Don’t jump in headfirst when designing or re-designing your website. Your first goal should be to go and research your top competitors. It helps for you to ensure you take your time to assess and work out what it is you want – and what you want the website to do also, too. There are a few areas to think about and remember. There’s more to website branding than just a flashy logo. Your website should ensure visitors view your brand in the way you want it perceived. A well-branded website will increase the overall value of your company by allowing you to easily acquire new customers. Any web design team will point this out.
Branding – be it consistent tone and visual elements, active social media accounts or something as simple as an appropriate choice of font – is key to standing out among your competitors. With a solid strategy in place, your brand will benefit from an increase in and consumer perception and, consequently, credibility. There’s no single correct way to present your brand online, but there are some elements which are universal. We will look over some simple, yet effective, ways in which you can improve the branding of your website online. This is key with any web design.
Keep your design and style as simple as you can
Make sure your website has everything it needs, but nothing more. Too many bells and whistles, or an excess of content, can be problematic. Your customers don’t care how clever your site’s design is – they want things to be clearly laid out in a way which is easy to digest. Keep your website simple, and in doing so you will make it easier to navigate. On a similar note, your customers don’t want to wait. Too many unnecessary videos, plugins or add-ons will make your website load slowly. If a website takes too long to load, customers will simply leave, and try to find what they’re looking for somewhere else. That isn’t good for website branding.
Keep the website consistent in how it comes across to others
In a similar vein to the point above, the visual elements of your site also need to be internally consistent. Your logo, for instance, is a very powerful branding tool; a visual representation of your brand. Displaying your logo prominently on your site – in your header and footer as well as your favicon, or even on contact forms. You want your customers to identify with it. Visual branding doesn’t end with your logo, however. The rest of your website should be consistent with your logo and theme. Fonts, in particular, can lend you credibility, provided that they match your brand. Is your brand playful? Elegant? Professional and dignified? Find a font which represents what your brand stands for. Any web design agency will be sure to ensure this.
Work out what else you can do off of and away from the website
A great way to trigger customer engagement is to have a strong presence on social media. Ensure that you keep these social accounts active. By displaying social media widgets on your website you not only allow your customers to see consistent updates, but you provide them with a means to reach out to you. Engage with your customers. Respond to their questions and comment. Regularly update your social account with new content, offers or information. While social media activity can be time-consuming, it’s well worth the investment.
Overall – how web design needs to work
Potential customers come to your website to get information that is useful to them. Sometimes they come for educational content on your blog, and other times they are focused on researching the products and services that you sell. Either way, you should present relevant information that will engage your prospects, give them something of value and build their trust in your expertise. This is a key part of web design.
When you are planning the content on your website, try to think about it from the customer’s point of view. If you were a prospective customer, what information would be helpful to you? What level of knowledge or expertise would you have already, and what would you need explained in more detail? By focusing on your content from the customer’s perspective, you can keep them on your site longer and are more likely to create a long-term relationship with them that results in a sale.
