Archive for year: 2019

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/brand-illustration-systems-visual-identity/

Brand Illustration Systems: Drawing A Strong Visual Identity

Brand Illustration Systems: Drawing A Strong Visual Identity

Yihui Liu

2019-12-09T12:30:00+00:00
2019-12-09T17:09:29+00:00

In the flood of online content, companies live or die by their brand image. A brand image has to express the company’s message and connect with users, who should instantly recognize it across different media, even away from the company’s website and marketing content. A strong brand image is like an anchor, helping ensure user attachment and fix value associations.

Brand image is typically built up from different visual elements — logos, color palette, a particular font. Alongside these, illustrations are another powerful means of visual communication which are more and more in demand for online UI.

Why? Because illustrations introduce narrative elements to visual content and allow for subtler emotions or more complex situations to be expressed. Including human figures make ideas active and accessible, often in a light-hearted or whimsical way. Illustrations turn away from realism and let you build the world as the brand sees it.

This is an important piece in the larger puzzle of online campaigns. Digital design, using vectors, favors clean, bold images which translate well into distinctive branding illustrations. Rather than single-use designs, these online illustrations are being used as part of comprehensive visual systems. Images in an illustration system share a unifying mood or style, which makes them identifiable with the brand’s wider image and message, even as they represent different aspects of a product or service.

Illustration systems increase the range and depth of messages a company communicates visually about itself, from mission statements to practical product support, while strengthening brand image.

Design Process

So how should you go about designing an effective brand illustration system? I take you through my design process, with examples from the recent overhaul we undertook at Spacebase.

Research The Brand

First thing’s first — know the brand you’ll be designing for. This might sound obvious but don’t underestimate the work involved. Even if you think you already have a working knowledge, it’s worth investing time to refresh or deepen your understanding of the brand.

Dig into the culture behind the company and its products or services. What is their principal message, what forms do their existing visual identity take, and what is the direction the company wants to grow in?

Investigating this thoroughly at the beginning will save you headaches and dead-ends later on.

Understand Stakeholder Needs

As well as doing your own research, you’ll need to speak to the stakeholder. This connection is crucial to the success of your design — so involve them early and keep them updated with the process.

Get answers to key questions about the design: where will the illustrations appear and what do they need to express? What kind of situations and emotions might they play on? What are the technical parameters you need to work within?

At this stage, the stakeholder might not be very clear about what they want. Nonetheless, you should listen carefully to their input and consider their expectations in relation to the goals of the business and their wider brand image.

At Spacebase, the aim was to make the online booking platform more approachable and human. I thought deeply about the relationship between meeting rooms and the people who use them. We wanted to capture the brand message of breaking out of regular workspaces, into new and exciting ones, in a smooth, convenient, supportive way. The designs had to come across as friendly, modern, and simple.

Organize Inspiration

A moodboard is essential for getting to grips with the input you receive and organizing your ideas. Collect images from competitors or companies in the field with similar qualities to your intended goal and then compile these into a resource. Looking at what inspires you can be a guide to the overall tone you want to achieve and suggest the way to a first iteration. This is also useful material to show the stakeholders, as it gives them a sense of the direction the illustrations will take before the work of creating concepts begins.

Some of the brand illustrations which inspired me. (Large preview)

For the Spacebase design, I was particularly inspired by the Airbnb, IBM, and Shopify illustrations. The simple design of people and spaces really stood out for me, and I was interested in how the muted color palettes keep the illustrations focused, without overwhelming the pictorial elements. They produce an impression of calm, warmth and inclusivity.

Concept Creation

After researching and moodboarding, I start sketching on Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes I use a Wacom tablet but mainly I stick to my mouse with the Pen tool. I use shapes to create a basic structure, and use the Pen tool to add detail and enhance the basic outline.

Drawing onscreen. (Large preview)

Bear in mind that the images you design should cohere to form a uniform system, not form standalone scenes. So even if this is the first iteration — aim to give the illustrations a distinctive flavor which you will be able to replicate across different designs in the future. This might not come at first but feel your way towards an internal logic for the branding illustrations and aim to be consistent with this in your decisions.

With the Spacebase illustrations, we focused on human characters and color scheme as ways to keep the images in line with other visual branding elements.

The evolution of the email banner for booking confirmations. (Large preview)

I started drawing the human characters with basic outlines, to get a feel for the emotions they would represent and how they would inhabit interior spaces. I wanted flowing lines to give them dynamic profiles and suggest movement. I also wanted to avoid anything that looked too heavy — lightweight and friendly were keywords. Diversity was also important to me, as Spacebase is an international company, and I always want viewers of illustrations to see themselves.

Alongside the human figures, I wanted the objects and environments to have a distinct style — abstract, futuristic and design-forward. We wanted to show interiors which are bright, beautiful, involving the users in the spatial dynamic, and with objects that suggest an idealized professional working environment. At the same time, these were not to distract attention. Spacebase is all about inspiring meeting rooms but their brand is more about the people who use these spaces. This took many iterations to get just right.

Exploring different lines and color palettes. (Large preview)

After the sketches had been refined, I thought about a color scheme. Colors are powerful and evoke instant reactions — so it was important to me not to overwhelm the illustrations. I wanted subtle shades to enhance and complement the scenes. The color scheme should also reflect the brand’s personality and match their other visual elements. For the Spacebase color scheme, it was important to break from monochrome and stay away from the drab colors normally associated with meeting rooms. Their main branding color is orange so I balanced this with cooler pastel tones: purple, sky blue, grey, and mustard yellow.

Feedback

After the first iteration, get all the feedback you can.

Clearly, you need to speak to the main stakeholder for their take on your design. But also try to seek out the opinion of users or colleagues, if you have any — especially people who don’t work in design. Their responses can guide you toward the next steps you should take to improve the illustrations. Design for real target users, rather than imagined needs.

Overall I prefer to hear about people’s frustrations overhearing their praise. Accolades are nice but not terribly useful. Getting to know the pain points of users (or something that does not make sense to them visually), indicates where to focus your attention. Even if they don’t agree with your own ideas, the stakeholders and their users must love the design. Good design is in the eye of the user.

One of the illustrations I struggled with most at Spacebase was the banner for cancellation emails. Customers receive these either when they have canceled their own booking or when Spacebase has had to cancel it.

Nobody likes bad news, so I wanted the design to share their disappointment and suggest sympathy and understanding. Early versions were too heavy, though. Colleagues said it felt like the end of the world, that some drastic judgment had been passed. It took a long time (and many iterations) to move in a different direction.

The design for booking cancellation took many iterations. (Large preview)

In the end, we removed the human figures altogether. This was a way to avoid the illustration becoming too emotionally charged and give it a more neutral feel. The latest iteration minimizes the drama — it acknowledges an issue through semi-abstract representations of screens but also points to a future beyond the cancellation.

Reference Library

As you create your illustrations, it’s useful to build up a library of the different elements you have already used. This means you can refer back to them in the future and make sure you keep the style and feel consistent across different illustrations. Keeping your illustrations coherent is key to the overall effectiveness of your system in the long-term.

Image library for human figures. (Large preview)

Image library for objects. (Large preview)

Repeat

Be prepared to go through this process many times.

We went through many stages to get to the final iterations. (Large preview)

Constant iteration is the most important part of producing a successful visual identity. Keep creating new versions, obtaining feedback, and drafting new iterations. Everything is a prototype and you have to stay open to tweaks in order to make your branding as relatable to users as possible. Keep stakeholders updated and involved and be ready for unexpected turns — design is also a journey and each step gets you closer to an exceptional result.

As long as you immerse yourself in research and feedback, you’ll be heading in the right direction. That’s what I find most rewarding about design — I am motivated by the ongoing process and when I feel like I’m constantly improving upon things, I am happy to be doing what I do.

The Spacebase branding illustrations have helped consolidate brand identity. (Large preview)

(cc, yk, il)

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/M1BtMjpYIDM/how-to-photoshop-someone-into-a-picture

Why might you want to learn how to Photoshop someone into a picture? Assembling your friends for a photo can be an uphill struggle and there’s no guarantee you’ll fit everyone in – there’s always one straggler, standing awkwardly just outside the frame. 

This beginner’s tutorial will guide you through the process of taking a person from one image and adding them to another. While directed specifically toward adding people, many of the techniques used in this tutorial can be used in any other compositing work. Get Adobe Creative Cloud to follow this tutorial and explore other projects in Photoshop.

If this isn't quite what you're after, or you'd like something more advanced, see our comprehensive list of Photoshop tutorials.

01. Find your image

Ideally your person would be on a plain background to make cutting out much easier

When picking your two images, it’s important to consider matching perspective and angles, ensuring that any inserted image has the best chance of looking natural and in situ. Try to mimic the resolution and lighting conditions of the original image, since tiny differences can immediately spoil the credibility of a composition.

When cutting a person out from their background, it is preferable to have a sharp edge around your subject. If a background is clean enough, such as a plain, block colour, you can often get away with using the Magic Eraser tool for a quick cutout.

This involves cycling through the eraser tools by clicking and holding on the icon in the toolbar or pressing Shift + E, until you get to the Magic Eraser. With this tool selected, click on unwanted areas of the image to remove. If it is a blank white background, it should usually disappear in one click. This is destructive and permanent, so it is worth duplicating the layer or backing the image up.

02. Use the Pen tool 

Draw around the body using the Pen tool. Either draw exact curves in as you go or add them in later

The most accurate way to cut out an object in Photoshop is by drawing a path with the Pen tool. Select the Pen tool in the toolbar or with the shortcut P, then make the first point on your path by clicking onto the canvas, somewhere on the edge of your subject. Continue clicking around the whole body, until you connect the final point with the first (ignore the head and hair for now, just roughly draw around it).

As you click, hold down the mouse to drag out bezier handles and draw curves. You can add these to anchor points later with the Convert Point tool or edit existing ones with the Direct Selection tool. Hold the alt key as you click to change just one handle independent of the other. You can save this path in the Paths panel or select it by right clicking and pressing Make Selection.

03. Focus on the hair

Experiment with the controls in ‘Select and Mask’ until you are left with just the head and hair

The Pen tool is excellent for hard, sharp lines, but unsuitable for anything that has rougher edges, such as hair or fabric. Each designer has their own ‘tried and tested’ trick for dealing with this, including any combination of masks, brushes and alpha channels. But the quickest and most effective method is Select and Mask (previously known as Refine Edge).

Use the Quick Selection tool to roughly select the head and hair of your subject, using the square brackets keys to change the size of your brush. Then click on the Select and Mask button in the taskbar to refine your selection. It is then a matter of trial and improvement, experimenting with Radius, Contrast and Shift Edge until you have removed as much of the background as possible. You can then use this selection to either mask out or delete the background until you have removed as much of the background as possible and the hair looks natural. 

Confirm the selection and then either press the mask button in the layers tab or reverse the selection (right click and Select Inverse) and delete. You can combine this with the Pen tool by performing each process on a separate layer and merging the layers later on (selecting the layers and right clicking in the layers panel).

04. Copy person into your image

Use the Free Transform tool to reposition your person on the image. You may have to flip them if they are facing the wrong direction

Having cut out your subject with the Pen tool and Select and Mask, flatten any layers, then copy and paste into the other document. Position your person into the picture where they look most natural, without breaking any perspective or proportions. Use Edit > Free Transform to resize and rotate your layer. You may need to mask any areas that are meant to be behind foreground objects. You can use the Pen tool for this, selecting your area before pressing the mask button.

05. Consider lighting

Position your adjustment layer above a layer, then hold down alt as you click to adjust just that layer

Simulating the lighting conditions of the original image will help your subject really inhabit the world of the image. The easiest way to do this is by adding shadows and editing colour balance. Simple shadows can be added by painting black onto a new layer with a feathered brush. You can then use the opacity of this layer to control the weight of the shadows. Alternatively you can use the Burn tool to darken the areas of the image that need more shadow, though it is worth duplicating the layer first so you don’t make permanent changes. 

Normally you would adjust the colour balance by clicking on the adjustment layer button in the Layers panel, then selecting which adjustment you want, however this would affect every layer below it in the composition. To make sure an adjustment layer only works on the layer you want, position it above the active layer, then alt click between the layers. You can duplicate adjustments by clicking on the layer and pressing Command + J.

06. How to remove someone from a photo

Content Aware Fill can be unpredictable, especially if the background is complex

Removing a person is a lot easier than adding them. Photoshop has the perfect tool for this exact situation – Content Aware Fill. The success of this largely depends on the rest of the image and how complicated it is. In an ideal world you would make your selection with the Pen or Lasso tool, then go to Edit > Fill and select Content Aware fill. This would then redraw the selected area, making an educated guess from the rest of the information in the image. In reality this can be a little hit and miss, so it is sometimes easier to do the hard work yourself.

There are a few options for this – the Patch tool, the Healing Brush or the Clone Stamp tool, though the latter gives you the greatest control. Select the Clone Stamp tool and alt click to select the area you want to clone from. Then paint onto the layer, keeping a soft brush and a low flow. Again it is worth duplicating the layer so you have something to reference back to.

Read more:

How to flip a layer in PhotoshopHow to make a meme in PhotoshopThe best alternatives to Photoshop

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/BvUy59okKzQ/harley-quinn-posters

A bit of a retro feel is always a good way to get people's attention. Nostalgia's an easy button to press; that's why people are guaranteed to lose it for shows like Stranger Things and Mad Men, and why each year's design trends are almost certain to incorporate elements from bygone decades.

If you really want a vintage twist to hit home, though, you need to aim for an era that's not being milked to death already; does anyone really want to see another 1980s-inspired design at the moment? So we're delighted to see the new poster designs  for DC's upcoming Harley Quinn movie, Birds of Prey, which take nostalgia to a new level. 

Forget the 1980s; these posters, revealed on the Birds of Prey Twitter account, are rocking a killer 1480s vibe. Respect.

Is this the defining movie poster trend of the decade?

The main poster's inspired by Botticelli's most famous work, The Birth of Venus. Painted at some point in the 1480s, it depicts the Greek goddess Venus emerging from the sea in a giant scallop shell, fully-grown and completely nude. If you want to see the original it can be found in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy,

Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is the clear inspiration here

Harley, played by Margot Robbie, isn't nude in this poster, but the look clearly comes from the Botticelli original. There's the giant scallop shell (adorned with chunky diamonds) and the sea, and while Venus is attended by the got Zephyr and other minor deities, here Harley is backed up by the likes of Black Canary, Huntress and Cassandra Cain. Oh, and a beaver in a pink tutu, because why not?

It's a strong look that's quite unlike the current trend in movie posters for a moody extreme close-up of the main character with a bunch of text plastered over it; we'd much rather look at something colourful with plenty of details to pore over. 

Supplementary posters feature other characters, as well as that tutu-sporting beaver

As well as the gorgeous main posters, DC has also released a series of supporting posters featuring individual characters from Birds of Prey, again carried off in that Botticelli style and giving you a closer look at everyone already mentioned as well as Victor Szasz and Roman Sionis (played by Ewan McGregor), all backed up with more bits of weird pre-Renaissance iconography to ponder over.

There's no word from DC on who's responsible for these fantastically weird illustrations; whoever it is, though, we like their style. And after the massive success of this year's Joker movie, it's good to have another Batman spin-off to look forward to. Birds of Prey is scheduled for release on 7 February 2020; there's no official site yet, but you can find out more on its Twitter account.

Related articles:

Check out these incredible posters for movies that never happenedA designer's guide to printing a poster39 stunning poster designs to inspire you

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/design-profitable-sales-funnels-mobile/

How To Design Profitable Sales Funnels On Mobile

How To Design Profitable Sales Funnels On Mobile

Suzanne Scacca

2019-12-06T11:00:00+00:00
2019-12-06T15:07:36+00:00

A sales funnel is a set of invisible steps you lay before visitors that takes them from the point of entry to the desired action. There are three stages in a sales funnel:

Top of the funnel (TOF),
Middle of the funnel (MOF),
Bottom of the funnel (BOF).

Why do we call these three stages a funnel? Because, together, they form a funnel-like shape:

A sales funnel and its three key stages: top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, bottom-of-funnel marketing. (Large preview)

At the top are all the people who enter your website or PWA. At the bottom are those who’ve bought something. The reason it tapers off is because your funnel sheds visitors and leads along the way who aren’t a good fit.

This process actually occurs with or without your help. (It’s just more effective if you take the time to carefully construct it.) Open Google Analytics and locate the tab called “Users Flow” under “Audience” or “Behavior Flow” under “Behavior”.

You’ll see something like this:

An example of using Google Analytics to chart the natural flow of visitors through a website. (Source: Google Analytics) (Large preview)

In this particular user flow, we’re looking at how traffic from various mediums (e.g. organic search, third party referrals, social media) moves through the website.

The shape isn’t as explicit as a funnel, but you can see that’s exactly what’s happening with the numbers. There were 4500 sessions to start. By the second interaction, only 143 remained.

By actually designing your sales funnels, though, you can improve your results and make them more predictable. You’ll do this by driving the right kind of leads into your website, laying down a clear set of steps for them to take and, hopefully, maximizing the number of them that convert.

To do this, you’ll need to understand what’s going on in the minds of your leads at every part of the funnel and then design an experience that caters to that exact mindset.

Let’s look at some examples.

Designing For Top Of The Funnel

Someone discovers your website or brand on Google, through a social media post or from a personal referral. So, they visit the website on a fact-finding mission.

TOF marketing is all about discovery. You want to take visitors from:

Sounds interesting.

To:

This is promising! I should [subscribe to the newsletter/like them on Facebook/grab this free downloadable].

Here is an example of how you might build out the Awareness part of the funnel:

Step 1: Show Up in the Right Places

Your sales funnel doesn’t begin on your website or app. It begins in places like Google search results, like this example for the Atlassian enterprise software company:

This is the first step of the TOF funnel: a Google search result for Atlassian. (Source: Atlassian) (Large preview)

In order for visitors to enter the funnel, you have to increase the exposure of your brand in places like:

Organic Google search results,
Social media posts,
Review site recommendations,
Content like blog posts and podcasts.

You can also use paid search and social ads to boost brand awareness, but be careful. As this WordStream infographic demonstrates:

The WordStream infographic shows how different keywords perform better in SEO vs. PPC placements. (Source: WordStream infographic) (Large preview)

Paid placements are much more attractive to consumers who are ready to buy (i.e. at the bottom of the funnel). Top of the funnel consumers, however, are simply on a fact-finding mission, which is why you’d be best off finding organic placements (in search and elsewhere) to put in front of them.

Step 2: Help Them Learn More

Once visitors enter your website, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to get the information they need. On mobile, that means giving them a shortcut above the fold:

The Atlassian home page invites visitors to ‘Learn more’. (Source: Atlassian) (Large preview)

There’s nothing complicated about what the CTA button is asking visitors to do. No pressure to buy. No snarkiness or attitude. Just a straight-forward, “Let us help you discover our products.”

Step 3: Give Them a Little Room

It’s not as though Atlassian is some unknown brand. It’s the developer of products like Jira, Trello, and Bitbucket. And, yet, its first step is to invite visitors to take time to learn more. More websites would be better off if it had as welcoming of an approach.

The next step in this process gives visitors the time and space to research Atlassian’s products:

Atlassian encourages visitors to take time learning about all of the software available. (Source: Atlassian) (Large preview)

There are no pesky pop-ups on this page to distract visitors from the list of products. There are no ads or banners drawing attention to special offers or anything like that. There aren’t even any “Buy Now” buttons. Each product description is followed by a “Learn more” button.

This is perfect for the business owner or CTO who simply wants to gather up facts on software options before making any buying decisions.

Step 4: Make a Connection

Because these are top-of-funnel visitors, there’s no way you’re going to get them to convert on the spot — especially for enterprise software. So, your best bet is to throw a soft pitch their way.

In the case of Atlassian, it offers a free trial:

Atlassian doesn’t push TOF visitors to buy right away. A free trial is offered instead. (Source: Atlassian) (Large preview)

No credit card is required at this time. This is simply about letting prospective users learn even more about the product without the pressure of a price tag.

If you have a product that they can discover first-hand, this is a great way to earn the trust of TOF consumers and fast-track them to conversion.

If you don’t have a product that can be tested, that’s fine. There are other ways to help your users learn more and stay connected through email. A lead magnet like a downloadable checklist or ebook is one way to do it. A subscription to your blog is another. Or you might just invite them to follow you on social.

However you make that connection, make sure you’re only asking for the bare minimum:

Atlassian free trial form asks for only required user data. (Source: Atlassian) (Large preview)

If you’re thinking of going the route of a lead magnet, read this guide for tips on designing the lead gen landing page.

Designing For Middle Of The Funnel

For businesses with shorter sales cycles (i.e. ones with less complicated and cheaper products), this part of the funnel doesn’t usually exist. For those that do need it (like service providers and SaaS companies), though, it’s a critical part of the sales process.

We’ve already established that leads that get to this stage are interested since they shared their email address or connected with you in some other manner. Now, it’s your job to feed them with free value and insights so they go from:

This is promising!

To:

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.

MOF marketing is all about building relationships and nurturing trust while you give your prospects time to consider whether the purchase is worth it.

Here is an example of how you might build out the Nurturing part of the funnel:

Step 1: Keep in Touch

Your website has successfully educated visitors enough to become interested leads. Now, you have to actually do something with that connection.

If they subscribed by email, started a free trial or downloaded a lead magnet, they should begin receiving email communications.

If they followed your brand on social, then they should start seeing your posts on a regular basis.

Just keep in mind that these messages shouldn’t be about the hard sell. At this stage, all you’re doing is providing extra value and building trust in the process. If you contact them at the right frequency and with the right kind of content, though, they’ll eventually get to a point where there’s no doubt in their minds that they want to buy from you.

For example, I was on Google recently looking for “spas near Providence” (where I’m moving to early next year). I always book a spa session for my birthday and was just curious what kind of options I’d be working with.

In my Google Maps results, I discovered The Bodhi Spa. It had great reviews, it was close to where I was moving and it had the kind of spa services I was interested in. So, I figured, why not click and learn more?

I was happy with what I saw, so I decided to follow them on Instagram so they could stay top-of-mind until I move to Providence. This is the exact thing you want to happen with your TOF prospects.

And the way the spa continues to stay in touch is the exact thing you (or whoever handles the marketing for the website you built) should be doing in the MOF:

A recent Instagram post from The Bodhi Spa. (Source: The Bodhi Spa) (Large preview)

What’s great about this example is that the spa doesn’t overdo it. They only post once every week or two — just enough to keep followers (and interested prospects) engaged:

The Bodhi Spa posts enticing photos on Instagram every week or two. (Source: The Bodhi Spa) (Large preview)

Another nice tip you can leverage from this example is how the posts are written.

Sure, the Instagram page is meant to be promotional. However, the posts themselves aren’t written in a sales-centric tone. For instance, the last post that went up simply says:

Gimme some #happyhormones #plungepool #bodhispa #heatupcooldownrelaxrepeat

The enticing image and the relaxed message work well for MOF marketing. It’s like, “Hey, we’re here whenever you’re ready.” And, for my own purposes, that’s perfect. As an interested prospect, I’m glad I’ll have these kinds of updates to remind me to book a session once I’m in town.

Step 2: Always Include Your Link

When you get close to the bottom of the funnel, your links should go deeper into the site. For instance, let’s say you were to run a Google ad for a specific product or sale. The link in that ad wouldn’t go to your home page. It would go to a targeted landing page that would shortcut the whole process.

MOF prospects aren’t at that stage yet, so you should still send them to your home page or some other top-level page on your website (just not a navigation-less landing page).

The Bodhi Spa, for example, points all Instagram visitors to its home page:

The Bodhi Spa includes a link to its home page on Instagram. (Source: The Bodhi Spa) (Large preview)

Most newsletters and email communications will do the same, with a link at the very top or bottom of the email pointing to the home page.

Just make sure the link you send them to naturally directs them through the middle-of-funnel steps.

Step 3: Point Them in the Right Direction

For longer sales cycles, make sure your website is fully prepared to provide answers to interested prospects — both directly and indirectly.

As far as the direct approach goes, a contact form and live chat would be useful. You should exhaust the indirect options before you go too crazy with setting up contact channels though.

As far as the indirect approach goes, your website should be like a self-guided journey. That way, when they land on the home page, it’s clear which directions they can go in:

The home page of The Bodhi Spa has a ‘Begin Your Journey’ button. (Source: The Bodhi Spa) (Large preview)

The home page gives visitors two ways to go:

Begin your journey,
Or access the menu.

Now, as a first-time visitor at the top of the funnel, the prospective customer likely scrolled through the home page to look for an opportunity to quickly learn more:

The home page of The Bodhi Spa PWA points visitors to ‘Learn More’. (Source: The Bodhi Spa) (Large preview)

As a return visitor, however, this part of the home page opens up a new pathway that they likely hadn’t considered the first time around: “Book Now”. Even the order in which the buttons appears suggests that that’s the order in which visitors should interact with them.

That said, MOF prospects aren’t necessarily ready to buy on a second, third or even fourth visit. While they’re not in the initial “Is this worth it?” discovery phase, they’re still trying to gather all the facts and make up their mind.

(And if they are sold on your offer that quickly, that’s great! You have the button there, ready for them to click.)

Step 4: Reinforce Your Value

Even though this is a mobile website (or PWA) where content should be kept to a minimum, it’s important to include all details that will make-or-break their decision to buy. Don’t stuff them into the home page or a single services or products page though.

Lay it out in your navigation like this:

The Bodhi Spa has a dedicated page for each of its services and its company story. (Source: The Bodhi Spa) (Large preview)

At first glance, you might not think this website has that much information since the home page is so straight and to the point. However, this navigation digs deep into the spa’s offerings along with the company’s story.

Also, take note of the FAQs included under “Our Journey”. That’s a great touch. If you know that prospects tend to come to you with the same questions, don’t make them use the “Connect” or “Contact” page to fill out a form. It not only clogs up your inbox with questions, but it forces them to do extra work.

Make your website do most of the work instead.

And if it’s not prepared to answer all of the questions and ease all of their doubts, then it’s time to revisit the structure, content and design of your site. The MOF is the trickiest part of the sales funnel. If you can successfully bring prospects back to the site from your mobile marketing efforts, don’t let it go to waste.

Designing For Bottom Of The Funnel

Okay, so your prospects know what you’re offering and they’re ready to buy. All they need is one last push through a seamless and effortless checkout so that they go from:

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.

To:

Where’s my credit card?

Here is an example of how you might build out the Conversion part of the funnel:

Step 1: Make Your Offer Clear

If your website were a flesh-and-blood salesperson, this is the point of the call or meeting where they’d ask, “Can I have your business?” There’s no point in beating around the bush on your website or your marketing either.

For MOF visitors who’ve finished checking up on you and your offering, you’ll want to boldly make your offer where they’ll easily see it, just as the Boston Calling Music Festival does:

The Boston Calling Music Festival website clearly and boldly published its tickets. (Source: Boston Calling Music Festival) (Large preview)

For TOF visitors who don’t need much convincing or nurturing, you can directly post your offer to them over email or social media:

An email for tickets to the Boston Calling Music Festival. (Source: Boston Calling Music Festival) (Large preview)

Just make sure your sales funnel can be truncated into TOF and BOF in that case.

For something like a concert where the offer is clear-cut, going this route would be fine. However, think about something like a professional conference or retreat where tickets run upwards of $1000 and the cost of travel adds even more weight to that total. If you’re asking for a huge commitment of time, money or effort from your customers, don’t skip the MOF marketing steps.

Once you’re in this stage, though, you can put aside all of that education you did earlier. All you need to do now is sell, so make sure the “Buy” button is as clear as day wherever you put it.

Step 2: Summarize Their Purchase in the Cart

Whether customers are putting products into a shopping cart, purchasing tickets to an event or signing up for your SaaS, it’s a good idea to quickly remind them of what they’re about to buy before you hop into checkout.

On the Cart page, provide a summary like this:

The Boston Calling tickets page reminds visitors what they’re buying before they check out. (Source: Boston Calling Music Festival) (Large preview)

The Cart page makes sure that buyers fully understand what it is they’re buying. That way, they don’t go through checkout, only to realize at the email confirmation stage that they bought something they can’t use or on dates they’re unavailable. This’ll reduce the numbers of emails, calls or refund requests you have to handle post-sale.

Step 3: Streamline Checkout

Last but not least, make it easy for your customers to get through checkout.

The first thing to do is simplify the sign-in/sign-up process:

The Boston Calling Music Festival website provides multiple options to sign in or up for tickets. (Source: Boston Calling Music Festival) (Large preview)

Customers can sign in with an existing account or they can sign up for a new one. And the sign-up process has two options as well:

Create an account with Facebook,
Create an account from-scratch.

You can’t see it here, but the form is enabled with autofill technology, which made filling it out lightning-fast.

The rest of the checkout process should be as easy to get through. One way to do this is by using dropdowns with the most popular options already selected (when it makes sense). That’ll save customers time having to manually enter their data:

Boston Calling auto-fills some checkout fields to speed up the process. (Source: Boston Calling Music Festival) (Large preview)

That said, even the most streamlined of checkout processes can get tiresome if there’s a lot of data to collect. But Boston Calling does a nice job of this, always giving customers a look at how many more steps are to come:

The Boston Calling checkout process clearly lays out each step of the process. (Source: Boston Calling Music Festival) (Large preview)

Even though there are four steps customers have to complete to get their music festival tickets, the last two steps are easy. Secure Ticket provides information on how their tickets are protected in case of inclement weather, disaster or some other reason for cancellation. And the last one is a final check to ensure they purchased the right ticket and are ready to submit their payment information.

It’s a beautiful system from start to finish and ensures that as many interested concert-goers book their tickets as possible.

Wrapping Up

Building a sales funnel into a website can be a huge relief for the people who run it. That’s because a carefully designed pathway can usher your visitors from the point of entry to conversion without much oversight or intervention from you at all.

Aside from some email or social marketing along the way (which can be automated), the rest of the work is done by your website to convert the best-fit customers. Plus, by building your sales funnels for mobile, you’ll ensure that you’ve created the most efficient pathways for your visitors regardless of which device they’re on.

(ra, yk, il)