How much money do you lose when you save on design?
What do you think, how much money do entrepreneurs lose every time they say: “we have a budget of $10 for design”, “nobody cares about design, we have to put something in the corner of the site”, “we want a cheap logo now, and potentially a good one when we grow up”, “ I can do it myself ” or “an AI generated copyright infringement logo is fine”?
In some cases, the design is really not needed. For example, you are selling rubble, and you have several regular customers who will buy crushed stone from you with or without any design. Why? Because you solve their specific pain, and communication through design isn’t necessary.
However, there are way too many businesses that suffer. Businesses the visual presentation — is the main thing!
Companies that have dormers, signs, printing, advertising, any sort of merchandise or anything that can or should be shown to a potential customer. Companies that make websites, set up advertising, are engaged in the SMM and at the same time, they save 500 dollars on good design.
Lack of design eats up monthly revenue, but they do not even notice it.
How? Let’s figure it out.
Imagine that you are opening a technology company. Before opening, you have a lot of costs: rental of premises, purchase of technical equipment, website development, advertising and much more.
So what happens, they move the design to the last place, because these are just pictures that should be put on the business card and in the corner of the site. Why spend a lot of money? You can order a logo on a freelance platform since it is just a picture.
As the business goes, it is necessary to make booklets, banners for advertising on social networks. Different merchandise can be ordered from different artists, where it is cheaper, and to do something yourself, of course. But not because the budget is low, but simply why not. Designers will do just as good.
This tactic leads to the fact that the appearance of the company becomes similar to a Frankenstein — it is assembled from different pieces, made by different people.
An example of such a company is a technology company called “Bezop”; I wasn’t even trying to look for a company like this one, it came up to me by itself. Worth mentioning that according to the Coinmarketcap, this company is worth 3.8M USD right now.
When you click on an add, you end up on the website below:
If you search for their social media, you will see that on Twitter, the logo is different, and a banner on the background is completely inconsistent not only design wise, but idea wise.
The situation on Facebook isn’t any better: new logo again, and a new banner.
I’m still struggling to understand what exactly does this company do, and how relevant is it to my search of “e-commerce platforms”. In my case, visual communication with the brand doesn’t only transform into simple communication, it transforms into smaller CTRs, cart abandonment, and lead loss.
I’m still struggling to understand what exactly does this company do, and how relevant is it to my search of “e-commerce platforms”. In my case, visual communication with the brand doesn’t only transform into simple communication, it transforms into smaller CTRs, cart abandonment, and lead loss.
Let’s talk money
Let’s estimate how much money you need to open a blockchain-based technology company. We will only take into the account one figure: the amount that was raised in ICO — 16,500,000 USD
We don’t know what is the actual technology, or how much money was invested in the R&D or legal. What we can see, though, is that from the end consumer perspective the brand identity is inconsistent. The project description is vague, the website doesn’t provide a clear value proposition and there is no direct CTA.
All of that adds up on lost clients and investors.
How about No?
Let’s imagine what could have happened due to the poor design of the Bezop’s technology company?
Suppose two potential customers of the e-commerce platform did not click on the advertisement, simply because they did not notice it, as it hangs nondescriptly in the lower left corner of the page.
Two more young clients did not want to proceed further, because the design feels outdated and non-descriptive — they simply didn’t like the appearance of the website and didn’t find enough key factors to bother about it.
Well, for example, two more did not invest in the project because they did not recognize the brand when it was mentioned in media.
In total, we have six potential customers who may have left for various reasons, all of which is due to the poor communication between the brand and customers.
Average check size
It was very difficult to identify an average check size, as it turned out Bezop doesn’t even have a working product! However, we would look at the similar e-commerce platforms and their average commission rate of 7.5% with an average size of the deal of $180 USD. Which brings us with the average ARPPU of $13,5 USD, of course, these are very rough figures, but on the other side, what is really a $13,5 USD loss?
Well, in total it would be: $13,5 USD x 9 lost clients = $121.5 USD/month
If we imagine that about 6 clients per month do not reach Bezop, because the design did not cope with its task: it did not set aside competitors, did not focus on the right moment, scared away.
That would be $121.5 USD x 12 months = $1,458 USD — the approximate annual loss of the Bezop’s e-commerce platform due to the fact that at the very beginning the owner regretted $470 USD for a good design.
How not to lose money
A good example is our client, the blockchain based platform “Sportsky”.
The company did everything the right way up front. They asked us to create a brand identity for their platform: from product packaging to signage, from social networks to the 3D visualization of their token.
They invested $970 USD, and this is what they got:
From flags to
Business cards, and all forms of branded merchandise and clothes
We also designed images for pages in social media
We even created a 3D visualization of Sportsky new token. Which incorporates their unified shape form, and an actual meaning of the new SSKY token.
Everything is unified — website, interior, merchandise, and social networks. You can see sharp forms everywhere, star-shaped elements, the same colours, and fonts are used. Even when different colours are applied to differentiate within different sports, you still recognize the brand.
If in a few weeks I’ll show you just one letter:
You will remember exactly where you saw it.
This is how design works: it influences the impression that a product or company has on people — good or bad. Affects recognition. What is easier to remember: different shapes, chaotic pictures, colours or uniformity?
This example is followed by many well-known and big brands.
If a person from birth is put in a dark room, they will think that a dark room is the norm, they will even love her. But it would be good to start this change: for yourself, your clients, for the world.
Before you wish to make the design as cheap as possible, think: how do customers see me? Will I scare them away, invoke positive emotions, negative ones or none at all? How many competitors do I have, how do I look on their background? As a e-commerce platform “Bezop” or as “Sportsky”, “Coca-Cola”, “Apple”?
Especially if your sphere is closely connected with visual presentation, if you are: a restaurant, a coffee shop, a beauty salon, an app, a barbershop, products for children, well, you name it.
