Marketing is creative. Advertising is design. While the symbiotic relationship between digital marketing and web design should be obvious, visually striking websites lacking any discernible path to conversion continue to be produced.

Exceptional web design is about creating a solution that feels like an experience, demonstrating value to each user as they move through strategically planned calls to action.  A well-executed website will feature design that directly increases the number of desired conversions.

Associating design with conversion allows the effectiveness of both to be tracked and improved over time. Heatmap and visitor recording software like HotJar make future creative decisions more data-driven and less abstract.

The goal of every enterprise in our industry is to create value for a brand or business in the digital universe. So if digital marketing and web design shares the same fundamental mission, doesn’t it make sense to join forces in partnership? To make an alliance that helps us reach our goals faster and more effectively? This begins with digital creatives recognizing the value of internet marketing and vice-versa, each understanding the other’s values to the end user and thus to our customers.

Once we see the critical role we all play in online business, we can begin to align with each other and see the bigger picture in every project. That allows us to design with marketing in mind, to adjust our advertising efforts to match creative content, and only then can we become extraordinary digital professionals.

The crucial importance of top-quality web design, visual branding, and content creation is the most self-evident aspect of the digital world. It is so all-encompassing that many of us in the online business community forget its monument importance. Digital creative is everywhere. It is the backbone of the digital age, the fundamental fabric of the online experience, from the user-friendly design of Facebook’s social interface to the very words you’re reading right now. Without digital creative, the internet would simply have no content. It would cease to exist.

Creative content and web design are the foundation of the digital universe. The misguided belief that anyone can design a logo, write a riveting story, or develop a website is both laughable and infuriating. Perhaps anyone can “do” a digital crea

tive task, but doing any of them well requires an immense amount of experience, talent, and critical thinking. Those who have refined a professional skillset related to digital creative are the most sought-after employees in the market. It’s simply not enough to have a half-baked logo, mediocre website, and boring content if you want to succeed online. You need great design and engaging content to reach any user or potential customer, which is why digital creatives are at the very heart of the modern business age.

Just as metric-minded digital marketers and ROI-focused business owners need to recognize the importance of high-quality creative, designers must create with the goal of driving sales and growth. The art of web design and content writing has no value to a company if it’s just done to express creative talent. We are not paid simply to show off our artistic skills. Design should be done for the online customer, not for our own subjective tastes.

That’s where digital marketing and web design blend together, showing the value of a user-centric approach to business and an ability to express value in terms of measurable data. Without digital marketing, analytics tracking, and KPI metrics, an organization would have no way to know if their efforts online were producing a positive effect. There would be no set goals, no way of measuring whether or not goals were met, and any reason for hiring a creative agency would go right out the window. Because of this, when we develop a website for one of our customers we always first have a conversation about business metrics, so we can design with their end goals in mind every step of the way.

The point should be clear by now: digital marketing and web creative are both critically important to the success of an online business and should work in symbiotic unity. Compartmentalizing online creative and internet advertising is not only senseless, it’s dangerous. Businesses fail every day due to much smaller mistakes.

Digital marketing and web design may be distinct vocations that require different skills to do well, but they are connected in the totality of the digital universe. When high-quality digital creative and marketing are unified in a mutually beneficial alliance for the good of all, there’s no limit to what can be achieved online. Companies like Apple, Airbnb, and American Red Cross have all embraced exquisite design with high-level functionality together to create more valuable experiences for their users, and ultimately themselves.

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