When you’re designing your webpage, you create some stellar text, choose a random format from your website host, and call it done, right? Not if you want to build a successful business page over time. For all the focus that selling techniques like SEO, landing page copy, and keyword descriptions get in the marketing world, business owners sometimes forget the importance of visual presentation. After all, the Web is fundamentally a visual interface for the vast majority of its users.
How, as a business owner, can you use visual techniques to boost your conversion rates?
Use Images That Sell Products Better Than Words Could
Every image on your webpage needs to matter. Many businesses start out with free stock images, and that can be okay, but stock images are, by definition, created to be useful in a variety of contexts. Over time, you’ll find that particular images get popular, and surface in a variety of locations.
For example, a few years ago, the image of a young woman holding a sparkler became popular and was suddenly used all over the Internet, selling a variety of products and headlining many different articles. It’s a lovely image, but it quickly became overused, and brands that still have it up today look tired.
For a serious business, your best bet is to pay for a licensed stock image, or if possible, set up a custom photo shoot. If you can find a local photographer and model, this might not even be particularly expensive, and you’re guaranteed to have an image that does exactly what you need it to do.
If you could replace the images on your homepage with words that would be more effective, you should – and then you should find a better image.
Make Your Call to Action Obvious
Your potential customer has become inherently skeptical of everything on the Internet. They approach your webpage looking for reasons to click away. If they’re bored, lost, or aren’t finding what they need, they’re not going to search; they’re going to go back to the Google search results and click on your competitor.
One way to avoid that click away is to make sure your call to action is visually obvious. Create white space in a frame around your click button, or use an arrow to point toward the Join Now, or even position your image so that the subject is looking in the direction you want your visitor’s eyes to move. Integrating content marketing will not only boost your SEO but also enrich the user experience, making your site a go-to resource for valuable information.
Don’t Overthink Color
There is an entire field of color psychology contained within marketing, and the unfortunate thing is that most attempts to connect color to very specific emotions fail. Over time, this field has found that much of color perception is cultural and personal. So instead of obsessing over whether periwinkle or navy will be more soothing, look at your overall brand to decide what colors will best support your brand.
For example, a traditional wedding photographer might lean strongly towards shades of white and gray, with highlights in pastels. A photographer trying to convey a more dramatic and trendy message, however, could indulge in bright jewel tones and warmer tones. A photographer who focuses more on boudoir photography than traditional weddings would look for the richest and deepest colors. Whether those colors are burgundy, or chocolate brown, or forest green is a matter of personal preference; it’s the overall tone that matters most for solid customer retention strategy.
Understand Natural Eye Movements and Design For Them
You’ve probably heard truisms about text designs, such as using headlines for each paragraph or using images to break up text, but do you know why they work? This post from Tutsplus goes into why our eyes and brains prefer to categorize information, and what cues we use to break information up into digestible chunks.
When you know why these tricks work, it’s easier to make them work for you. Understand why, for example, this article breaks the key four proposals into larger headlines. This makes it easier for a reader to skim the article. When they see a tip that interests them, they slow down and read the presented information.
But this also gives you another interesting point; if your headline is misleading, and your reader finds that the information below has nothing to do with the point, they’re going to click away, and your conversion opportunity will be lost.
Because the web presents information in a visual format, it’s important to pay attention to the visuals when you create any web design. Understanding the typical patterns of consumers will help you direct them to the right places and get the right information.
What visual tricks have you found helpful in increasing your conversion rates?
