There are a number of tried and true methods that help business owners keep and attract customers. One of the most current and prominent marketing trends is minimalism. This concept can be applied to your business through website design, marketing campaigns as well as the way you publish information about your products or services. Minimalist marketing messages capture and retain your audience’s attention, as they provide a concise and clear message they will remember. Here are some of the best information communication techniques that fall into the realm of minimalist marketing:
Organizing Content
To capture the attention of your viewers, an emphasis on imagery is key. Organize your content through icons or images, rather than lists or text-heavy content. Images tell an instant story that your audience recognizes in a glance and processes quickly. It provides their brain with a desired focal point and makes a strong statement. Use taglines and succinct captions to accompany your icons, in case your viewers need some extra guidance.
Mini Cooper USA, for example, displays images of car models on its homepage accompanied by the name and the starting price. This enables customers to assess the look and price of the car — two important factors in automobile shopping — before they pursue more information. Mini Cooper’s site allows for easy navigation and quick decision making from the get go, which captures its customer’s attention immediately.
Communicating Key Points
Present your customers with information that won’t confuse or overwhelm them. Written content should be limited somewhere between two to five sentences, and it should only relay the most necessary information, such as research, statistics and pricing or offerings.
For example, T-Mobile provides its customers with the perfect amount of information on its shop page for cellphones. It lists the phone brand, price, payment plan details and service policy information. The site also uses the header banner to showcase any special offers it currently has as well as instructions on how customers can obtain such offers. It is a simple shop page that provides the customers with only the information that is necessary and helpful.
Asking for Feedback
Ask your customers for feedback on your product or services through a poll or vote. Lay’s potato chips is one company that provides customers with the option to vote for their favorite flavors. The feedback Lay’s receives enables the company to collect data on its site viewers while also making them feel more connected to the brand. The “Do Us A Flavor” competition includes a vote-based contest for the best customer-suggested flavor of potato chips. The contest is promoted on Lay’s site and social media pages through simple, eye-catching images and straightforward instructions. The company keeps its message and the voting process simple, which encourages engagement and invites feedback.
Making It Understandable
It is difficult to adequately relay information to your customer if it is presented in a way they cannot identify with. An overwhelming presentation of esoteric vernacular and impressive facts may miss the mark when you aim to capture your customers’ attention. It is oftentimes difficult for an informed party, like your company, to communicate with a lesser-informed customer base.
Trader Joe’s is an example of a place that makes its message and technical terms more understandable. For example, it uses simple adjectives to describe itself as the “home of cheap thrills” and classifies its target customer as an “unemployed college professor who drives a very, very used Volvo.” The inexpensive, yet exotic foodstuffs sold at Trader Joe’s matches these simplified statements and the company’s marketing identity.