by Wasim
14 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
Ok, I know that design and marketing kind of go hand in hand but we all know that some successful squeeze, capture or landing pages are not the best looking ones out there.

I mean attractive doesn't always mean successful right ? I was just wandering how important you guys think it is to make your web pages 'look' attractive. Some people have said it is a bit of a waste of time.

It obviously is if you spend too much time worrying about too much detail but at the same time there is also much to be said about the psychology of colour, postioning and layout.

I like designing graphics so I wanted your opinion on this.
#design #designvmarketing #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author mmslax2
    When I visit sites the first thing I notice is its design... so I say its quite important. Now attractiveness doesn't matter to a certain extent. For example on a squeeze page a white background and some text isn't a big deal; however, if you are running a blog that is too plain, or even worse to crammed it is a big turnoff and I quickly press the x button on my browser.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aronya
    Like everything else, it depends. Who's your market? Do they know/respect you? If so, design isn't very important. If you're marketing is anonymous, your site better look professional (unless the competition's sites look amateur, too, but this is something to test). How good is your marketing? If it's really good, and you've pre-sold your product well before the (hungry) prospect ever hits your website, the site quality doesn't matter that much. They'll buy anyway.

    The bottom line is that good marketing will sell, even with a crappy-looking website. But a good looking website won't sell anything well if the marketing or page copy is crappy.
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  • Profile picture of the author primediart
    everything goes hand in hand, whether it is design, content or marketing. But you should give preference this way:

    1. Content
    2. Marketing
    3. Designing -- it should basically convey what u are selling or providing.. should not be harsh to the eyes and SHOULD be easy to navigate.

    Thats how we do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author shelle
    Hi, i'm new here but thought I'd add my two pennies to the discussion.

    I will quite often press the back button on sites that are not visually pleasing and that generally look amateurish, dispite it seemingly offering the best service or price.

    I think generally people find it hard to trust websites that are poorly presented. That said, if I came across a site that was offering something I couldn't get anywhere else or had been refered to quite often, I would take a leap of faith.

    I suppose good design goes someway to making that purchase a little bit easier. Obviously as said before, you can have the most beautifully designed website but without marketing or good content it's never going to work.

    Design is about making it easier to convey a message to your desired audience, therefore if a website is simple, uncluttered, easy to read has some graphical elements that help you follow along and prevent boredom, then that's really all you need in terms of design.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aronya
    Something that I think gets lost in discussions like this is the distinction between marketing and page copy. Marketing is done BEFORE that page visitor ever sees your site. And it's done in a thousand different ways. Example:

    You're in the market for a new luxury car, and you've decided to buy a Lexus. You've seen the TV ads, heard the radio ads, read the ads in newspapers, magazines and online. You've read the reviews, looked at brochures, talked to owners, and test driven a couple models, and finally decided on the exact model you want.

    Now, what if the ONLY way to buy a new Lexus was online at one website? How much would it matter what that website looked like? I'm guessing not much. The marketing is already done. The product is already sold. Assuming you're confident the site is legitimate, what it looks like doesn't matter. The sale was made before you ever turned on your computer.

    Now, reverse the situation. You're in the market for a new luxury car, and you've been exposed to all of the above-mentioned marketing for all of the other makes. You're particularly impressed by a couple models, but you've seen a few Lexuses on the road, and think you'd like to check them out. Problem is, the ONLY way to do that is online, at ONE website. NOW, what that site looks like is pretty darn important. It better be slick, polished, fast, easy to navigate, EXTREMELY well-written, loaded with interesting/compelling information. But,even if that site met all of those requirements, you probably wouldn't be buying a Lexus.

    Marketing comes first.

    Just for clarity, I'm not arguing for neglect of site design. Certainly it helps, and a nice mix of good marketing and good site design is the goal, but a site that looks nice, but has no marketing (its traffic is not targeted) won't sell jack.
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  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    the more down-market (cheaper) a product is the more
    slick graphics and packaging play a roll in selling it. When
    you move upmarket you tend to be dealing with a more
    discerning buyer with more experience and who is looking
    at real issues of value.

    So for video games - yeah, slick graphics help sell because
    the consumers are inexperienced and the purchase is a lark
    anyway.

    People don't make decisions rationally - so if your packaging
    says "credibility" at the price point you are asking it's
    a good thing for persuasion. Older customers will be
    more skeptical of slick presentation masking a poor value,
    and can actually be turned-off if you come across as too
    flashy with your marketing.

    With younger purchasers we just need to look at Jeff
    Paul's "Shortcut To Internet Millions" infomercials -
    because it's targeted, I guess, at young men frustrated
    with their jobs - and women with big boobs are used as
    a route to gain their interest. I should note that in
    this case the entry-level product is $50 or something
    and the marketer is probably losing money on it because
    air-time is spendy... but the upsells of coaching is where
    the money is really made - so even while packaging
    makes the initial sale, the back-end is a big-ticket sale.

    For some types of product you are selling an "aspiration"
    or self-image the buyer wants to have of himself, so
    the packaging is really in his mind.

    It's deep stuff.

    As a general rule though try to steer your visitors attention
    towards one final action... don't offer a smorgasboard of
    options and make sure your graphics emphasize the
    clear choice your prospect is supposed to make. I have
    a pretty effective example of this on the copywriting site
    in my sig, and an article about design issues on the same
    site as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gezawy
    I think that:

    - Web promotion will get you more business than web design
    - It's better to start off with an inexpensive, but decent looking website, then upgrade as your profits grow

    - Make sure you save a healthy portion of your web budget for marketing
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  • Profile picture of the author Ashley Ann
    I like to make data driven decisions, and from what I've seen ugly pages often convert better BUT it depends on the market.

    The best thing is to do is TEST, TEST, TEST, speculation is marketing suicide.
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    • Profile picture of the author mgandy
      There is fine line between design and marketing. You don't want to over design or make your website image heavy because it will take longer to load. I know color is in especially with web 2.0 designs catching ground. However, I am a firm believer that your design should be clean, easy to navigate, and clearly state what your products and services are. If your website can communicate these aspects to your visitors then the design is fine.
      Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author Wasim
    Thanks guys. Your replies have been a massive help.
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    • Profile picture of the author jimisan
      I visited your website. You've got good videos design lessons using photoshop. I hope to learn some tricks from your site if time permits. I like your writeup about fake screenshots. It's a great website.
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      • Profile picture of the author Wasim
        Originally Posted by jimisan View Post

        I visited your website. You've got good videos design lessons using photoshop. I hope to learn some tricks from your site if time permits. I like your writeup about fake screenshots. It's a great website.
        Thank you. You're welcome.
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  • Profile picture of the author WfGraphicsGuy
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Ashley Ann
      Originally Posted by WfGraphicsGuy View Post

      Detail is very important in design. If you can design a page with a lax design and get a million people on it, it dosent matter. but if you want results. flash, color, & visual are allways #1
      To be the devils advocate from testing dozens and dozens of pages in many different niches, less flashy pages seem to do better. Of course it always depends but overall seems to be consensus.
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  • Profile picture of the author graphic_designer
    ofourse design..because you belive in what you see..so visual appearance comes first..for me..
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