What role does design play in marketing?
Behind every successful marketing campaign is considered design – so considered, in fact, you may not even notice it.
Design is marketing’s superpower. It is there to bring the brand to life and convey a campaign’s message, without overwhelming the audience.
Everywhere you look you’ll see something that has been strategically designed to capture your attention – from the billboard you drive past each morning, to the scroll-stopping Instagram posts you engage with – but have you ever thought about the theory behind the e design decisions? Good design drives the message home and evokes a response, whether it be feeling, an emotion, or hitting that glorious ‘ADD TO CART’ button.
In this blog we’ll discuss the role design plays in marketing and how it can impact the success of your next campaign.
Building trust with your brand
The purpose of most campaigns is two-fold – to build brand awareness and inspire your customer to do an action.
To motivate potential customers to engage in an impactful way, you need one thing – trust.
Every touchpoint your customer has with your brand must communicate a message, and you want your message consistent across all touchpoints. From billboards, digital advertising, social media content, sponsored content, EDM’s to instore – the design of your content needs to hit the mark every time and tell the true story of your brand.
In the early phases of a business, brand consistency can be challenging, but getting it right is critical to building a strong foundation.
The first step towards success is developing your brand strategy.. This will be your ‘brand bible’ and a robust reference point for brand application. From here, you can then begin building your brand identity with templates that are consistent and easy to roll out across all touchpoints.
Want to know more check out our blog on: Brand identity Vs brand strategy: what’s the difference?
Design testing
Understanding what content resonates with your target market is critical if you want to impact your bottom line. This can be achieved through A/B testing in your digital campaigns. A/B testing gives you the opportunity to test and analyse different messages and designs. When you find a winner, you can roll this out across other brand touchpoints.
To get started, the placement of your ‘call to action’ (CTA) button, and the colour of the button, can determine if your customer will act in the way you need them to. Nailing this design element can hugely impact your success, as the button is the gateway between your content and a sale.
Once you’ve nailed your CTA button, you can move on to testing different design layouts and different copy. Does an image of a person resonate with your customes more than an image of the product? Do certain image styles illicit a greater response?
To make the most of any digital campaigns , you can design, test, analyse data, improve design and test again! If you recognise a visual is resonating more with your audience, you can leverage that design to make a bigger impact.
Social media
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools and a social media strategy will set you apart from your competitors. Before you post, you’ll need to think about:
- Your brand’s tone of voice, how are you talking to your customers? What language do you use? What is your brand identity?
- Ensuring your aesthetic is consistent across all of the social media platforms you use (IG, FB, Tik Tok etc)
- Creative output – would this message be conveyed better via video, animation, carousel or a static image?
Building a consistent brand across your social media platforms can lead to increased brand loyalty and heightens the opportunity to market to your audience in an organic way.
Video, another marketing superpower
In 2022, audiences are spending an average 19 hours per week watching online videos… that’s almost 3 hours per day! Video can be used to educate a new audience, generate leads and convert customers.
The power of video is the ability it gives you to communicate a message in a short amount of time. Instead of going to your website and reading through pages of content to understand the benefits of your business, customers can now watch a 30sec video that tells them everything they need to know.
Benefits of including video in your marketing strategy:
- Educates and builds trust
- Communicates a message, fast
- Encourages social media shares, brand awareness
- Improves SEO ranking
- Anywhere, anytime.
The beauty of video is that it doesn’t have to be a high-quality production to get cut-through – what matters most is that the message is clear, you know your audience, you are adding value and that it aligns with your brand.
It has been scientifically proven that the human brain understands visual information better than written, therefore carefully chosen images, or a thought-provoking video can say more to your target audience than a few hundred words.
If you need help communicating your message through design, you’ve come to the right place! Reach out to our Creative Director, Bec Kowald, to book a complimentary brand consultation – [email protected]