meeting your desired outcome. It’s not magic. It’s a science, literally. Design marketing uses a clever combination of art and human psychology to increase sales and hit goals.