Two years ago, a survey of more than 1,500 small-business owners, startups and entrepreneurs revealed that small businesses expect professional design to become increasingly important to their success in the years ahead. In a related article featured in the American Express online site Open Forum, Matt Mickiewicz, co-founder of 99designs, the company that conducted the survey, offered a few reasons why professional design should be a priority. We would like to highlight these reasons – which remain relevant- with Matt’s rationale for the consideration of those of you sitting on the sidelines of professional design.
Impression
Two-tenths of a second is the maximum amount of time subjects viewing a website took to form a first impression, according to a study published in February 2012 by researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The longer the viewers chose to stay on a site, the more favorable their impressions were. And the part of the homepage they spent the most time examining? The logo. …The lesson here is that bad website design, including a yawn-inducing or irrelevant logo, may compel prospects to jump to your competitors’ sites in the blink of an eye.
Competitive Edge
With the rise of crowdsourcing models and other forms of online innovation, high-quality graphic and Web design services are more readily accessible to the typical business owner than ever before. Design work that used to cost thousands of dollars is now available for a fraction of that. The process is faster and less risky. Consequently, business owners of all stripes are stepping up their games. Generic DIY logos, bland business cards and clunky websites no longer cut it. …Chances are, your competition has gotten wise to the fact that the image they put out there can be a key differentiator and can make them stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Usability
Ineffective design can lead to dissatisfied customers—and as more companies wake up to the importance of design, the worse those who haven’t look by comparison. Many business owners seem to think that the key goal of a design is to make it pretty. But effective, intentional design beats pretty any day. If a visitor to your website can’t quickly find the information she’s looking for, chances are good she’ll either leave in frustration or contact customer service for help.
Return on Investment
Design has a proven ROI. Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen found in a 2008 study that ROI on a website that was redesigned to enhance usability averages more than 80 percent.
Read the entire article originally published in Open Forum.
Add extra spice to your small biz marketing mojo. Join us on The Marketing Mojo Show, a live 15-minute podcast and chat, 3/19/14 at 1p.m. ET. Our topic is Brand Design and Visual Messaging for Small Businesses and features Bernadette Rivell Daniels, an Emmy Award-winning art director, graphic designer and North Florida design firm owner. Stir the conversation with a response to our question of the month [Q1: Is professional design important and why? #mymarketingmojo]. Tag responses on Twitter with #mymarketingmojo for a chance to hear your comment during the live episode and to participate in the live chat.