The hardest part while designing any e-commerce website is to get the aesthetics done. Contrary to the clichés that “Don’t judge a book by its cover “or “What’s on the inside matters most,” you cannot nullify that aesthetically astute web designs play a significant role in gathering a large number of the target audience.
Apart from amassing a large number visitors to any website, aesthetically sophisticated web designs do contribute in representing your vision, communicating your corporate values and building the trust visitors look for. This is the point where developers fail to satisfy the client’s expectations, for them, functionality and SEO are everything, whereas, clients or marketers don’t think that way. For them, aesthetics are equally important.
Significance of an efficient Banner Design
One of the most important aspects of artistic web development is also the banner design. Banners make a huge impact on visual learners, the visitors who gather clues, create memories and come to conclusions based on visual cues. A banner is a more of a marketing tool or a business card of any company. An upfront and effective medium to increase brand awareness. Attractive banners get clicks and increase website traffic.
As a designer working, your goal is to satisfy the client, and the client’s goal is to get a banner design that increases CTR (Click through Rate). Here is a stepwise guideline for creating banners that your clients will adore.
1. Understand the Target Audience
The first and foremost thing before you kick off with creating your client’s banner is to research and understand who they are targeting and what are they looking to achieve with their banners. Once you get to know the target audience, you will be able to create ads that push them.
Also, do a little research on your client and his product. This includes the background of the business, the identity of his brand, the trends in that particular industry and most importantly, the behavior of brand’s competition. All this information is a pre requisite to a good design that displays the company’s profile and objectives in right direction. Otherwise, you might have to design it over and over, and nobody wants that.
2. Make a Plan
The next thing is to put the ideas in order. Develop a hierarchy of stuff in mind from scratch so that you don’t miss anything along the way. Make a list of all the things you need to do and an order of elements you need to introduce on a sticky note so that you check mark everything and nothing gets missed.
3. Customization Personalization and Localization
Two-Third of the consumers feel frustrated when they receive advertising content from a business. If something is irrelevant to their interest, they develop a negative image of the brand. This is where marketers use personalization and localization content techniques and get the uplift in sales. It is a primer feature of any successful banner that enables consumers to swallow thousands of ads in a day.
4. The Demographics
By demographics we mean, size shape and colors. This also includes the appropriate utilization of the space where your design will be featured. Keep it close to the main content of the page.
Size
Size of a banner does matter a lot so never ignore it. There are eight standard sizes of banner ads and creating one that is larger than standard is not the right way to get attention. According to Google Ad sense, the most successful standard banner sizes are
728×90px — Leader board
300×600px — Half Page
300×250px — Medium Rectangle
336×280px — Large Rectangle
Choose the Right Color Theme
Another important factor that influences the visitors is the right color selection. While setting the color scheme, you must understand color psychology and brand colors.
• Color psychology is the perceptions and impressions that certain colors engrave on our minds. For instance, blue is a symbol of serenity and calmness while green is a symbol of nature and growth.
• Brand color is the color scheme that your client is using on their gadgets such as logos or other marketing materials.
As a designer, it’s your skill to set a color scheme that transmits the positive vibes keeping intact the brand colors.
5. Keep It Simple
On average, an internet user gets to see 50-60 ads per day. The banners that serve less and simple text to read and comprehend succeeds in cutting consumer’s mind. Don’t try to smug to seek attentions; this may backfire. Text and images go hand in hand. Images must elaborate the text, and the text must unwind the message you are trying to send in the image
6. Brand Identity Elements
The very first instance a consumer makes contact with the banner; he must recognize the brand feeding him content. Brand identity elements include name, logo, tagline and type face. These elements embark the corporate identity of your brand, so you have to be consistent. This doesn’t mean that you use the same photos over and over again, but all imagery should have a consistent look and feel.
Conclusion
Banner design isn’t something that you should rush through. For a perfect banner creation, you must consider the above-mentioned building blocks and characteristics. Once you get a firm hold over these primary design considerations behind a great banner, you will quickly achieve the best results and hats off gesture from your client.
Simon Walker has more than 7 years of experience in eCommerce developer & consultancy. He currently works for FME Extensions – a Magento eCommerce development company, where he has developed several Magento extensions & themes. He is also consulting businesses to help increase their online exposure and reach. You can reach him on Twitter and Facebook.