11 Web Design Trends to Watch in 2019

Guest Author Emma Knightley from Digital Marketing Institute
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With 2019 just around the corner, we look at 11 web design trends you should consider using. Balancing aesthetics with functionality is a difficult act, but get it right and you'll set yourself up for increased user engagement and higher conversion rates. 

Find out how you can improve your online presence with these 11 actionable tips.

“Mobile internet usage is predicted to increase sevenfold between 2016 and 2021 – Statista”

1. Make Mobile a Priority

According to Statista, “In 2016, 43% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones, up from 35.1 percent in the previous year.” It’s true that the importance of mobile-friendly web design has been increasing for the past several years, and that trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. 

In the first half of 2018, Google rolled out its new Mobile First Index, placing more importance on the mobile version of your website by making it the first to be seen in the search results. This means that your website must have mobile-friendly design.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are also becoming more important. If you haven’t already heard about AMP, it’s an open-source coding standard for publishers that allows them to load their sites quickly on mobile. Traditional mobile websites can be a bit clunky, but AMP ramps up the mobile experience by stripping down code, using external resources for media files and running scripts in parallel to allow pages to load instantly.

Whether you are designing a brand-new site or retrofitting any existing site, AMP is a must for 2019. No potential customer likes a page that loads slowly, and you don’t want to push prospects to one of your (faster) competitors.

2. Irregular Grid Layouts

Grid layouts provide an easy way for designers to tie all of the elements of their web pages together, giving each page a theme and making it easier to navigate. This design theory has been around forever, but there's been a shift in the way they're being used.

Many content management systems, including popular platforms such WordPress, use grid design as the basis of their templates. Two years ago, CSS grid was introduced to provide designers with more options. 

In 2019, we’ll see a shift toward designers using more neutral space and more irregular grid layouts for an ultra-modern design style. Simple styles that include the use of whitespace (or negative space) makes content stand out so that it’s easier to read and navigate. These styles are also easier on the eyes, encouraging users to spend more time on your site. 

3. Bold Fonts & Bright Colors

To complement these modern design styles, you’ll need type font that stands out. Bold font styles help users focus on your content, while the whitespace makes it easier to read and skim through. Together, they’re a perfect complement. Because people typically only spend a few seconds, up to a couple of minutes, looking at your pages, you need to catch their attention with colors and designs that stand out. 

The goal is to create an easy and enjoyable experience for the user to keep them on your site for as long as possible and eventually convert them into paying customers.

In 2019, we may also see these fonts and colors taking the place of images. This makes sense for mobile especially. Unlike images, which slow pages down, scaling the size of your typography won’t impact performance. It also creates cleaner lines on your page that helps your calls-to-action pop. Large buttons, hero images, and clickable images are going out of style and making way for large typographic expressions. 

4. Increase in Micro-Interactions

Facebook and other social media networks have made micro-interactions extremely popular. Users love the ability to contribute a variety of reactions to posts and private messages, from the traditional “liking” of posts, all the way to a flurry of animated hearts you witness when you share the love in private Facebook messages. These micro-interactions allow the user to interact with others without reloading the page.

This is different to the traditional static website user experience, which requires users to reload pages to take action, such as submitting a review. Such a scenario may seem like a minor inconvenience, but it creates a speedbump for customers that will cause some of them to bounce from the page, meaning you lose out on potential conversions. Micro-interactions help level out these speed bumps and provide users with richer interactions.

Using micro-interactions on your site in 2019 will allow users to communicate real-time and increase the speed and connectivity that they have come to expect in a mobile-connected world.

5. More Advanced Scroll Triggered Animations

Scrolled animation triggers encourage users to keep scrolling down your website pages with specifically triggered interactive elements that increase engagement. Here’s one great example of scroll triggered animation from Apple. These animation triggers are nothing new, but they have begun to be used in a new way. The best scroll triggered animations are minimalist, educational and strategic, designed to increase conversions.

Scroll triggered animations can also clean up the look and feel of your website. Instead of having a collection of buttons and menus, your site will convey a true, interactive experience for your users.

6. Top Sticky Elements vs. Bottom Sticky Elements

You know your users read from left to right, but have you thought about the fact that your users are getting used to clicking at the bottom of their smartphones or mobile apps to navigate? 

Since mobile app design is so important to modern web design, website developers are beginning to make sticky menu items scroll from the bottom of the site, as opposed to the top of the site’s pages. Progressive web apps are somewhat responsible from this design evolution, as developers start to design for modern functionality. 

7. Responsive Design

Responsive design is less of a trend than a principle, and it’s been around for a number of years. However, its importance cannot be overlooked. Responsive design is when your website is designed in a way that it resizes to look appealing across multiple screen sizes: mobile, tablets, TV, wearables or desktops.

Though the UX revolution has been happening for nearly a decade, it’s only recently been implemented on a wider scale. In 2019, we expect this design element will continue to expand to include new forms of technology such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.

8. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

They may still sound like terms from a sci-fi film, but artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have hit the mainstream. Three years ago, Google’s AlphaGo AI beat a skilled human Go player for the first time, a defeat that had long been sought after, and AI assistants like Siri are available on millions of devices.

  

So it comes as no surprise that Adobe’s Sensei promises to make AI tools easily available to web developers around the world, while The Grid has been offering AI-based web designs since 2014. As AI and machine learning continue to advance, we’ll start to see them make their way into webdesign in other, more advanced ways.

9. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs)

Although they are not new, in 2019 you can expect this graphic format overtake more traditional file formats such as PNG, GIF and JPG. SVGs are vector images, not pixels, which gives them many advantages.

They are incredibly scalable (while maintaining their quality), meaning they won’t affect page speed when animated because they don't’ require any HTTP requests. SVGs are essential to providing quality multimedia experiences for users in 2019 (360-degree views, 3D images and Cinemographs).

10. Progressive Web Apps

Apps make up a large portion of mobile media time, and web designers are started taking notice and blending the best of web and app behaviors. This hybrid creation is referred to as a Progressive Web App. In 2019, we’ll see a trend in upgrading websites to add elements such as animated page transitions, push notifications and splash screens. Some websites like Medium, are already there, offering apps that are easily accessible with a click. Such apps will continue to evolve to meet each user’s personalized tastes.

They are useful to users from the very first visit in a browser tab, no install required. As the user progressively builds a relationship with the app over time, it becomes more and more powerful. It loads quicker, even on flaky networks, sends relevant push notifications, has an icon on the home screen, and loads as a top-level, full-screen experience.

11. Internet of Things Connectivity

Connecting web services to the Internet of Things has been a huge trend in 2018, and it will continue on this path in 2019. 

IoT devices can include objects as simple as a refrigerator to as complicated as a tidal turbine. These “things” use sensor arrays and server-side processing to receive and act on their environments. APIs that allow web developers to connect and communicate with these devices are currently being created, leading to even more interconnectivity of the next several years.

Simple, Functional, Futuristic Design in 2019

In 2019, the focus will be on designing simple but powerful websites that are well optimized for mobile devices and heavily focused on user experience.

 These sites will feature new types of formats, styles and technologies. Is your brand’s website ready for what 2019 has to bring? 

Google Ranking Factors 2019: Opinions from 1,500+ Professional SEOs

The following is a guest post by Rand at SparkToro.

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In August of 2019, 1,584 professionals in the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) took a survey sharing their opinions on the relative use and merit of various inputs in Google’s ranking systems. This report shares the aggregated results of that survey. Each year, the survey will be repeated to show trends of how ranking factor opinions shift.

How Google Weights Ranking Inputs

Respondents were asked whether they believed ranking inputs were fixed in the algorithm’s weighting system, or whether certain types of queries (or all queries) weighted ranking elements differently.

The responses show that nearly 2/3 thirds of survey takers believe Google has a wide variance of how ranking inputs are weighted depending on the query words used. This makes analysis of the ranking systems vastly more challenging (as a ranking input might be very important for one set of queries, and relatively unimportant for another). Hence, in the ranking input weighting results below, results should be interpreted with knowledge of this potential variance. I.E. SEO's generally believe certain factors outweigh others in importance, but not necessarily in the universality of this ordering.

Ranking Factors Overview

The question text shown to each participant was the same: “For each of the following factors, enter your opinion of how much weight it receives in Google’s organic ranking systems (the classic, ten-blue-links style results).”

Participants in the survey were given a 0-10 scale to rate each of 26 ranking factors with the following labels:

• 0 – Not Used
• 5 – Moderately Weighted
• 10 – Very Heavily Weighted

The visual below illustrates the results from highest average (8.52/10 to lowest (4.19/10).

Consensus vs. Variance of Opinions

Using standard deviation, we can see how on some factors, survey-takers generally agreed (i.e. their responses were tightly clustered around a number) vs. had more disagreement (i.e. responses were spread out). The visual below ranks the factors by level of disagreement.

As might be expected, there’s relative consensus around the top ranking factors (“relevance of overall page content,” and “quality of linking sites & pages”), and more disagreement toward the bottom of the list. This suggests that some SEO practitioners still feel very strongly that factors like keyword-use in domain name, and age of website are powerful influencers, while others think they have little to no impact.

Most interesting to me was the relatively high disagreement on two factors in particular: “Use of Google” AMP and “Content accuracy with accepted facts.” Given that both of these are, in my opinion, used situationally in the ranking algorithms, the high distribution of responses makes sense. One could argue that Google AMP is “all or nothing” factor — in the AMP box on mobile, it’s essential to even being considered, and in all other cases, it makes little difference. A similar case could be made for content accuracy — that it’s used when Google’s applying a high trust parameter to YMYL-type queries, and not applicable at other times.

Comparison of Self-Described “Top 10%” of SEO Professionals vs. All Respondents

Those taking the survey were asked to rate their level of SEO knowledge and experience from “0” (New to SEO) to “10” (Top 10% of the Field). The distribution of those responses is below.

The visual below compares the responses from the 8.1% (129) of survey-takers who said they were in the “top 10%” of the field to the average across all survey-takers.

Perhaps surprisingly, the comparison is not particularly striking. The most variance comes on keyword use in the URL (-1.06) and age of website (-0.97). In general, those with more self-described knowledge and experienced rated all factors a little lower than those with less, perhaps evidence that those with greater experience find more complexity in Google’s ranking systems.

Which trends will have the biggest impact on SEO in the next 3 years?

Each survey-taker was asked to rate the following trends based on their perceived impact to the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) over the next 3 years.

These results show that professional SEO's generally think Google’s own activities, especially their layout choices in the SERP's (Search Engine Result Pages), their decisions to enter more verticals as a publisher and competitors, and their technological/product advancements will have a far greater impact than any government, competitive, or outside influence.

Rand’s Personal Analysis

I compared this year’s data to the aggregated opinions from the previous Moz Ranking Factor opinion surveys across the prior 14 years (2015, 2013, 2011, 2009, 2007, 2005), and found a number of fascinating trends:

• For the first time, content > links & keywords: In the early days of the survey, keywords were the top-voted ranking factors, then, for nearly a decade, links did. Now, content relevance and quality dominate. I think this perception is generally correct (though links are still a powerful #2), and it reflects the great strides Google’s made in understanding content that satisfies searcher intent.
• The perceived value of anchor text is diminishing: Anchor text of links had been a mainstay in the top few ranking factors every year until 2019. It’s not even in the top 10 anymore. I think that’s probably incorrect as an absolute assessment, but I agree that in general, Google has been moving away from an over-reliance on that factor across the prior two decades (1998-2018).
• Mobile friendliness & load speed are bigger than expected: My impression from case studies and Google’s public statements are that these elements are relatively small direct ranking factors (though, I’d posit that indirectly, they nudge things like link earning, engagement, and other important inputs). Seeing them so high was a surprise, and may reflect that modern SEO often conflates correlation and causation (though, as I’ve often argued, correlation in the SEO field is not only interesting, but useful).
• Amount of Content & Age of Website: It’s my belief that, while both are correlated with higher rankings, neither of these are technically used by Google to rank web pages. I’m surprised (and a little disappointed) that they scored so highly.
• Filtering by Geography: One of the biggest misses of the survey this year was my failure to ask where the respondents did the majority of their SEO work. It’s my perception that the importance of various ranking inputs has great variance depending on query language and geography, and I hope to show that in future years.

On the trends front, I found the results initially surprising, mostly because I’m a skeptic on the impact of voice answers (which scored highly), and strongly expect the joint investigations from various branches on the US government to results in significant changes to Google. However, on reflection, I believe the “3 years” time-frame is perhaps responsible for these results. An investigation and subsequent court battle could take significantly longer to resolve.

Methodology & Survey Phrasing

• 1,584 responses were collected via a Typeform survey published from August 6th – August 27th.
• Twitter, LinkedIn, and Email were the primary collection methodologies.
• Respondents came from around the world, although most were from English-language-speaking countries, and the survey was offered only in English.
• 920 responses came from desktops, 654 from mobile phones, and 15 from tablets

The text of each ranking factor from the survey was simplified to create the visuals and data charts. Full text as used in the survey is below for those interested in the precise wording (which tended to be more explicit and explanatory).

“For each of the following factors, enter your opinion of how much weight it receives in Google’s organic ranking systems (the classic, ten-blue-links style results).
If you believe signals are differently weighted based on the query, assume this question refers to the average weight of that signal across all queries.“

• Relevance of the page’s content to the query (i.e. is the text topically relevant to the searched-for keywords)
• Quality of the websites and pages linking to the page
• Use of words, phrases, and content Google might deem “highly relevant to” or “crucial to answering” the query (apart from the query term itself)
• Google’s perceived expertise, authority, and trust of the host domain
• Mobile friendliness of the UI/UX
• Exact (or near exact) use of the searched-for keywords in the content, title, and meta data of the page
• Quantity/diversity of the websites linking to the page (i.e. more unique linking domains vs. many links from the same sites)
• Accuracy of the content (i.e. whether, from Google’s perspective, the page’s/site’s content is truthful and correct)
• Link authority of the host domain (based on the quantity and quality of the links that point to the entire website)
• Google’s perceived expertise, authority, and trust of the individual page’s content (and, if identifiable, the author behind it)
• Use of entities relevant to the query (like names, concepts, places, etc) in the page’s content
• Web page load speed
• User & usage data signals such as searchers’ click-preferences, bounce rate relative to other pages/sites in the rankings, pogo-sticking, engagement, etc.
• Freshness/recency of the content’s publication
• Anchor text of links pointing to the specific, ranking page
• The location, frequency, and distance of words and phrases closely related to the searcher’s query in the text of the page’s content
• Total amount of content on the page
• Use of unique images/visuals relevant to the query
• Site accessibility factors (like use of alt text on images, screen-reader friendliness, use of color, design of online forms, header us, re-sizable text, etc)
• Anchor text of links pointing to other pages on the host domain
• Keyword use in the URL
• Mentions of the host domain or its associated brand in content around the web (aka “unlinked mentions”)
• Age of the website/domain
• Use of Google’s AMP web component framework
• Presence of external links in the page’s content (i.e. linking out to other websites)
• Keyword use in the Host Domain Name

“How much of an impact do you believe the following trends will have on SEO in the next 3 years?”

• Voice search as a query input (i.e. a searcher speaks their search to a mobile or desktop device instead of typing it)
• Voice-answered queries like those offered by Google’s Assistant, Alexa, Siri, etc. (i.e. a searcher receives a spoken-voice answer without a screen of results)
• Zero-Click searches on Google (queries that result in no traffic to the sites that appear on the SERP)
• Advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence
• Changes to the quantity and presentation of ads in Google’s search results
• Google entering more verticals and competing directly with publishers in their results (e.g. Google Flights, Hotels, Jobs, Events, Maps, Play, Books, etc)
• Government intervention in the technology and web landscape (e.g. EU’s GDPR, Articles 11+13, US Justice Dept. investigation into Google’s antitrust behavior, etc)
• Loss of cookie, visit, and web tracking data (from privacy-focused changes from browsers, tech company changes, and govt. requirements)
• Visual search advances like Google Lens, photo-based querying, or other image-search technology leaps
• Google Discover and other latent, content-nudging/engagement technologies
• Government intervention in Google’s operations from Congressional investigations, Justice Department actions, plans like Bernie Sanders’ or Elizabeth Warren’s to break up Google, or other anti-monopoly activity

The raw data for each factor, including mean, median, and standard deviation, are in the chart below:

The Science of Social Timing

By Guest Author: Neil Patel

The #1 job of any modern marketing plan?
Creating spectacular content.

The best content engages customers and leads, builds relationships, and doesn’t scare people away with aggressive sales tactics.

People want useful, interesting, and helpful sales content. And thankfully, most marketers already know this.

According to 2017-18 data from the Content Marketing Institute, 86% of B2C marketers and 91% of B2B marketers currently use content marketing.

And in our ad-blocking world, content is one of the best methods to get your message in front of as many eyes as possible without resorting to annoying ads.

So if you’re not already in the content game, start using content marketing today.

But along the way, you’ll probably run into a simple problem—when do you share your content for maximum impact?

Every channel has peak times, as well as times when almost none of your potential buyers are online.

Today, you’ll learn when to share the amazing content you’ve created to reach the most people.

Best channels for your content

Let’s start by analyzing the channels you can use for your content.

There is an infinite number of ways you could send your content to potential customers and prospects, but only a few are really worth your time.

But while there’s always new hype about the latest and supposedly greatest ways to share your content, three really dominate the field. Focus on these and you’ll be fine.

The three are email, blogs, and social media platforms. Research shows again and again that these platforms tend to be the most common, most effective, and most visited channels.

Now, chances are you’ve already tried (or are planning on trying) all three of those channels.

But no matter how great your content or which networks and blogs you work on, if you’re not sending it out at the right time, you’re going to struggle.

How to give yourself an extra boost

with proper timing

Here’s a little marketing secret you’ll learn once you master the basics of quality content: when you share can be as important as what and where.

Think about it: the internet is a global playground, with people online and browsing for content to consume 24/7.

What you post or send at any given moment will be seen by a very small percentage, with an even smaller percentage actually taking notice of it.

You’ve got to hit publish or send at the opportune moment. Don’t guess about when it’s most likely to have the farthest reach and biggest impact. Know for sure.

For example, the Central and Eastern time zones account for over 80% of the population in the United States.

Publishing to Facebook at 9pm in Los Angeles means it’s midnight on the East Coast. You’re excluding a huge chunk of potential readers.

When they wake up the next moment, your post or tweet is long gone.

Be selective about when you share. You worked hard on it. And they want to see it. Share at the best time on social, email, and your blog.

Correct timing for social media posts

Every network has its own highs and lows. You can use that to your advantage by posting on the right day at the right time to increase your likes, shares, and clicks.

We’ll talk about Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram here.

But you should know that if you’re using a more market-specific platform not included here (say, YouTube or Pinterest) they have their own peak times.

Experiment with different posting times to see what results in the best response for your industry or vertical.

Facebook timing

Facebook is the undisputed king of social media, with billions of members and strong market dominance.

Even if they’ve encountered scandals in the last few years, they still dominate the social media space and likely will for a long time to come.

Of all the networks to take part in, Facebook should probably be on your list. Customers just expect it.

Look, there’s always new data coming out about the “best time” to post on Facebook, but in reality, you can use Facebook’s analytics tool to find out what works best for your audience.

Just log into your Facebook page and select Facebook Page Insights. You can see when your users are most active, what time zone they’re in, and a host of other data.

Schedule sample posts at different times throughout the day, then test and revise.

One tip is to measure weekend engagement differently than weekday engagement. So schedule posts at different times Monday through Friday than on Saturday or Sunday.

Twitter timing

Twitter is another social media platform with a broad user base that spans different industries.

If you’re using Twitter, my best advice is to post on a regular basis. I try to post every hour, seven days a week.

Sure, there might be a peak time to post your most important updates. You can do some research on posts you schedule to see what works best.

But in general, you need to be engaging with people all around the world (and even the night owls where you live) at all times of day and night.

Of course, that’s impossible for a human to do, so use a scheduling tool like Buffer or MeetEdgar to push out tweets, even when you’re asleep.

Instagram timing

Finally, I have a simple tool you can use to improve the times you post on Instagram.

The life expectancy of an Instagram post is longer than Facebook and Twitter combined, though this is gradually changing as there’s more and more content on the platform.

When posting on Instagram, expect to get 50% of your comments within the first 6 hours, and 75% within two days.

The best strategy to posting on Instagram is to use an analytics tool like Iconosquare. With this type of software, you can quickly see where your followers are located.

With that information, send out your posts in the morning in their time zone. When people wake up, they often engage with Instagram first thing in the morning, so target people early.

And of course, you can adjust this depending on when people get up—if you know your audience tends to sleep in, schedule it later in the morning.

The best time to send out an email

Email marketing is the best return-on-investment you can make for your business, with an average return of $44 for every $1 spent according to 2016 data.

And if that’s not enough, email has a higher conversion rate than search and social combined.

Moral of the story? Use email to share your content and engage with your customers and leads.

But if you want to avoid being deleted, overlooked, or ignored, you’ve got to time those precious messages to arrive in the window.

Like all of the suggestions in this article, compare my recommendations with what data applies to your specific industry and the emails you’ve sent out in the past.

But typically, you’ll get a higher engagement rate in the mornings than in the afternoons or evenings. In fact, 10pm-6am is considered a “dead zone” since so few people are on email at night.

Remember, people often read our emails first thing after getting up. So be sure to have an email waiting for someone to read right out of (or even in) bed.

When to post on your blog

Of course, blog articles have the longest lifespan of any of these channels. People still read blog posts that are years old, even when they’d never do that with social media updates.

So, how often should you publish?

According to 2018 data, sites that publish 16+ articles each month drove 3.5x more traffic than those that only published four or fewer monthly posts.

So publish frequently—around every other day or so.

But, as with social and email, when you hit that publish button is important.

Publish during peak times during the day, and you’ll likely see more traffic and more engagement (comments and sharing), but you’ll also face stiffer competition.

Publish during downtimes, like at night, and you’ll face the opposite—fewer competitors for attention, but less traffic overall.

The best time to post can’t really be determined with such simplistic factors without understanding your specific market, but here are some general guidelines.

For maximum traffic, the best time to publish a post is on Monday in the late morning around 11am. The weekend is over and people are looking for something interesting midway through work.

If you’re aiming for comments, though, research suggests that Saturday morning is the best time.

People are just more likely to engage when they’re relaxed and reading on a weekend morning.

And finally if you’re looking for links, early morning publishing can help, and Monday and Thursdays are both great days for this.

But remember—the ultimate strategy to improve your blog readership isn’t to worry too much about posting times.

Since a blog post doesn’t “expire” as quickly as an email or social media post, your focus should be on promotion and sharing through other channels, not just publishing at the right minute.

Conclusion

Most content marketers already know they need to be writing the best content for their audience.

And I’d venture to say most of those marketers also know the best channels to post their content on, whether that’s through email, blogs, or social media.

But many marketers are missing out on the final step: when to post the content. With a deep knowledge of when the peak times are for your audience, you can maximize the impact of everything you write.

Sending out content at the right time is the secret sauce that will give you a leg up over your competitors.

And in the field of internet marketing, small details like communicating with your audience at just the right time can make a big difference.

What times work best with your content schedule?

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About Neil Patel

He is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Branding in the Digital Age is About One Thing

The following is a guest post by Gabriel Nwatarali of Tech Help Canada.

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Effective branding has always been a good indicator of the long-term success of any organisation. However, branding in the digital age is a bit daunting considering there are so many places for consumers to congregate. Simply put, the Internet is forcing branding strategies to rapidly evolve.

The advent of social media, explosion of search engines, and various other technologies have altered consumer behavior. People now use several types of devices and platforms to access information (e.g. entertainment, educational, products, etc.). Today branding in the digital age is about creating memorable brand experiences if you want to earn their attention.

Company Branding and Brand Experience

Branding is the practice of making an organisation easily identifiable, distinguishable, and memorable. Everything from your business name,logo design, tagline, communications, etc. are all aspects that make up your brand.

Brand experience refers to how customers feel about your business. This includes every interaction with your products or services, marketing messaging, and the memories they have concerning the company.

Furthermore, worth noting is that improving brand experience begins at the product design phase. For example, Apple cares a great deal about product design and it shows. That’s a big reason why consumers use their products. Addressing experience begins during product design. This is an important aspect of brand experience that can be missed.

Good brand experiences bring about positive consumer interactions, brand awareness, and customer loyalty.

Memory and Experience

Address all possible consumer pain points regarding your products and/or services. Sounds good, right? But the truth is you can’t get them all and that’s OK too.

However, you can remove “friction” to increase efficiency and quality. With friction being anything that removes energy from a system or process over time. Good business systems facilitate memorable brand experiences.

For instance, imagine for a moment that Starbucks required every customer to purchase their drinks using its mobile app. That would surely reduce the number of people willing to buy a Starbucks coffee. Plus it’s downright bad customer service. In this scenario, they’ve essentially introduced friction to their business.


The thing is people gravitate towards pleasure more than they do pain and that’s not expected to change. So the memory they create about your company will be the deciding factor for any return engagement. Also, worth mentioning here is that friction is often an opportunity to create a memorable brand experience.

Our “Two Selves”

You may have heard the old saying, “the first impression is everything”. Well, the end phase of an experience is what shapes our memories, not the first impression. Even though that’s equally important. 

Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli-American psychologist, and economist revealed the idea of two selves in his TED2010 presentation. The experiencing self and remembering self.

He had conducted studies in the 90s on patients undergoing colonoscopy where each person reported their level of pain every 60 seconds. The patient who dealt with pain longer (patient B) reported suffering less than the one who felt pain for less than 10 minutes (patient A).

Logically, whoever experiences pain the most must have suffered more, right? However, that wasn’t how these patients thought about the procedure.

Mr. Kahneman deduced the reason was that patient B experienced less pain at the end-phase of their colonoscopy. Patient A experienced more pain at the end of theirs. Both patients had different stories based on the end phase of their procedure.

By now, you can probably see how this relates to creating memorable brand experiences. Consumers care about the beginning and end phase of their experience. However, it’s the end-phase that ultimately determines whether or not they’ll become loyal customers and advocates of your brand.

Think about a time where you purchased a product that wasn’t exactly as described. You were probably happy during the shopping and purchase phase of acquiring the given item. So it’s within reason to assume that your entire experience during those stages is why you bought the product.

But, you probably only remember the product as junk or crap based on the post-purchase phase. Regardless of whether it may have been an infrequent event on the given company’s part.

Memory is what we keep and pain will ruin memories, especially if it’s felt at the end of our experience. A bad first impression can be turned around with a great ending. Hence, the phrase, “never judge a book by its cover”.

Here’s another example regarding this matter. Quite often, people only remember the horrible breakup in a relationship, not the good times they had together. However, many will remember the good times too if a breakup was mutually agreed on or done pleasantly.

Creating Memorable Brand Experiences

Let’s go back to our example with the product that wasn’t as described. Now let’s assume that the company in question had a no-lose guarantee. Where they gave you a replacement and refunded 20 percent of your purchase fee. Would you still remember the brand negatively? Probably no. Plus you’ll remember that experience as being positive.

Let’s look at some tips that’ll help you facilitate memorable brand experiences.

1. Who’s Your Customer?

You must know the kind of audience you’re trying to reach. This increases the likelihood that your marketing messages will be well received. Also, you should go beyond personas or having a good sense of the customer to facilitate memorable brand experiences.

Every consumer wants his or her desires met. Ever wondered why a loyal customer suddenly switches to another brand? This often occurs because the competitor addressed their desires faster than you could. So intricately knowing your target audience demands research into their desires.

Here’s an example of how you can tap into audience desires.

A recent study by Edge Research, on behalf of the Blackbaud Institute for Philanthropic Impact, found that boomers are more charitable With this data, a business that’s targeting the baby boomer generation could offer up some of its revenue to charity.

Something like donating five percent of every sale to a charity of their choice should further encourage favorable actions from that audience. The audience will naturally feel incredible with every purchase, knowing that five percent of their money is going to a charitable cause.

2. Use Stories

Humans have used storytelling since the Stone Age and in the digital era, it’s just as important. A great way of creating memorable brand experiences is by telling relatable stories. However, don’t forget that people will remember your story based on how it ends.

Use stories to demonstrate how your product/service solves the consumer’s problem. Then do everything to make sure there’s a desired ending after purchase. That may mean having 24/7 customer service or tech support, a 100 percent money-back guarantee, long-term warranties, etc. You can’t make everyone happy but try to ensure satisfaction.

Preferably, make it a habit to always add stories to your content. For example, a professional blogger who regularly shares personal stories is creating memorable experiences.

3. Consistency and Repetition

You have to be consistent with your overall company messaging and repeat it as often as possible. This helps your business capture consumer attention and facilitate memorable brand experiences. Repetition and consistency trigger the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (also known as recency or frequency illusion).

This refers to when people interact with something and begin to notice more of it. For example, car dealerships almost always offer a test drive and usually on a car that the salesman suggests.

Typically what happens after the test drive is that you’ll begin to notice the car everywhere. That’s because your brain is now looking for it. This is the Baader-Meinhof effect at play. Part of the aim of car dealerships is to trigger this it in you.

In other words, our minds tend to start noticing the things we’ve paid attention to more frequently. So consistency and repetition concerning your approach to brand marketing are key. Things like your tone of voice, the kinds of content you publish, logo, etc. should be consistent.

This is why many organisations never completely redesign their logos. Instead, they keep it recognisable to its predecessor but modern.

Tip: Use online remarketing or retargeting to trigger the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.

4. Focus Attention

How can you focus consumer attention in the most effective way possible?

That question should be on your mind with everything you do. From product design to marketing to user interaction, always strive to focus the consumer’s attention. This is an important part of creating memorable brand experiences.

5. Trigger The Right Emotions

Triggering the right emotions enhances brand experience. In fact, using emotion is practically a sure-fire way of creating memorable brand experiences. That’s partly why companies try to introduce their products on TV commercials, using familiar things that can potentially trigger the right emotional memories.

Here’s an example. A Coors Light beer commercial involving the ocean may cause the recollection of a time when you visited the beach. So you might pick up a Coors Light on your next grocery run even though it isn’t the usual beer choice.

Now if the beer tastes great, you’ll always remember that. However, if it taste like piss, you’ll remember that too and won’t be buying it again. You always remember the end.

Here are some examples of emotions you may want to trigger.

• Fear
• Trust
• Warmth
• Instant gratification
• Laughter
• Sadness
• Competition
• Confidence
• Belonging
• Anger
• And more

Each feeling can be triggered with the proper kind of content. Things like funny videos, a sad melody, an article that’s rich with storytelling, etc. Emotion is a powerful tool because people generally don’t buy logically, except, in circumstances where they’re forced to do so.

Most of us buy emotionally. You can see this in action when teens purchase items they saw a rapper or other celebrity wearing regardless of outrageous pricing.

6. Brand Personality

Every brand should take on a personality while interacting with the public. Ideally, you should pick a personality that’s similar to your overall target audience. There will be nuances but the goal is to come close.

There are five main brand personalities and these are as follows.

• Exciting
• Sincerity
• Ruggedness
• Competence
• Sophistication

All of these prime personalities have several traits. For example, a company may choose to adopt a funny personality when communicating with consumers. Being funny is a trait of excitement.

Branding in The Digital Age is About Memorable Experiences

Today there are many more companies competing for the same ‘eyeballs’ or consumer attention. The Internet has made it possible for smaller organizations to compete on an almost equal footing. That means getting the best results from brand marketing is about giving your customers memorable experiences.

What’s your utility? Why should my time be spent here? Do you care about my problems? These are some of the questions consumers ask consciously or subconsciously (not in those exact words).

Memories are made through experience but the end of our experiences determines how we remember them. The experiencing self and remembering self work together but the latter makes the final decision concerning how your brand is perceived. You can use the information laid out in this article to begin a process for improving brand experience.

Gabriel Nwatarali is an experienced online marketing expert and founder of Tech Help Canada, a digital marketing agency. He enjoys contributing insights on marketing and business, including the technologies behind them.