Design In Advertising: 6 Tips

Design in advertising is essential. It’s how you set yourself apart from competition and connect to your audience on a deeper level.

But where do you start? With so many potential things you can design, it can feel overwhelming when approaching the topic. Also, with unlimited potential industries, where are the commonalities when it comes to design for advertising?

With these questions in mind, we have created this post as a sort of guide. These are six tips you can apply to any business to make sure you are getting the most out of your design in advertising. Implement the advice found here and you will both increase attention on your website and convert more leads to customers. Let’s get started.

6 Tips For Effective Design in Advertising

1) Be different

The entire purpose of design for advertising is to get somebody’s attention. You want people to stop what they are doing (often scrolling on a phone) when they see your design. This is the first step in getting them to actually interact with your content.

Here lies the purpose of being different. At this point, the internet is saturated with other businesses that probably offer a solution quite similar to your own. You need a way to differentiate yourself from the competition, and effective design is a great way to do that. While your options are essentially limitless, here are some way you can “be different”:

• Color scheme
• Page layout
• Location of pictures

Check out our ultimate guide to web design for more information.

2) Design according to your audience

One of the most important parts of design for advertising is understanding who you are marketing yourself to. An ad that appeals to a young college student, for example, is likely to be different than the one that appeals to an older crowd.

That’s why you need to understand your audience as in-depth as possible. One way to do this is to examine the websites of successful businesses in your industry. While not all them will have great websites, at least some of them will have elements of design you can implement yourself. If it works for them it’s likely it can work for you!

Another way to design for your audience is simply asking then what kind of websites they like. This will give you valuable insight. For a great resource on sending surveys to email subscribers, check out this article.

3) Use good quality photos

No matter what industry your business is in (or the niche of your clients), you’ll have to use photos at some point. Stock photos are easier than original images, most certainly. They are unfortunately also less effective. With that in mind, it’s worth your time to use original photos on your website.

This is similar to our own strategy at Lúgh Studio. We used to use stock images every now and then on social media. Now, we’ve cut them out completely. Why? Well, both quality, original photos and well designed graphics outperform stock images. We’ve seen the difference and aren’t going back.

4) Implement visual hierarchy

You have limited time and resources. While perfectly designing everything is the ideal solution, it’s not always realistic. You have to know which elements of your online content are the most important for advertising, as well as how to prioritize them.

This is where visual hierarchy comes in. Understand where design will give you the biggest ROI in your advertising and start from there. Check out this list for the most important things to focus on.

5) Don’t do too much

When it comes to design for advertising, one of the worst things you can do is too much. We’ve all seen heavily designed websites and online stores. This kind of oversaturation can be overwhelming and ends up preventing people from actually acting.

In fact, as we point out in our post about logo design, it’s often the simplest design that is the most effective. Cleaner colors and limited options often get you the results you are looking for, whether it be more clicks or more subscribers. Keep this in mind when you are designing your advertising elements.

6) Experiment as much as possible

Lastly, with design in advertising, testing things out is the name of the game. Neglect this step and it’s almost guaranteed that you won’t get close to your potential in terms of conversions and new customers.

Experimentation is how you prevent this from happening. The results of your tests are how you base your design strategy not on feelings, but rather proof. Check out our post on split testing for more ideas.

Your Custom Solution For Effective Advertising

At Lúgh Studio, we work with a wide variety of clients to turn their design dreams into a reality. With the different industries we have experience in (everything from pet care to 3D printing) we understand the  elements that need to be present for effective advertising.

Whether that means creating ads for social media or designing entire email automations, we’ve got you covered. Check out our advertising and digital media page for more information.

…

Are you an enterprise, nonprofit or small business looking for help on your website? Give us a shout! We provide a free consultation. Email us at info@lughstudio.com or call us at (718) 855-1919!