In the battle of quality content versus pleasing aesthetics why does it always seem that content loses to design when it comes to marketing campaigns? Why are content creators and creative marketers so determined to make a blog post, video, image, etc. attractive to the eye that they neglect what the content is actually supposed to accomplish. The quality, the message, the take-away seems to constantly lose to “looking pretty”.
So why does this battle between content and design only have one winner? Why is there a battle at all?
It has to do with a 2 factors that encourage marketers to make one choice over another leading to content that excels in one area and fails in another.
Time
With deadlines, short time slots, or inconsistent opportunities; marketers have to learn to be quick, creating accessible content available through multiple platforms that will draw in their consumers. There is also the average length of a digital marketing campaign to consider, which is relatively short in the grand scheme of things. According to an article by Technology Therapy Group, the average length of a campaign is 45 days, only 6 weeks! This lack of time with consumers and with the marketing teams, themselves, forces marketers to make a decision, which is more important and which is more necessary to the site’s success: design or content?
Immediate Impact
According to the NN group marketers have 10 seconds to make an impression on their consumers or clients before those consumers or clients leave their site. This means that your web or blog design is going to have to be eye catching and attention grabbing. This focus on the first impression or drawing in customers could leave the quality of the content on the sidelines.
But, content is what makes your consumers come back to your site or your brand. It establishes a trust between you and your consumer and thus creates brand loyalty. The immediacy of its effect on the consumer is going to be more gradual, but it is just as effectual. According to Hubspot, in 2015 content marketing generated 3x as many leads as traditional outbound marketing.
What marketers should be trying, instead of picking and choosing what’s most important, is clear the battlefield and create an alliance with content and design with an equal focus on both components.
Peace has never been an easy thing to accomplish, so here are a few ideas on how to successfully blend these two features to create the most successful content.
Create Content First
If you are able to create your content before you start implementing the creative design elements, you can clearly state your message for you consumers. By knowing exactly what you are trying to get across from the beginning you will make it easier on yourself to create effective design elements that echo this message and further draw the reader’s attention to the main points of you content.
Interactive Content
Interactive content is a new form of marketing that stretches what traditional content marketing accomplishes. It combines design and content with little effort, by offering images, engagement ability, quick lines of personalized writing and focused call to action. Placing a MatchUp, bracket, or StackUp at the end of a blog post or incorporating it within a video or a social media post creates that immediate, attention-grabbing effect. The quality of the images, the video, the writing or call to action that accompanies creates the longer lasting effect of brand loyalty.
Combine Different Elements
One design feature or one style of content isn’t going to translate to everyone. So instead be mad scientist and combine different elements of style, theme, subject matter and design to create the most unique content possible and grab the immediate attention of your site’s visitor as well as their long lasting favoritism. Implement videos, games, images to spice up your content but have the quality long-form writing to back it up, the combination will prove to be the most successful.
Design and content could be continually battling, always having a loser, or they could come together and create something truly revolutionary. Don’t choose between design and content. Make the choice to blend them and find success while doing so.
Want to learn more about how to sucessfuly combine content and design check out our blog here!
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