Most of us have a rather vague idea of what graphic design strives to do in the business context. So let’s kick off by answering the question “What is graphic design?” With this knowledge to back us up, we’ll take a closer look at the benefits of professional graphic design. After that, we’re just a hop and a skip away from pinning down why you should use professional graphic designers in a business context.

Let’s get started!

What is Graphic Design?  

Professional graphic designers are creatives who design and use visual content to convey your message. Apart from creating a “look,” they apply visual hierarchies and layout techniques to “speak” to your clients. That also involves combining text layouts with images and other visual elements as well as interactive features with the aim of giving users the best experience possible.

Even in today’s world, where most things are done online, they’ll implement their craft so that elements that might be needed for physical materials like packaging, banners, brochures, and business cards can be used both online and off - and they’ll design these materials if they’re required to. This ensures cohesiveness and economy: no need for a complete rework just because you’re moving from digital to hard copy.

As you’d expect, these visual design and presentation experts are as able to develop physical marketing materials. After all, before the internet became pervasive, that was their primary field. With the transition to online marketing, their range of skills merely expanded to embrace design in a digital format.

The Benefits of Professional Graphic Design  

Nobody wants to look like an amateur - and when graphic design is attempted by the uninitiated or unskilled, that’s just how the results come across. Have you ever looked at a website or a brochure and thought: “Nice business, but should they be doing their own design?” The evidence is there for all to see. Even if people can’t quite put a finger on it, they’ll recognise that something isn’t quite “right.”

Here are a few ways to spot amateur graphic designers at work:

• Stretched or compressed text: Even when it works visually (which it seldom does) trying to match it to other text is next-to-impossible.

• Overdone shadows, radiant glows and embossing: Remember when you were in art class at school and you’d just keep adding shades and highlights to your messy sketch to make it look better? It kinda worked, but deep down, you knew you were just hiding imperfections. Sure, a few effects can add to a slogan or logo, but too many effects detract from visual messages rather than enhancing them.

• A mish-mash of fonts: Please, folks, fonts are part of your brand’s presentation strategy. Choose them carefully and stick with them. Only an amateur will be inconsistent in this area!

• Work that isn’t proofed: We’ve all seen the famous “sotp” sign painted as a road-marking. It was good for a chuckle, and we all walked away feeling cleverer than whoever painted it. But this kind of error happens all too often, and it’s a lot easier to achieve on a computer than it is with paint and stencils!

• Incorrect design formats: Moving to more complex, yet nonetheless inexcusable errors, design format is vital to a professional-looking product. Repeated layering of “borrowed” design elements and incorrect resolution that leads to pixelated edges are just two examples of amateur design formatting disasters we too often see.

• Delivering “dated” work: In the eighties, it may have been cutting-edge. Now, it just looks clunky. Even if you’re selling something retro, you’re still offering it to modern consumers. Get the presentation wrong, and you look like an amateur.

How to recognise professional graphic design at a glance:

• It’s balanced: The elements of the design are simple, uncluttered and purposeful.

• You can see its purpose and “read” its message at a glance: No matter how complex your business is, a professional graphic designer will be able to deliver visual cues that convey your message at a glance. In a world where everything happens fast, and where you can gain or lose a prospect’s interest in seconds, that’s a must.

• Creativity and imagination: Let’s not forget that graphic design is an art. Good graphic design is creative. It projects the image you want to convey, and it does so in ways you might not have previously considered. Plus, it looks great!

• Every detail is perfect - no corners cut: There is no “close enough for jazz” moment in good graphic design. If it isn't perfect, it doesn’t get submitted.

• There’s a high level of technical expertise: A true professional is never going to just photoshop something and chuck it back at you. Using advanced tools, he or she will produce great work with the help of best-in-class graphic design tools. But tools are only as good as the skills of the person who uses them. Take it as read. A real pro achieves mastery.

• It’s always on-message and brand-appropriate: Apart from conveying a professional image, professional graphic design is “you.” No self-respecting professional graphic designer will even start work before gaining an understanding of your business and your brand. That’s because a graphic designer’s job is to tell your story, and that means getting to know your business, its goals, and its core message.

Seven Reasons Why You Should Use Professional Graphic Designers  

Newsflash: it’s possible to get graphic design done cheap. It’s also possible to get cheap housing, cheap clothing, and cheap food. The problem with “cheap” is that the saving has to come from somewhere, and in the end, you actually pay for that saving. The house’s roof leaks, the clothes and shoes don’t last, the food is unpalatable. And, when it comes to graphic design, the results are unprofessional and you end up having to redo everything from scratch.

Since we’ve already looked at some of the differences between good and bad graphic design, we’ll take this a little further and look at the benefits you’ll get from paying for good graphic design.

1. Make the right first impression  

Before anyone reads a word you have to say, they’ve seen your imagery and layouts and they've formed an impression of what to expect. You can compare this to a storefront. If the storefront looks dingy and tatty, you won’t expect much from the business that operates there. Like a well-kept storefront, your professional design says: “I care about my business. I’m professional and I don’t settle for second-best. My customers and what they think of my business are important, so I’ve gone all-out to present my business well.”

2. Share information quickly and efficiently  

Let’s face it: everyone’s busy these days. With a picture painting a thousand words, there’s no need to write (and expect your customers to read) a thousand words just to grasp your message.

Infographics provide an excellent example. They contain what amounts to pages of information all neatly summed up into an interesting and informative image. And people LOVE them. Market research shows that infographics are three times likelier to be shared on social media than other types of post. So, if you’ve got something to say, try saying it with graphic design!

3. Beat your competitors   

Unless it's just an impulse, most customers will do a little research before deciding where to take their business. No matter whose figures you read, over 80 percent of consumers will do a little online research before deciding to approach your business. How does your business compare? What impression does it convey?

If your competitors have made the mistake of using amateurish design, your professional, polished-looking image will get the attention. If they're already up there and looking good, you’d better make sure that you look even better, or they’ll win the customers before you get a chance to demonstrate your skill.

4. Grab the limelight  

If you’re like most of us, you spend a little time every day scrolling through your social media feeds. Suddenly, you stop. There’s a “wow” moment. Something looks beautiful, interesting, delicious, or striking. An image or a line of text catches your eye. Who could have posted this?

If it’s even halfway as good as it looks, you’ll remember it for a time. If it’s totally compelling, you might even engage with a like or a share. From the marketing perspective, just pausing and gaining that vital impression is already much of the mission accomplished. Good design got the message across! And if it’s shared, that’s the cherry on top. Every person with whom that work is shared represents an opportunity, and if they, in turn, share the content, momentum builds. It could even go viral!

None of this will happen without great graphic design. No matter how good the content may have been, you wouldn’t have stopped for a closer look if someone hadn’t purposefully arranged each visual and textual element to make you do just that.

5. Send a strong, consistent message  

As we already pointed out, good graphic design conveys an instantly-recognisable message. It’s also important for the message to contain your “signature” in the way it’s presented. That includes all the visual elements: logos, colours, fonts, textures, lines, and patterns as well as textual elements which include tone and brand voice.

Get it right, and all the visual information you’re presenting, and the message it conveys will be instantly recognisable as being from you. To those who already know your business, there’ll be the spark of recognition: “I know this business. I should go there again!” To those that don’t, recognition piques curiosity: “I’ve seen this business before. Maybe I should try them!”

6. Good design is memorable and persuasive  

It’s not new. Good design persuades people to take action. For an example, we need only refer back to the iconic World War One “Uncle Sam Needs You” poster. That poster design had its centenary in 2017, and people around the world will still recognise it instantly.

As for its effect, that poster is said to have been very persuasive indeed. Uncle Sam’s accusing stare and pointed finger may have encouraged millions of Americans to enlist, and it drummed up support for a war that most Americans hadn’t wanted to get involved in.

7. Good design is scalable and long-lasting  

From giant billboards to tiny social media snippets, good design has impact. Perhaps it won’t last forever, but if it’s genuinely good, it won’t need more than a few tweaks to keep it abreast of the times.

Consider the Coca Cola logo and the designs that flowed from it. While the company has certainly made minor adjustments to the logo several times, it’s still recognisable if compared to the 130-year-old original. While the advertising style and imagery have changed, the colours, the fonts, and the message they convey remains very similar.

Wrapping it Up: Look as Good as You Are  

You’re in business because you’re good at what you do, but looking good is almost as important. No matter how passionate you are about your business; no matter how good your work is, first impressions do count.

Graphic design makes those impressions, so if you’re a professional, choosing a professional graphic designer to represent you is an important step. Anything less runs the risk of a slap-dash, amateurish job that conveys the wrong message to your prospective clients - the very people you need to impress to get revenue flowing through your business.

Luckily for you, professional graphic design doesn't have to cost you the millions that global companies invest in getting their look just right - but it’s also not going to be a matter of just asking a buddy who is good at photoshop to do it or paying some kid five bucks to come up with something.

Be considered, strategic, and use your smarts in choosing the right person with the right qualifications - or approach an agency to assign it to one of their experienced and highly-qualified personnel. Image may not be everything, but it’s still a biggie!

Learn more about our design services

These days, it’s so easy to get lost in the crowd. Most businesses have multiple competitors all doing something that’s the same as or similar to what they do. In this blog post, we’re going to give you the basic steps you need to follow to build a memorable brand that makes you stand out from the crowd.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or are considering whether to update your brand, following the process we outline here will mean that you’ve done due diligence. That, in turn, means that you stand a better chance of building, not only a brand, but one consumers are willing to be passionate about.

But first, a bit of general information. After all, there’s more to branding than most people realise!

What is a Brand? Components of Branding  

Your logo will be one of the first things you think of when considering branding - but it’s actually one of the last things you develop! Needless to say, we all know how important a logo can be: Coca-Cola lures us into stores on hot and thirsty days while the Golden Arches of McDonalds beckon temptingly when we want a quick bite to eat. 

Colours and fonts matter too. Branding is all about consistency, and being consistent means being instantly recognisable, both online and off. You’ll be using your chosen colours and fonts everywhere: store decor, staff uniforms, vehicle wraps, point of sale material, signage, documents, social media, and, of course, your website are all examples of places where your choice will be implemented.

Patterns (if used) and icons should be consistent for similar reasons. Nowadays, marketers are replacing blocks of text with icons that convey ideas. Once you’ve found the ones that work for you and that resonate with your customers, consistency will be important.

Brand collateral covers the materials and media you choose for promotional purposes. While signage and websites are obvious examples, there’s more. The stationary you use, the brochures you offer and the literature you share with clients all fall under this component of branding.

Website design could be seen as part of brand collateral, but it’s such an important element that it should be given one of the greatest investments in terms of strategic focus, time, and consideration.

Content and messaging are also an important part of branding. While logos, colours and fonts provide a visual identity, this element of branding defines how you’ll speak to your customers. Will you be informal and quirky? Is it better to adopt a formal, authoritative approach? You can’t do both! Once again, it’s about consistency.

Advertising is also part of your brand. In the brand development process, consider which platforms you’ll choose to convey your brand to prospective customers. For example, while a leaflet campaign might be fine for a local fast food outlet, it won’t create the right impression if you’re a lawyer!

Print and packaging will also be a consideration. If you produce a product, the package is what conveys your brand to buyers, and despite living in an online world, print and paper still play a role. Like other elements involved in branding, these items convey a message and form part of your brand identity.

Advantages of Building a Strong Brand  

There’s no getting round the fact that building a strong brand is a massive task. However it’s such a vitally important step for your business that doing it thoroughly (instead of just cobbling together a logo and hoping for the best) will be worth your while. Not convinced? Let’s take a look at the advantages you’ll stand to gain if you hit the bullseye!

• Brand recognition: “I’ve heard of them before” or “I know this company.”

• Customer loyalty: “I always work with them. They’re great!”

• Word-of-mouth referrals: “You should try them.”

• More effective advertising: “I need to know this.”

• Attract and retain staff: “I want to work for them!”

• More motivated staff: “I work for a great company, so I’m ready to do my best.”

• Reduced price sensitivity: “I don’t mind paying more if it’s from them.”

When to Update Your Brand or Rebrand  

It’s possible that you’ve already been in business for a while and already have all the elements of branding in place, but even the best brands undergo updates and sometimes even complete rebranding.

Need an example? Domino's Pizza only held 9 percent of the pizza restaurant market share in 2009. It turned out that there were several things that made it unpopular, so Domino's went about addressing those issues and made its commitment to change clear by undertaking a complete rebranding exercise. Today, it’s the largest pizza brand in Australia besides holding a dominant market share elsewhere in the world.

There are many possible reasons for rebranding: here’s a top 10:

• You’re going international: What worked at home may not work as well in other languages and cultural contexts. Example: Raider becomes Twix.

• Repositioning: You want to reach new markets or increase your appeal in your existing market. Example: Walmart’s 2007 slogan change.

• New CEO or new ownership: A new CEO can change the personality of an entire business, and its brand should follow suit. Example: Apple’s 1997 rebrand and logo update.

• Image needs updating: If your business has been around for a while, your brand probably needs updating to suit modern expectations and aesthetics. Example: Shell Oil has rebranded eight times to stay abreast of changing trends.

• You merged or acquired a new business: You’d like to capitalise on both brand identities and reflect your new focus.

• Your market has changed: Mastercard rebranded to make its brand mobile friendly. Gucci discovered that it wasn’t winning the heats of younger consumers. Its rebrand repositioned the business with measurable (and memorable) results.

• Your brand identity isn’t clear: When brands develop organically, individual elements may be inconsistent. Example: GAP clothing tried a new logo without bothering to revise other brand elements or researching its market. Amid fierce criticism, the brand reverted to its old logo at the cost of about $100 million.

• Your brand looks too similar to another: Brands are there to help you with differentiation. A brand identity that too closely matches another creates confusion - and it can even lead to litigation!

• You developed or acquired a new brand: It’s great having a diversified offering, but managing two brand identities is more costly than managing one.

Developing a Brand Strategy  

Before you begin with branding or rebranding, you need a strategy. A brand isn’t just about looks. It includes intangible elements, and if you want to shape a brand, you need a strategy that keeps you in control of the brand. Here are seven essentials that make up an effective brand strategy.

1. Your Purpose  

Sure, you want to make money. Every business does. But that’s not a purpose on its own. A purpose can certainly include making money - but it should also identify what you do to make other people’s lives better and why your brand exists. 

Look for things that your competitors don’t do. You may be solving the same problem for consumers as they do, so why should they choose you over your competitors? That’s what differentiates you. Now the only question to answer is whether there’s any real reason why consumers should care about your differentiating factors. If you can nail those down, you’re off to a great start!

2. Competitor Analysis  

You’re in it to win it, so knowing your competitors is important. You can watch them carefully to see what methods they’re employing and how it works for them. Your brand will aim to position itself to be BETTER than competitors’, but you need to know yourself, your customers, and your competition in order to get it right.

Consider factors like pricing, reputation, location, product and service offering and quality, and their brands and communication methods. You don’t have to imitate them (in fact, you shouldn't) and you don't need to win on every point, but you do need real reasons why customers should choose you over the competition..

3. Know Your Prospective Customers - And Your Ideal Customers   

Taking the necessary steps to understand your customers could give you the edge when it comes to building a trusted brand. The more specific you can be, the more you can direct communications to someone whose needs you understand, and the more likely you will be to create a brand that resonates with your audience. In short, you need the ability to get under their skins and know what it’s like to BE them.

Most people identify target markets too broadly. For example, they might say they cater to “Over 30s” or “women.” But that’s more like a shooting range than a target!

That’s why many companies are using “customer personas” to direct their branding and marketing towards a customer-centric approach. In essence, you will create a character that represents your ideal customer. Note - that isn't the same as every customer who might spend their money with you. You’re trying to identify the kind of person whose needs you can easily fulfil, who profits your business, and whom you’ll actually enjoy serving.

He or she will have a name, an age, a lifestyle, an income bracket, hopes, fears, and ambitions. By the time you have finished with this exercise, it should be possible to speak as your ideal customer or to your ideal customer with perfect ease. After all, it’s someone you already know!

You may be concerned that by adopting this approach, you’re pitching to a smaller percentage of prospective customers rather than the full spectrum. However, the Pareto principle, which states that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers, applies.

If you identify who is in that 20 percent and pitch to them, at least some of your message will still resonate with the 80 percent who aren’t “ideal” customers, while your brand surgically and specifically targets the “ideal” customers from whom most of your revenue flows.

4. Brainstorm Brand Mission and Vision Statements  

Although an awful lot of people seem to think that vision and mission statements are just there to sound nice, they’re actually incredibly important. Let’s think about what they’re meant to do.

The mission says what your brand does for its customers.

The vision indicates your plans for the future of the brand.

Sounds simple and obvious? It isn’t always. Life (and work) can get complicated, and there are times when you need to remind yourself and others of what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re going to achieve it. Mission and vision statements do that. And if they feel “wrong,” you know it’s time to revise your entire brand strategy. After all, strategy is a path to a goal, and the goal should be reflected in your vision statement.

Your brand’s mission and vision might differ somewhat from the overall business's, but unless you’re offering a diversity of unrelated services, it will probably match your business’s activities and plans for the future.

Developing a good vision and mission statement can take a lot of time. As a marketing agency, we are sometimes asked to craft these statements on behalf of our clients. Since we go out of our way to know their businesses as well as possible, we’re usually able to help. However, it’s extremely important to review any vision and mission statements crafted by agencies or consultants to ensure that they resonate with you. Ask yourself: “Is this who we are and who we want to be?”

5. Think “Benefits”  

Customers don’t buy products. They buy benefits. For example, credit card companies aren’t just offering a method of payment, or even a line of credit. The benefits are having quick access to extra funds when the unexpected happens, convenience, and even a degree of status: is your credit card gold or platinum?

Household detergents might seem to offer cleaning agents, but that would make all detergents the same. Perhaps the real benefits other than “It cleans stuff,” which shouldn’t be forgotten, could include “It’s gentle on your skin,” or “It’s biodegradable and good for the environment.”

Always think about how your product benefits your customers and highlight those benefits in your branding and in your brand-related messaging.

6. Develop a Consistent Style  

Every single thing you do in marketing your business and its brand should contribute to your branding strategy and the message you want to convey to the world at large. Anything that doesn’t contribute detracts from that. Ultimately, your branding exercise should result in a style guide or “Brand Bible” that will promote consistency. It will begin with your vision and mission and will go on to explain the colours, tone of voice, and positioning of your brand.

Style conveys an overt message as well as a subliminal one, and you will want that message to be consistent so that you don’t confuse your customers as to “who” your business is. A Consistent style reinforces your branding and anything you do or say becomes instantly recognizable as being “you.”

7. Your Brand’s Narrative  

Everybody loves a good story. But this time, it’s a true story. How did you come to be in your line of business? What was the AHA moment? How did you reach the point where you are today and why do you get up in the morning? Elements to include are who you are, what you do and why, and why people should be interested in the consumer problem that your brand addresses.

People are important in narratives. While customers do view your brand much as they’d view a natural person it still lacks a human element. It’s easier to like a person and their story than to like a business and its story, so this is also the point where you have to accept that hiding behind your brand will dilute its appeal, come out from the shadows, and shine!

Need an example? Did you know that colonel Sanders, the face of Kentucky Fried Chicken was a real person? He took humanising his brand to the next level by making his face part of the brand, and although the Colonel died in 1980, we still know about his secret recipe and instantly recognize “his” business when we see the familiar signage. By the way, Kentucky has rebranded, but it has never dispensed with the Colonel.

8. At Last! The Logo, Tagline, and More!  

We can equate everything we’ve done up till now to identifying and describing your business’s “body.” Now we’re ready to start dressing it up in a style that incorporates its personality and attributes.

Your Logo: No matter how big or small your business is, it’s logo is an at-a-glance mark of its identity. As your brand grows into a trusted and recognized brand, people will associate all your business’s positive (or negative) attributes with this seemingly-simple symbol.

Apart from keeping it crisp, clear, and simple, you also need to consider what size it will be in a variety of contexts and where you will place it.

Your Colour Palette, Typography, and Fonts: The logo speaks to your colour palette: another way to reinforce your brand’s identity through visual elements. It’s a range of colours that you’ll use everywhere. As for fonts, they also convey a message. For example, you wouldn’t choose a cartoonish font if you want to be taken seriously and Times New Roman wouldn’t work for a high-tech business since it harks back to the days of the typewriter.

Iconography and Photography: Icons and images should also reinforce your brand, so making a purposeful choice based on the work you’ve done so far will make a difference and ensure a visually congruent message.

Web Page Elements: This step combines functionality with visual impression. Consider things like tables, information for different geographical regions, whether you’ll present information in longer-form style or prefer bulleted lists, tables, and check boxes for the presentation of important information.

All of these elements should be captured in a “Brand bible” or brand style guide that specifies how the people who are doing your marketing work should approach it. If you don’t have time to go through this process yourself, you can ask for help from consultants. However, check their work carefully and ask any questions you may have before finalizing it, since it’s a bigger decision than most people realize it is! After all, it will guide your brand development team, and changing it amounts to rebranding - an exercise that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

9. Incorporate Rewards Strategies Into Your Branding  

Your loyal customers are your best marketing asset. Don’t forget them when developing your brand strategy. Consider how you will encourage them to interact with you and how you will go about thanking them for doing so. If you already have a loyal customer base, use them as a sounding-board for your ideas and remember to give them recognition in return.

That’s why you see so many stores offering loyalty cards nowadays. It’s not the only way to do it, however. There are tons of ways to reward your customers provided you have a good CRM system and track customer behaviour, sales history and so on. While this is more difficult for brick and mortar businesses than online ones, there are ways for them to incorporate the strategies used by the online giants into their operations.

For example, YDMA has developed a tool called “Guest Services” that makes it possible to nurture your loyal customers, encouraging repeat business and reducing the cost of customer acquisition. Although not all branding guides recognize this step, loyal customers are easier to sell to than new ones, so don’t forget them in the process of building your brand.

10. Use Your Brand in Every Possible Context  

The final step in building a strong brand is to incorporate all the elements we’ve discussed into everything you do. That’s also why your full satisfaction with the results achieved in all the steps we’ve been through so far is so important.

Although your brand is there to help customers to recognize you, it has to be representative of who your business is. When you start using these elements in every part of your day-to-day activities, it should never feel false or contrived. Customers will soon pick up on it, and instead of trusting your brand more, they’ll trust it less!

If, however, you’re comfortable with the brand and the way it reflects your business, flaunting it at every opportunity is something you'll be enthusiastic about, and customers will pick up on that too! Enthusiasm is infectious!

The Biggest Reasons Why Companies Fail to Build Trusted Brands  

The most common reason why big companies fail to build trusted brands is lack of authenticity. They have a vision of how they’d like their audience to view them, but that image isn’t who they are and they can’t deliver on the promise implicit in their branding. The result? Their audience stops trusting them!

For smaller businesses, it’s usually a matter of not having enough knowledge or enough time. The proprietors are already tied up with routine work in which their expertise is needed, so even if they have an idea that brands are important and that they should develop one, efforts are piecemeal at best. The result? A brand that deserves to be recognized, but never is.

Never Underestimate the Importance of Your Brand  

“Hey! Some company (I forget it’s name) did some awesome work for me, and I’d recommend them if only I could remember who they are.”

Could your customers be saying this about you? Your good work is memorable, but your brand is the identity that shaped that memory. If you don’t have a brand, your business doesn’t have a strong, memorable, instantly-recognizable identity. In a word, it’s weak.

Just as your own name is your identity, and just as personal names can be famous or obscure, so your brand is your business’s identity. Without it, you’re just another “face in the crowd,” and everything you do to differentiate from the competition becomes all-but-pointless.

If you haven’t given your brand the attention it deserves and don’t have the necessary skills to develop one, or the time to go through the process of developing or updating your brand, get help! Find out how Your Digital Marketing Agency can help you to build a strong trusted brand. The full extent of the rewards may not be immediate, but with the passage of time, they will be enormous.

Learn more about our design services

Nowadays, everyone has a website. There are even pets with their own websites! As for businesses, it seems as if everyone knows that having a website is practically a “must.” As with just about everything, there’s more than one way to go about website design for business. But not all the methods are particularly good, and the consequences of website design shortcuts are unfortunate enough to make undertaking an amateur job a complete waste of time.

As a critical thinker, you’re probably experiencing a moment of scepticism right now. Of course a company that offers website design will tell you that the benefits of professional website design for business beat amateur efforts to flinders! So, let’s take a look at the reasons why we say you shouldn’t settle for anything less than a professional job.

You Can Get a Good-Looking Website for Free, so Why Choose a Paid Option?  

Most of us are aware that we can design a website for free on low-to-no-code platforms like Wix. We’ll be honest with you, they don’t look bad, at least, on the surface. But there are a few things you should know before shooting for a “freebie.”

The first thing you should know is that it isn’t really free. Unless you want to remain within the free platform’s domain (which makes you look super-unprofessional) you’ll have to buy a domain. So here’s how the “free” platforms make their money: subscriptions. For your domain, branded email, and so on, you pay a monthly fee. In fairness, it’s not that much, but there are other drawbacks.

Limited design options scream “this business chose a free website builder.” If you’re in the know, you’ll recognise them at a glance when you visit one of these sites. If your next thought is “this business tries to cut corners,” you’re probably up with the rest of us in getting a bad impression.

It could just end up being a total waste of time. As one of the folks who has tried paid versions of website builders, I can assure you that they’re not quite as easy to use as their providers say they are. Figuring out the user interfaces takes time, and after days of fiddling and tweaking, one runs into a lack of flexibility that’s severely limiting. Will your website stand out from the crowd? Probably not. If your ideas are in the least bit creative, it’s not going to have half the functionality you hoped for.

Then, you hit storage limitations, discover that you can’t use high-quality images, or simply can’t add all the pages you’d like to have. Meanwhile, your prospective website visitors may have to deal with slow loading times. Unless they’re pretty determined, they’ll just move on to the next business website with a similar-sounding description.

With no control over coding, you also lose control over SEO. Some website builders have messy code that search engines see as a red flag. If there’s also poor functionality, expect to be relegated down the search engine rankings to the point where your website is all-but-invisible. Even more damning, many builders are “flash based.” Guess what? Search engines can’t read flash. In a worst case scenario, your website won’t even show up on search engines for the simple reason that bots and crawlers can’t see what they’re about!

Enough said already! While “free” may be fine for amateur bloggers or folks keeping online journals, website builders don’t offer any of the benefits of professional website design to your business.

How Does Professional Website Design Improve Your Business?  

It’s a common misconception: if you don’t transact with your clients online, all you need is a page somewhere-or-other so that you can show it to people if they happen to ask whether you have a website. However, if that’s all your website does for you, you’re missing out in a big way. Let’s take a look at how professional website design improves your business, and you’ll see why.

People are looking for businesses like yours online. You want to be seen! Gone are the days when people grabbed the trusty Yellow Pages to search for businesses. Whether it’s a doctor, a tradie, or an executive service, they hit the internet, type in a few words, and pow! Up come the suggestions. With instant gratification now at their fingertips, they don’t browse much. Page 1 results will do, and the “three-pack” recommended by Google gets the most attention.

Your website is your storefront - even if you have physical premises. When it comes to shopping around, most consumers don’t want to waste their time or yours. They’ll only approach businesses that look good, and since they find you through search engines, your website provides the online equivalent of a storefront. Anything in the least bit shabby will see them questioning your professionalism - even if you aren’t trying to sell website design!

Your website boosts your reputation - if it has great content. Aside from the good looks of a professionally designed website, it can make you look smart in other ways too. By offering inside information in your area of expertise for free, you build a reputation as an expert in your field. Since good content means that people find your information, they start to reference it elsewhere, giving you “link juice” that boosts your search engine rankings. So, apart from making a name for yourself as being the go-to source of information in your field, the right content also boosts your online reputation and makes you easier to find.

You can use it for lead generation among people who aren’t (quite) ready to buy yet. Good website design will include the all-important calls to action that signify buying intent. But a really good website can also be used for lead generation. If you offer great information for free, a lot of people will be willing to subscribe to your mailing list so that they can stay up-to-date with the useful and interesting content you provide. Now that people are interested in what you say and do, you have a way better chance of making a sale, and you can ensure that you don’t get forgotten by mailing out more info and offers. Needless to say, it takes professional website design coupled with excellent content to make all of this possible.

Build a strong, memorable brand with the help of a brand-appropriate website. Branding makes you memorable. But only if you work hard at building up your brand and getting it into the public eye. Your website will be an important element in reinforcing the impression you want your brand to convey. People who have never heard of your business or your brand before may still remember it - but that means having a strong online presence. Your website will be its backbone and it’s vitally important that it should convey your brand’s message and match with a clearly defined branding strategy.

A good website improves your customers’ overall experience. You may have everything in place to welcome your customers at your physical premises, but since your website is often their first point of contact, it needs to be as welcoming as you are! That means that they shouldn’t have to struggle to find relevant information, and that, in turn, requires purposeful website design that ensures they have everything they need at their fingertips. With your online and offline customer experience optimised for success, happy customers will be quick to refer their friends and, chances are, they’ll share a link to your website as a starting point. Rinse, repeat: even more happy customers and even more referrals.

Your website can encourage repeat business. It costs a lot less to gain repeat business than it does to drum up interest from the unconverted. Your website can be a tool for encouraging repeat business through subscriptions, special offers, and the free information it has to offer. It all begins with design. It ends with more feet through the door.

How does web design improve your business? In a nutshell, it makes you look great and, even more importantly, it makes you money.

Website Design for Business: How Should the Early Stages of the Process Work?  

We’ve already eliminated “free” website builders as a viable means of setting up a business website (unless you don’t mind their MANY drawbacks), but loads of people will tell you that they’re professional website designers. How will you know that they’re really the experts they say they are?

Here’s the proof of the pudding. If a website designer just asks a few questions about what you want the website to consist of and then happily heads off to do the design, you’re not talking to a professional.

Since your website represents your business, your designers should have made an effort to get to know your business from top to bottom and inside-out. Just latching onto a few sentences you composed off-the-cuff and taking it from there isn’t enough. A real pro will want to know a lot about your business’s history, how things stand at the moment, and what your goals for the future may be.

They’ll also ask specific questions about your competitors, your branding and how far you are in the brand-building process. More specifically, they’ll want to know what goals you hope the website will contribute to. They’ll also ask about your target market, the personality you want the website to convey, and the basic architecture you have in mind. They'll want a look at your current website, if you have one, as well as your social media channels and any brand-related artwork you’d like them to include.

Since they're real professionals, they’ll also give you their suggestions. Do listen carefully to what they have to say, even if you think you’ve got a reasonably clear idea of what you want. They may be onto something you shouldn’t miss out on.

All of this should happen before they give you a quote. If it doesn’t, you can be very sure that your website designer is planning to trot out a formulaic recipe that won’t help you to stand out from the crowd. It’s a logical conclusion. Anyone who accepts a brief that amounts to “build me a website” without getting down to the specifics is going to give you “just another website” instead of a GREAT website that converts customers and makes you money.

Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Website Designer   

While the questions your prospective designer asks you will reveal a lot about his or her professionalism, you can and should dig a little deeper. There are some pretty weird practices in the industry: people who tout themselves as website designers and then use the “free” website builders; businesses who outsource everything to freelancers and then slap on their markup, and more.

Choose the best and eliminate the rest by asking any questions that the designers didn’t answer when pitching their services. Here’s what you need to know and why it’s important.

What does your research process consist of? A truly professional web designer won’t even begin with design before thoroughly researching your business and your industry. Keyword research will form part of that. If you have a website already, looking at its metrics with the aim of improving on them is part of the research process.

Do you outsource? Outsourcing isn’t always a disaster, but it can be. If the marketing agency you’re talking to is vague in their answers, they very likely do outsource. That could mean inconsistent quality plus the possibility that you’ll pay more than you really ought to. If they’re open about outsourcing, they should be equally open about who they outsource to and why.

What does the process consist of and who is my contact? Professional website design begins with research, after that comes design and development followed by the launch. Thereafter, results must be reviewed and you should be receiving reports to track the results your new website is achieving. You also need a single point of contact. Having to tell half-a-dozen people the same thing individually and not knowing who to talk to about what is hugely frustrating.

Can CRM be Integrated Into the Website? Just because it's online doesn’t mean that relationships don’t matter. For instance, if someone hits “contact us” and sends you a mail, you want to know that it’s feeding into your CRM, allowing you to take appropriate action without having to consult additional platforms first.

What do you need from us? A good website design agency should be able to cover all the bases from logo design to sourcing images and writing copy on your behalf. However, it shouldn’t be necessary to metaphorically reinvent the wheel. Professionals should be able to assess your existing collateral and either use it or give reasons why they don’t think it suitable.

How long will it take? Faster isn’t necessarily better. Very quick turnaround could be a warning that your web designer plans to cut corners. Even a basic website can take one to three months to get up and running - a complex one can take up to six months or even longer.

Do you use templates? This could be a deal-breaker. While some templates are really good and have a certain amount of flexibility, others don’t. If they work on plugins, and if one of them breaks, the whole website can come crashing down. If it’s not fixable, you’re back to having no website at all, or a barely-functioning one.

Templates also use generalised coding that allows them to be adapted to various types of business - and that coding could harm SEO efforts. Having said that, it’s possible to use them cleverly and they can result in a lower overall costs, but if your designer uses templates, you need to know that they’re durable, effective, and customisable.

Will I have access to the backend or be able to transfer content management if I move to another provider? This is a biggie, and it comes down to the Content Management System (CMS) that’s being used. If the designer uses his or her own proprietary CMS, it could mean that changing providers means that you no longer “own” your website and that nobody else can access the back end. Goodbye website.

Do you implement SEO techniques and what do they consist of? Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) sends signals to search engines that help them to classify and rank your website. Without good SEO, you have decreased visibility. But you also have to be careful of “black hat” techniques that try to “cheat” the system. Since search engine algorithms keep evolving in order to give users relevant results, cheats get downgraded as soon as search engines find ways to detect them and stop them in their tracks. Ask about on and off page SEO and how it will be implemented. Then do a little research to ensure it’s all above-board.

Will my website be mobile friendly? This is old news, but it’s still worth checking. If your designers can’t make your website look good and work well across the devices from where it can be accessed, it will frustrate your website’s visitors and will result in search engine downgrades.

Who does the hosting? The choice of host will affect your website's speed, and its reliability will determine how much downtime you have. You want a fast website with little or no downtime. Hosting has a big role to play in that.

How many design revisions are included in your quote? You really need to know this. You might not have a very clear idea of what you want, but when you get what you don’t want, you’ll know. This can help you to refine your brief, but you don’t want to find costs mounting beyond your budget.

In whose name will the domain be registered? Once again, its a question to ask to ensure that you’re able to retain control. A domain can be a valuable asset - so why pay for it if you don’t even own it?

Do you provide analytics and how often do you do so? Analytics tell you how effective your website really is. If your prospective web designer is reticent about analytics, it probably means that he or she isn’t very good at boosting your results. Professional website designers will readily give you analytics. In fact, they’ll be proud of the results they achieve for you and will be hoping that you study them closely.

Can I see a portfolio of your previous work? While many design companies sign non-disclosure agreements to protect their clients, they should still be able to show you examples of their work. Ask to see a few examples.

Website Design for Business: A Strategic Decision You Shouldn’t Take Lightly  

A website isn’t “just” a website. It’s the online version of your business. Just as you make day-to-day business decisions with a strategy in mind, so your website should be approached strategically. The choice of website designers will ultimately reflect on your professionalism, so it’s worth ensuring that you choose experts whose abilities will reflect yours.

At Your Digital Marketing Agency, we have a team of specialists: business strategists, designers, developers, copywriters, graphic designers, and social media experts. Working as a closely-knit team, we achieve results that we (and our clients) can be proud of. Do we check all the boxes? We’re confident that we do, plus you have the benefit of the whole team doing everything in their power to help you succeed.

After all, your success is our success too. Call us today to book a consultation. We’ll ensure that it’s one of the best decisions you ever made.

Learn more about our design services

UX and UI design: while some of us won’t know what either is, some may have a vague idea of what they are and use the terms interchangeably. But there’s no need for confusion! In this blog post, we'll unravel the tangle and help you to clearly differentiate between the two. In the process of looking at the differences between UX and UI design, we’ll be looking at what each of these areas of expertise strives to achieve, and you’ll be able to see why both of them are important. Let’s get started!

What is UX Design?    

If you’re trying to think of words beginning with “X,” relax. UX stands for “User Experience.” Yes, it’s an awful non-acronym, but it does stand for something we should all consider when developing things like websites and products. UX is actually a very broad field. According to the person who coined the term, Don Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy, it embraces all aspects of a user’s interaction with a company, its services, and its products. That’s quite a mouthful!

Despite the original intent with which the term was coined, however, UX is usually used to refer to user experience in the digital context. However, you wouldn’t be wrong if you referred to UX in just about any context, be it switching on the oven or driving a car. Confused? Let’s take a closer look at what UX design actually does.

In a nutshell, UX design is all about making things easy and pleasant for end-users. How do the actions they must perform in order to achieve a result make them feel? Was it pleasant? Frustrating? The UX designer’s job is to evaluate these actions and redesign them so that they’re straightforward and rewarding.

From a theoretical standpoint, UX is a cognitive science rather than a digital one. It’s about improving the experience of users in any context whatsoever, but generally speaking, the term is used in digital contexts. It’s not the type of design that’s there to create good looking results (that’s a graphic designer’s job), but it is about creating an experience that feels good.

What is UI Design?    

Let’s begin with that acronym. It stands for “User Interface” and just knowing that will already give you a clearer idea of the differences between UX and UI design. It’s certainly a fine distinction. So much so, that the two are often lumped together and are given overlapping definitions. But while User Experience covers an incredibly broad range of possibilities, and isn’t necessarily related to the digital world, User Interfaces are exclusively digital and refer to the ways in which we interact with a digital product. 

To clarify this a little further, you can use a UI and still have a rotten UX. Just because there’s an interface doesn’t mean that it’s easy to use or that a user will be a happy camper after using it. UI design strives to create a better UX through the design of interfaces that are simple and user-friendly. So, it could be said that UI design contributes to UX while not being UX design in itself. Even more simply put, UI design refers to the design of the controls that users interact with. UX is what comes as a result of using that control panel, touchscreen or navigation button.

Need an example? Let’s consider a vending machine. You choose a soft drink using the UI. The ease with which you’re able to perform this action is related to the UI design and contributes to the UX. Whether that vending machine then proceeds to deliver the soft drink you wanted, accepts your money and gives you the correct change, and whether your soft drink is cool enough for enjoyment, contributes to the UX but has nothing to do with the UI.

So while a UX designer must take all these factors into account, a UI designer will focus on the interface itself: its location, its iconography, the specific button you push, and even the look and feel of that control. Of course, this is a very simplistic explanation, and a UI designer would usually work on more complex things than a simple vending machine button!

UI designers work on ways to guide users through an interface or series of interfaces in order to reach a desired goal. Although the processes activated by controls can be incredibly complex, they shouldn’t seem that way to the user. The controls should be understandable at a glance and setting a process in motion should be a straightforward matter. In addition, UI designers must consider design elements that will reinforce a product's brand identity while it's being used.

Because “Related” Doesn’t Mean “The Same As”    

 Now that we’ve looked at an introduction to user experience designand have covered user interface design basics, we may take the next step and see that they are very closely related. After all, you can’t have a great user experience with a digital product if the user interface is difficult to use. 

At the same time, user interface design is very specialised and focuses primarily on the controls, while user experience takes a more holistic look at the overall results that come from using a product. That means it’s possible to be a UX designer without having a clue about UI and, though he or she might have a good understanding of how UI influences UX, a UI designer might not possess all the skills it takes to be a UX designer.

To clarify this still further, let's take a look at the development of a product using both UX and UI design.

A UX / UI Workflow    

The UX designer begins with a product that is intended to solve a pain point for the user. Before they go any further, they’ll research who those users might be and what their needs are. Now they create a map indicating the user’s journey from the moment they come into contact with the product. Where do users begin? Which information should be prioritised, and what’s the overall information architecture? What kind of features would they expect, need, or be hoping for? The result is a UX blueprint which outlines the user’s journey from problem recognition through interaction with the product and the resolution of the problem or pain point they were hoping to address. The entire blueprint is captured in a wireframe that details the easiest route from the beginning of the process to its end.

Now, it’s up to the UI designer to take things further. Since UI is purely digital, designers would typically be thinking about the screens a user would navigate in order to reach his or her goal and the controls they’d select in order to navigate from one step to the next. With the UX designer having identified the steps that must be taken in order to reach the goal, the UI designer decided how these steps will be presented to the user.

Accessibility and inclusivity are important too. For example, would a disabled person be able to use the interface? At the same time, it’s important to convey unspoken messages through the user interface. A good user experience achieved after using the interface should also reinforce the brand and promote both brand recognition and brand loyalty.

It’s Possible to Produce Good UX and Bad UI or Vise Versa - But You Wouldn’t Want To    

It’s possible that the confusion between UX and UI may have resulted in a plethora of products that do well in one field, but don’t do well in the other. Unfortunately, the result can be a great idea that falls absolutely flat.

Let’s take you through two scenarios that may resonate with you.

You discover an app or a website that seems to have just what you need! You enthusiastically get onto it, and sure enough, it looks fantastic! But when you follow the prompts you find yourself navigating a seemingly endless succession of pages and processes. In fact, it all gets so complex and irritating that you give up in despair. That’s good UI design coupled with bad UX design. The result is an epic fail.

Now, let’s look at the same scenario in a different way. You get onto that promising platform and you’re raring to go, but the buttons are tiny and too close together. The text is hard to read. You keep clicking the wrong thing and having to go back, and before long, you decide that the whole exercise isn’t worth the hassle. In this case, the UX design may have been good, but the UI design was so bad that you never got to experience the satisfaction that the UX designer had in mind.

The conclusion is easy to reach. To be effective, a product must have both good UX and good UI design or it simply won’t deliver what your users want. However, in both these scenarios, the UX designer must take the blame. Although the UI designer in our second scenario messed up, it was up to the UX designer to manage the two design processes and to test the results before the product was released.

Two Different Skill Sets: One Person. A Best-Case Scenario?    

In theory, a UX designer doesn’t have to be a UI designer. However, we feel that combining the two skill sets required to do each of these tasks effectively is the best case scenario. If you’re in charge of UX and develop a blueprint, you probably already have an idea of what the UI should look like and you know what’s possible and what isn’t.

If you’re able to do the necessary coding to realise your vision, you can be sure that it is what you intended it to be. You’ll also have the results of your research at the back of your mind during the UI design process. For example, if you found that your healthcare-related app was likely to enjoy popularity with seniors, you might opt for bigger buttons and easy-reading fonts.

The only drawback of combining UI and UX expertise is that you have to check your own UI work. But this can be overcome in a testing process involving people who weren’t involved in the design process.

The Most Common Uses for UX and UI Design in Business    

It’s possible that business owners are already implementing the principles of UX design in the way they run their enterprises. After all, dealing with every client on an ad hoc basis with no clearly defined system makes life difficult for everyone concerned. But with the comparatively new fields of UX and UI design coinciding with the digital revolution, the most commonly recognised business uses will be in website, app, and product development.

The appearance of simplicity is key to good UI and UX design, so very often, one won’t even notice all the work that goes into getting it right - unless it’s lacking. As a rule of thumb, if it works seamlessly and seems almost effortless to navigate, that’s the result of careful consideration and good design. While this is no doubt rewarding for UX and UI designers since it is what they work towards, they must be among the least-acknowledged behind-the scenes workers in today’s technological world.

So, next time something works really well and seems straightforward, remember to send out a mental thank you note to the folks who made it that way. It’s a sure sign of a job well done!

YES, YDMA Has UX and UI Designers on the Team    

There are times when our UX and UI designers achieve what seemed to be impossible. What’s more, they make it look easy. We know that it isn’t. So, if you’re thinking of developing an app that makes life easier for your clients, need help with product design principles, or want a website that does much more than simply exist online, you should talk to us.

We’re confident that we’re equal to any achievable challenge, so all it takes to get started is an idea. Turning it into a reality is our business. Talk to us about UX and UI design because making things easy for your customers could be all it takes to beat your competitors and take your business to the next level!

Learn more about our design services