How to catch big fish

4 marketing hooks
for designers

In honour of the Marketer's Day in Ukraine, celebrated on October 25th, we’ve come up with a list of simple, but very powerful 4 marketing hooks for designers and business owners that will help you catch big fish. Applying them in your websites, landing page design, and other materials can significantly increase sales and customer loyalty which are the ultimate goals for creating a design in the first place.

1. Solve the pain & bring pleasure.

These are the basic driving forces behind customers’ decisions. What does this mean for design? Before trying to come up with beautiful colors and sophisticated icons, you need to understand the customer, their problems and aspirations. Work on actual design only after you know what pain the product solves or what pleasure the customer will get.

2. Explain Why.

People are more likely to do something if you give them a reason. In one research, people standing in line to use a photocopier were 34% more likely to let someone cut in front of them, even when their reason was as meaningless as “because I have to make some copies.” And while this may be mostly a task for copywriters, designers too can apply this hook graphically explaining why the client needs to perform the target action. Why buy this shampoo? Show a photo of beautiful hair. Why choose this company? Illustrate reasons 1,2,3,4, etc.

3. Tell a Story.

Telling stories activates parts of the brain associated with sight, sound, taste, and movement, engaging and increasing emotional connection with the product. This tip will work anywhere, but it’s most practicable in landing pages. If there is a story line starting at the first section and going down through the whole page, the customer is much more likely to get to the end and click the CTA, instead of closing the page in the middle.

4. Design comes from the functionality.

If there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will pick what seems easier, so do not overcomplicate things with your design. The design of your marketing materials has to be easy and simple enough to achieve the goals. It is especially necessary to apply this tips when designing websites and marketing materials for complicated, abstract services with many features. Do not overload the user with too much information. Make it simple and focus on the most important thing for the customer.