Design and content will play an important role in the future of the Internet.
The reality is that the two have always been partners.
Even in the early days of the Internet design and content had a love/hate relationship. Some of you might look back on the mid-90s as the dark ages in Web design and you would probably be justified in that point of view. The content has gotten better since then too. People have learned how to create things like blog posts, articles, videos and other content pieces that are interesting and engaging.
It’s my belief that the future of successful Internet Marketing will require a successful marriage of design and content.
Here are 5 great examples for your inspiration.
1. SEOmoz Beginner’s Guide to SEO
The first thing I thought of when I was getting started on this post is the SEOmoz SEO Beginner’s Guide. The folks at Moz have always put out great content mixed with incredible design. Their site is great. Everything they put out has a focus on design. It makes a difference because they’re in a competitive space and they’re one of the leaders if not the biggest player in the SEO world right now.
Design matters.
Visit: SEOmoz SEO Beginner’s Guide
2. Coca-Cola Content 2020
The Coca-Cola Content 2020 project has been getting lots of buzz in the online marketing world. People love that Coke is committing so much to the content effort in the next decade. I think things got off to a great start with their introduction videos.
Video production is going to be important. Not only do people like reading, but they love watching interesting videos. Here is a great combination of a video that has great content mixed with great design.
Visit: Coca-Cola
3. Amazon Kindle Sales Page
Most people don’t think of retail pages when they think of design and content, but they should. These are the pages responsible for selling stuff. Amazon understands this and their Kindle page has to be one of the most successful pages on the entire web. We’re talking about a company that takes up one fourth of all e-commerce sales. It’s important to pay attention to what they’re doing.
Notice the various ways content is displayed on the page. There are photos, close-ups of the product and listed content. It’s simple, but effective.
Visit: Amazon Kindle Page
4. KISSmetrics Infographics
Whenever I ask prospects what blogs they like they talk about KISSmetrics. I’m not kidding. I would say that 80% of the people I talk to about blogging mention KISSmetrics as one of their inspirations for what a blog should be. It puts great pressure on me and I love it.
The KISSmetrics blog is great. People get a lot out of their content including their infographics. What I think the folks there are doing well is getting the intersection of design and content. You can see it in every one of their infographics. They’re amazing.
Visit: KISSmetrics Infographics
5. Vans Bones Brigade Film
Vans is diving full on into the content movement. They add new textual content to their website all the time, but the really cool thing they’re part of now is the Bones Brigade film, which is a documentary about the skateboarding movement in the ’80s. The trailer is powerful. Remember, content goes beyond text. Creating visually appealing videos that move people and get them to take action is going to be hugely critical in the future for companies.
Vans gets it.
Visit: Bones Brigade and Vans
