A beautiful website and online presence is vital for any business, and it’s especially important if you’re trying to launch a new brand or jumpstart one that’s been underperforming. Yet most businesses underestimate the importance of presenting their ideas and organizations in the best possible light. After all, they reason, our product is amazing- shouldn’t that be enough? In a word, no.
Your industry and product type don’t matter- even scientists need to work to make their ideas beautiful. As Robert March says, in his introduction to the book Physics For Poets:
“An idea must be more than right: it must also be pretty if it is to create much excitement in the world of science. For the search for truth is not simply a matter of discovering facts. You must also understand their significance, and then persuade others that your way of looking at them is valid. It is always easier to persuade people to believe in something new when they find it beautiful, especially if it runs counter to their established beliefs.”
Every business, every brand, every idea you put out there needs to be made as beautiful as possible, or you’re crippling its potential. Blame Darwin or God- it’s how we are innately wired. We seek out symmetry and beauty.
We’re working with a new fashion and beauty client from New York City, and that means that lately I’ve been thinking a lot about beauty and how it relates to business marketing and usability. Everyone knows that too many shopping carts get abandoned because a company’s ecommerce system is terrible. Similarly, many of us have instantly decided not to buy a company’s product or service because their website or digital marketing is ugly.
It’s like how a company probably wouldn’t hire someone who shows up for the interview incoherent, unbathed, and smelly. You’d naturally assume that they probably weren’t taking care of the rest of their lives, too. In the same way, we automatically assume that a company that doesn’t care about their online presence probably doesn’t care about its customers, either.
Potential customers really don’t care about your marketing budget problems or your good intentions to “fix it later”. All they care about is what they see on their screens. Your digital marketing materials- your website design, video content, blog, even your shopping cart experience- represent your brand online more than anything else your company does. These days, even customers who show up at your brick-and-mortar storefront check you out online, first. I guess you could say they’re screening you on their screens. You need to make sure that what they see on those screens makes your brand look as beautiful as possible.
