The visual style of a site or brand can be a powerful tool when used correctly. The problem is some business owners don’t worry about it as much as they should.
Maybe they work on it a bit, but once things seem good enough, they tend to overlook it when they should do the opposite.
The reality is online users care about appearance. Sometimes, they use this to make up their minds about a company. If you think about that for a moment, you’ll start to understand why learning to improve your brand’s visual style matters.
Why Does Visual Style Matter?
The first thing that should be addressed is how important visual style is to the customer.
One thing that might make it easier to see how important this aspect of a business is the fact that people will automatically believe that a business isn’t trustworthy simply because their site design or branding looks dated.
If it looks dated, customers might imagine the business isn’t doing too well or doesn’t care about providing exceptional services or products. A dated design is a red flag, which is a warning sign to online users, and they’ll end up leaving your site or business and going to a company that has invested in their visual brand and design.
Customer trust is one thing you have to worry about. Visual style doesn’t just include whether or not a company’s site looks dated or not. Making sure your visual style has been carefully thought out could mean the difference between a sale or not. For example, some people think it’s a good idea to advertise the lowest price of a product or service.
While this may make sense, the reality is if you want to get people’s attention, you highlight the highest price for a product or service. Then, move on to the lower-cost offerings later. This may seem counterintuitive, but it does work.
Customers see how much others are willing to pay for their products and services. On top of that, when the prices start to drop, people feel like they’re getting a deal, and that translates to a sale. It’s a visual style trick that many marketers use to great effect.
It should also be pointed out that good branding visuals also make it easier for customers to not only recognize your company but also makes it more appealing to them. If you’re able to create the kind of branding that people fall in love with, then people are going to start to identify with your company, and that’s ultimately what you want.
How to Start to Improve a Company’s Visual Style?
This is a big question, and the truth is that there’s no perfect answer. Each company has to create its effective visual style.
The reason you need to create your own is that each company needs to remember its identity. That identity or personality has to show up in your branding and visual style, which is how a company gets the recognition it deserves.
Out of all the things, you could try to improve branding, and your overall style is to hire experts in logo design. Sometimes, the most important step a business can take is to create a unique logo design.
Once it’s fully realized, that business can use the design as a springboard that’ll help determine the rest of the company’s visual style. It’s important to work with experienced artists, so don’t just trust anybody. Look for experience, a team of designers, mostly positive reviews, and look for a company that offers examples. Granted, this is going to take some time to get right, but it’s going to be worth it.
The next thing you have to work on is a simplification. Web design and your logo should be simple. You’re going to be doing this for various reasons. For one, a simplified design looks better on different screens. Keep in mind that people use various devices. One person can start exploring your site on the phone and switch to a laptop. The switch has to feel seamless and to ensure that a simplified visual style is best.
A simplified look also gives your site and brand a cleaner look. People want to see a look that isn’t too cluttered. Many people are turned off by a site or design style that feels too busy.
When it comes to design, color plays a pretty big part. This is becoming important to everyone because people tend to be online for long periods. This makes eye strain possible, and no one wants that.
Customers may not consciously notice the color, but they feel it, and that should concern you. Colors that are strong will end up turning customers away from your site, and that’s no good. You want to incorporate your company’s visual style and eye-friendly colors.
If you’re sitting there wondering what eye-friendly colors are, that’s okay. These are colors like green, blue, white, and brown. Different shades of these colors will also work.
You want to avoid colors like reds or yellows. These colors are simply too stimulating; at some point, you won’t want to see these colors, nor will your customers. That’s the last thing you want your customers to feel when they’re on your site. You want them to feel comfortable on your site. You want them to feel good about browsing on your site as long as they want to. This should help improve your chances of making that sale.
Be sure to have this team of designers test out their ideas with third-party testers. Most of the time, this service is a part of the design package but not always. Having testers can give you a sneak peek concerning how your customers might react to the design.
You can see how important brand and visual style is to a company now. This should help you see why investing in the right, experienced team can make a difference for your business. Sure, the results won’t show up overnight, but they should show positive signs given enough time.
Also Read: 5 Steps For Branding Your E-Commerce Business
