5 Web Design Tips That Will Improve Your Brand
Creating a great business website is not an easy task in today’s internet-based world. There are a host of things involved in the proper design and planning with the end result of crafting a highly functional, useful website that not only gives you a virtual business location, but also serves to meet your business’s particular objectives. That being said, plenty of websites are out there that miss the mark in regards to proper promotion of your business’s brand which is why we wanted to share our 5 web design tips that will improve your brand.
Remember, your brand is like your promise to the customer. It is who you are in the business world, built on a platform of authenticity, that shows people what they can expect from you or your products along with how you are different from the other companies out there who offer similar products or services.
It is important that your website is built in a way that enhances, rather than detracting from your brand, regardless of how large or small, simple or intricate that website is.
Design Tips to Improve your Brand
- Reflect your Brand Identity – Sort of a no brainer, right? While you might think that, plenty of companies are still missing out on utilizing their web site to showcase their brand’s identity in the form of color schemes, logo use, style and images. Today’s website is much like a business card in decades past; an introduction to who you are. Your website should strengthen a business’s identity and position in the marketplace. Your logo should be powerful and displayed on every page in some form. The colors should be the same scheme you use on letterhead, in the office and everywhere else. Make sure when someone lands on your website, the overall feeling they get from interacting with that site is the same type of feeling you want them to get if they interacted with you personally.
- Create a Brand “Voice” – What is the overall style and tone of your brand? Do you envision Morgan Freeman reading your content or perhaps someone like Will Ferrell? This is a bit of an extreme example, but the “Voice” of your brand should have a certain personality and style that personifies who you are and that voice needs to be applied to all of your written communication from emails to web content whether it is funny, serious, conversational or intellectual.
- Strong Calls to Action – The purpose of a call-to-action is to instruct your audience as to how they can easily take the next step; whatever that may be. Far too many small business websites are missing even a basic “Contact Us” button for perspective clients to use when looking to connect with you for business. Call-to-action buttons will increase your website’s usability, especially when properly placed and emphasized. People want that direction of where they can go to “Buy It Now”, “Sign Up Here”, or “Contact Us” and if you don’t give it to them then your business and brand will suffer.
- Create a Tagline – Taglines are very powerful. Ideally they should be concise, meaningful and memorable. They are a wonderful addition to your masthead at the top of a homepage, which should also be repeated at the top of all your other pages. This reminder of what your brand is all about then is constantly reinforced subconsciously no matter where on the site a person is. Some of the best taglines instantly create brand recognition such as “Just Do It”, “Think different”, “I’m lovin it”, or “Can you hear me now?” They can also be simple statements like, “Your friend in the diamond business.”
- Be Consistent – Your style and imagery on the Home Page of your website should be the same as your Contact Us, About Us and even 404 Error pages. That consistency builds trust and is one of the most important aspects of building and improving a brand. One of the downsides of websites that evolve over time with various web designers being used, or a site that has been continually added on to is that it tends to lose some consistency which will hurt your overall brand. Even things that seem small like a “Contact Us” button in different locations on different pages take away from the consistency you have to relentlessly strive for.
The bottom line is that your brand needs to be strongly represented on your website because often it is the first contact a potential customer will have with your business, whether you know it or not. People spend more time researching and shopping online before they make a decision to buy or engage a service and the last thing you want is them to visit your site and not have a good idea of who you are which is why using our 5 web design tips to improve your brand is important
