The design you choose for your company affects how a potential customer sees your brand. A lackluster web design, with poor aesthetic and usability, can result in a user exiting the browser and going to another website. On the other hand, a stunning web design has the power to engage the user, and encourage them to stay on your website which will affect your internet marketing strategy and impact your content marketing.
In terms of content marketing, studies show that 70 percent of users would rather learn about a company through a blog post or an article, over traditional advertising. Consumers now prefer to do research on their own. It gives them confidence and assurance that they’re making the right decision. This explains why 90 percent of organizations rely on content in their marketing strategy.
Still, the question remains. How does web design affect your content marketing strategy?
How Web Design Affects Content Marketing Strategy
Appearance is everything for brands. Even though the spotlight in modern marketing has recently shifted to new tools and tech that will automate tasks for efficiency or improve analytics and data gathering, everything is still about the consumer.
1. Makes Content More Accessible
A great web design allows a user to easily use and navigate your website. Well-written content is useless if your target audience can’t find them or access them.
Having an intuitive web design makes it possible for your visitors to reach pages they need without having to exert mental bandwidth in finding them.
Whether you’re running an e-commerce store or a business website, you want them to find the information they need quickly. Having them sift through pages just to find the one page that will eventually make them convert, is a waste of their time. They won’t be spending energy going through random content, they will most likely exit and go to a competitor’s website for what they need.
Your website should make these elements visible:
- Menu Bar
- Search Bar
- Archives Page or Button
- About Us Page
- Contact Us Page
Think about the user experience. If a new user lands on a random page, will they be able to navigate their way to a specific page that they want? Does your website contain breadcrumbs to guide them?
Think of new ways to design and organize your website in a way that aligns with how your target audience behaves. Put yourself in their shoes and look at your website’s user interface from their perspective.
2. Makes Content More Appealing
Looks matter. A website that doesn’t look appealing will reduce the value of your content and brand. It doesn’t matter how great the content is, if the place that’s housing it looks bad, people won’t be compelled to stay and read it.
Today, with hundreds of thousands of choices available, users are pickier about the content they choose to read. They will “judge the book by its cover” so to speak. How you present your content will determine their first impression. Make it stand out and have it look engaging.
You have to think of the overall look, from the theme, the font, colors, background, alignment, up to the use of white space.
Not only does the page have to look neat and cohesive, but it’s also important to not make the text look cramped.
Simple is better. Draw the attention of the user to what’s important in a way that also compels them to read further. Most users don’t read everything in a page, so make sure that your web design is aligned with this behavior by making the star of the page hard to ignore.
3. Enhances Readability and User Experience
There are many elements that impact readability. How users can easily read and understand the text on a page will depend on font choice, spacing, colors, and graphics among other things.
Website readability will more likely result in high conversion rates.
As we said earlier, your visitors aren’t willing to spend time on a page that they don’t understand or appreciate. They want to find the data or information they need as fast as possible. This is why it’s important to not only have content that’s straight to the point, but a design that allows them to digest the content easily.
Website readability applies to everything, from blog posts, service pages, landing pages, to pricing pages. All website copy should be presented in a way that’s easy to understand.
One way you can test readability is through using online tools like Hemingway Editor. This evaluates the reading level of your content based on the grade level. It also gives you suggestions on how to improve your content’s readability.
Here are a few web design tips to help you enhance your reading experience:
- Choose large fonts. Larger fonts of about 16px-18px are ideal for online readers.
- Use the proper line height. Have the line height be set to 100% of the font size used.
- Be mindful of color contrast. This will allow all texts to be visible.
- Create scannable content. Be conscious about the length of the sentence, and always use headers and bullet points (whenever needed) as they’re easier to scan and understand.
4. Boosts User Engagement
Web design is more than just having a beautiful website, it also has a lot to do with human psychology, and using the right content or visual elements to compel visitors to take the necessary action.
While content marketing will attract visitors to a website, elements like images, animations, infographics, videos, GIFs, and forms will increase user engagement with the pages.
Simplify information and make it easier for your readers to digest by adding visual elements like videos, images, charts, infographics, and others.
Make sure that the web design is set to accommodate any additional element or block added to a page. Avoid having the design shifting or moving as the element loads.
5. Web Design Evokes Emotion that Influences User Behavior
Research found that color alone boosts brand recognition by 80 percent and that 92.6 percent of buyers say that visual dimension is a major factor that influences their purchase decision.
A great web design isn’t created through luck. It’s important to know everything about your ideal customer. Factors like how they think, how they feel at a particular stage of the buying process are important information that can help you design a website that will evoke emotion that will positively influence their actions.
Conclusion
Basically, web design has everything to do with content marketing. Internet marketing is now widely embraced by businesses, and it gives users more options. Along with the development in technology and tools, user expectations have also risen, and it’s in your best interest to meet and exceed those expectations.
To earn the confidence and respect of your potential consumers, you need to convey an image that you’re trustworthy, credible, professional, and that you care.
Content marketing and web design go hand in hand. You’re inviting a user into your home, you want them to feel relaxed, welcomed, and at ease. Changes in the design of your website will greatly influence your content marketing initiatives. Make sure to have a website that’s content friendly, and readable on any device whether it’s desktop or mobile.
The opinions expressed here by Guest Contributors are their own, not those of Rise Marketing.