After building a multiple-six-figure design business, I know a thing or two about creating brands and websites that stop dream clients in their tracks and take their founders from beginner to booked-out. 

Learn my unique design strategy so you can start delivering the same for your clients as a designer.

Brand and website design is more than slapping a canva font in a circle and calling it a day. 

Successful designers are the ones who can align creativity and design talent with a strategic eye for conversional detail. 

So if you want to stand out in the web design industry, you’ve come to the right place…

You’ll learn:

• What is a design strategy?
• Where design strategy begins
• The critical element of design strategy
• BONUS: The ultimate guide to design strategy and building your dream business

So you can:

→ Design conversional websites with confidence

→ Justify every design decision to your clients

→ Deliver a strong return on investment for your clients

→ Start charging more for your work

Your design strategy begins here…

1. WHAT IS A DESIGN STRATEGY?

Design strategy begins before you open your laptop, or click a new project in Showit. It’s the act of understanding how to achieve your clients’ goals through the website you design. It encompasses the elements, structure, SEO, copy, and conversion methods you’ll implement to achieve that plan while aligning with the client’s big-picture vision for their business. 

Design strategy is an essential step in the website construction process, and there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind every time you customize a plan for each client. 

2. THE BEGINNINGS OF DESIGN STRATEGY

It all starts with feeling. 

When your client’s audience lands on their website, how do they want them to feel? 

• Motivated?
• Inspired?
• Seen?
• Excited?
• Entertained? 

Ask them this in your initial questionnaire or kick-off call. It could be any, or all of the above, or another feeling entirely. The important thing is you center on a word or two that encapsulates the feeling you want to evoke in your website visitors, then design in a way that delivers it. 

There’s even strong evidence suggesting conversions are driven by emotion, rather than logic. Dubbed ‘emotional motivators’, a study in Harvard Business Review revealed hundreds of reasons for purchase intent, such as a desire to stand out, enjoy wellbeing, or feel a sense of freedom. Which emotional motivator can your design tap into?

3. THE CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF DESIGN STRATEGY

After that crucial emotion is captured, for me, design strategy kicks off with a branding session between my client and me. We discuss their entire business in an hour-long powerful virtual call, covering:

• Their business structure
• Target audience
• Offers and freebies
• Goals and vision (for their business AND the site)

And most importantly, I say, “On the last call I said how do you want them to feel? Now, what do you want them to do?”. I get them to go beyond emotion to consider the one thing they’d be so excited to see their website visitor doing. 

 It could be:

• Booking a sales call
• Selecting a specific package
• Purchasing a product

The strategy call is your opportunity to go deep into how the website design can be more strategic, conversional, and goal-aligned. Further questions to ask include:

• Do you have any freebies?
• What are your programs? Including a small description, benefits, what it includes, and pricing. 
• Do you want your pricing displayed on the website?
• Do you have testimonials? 
• Anything else that I should know about your business when designing your website?

The answers to this question help me strategically and intentionally design a layout that aligns with that primary action goal. 

For example, that could be via a three-tier pricing strategy (like the ones below):

This design strategy gives the buyer control and showcases the middle option as the most desirable by positioning option one as ‘too cheap’ and option two as ‘too expensive. Similarly, this strategy extends to pricing strategy, such as ‘$397’ sounding more appealing than ‘$367’ despite being more expensive. 

So if you remember one thing from this piece?

Let it be that strategy comes before the design, questions come before aesthetics and conversions come before creativity.  

4. BONUS: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO DESIGN STRATEGY + BUILDING A BUSINESS 

There’s something out there to help aspiring and established designers turn their big dreams into six-figure reality. The kind of all-in-one, expertly-curated resource with guidance, proven strategies, and no BS-reality checks from someone who’s walked their journey before. 

It’s The Wealthy Web Designer course, and it’s your ticket to web design success. 

We’ll not only cover design strategy in greater depth, but we’ll also touch on every crucial element of a successful design business, spanning four must-watch modules:

• Business
• Design
• Clients
• Marketing

Short and sharp video trainings, templates, and support: this is no ordinary course because you are no ordinary web designer.