As a creative and enterprising business person, you know the value of combining key people, elements, and resources to produce the positive results you want for your enterprise. No business does it alone, and effective collaboration is almost always part of the equation for success.
One of the most important of these combinations is the pairing of great writing and strong design at your company website. A winning website hits your prospect or customer with the 1-2 punch of visually arresting graphic design and compelling content. It’s up to you to hire the best content writer and the most exciting web artist that you can, and then to see that they merge their talents to create a website that combines art and copy for maximum effectiveness and optimum sales potential.
A great baseball pitcher without his catcher is nothing, a composer of popular music without a gifted lyricist is only half-baked, a champion tennis player without a worthy opponent on the other side of the net has no match to win. It’s the same with your website when it comes to written and visual communication. One without the other won’t do. Compelling words on a mundane platter won’t excite your prospects, and visa versa. To optimize traffic and sales, you need eye-catching visuals to hook your audience, and strong, persuasive writing to keep them at your site and sell them.
Good design is pleasing and/or exciting to the eye, creates a visually sensual experience, and invites the viewer “in” to do what the marketing is aiming at. In the case of a commercial website, that aim is getting the prospect to click to the landing page or the established customer to further patronize the business.
The basic elements of good graphic design are as follows:
- Compositional balance between positive (art) and negative (blank or white) space
- A fusion and a harmony between light and dark elements
- Good color relationships (think a “color-coordinated” outfit)
- Eye-catching art/copy placement that easily communicates
Next is where content kicks in, establishing the 1-2 nature of the design/writing partnership. And the writing better be involving, informative, convincing, and entertaining. If it isn’t, all the hard work the design has done is for naught. Your guests won’t stay at the party, you’ll lose their attention, they’ll wander and leave. By the same token, remember that a badly designed website has an uphill battle getting your prospects through the door (“first impressions,” etcetera and so forth!), or at least keeping them at your site long enough to digest all that content, even if it is brilliantly written.
You see, they go together. Great writing. Stellar design. One without the other won’t cut it, but the two in tandem are a powerful tool for a killer website, a burgeoning business, and successful branding in the marketplace.
Michael V is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
