Erika Laguna, ETR’s graphic designer, said, “My goal is to make ETR’s marketing efforts look pretty.”
Everyone laughed. The entire ETR team had gathered for a staff meeting, and each member was revealing his or her daily goal.
Little did we know that Erika wasn’t making a joke. She was 100 percent serious!
“What does pretty mean in our business?” asked Michael Masterson. “Does anyone know?”
Erika was the only one who spoke up. “Something that’s pretty brings in more money.”
“That’s right,” said Michael. “In direct response, pretty means graphic design that understands and supports the written word… and the selling process. Something can’t be pretty just for pretty’s sake. It’s about directing the reader’s eye and making an emotional message consistent with the sales message.”
“Did you know that graphic design used to get short shrift in the world of marketing?” Michael went on. “For the longest time, direct marketers believed that all that mattered was the copy. But it’s been proven that images have a potentially huge impact on revenues. In fact, a colleague of mine was able to double his response rates in the mail just with good graphic design.”
And it’s worked for ETR, too. Our marketing team tested one Yahoo banner ad against another. They were able to quadruple the number of clicks the banner ad received just by changing the image that appeared on it.
So how can you make graphic design work for you?
Test.
Michael recommends that you test different graphic formats to see what type of responses you get. That’s the best way to see what’s “pretty” to your customers. When you’ve got “pretty” sales promotions, websites, and e-letters, you’ll have a healthy and successful business.
[Ed. Note: Running a successful Internet business involves a lot more than just making your marketing "pretty." The best way to learn the most effective business-building strategies? By getting "insider secrets" from people who've been there before you. You can do just that at ETR's Info Marketing Bootcamp this November. We've asked 12 of the most successful Internet marketers around to reveal a technique you can use to make at least $100,000 in 2009. Get more details here.]
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You go, Erika!
I can’t tell you how many times I have seen, especially online, that graphic design is overrated. The usual offenders are so-called Internet Marketers. If only they would, as this article suggests, test. They would see that colors, fonts, “cleanliness” of design and images do matter. In other words, those “expensive” graphic designers may just know what they are talking about when it comes to helping a business grow.