style=”color: #808080;”>Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Ryan Ernst – Enjoy!  

As digital marketing and advertising has evolved throughout the years, function has slowly gobbled up form, one clicks, like, page view and web lead at a time. It’s 2014. And Don Draper ain’t walking through the doors of your boardroom with a storyboard anytime soon.

But creativity and imagination still play a huge role in digital marketing – a role that can drastically boost online sales in any industry. They’ve certainly helped our business grow.

When it comes to marketing your company, showing off your services and products in a clever manner is a key component to capturing the imagination of the consumer. Creativity will instantly distinguish you from the competition. Not only will your brand appear to be a trendsetter, it will be.

Below, we’ll highlight four creative ways that can help your business generate online sales. They should be key not just to your strategy, but to your overall digital marketing mindset.

Stunning Graphics: Having compelling graphics throughout your website and social channels is an absolute must. Invest in graphic design work, photography and above all else, attention to detail. All will provide you with returns. When a visitor comes to your website and sees amazing imagery, they will be captivated by your company. Implementing a creative strategy with graphics will help you soar past the competition and result in more people inquiring about your company. You’ll regret not implementing this creative strategy sooner.

Video: A study by eyeviewdigital.com shows that using video on landing pages can increase conversion by 80%. Videos increase the length of time people stay on your page, giving your brand message longer to sink in. This rich form of media on your website will make your company seem larger while clarifying your overall brand message.

Copywriting: Have you ever taken the time to examine the verbiage on your website? Is it clear and concise while helping the visitor navigate through exactly what they are looking for? Keep in mind, you’re losing a reader with every sentence. Keep your image simple and keep the most important information at the top. We strongly recommend setting up a Google Experiment within Google Analytics platform where you can test two different pages to see which one performs better. This will help you gauge which messaging resonates the best with your web audience!

Personality: Let’s face it, so many website are dull and boring. When a brand actually conveys its true personality, the consumer will be more connected with it. In the bio section of your website, in addition to professional photos, add an interesting fact about each associate that actually has some personality! This is also a great conversation piece when meeting with your customers.

Keep in mind, sales is sales. Watch any great salesperson and you’ll see the way they capture the imagination of the person to whom they’re selling. Creativity always will have a place in that process. It might not have the direct correlation in an uptick in business as spending more money on advertising. But in the long run, creativity will make people connect with and share your brand. That means more clicks, more likes, more page view, more web leads. And more sales.

Ryan Ernst is the Director of Communications at The Connor Group.