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How Great Visual Design & Content Leads to Higher Conversions

The best brands don’t just create a product or service, hoping it is enough to gain conversions. Instead, they focus on creating an experience centred around their offerings that customers interact with.

Developing an identity, style, tone, and look are what connect users to the larger philosophy of a brand, and earning that trust relies on a combination of visual design and regular content. Just like how readers become fans of a new author and book series, online consumers become invested in the story of a brand or company based on the way it makes them feel. It is estimated that 51% of B2B marketers in 2019 focus on creating visual assets to bolster their content strategies. Also, over 30% of marketers claim that visual content is the most important aspect of their business, with blogging coming in as a close second at 27%.

There is a dynamic relationship between great visual design, content, and higher conversions rates. If you are looking to boost your marketing techniques and increase engagement for your business, then here are a few things to consider about each one and how you can use them to drive profits.

What Generates Higher Conversions?

Before getting into the creative side, it is important to understand the primary drivers of conversion rates in the first place.

For example, a site that prompts users to take action, whether it be through clicking a button at the end of an article or taking a survey to measure customer satisfaction, is a conversation rate. It is the process of using compelling information to encourage users to get involved. In terms of knowing what works, conversion goals are measured through conversion rate optimization (CRO) and ideas are tested (A/B testing) by comparing pages and seeing which one generates the best results. Altogether, conversion rates can vary by industry, as a rule of thumb businesses that see conversion rates above 2% are doing an average job. However, it is estimated that the top 25% of performers are generating conversions of at least 5.31% and higher.

The best way to achieve above-average conversions is to undergo a process of trial and error until you find a concept that produces the best engagement. Based on your market research and site metrics, you can analyze customer needs and identify pain points that your marketing efforts can cater to through various mediums. Once you find those top performers (or you already have a few on your site) replicate the same UX it offers to other pages or accounts where conversions are low.

It is all about finding a design, flow, offers, and call-to-action that users respond to, so if you are having trouble formulating a strong setup, this is where content and design elements come into play.

Content Comes First

Before developing graphics or choosing images, it is important first to curate content for different platforms in the digital age. Copy for landing pages, product descriptions, and CTA buttons are suitable as a base, but unfortunately, it is not enough to land steady conversion rates nowadays, especially when social channels dominate user activity.

There are over 3 billion social media users around the world, and a new social media user is joining the fleet every 10 seconds. With this in mind, businesses must initiate content strategies centered around social media content, blogs, and newsletters. Research from Brandwatch shows that content marketers use the three tactics above to drive regular engagements. Social media content ranks the highest at 83%, blogs rank at 80%, and newsletters come in at 77%.

Primarily, these three strategies are primed to increase conversions because their entire premise is based on the user getting hooked and clicking on a direct link to the brand site or specific campaign. Not all content performs the same, but the types of content that produce the best conversion rates include:

  1. List Posts
  2. How-to Articles
  3. Personal Interviews
  4. Q&A Sessions
  5. Product Launches
  6. News Updates
  7. Giveaways

How To Use Content

Consider creating content that is helpful and inherently social and then formats it in several of these types. Each one offers an effective way to gain new, consistent users while keeping them involved with a memorable experience. For example, take some regularly asked questions and create a Q&A session. Then, use that same content to create a how-to article. By addressing common questions, you will help answer clients needs and then you will get the most of your content by using it across several platforms, including social media, your website, or in emails.

Finally, make sure all of your content includes compelling visuals as strong images will help improve, conversion rates.

Use Visuals to Strengthen Content

Your content builds reliability and consistency, but it is your visual designs that initially attract new visitors.

It is estimated that 51% of B2B marketers focus on using visual assets to enhance their marketing strategies, and 11% more B2C marketers than B2B marketers believe that visual content is the most vital type of content being used today. With that in mind, the most impactful visual designs incorporate copy in a fresh, digestible manner that is quick to reference. Visual design strategies are not limited to just emails and website and can be used in everyday marketing activities, including:

  1. Product Design (labels, packaging)
  2. Brand identity Designs (logos, homepages, color schemes)
  3. Marketing & Ad Designs (online ads, flyers, infographics, social media posts)
  4. UI Graphic Design (webpages, landing pages, mobile apps)
  5. Print Designs (newspapers, books, magazines)
  6. Motion Graphic Design (GIFS, Animations)
  7. Art and Illustration Design (murals, drawings, stock images, t-shirts)

When working with a visual designer, it is important to define where the visuals will be used and try to plan for several types with the same images. Leveraging the same visuals across many mediums not only creates brand consistency but can deliver a better customer experience and increase the odds of conversion.

How To Use Visuals

When you are creating content, ensure you are using the right visuals to help convey the message. For instance, infographics take tons of complex information and expedite it for the reader to understand versus forcing them to go through the entire article or watch a long-form video. Design choices like fonts and colors can also help re-enforce a marketing message and drive conversions.  For example, visual designs made with colour increases a reader’s attention by an impressive 82%, whereas their interest in reading it spikes by 80%. When your team is trying to impress a message to a customer to drive behaviour, make sure you use strong colour choices.

The bottom line is that a diverse, cross-promotional action-plan should be implemented. If a blog post is going out online, then it should be accompanied by high-quality assets to diversify the information. Next, a social media post should be created that prompts followers on any platform to “Read More” or click the link that drives traffic to your primary site. Within an article itself, high-ranking links should be added, like Youtube videos or other informative pieces that use specific keywords and boost your piece by association. You have the freedom to use GIFS, icons, animated videos, and other graphics to make your content worthwhile.

Conclusion

Every business can benefit from more conversions. By leveraging smart content and impactful visuals, you can better serve customers and increase conversions.  The right visuals will quickly convey information while highlighting the most important messages. Don’t be afraid to test lots of types of content and visuals to identify which ones drive the best results for your bottom line.

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