Every dollar your company spends should ideally bring a return. However, if you create or commission a design without knowing what key performance indicator (KPI) to measure it against, it’s nearly impossible to tell whether it was a success.

Or what to fix.

We’re going to show you what to consider when choosing your KPIs, how certain elements support them, and some examples to show how design serves as a measurable tool for your business.

Start with the end game

Design starts with having the end result in mind. You have to know what this outcome looks like (e.g., more sales, educating customers, etc.), which metrics to measure, and then work through the design assets needed to make it happen.

But many businesses start with design first, while muddying through a fuzzy idea of what it should accomplish. It leads to building without a plan, which can set your budget on fire.

We recommend defining your KPIs early on to give you the tools to communicate your vision both internally and to your creative team, so there’s a rationale for the design of an email, brochure, or any other marketing piece.

Design the path of least resistance

When we work with you, our goal is to create a design that does the heavy lifting for your business. Once you’ve defined a KPI, and we recommend only assigning one per marketing piece, this decision will dictate the direction of your design.

Let’s look at a few examples at a high level.

• If your goal is to increase sales, visual elements on a landing page, such as the “Buy Now” button, should be prominently displayed.
• Building brand trust will involve prioritizing testimonials and photography, focusing on your target audience, and using color and graphic elements to highlight them.
• To increase event attendance, the event details must be front and center, which means creating a visual hierarchy that quickly delivers this information.

Each design element (e.g., colors, shapes, sizes, etc.) works together to make sure that the person—or people—engaging with your marketing can quickly get the information they need to make a decision.

Linking metrics to visuals

By stating your KPIs, you’re assigning specific metrics to track through your marketing. Now, how can you connect the metrics you want to measure to the company’s customer-facing communications?

Part of our job as designers is to provide a visual solution for your business problem. To do this, we think about how each part of a design works to achieve a specific goal you’ve set.

Let’s look at a few examples of how we think about solving business problems through design and strategy.

The KPI: Tracking in-store foot traffic

Marketing piece: Sales flyer leading to a landing page

Flyers have a very limited reach because they’re physical documents that can be easily lost. Their design has to be scannable and provide a straightforward call to action that doesn’t require the reader to hold onto the flyer itself.

We would recommend including a high-contrast QR code on the flyer that links to the store’s landing page. Its design would frame the QR code as the hero of the piece, surrounded by on-brand graphics, with a quick explanation showing the benefits of signing up for the webinar.

The KPI: Increasing purchases on a shoe website

Marketing piece: Product page for a new line of women’s tennis shoes

For this example, we’re going to assume there’s an existing site with historical data from heatmapping and other conversion metrics. This information would be used as a starting point for the product page’s design.

For instance, if users in the past have tended not to click the “Buy now” button, we could explore adding design elements around it to help remove any risk potential customers might feel they’re taking on. In this case, we would suggest testing whether pairing the button with related icons with text like “Free shipping,” “30-day free returns,” or “$15 Cashback” makes it easier for buyers to say “yes.”

The KPI: Improving registration form completion rates

Marketing piece: Landing page for a webinar

For this landing page, we want to remove any unnecessary components that slow people down once they arrive.

Ideally, the registration form would be reduced to only the most necessary fields. To get this information, we would ask you questions about the details you actually need from users, rather than things that would be nice to have.

In addition, we would also consider recommending cutting back on text that doesn’t need to be on the page. By taking away anything that overwhelms or distracts visitors, their attention is focused on the task at hand—filling out the form.

Remember, design elements aren’t decorative. They serve a purpose to guide the person on the other side of the screen or page to take action.

Designs have one job to do

Whether it’s a flyer, email, landing page, or any other customer-facing marketing piece from your organization, it should only target one KPI.

Realistically, you can’t successfully build brand awareness, drive site traffic, and generate sales in a single marketing piece. If you try, you’ll be left with an unfocused mess that says a lot, yet nothing at the same time, confusing your audience.

When you have only one KPI per marketing asset, you can iterate on the design while measuring its direct impact on your ROI and begin building assets that actually pay for themselves.