Which Comes First in Marketing – Words or Design?

Ask a copywriter which comes first—words or design. Next, ask a graphic designer or web designer which comes first—words or design. Don’t be surprised if you get two different answers.

In general (because there are always exceptions), your words should come first and design second. That’s because your copy is your message. While a design might capture your target audience’s attention and help important points stand out, it’s your copy that will drive them to action and persuade them to buy your product or service.

The Relationship between Words and Design

Copywriting is the tool you use to communicate your marketing messages and drive business results. Design should enhance that message. It should assist in capturing your audience’s attention, and it should guide them through an ad, website, etc. so they see the entire message you’re communicating. Design should make the most important elements of your messages stand out.

Don’t sacrifice your copy for a design because your message is the most important element of a marketing piece. While designs tend to have short lifespans, a message can live for a very long time through word-of-mouth marketing, social media sharing, and more.

Creating a website, ad, brochure, or any other type of marketing piece, you’re spending valuable marketing budget dollars. Use that money wisely!

The Obstacle to Words and Design Nirvana

With all of that said, there is a little thing that can put a snag into even the best laid plans of copywriters and designers—money.

In reality, most businesses don’t have limitless budgets to spend on rounds and rounds of edits to tweak copy and design to perfection. The proliferation of free and affordable website templates and email marketing templates are the perfect examples. When your design options are restricted to a pre-made template, you’ll have to write to the design—at least to a certain extent. If you’re not technically savvy or don’t have the budget to hire someone to make edits to the template design, you can’t color outside the lines.

And therein lies the problem with putting design before words. A design presents a visualization, but words take things to a completely different level. Words provide context to design and pique the audience’s emotions. More often than not, emotions play at list some part in purchase decisions, so it stands to reason that only coloring within the lines will lead to lost opportunities to connect with consumers.

The Lesson

The lesson to learn is simple. Put your words first and resist coloring within the lines to the extent possible based on your abilities and budget.

Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.

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