I’m sure you’ve landed on someone’s website and felt something was … wrong; Or maybe you suddenly turned off without even knowing why.
Chances are, you quickly clicked again to find a competitor’s website, where you felt more comfortable and secure.
Your visitors might feel the same if you don’t pay attention to how you deal with your target audience.
This is why it is crucial to identify your brand style before redesigning your website.
In my last teatime tip: Marketing for Busy Entrepreneurs, I shared a few critical factors to ensure your website redesign is a success so people are comfortable, excited, and engaged when they land on your site. You can see it here.
In this article, I’m going to share 5 questions you need to answer to determine your brand identity and create the most effective website possible.
1. What first impression do you want to make?
You have about five seconds to make a first impression. Key findings from a Google study showed that sites with low visual complexity and high prototypical (how representative a design looks for a certain category of websites) were perceived as very attractive.
Bottom line: keep it simple and clean.
One of our clients wanted us to create a website for his collectible vintage card business. They live “rips” of unopened old sports cards (working with this type of business was the first time for us)!
The challenge was to make their website, which features a wide range of sports cards from several decades, easy to navigate.
One of our solutions was to break down the cards by year in the navigation on the right and highlight the featured packages on the home page.
My advice to you: think hard about how you organize your home page. If your visitors land on a cluttered and confusing page, their first impression will be overwhelming and they will land on one of your competitors.
2. How are you using colors, images and fonts?
You need to follow your brand’s guidance when it comes to choosing design elements for your website.
If you don’t have a trademark guide, it’s time to create one to identify your style and guide your team members.
Of course, smaller businesses won’t have as large a brand guide as corporations, but you need something that represents the visuals of your website, or you’ll end up with a hodgepodge of elements that will confuse your visitors and sabotage you. awareness of your brand.
We want to exude our brand and the design and style elements that we use in all of our marketing materials.
3. Are your images of high quality and do they have purpose and meaning?
Every image you choose for your website tells a story. If you choose poorly lit photos or tacky stock images, you are giving people the wrong impression. They may see your business as cheap, lazy, and unprofessional.
Take the time to make images part of your brand identity. Define what you want your images to represent and what should and should not appear on your website. Here are some examples that I have seen in the company’s trademark guidelines:
* Use neutral images with low lighting that show young professionals in a creative environment
* Avoid stock photos where people are looking directly at the camera.
* Keep shots focused on the product to a minimum; each photo must have at least one person in it
Choose the right photos to show your unique personality and style, whether you are hiring a photographer or using stock images.
There are so many different reasons a small business owner may decide to rename a website: poor conversions and / or sales, confusing navigation, or an outdated design, to name a few.
However, it is essential to have solid reasoning, logic and statistics behind rebranding your business. This guide will help you first understand whether or not you need to reinvent your business, and if you do, how to rebrand your website in the most effective way possible.
Read a complete 2019 guide to the website redesign process
4. Does your copy tell a compelling story?
The most important thing to remember when writing about your product or service is that it is about THEM, not you. It is your opportunity to show and tell customers the benefits of using your product or service.
You can do this with:
* A captivating headline. Which article are you most likely to read: one that has the title “Write Better Blogs” or one that says “10 Sure Ways to Write Income-Generating Blogs?”
* Concise, yet informative and compelling copy. People are overwhelmed if they land on a website that has a novel on the home page.
Identify the style of the brand and then tell your story succinctly and with a purpose: what are the benefits that your service offers? How can you help your target audience solve their problem?
Divide the copy into digestible paragraphs instead of long blocks of text.
* Avoid industry jargon. Write in the language of your customers. Avoid acronyms they won’t understand or overly technical language that only an expert would understand.
Also, steer clear of overly promising or fluffy claims (Guaranteed to change your life! Lose 10 pounds overnight). Remember, you only have a few seconds to make a first impression.
* Choose your CTAs wisely. Your CTA (call to action) is what your content is driving your customers towards. It is the action you want them to take. By using something like “Click here” you are not showing your visitors what they will get.
Use “Reserve Your Spot Now” or “Start Your Journey Today” or whatever resonates with your target audience.
5. How easy is it for people to connect with you?
Your contact page should be clearly visible in the top navigation bar, and if you have a physical location, you should embed a map along with instructions so that people can find it as easily as possible.
Take a look at our contact navigation. We feature it prominently in the top menu bar on every page of our site, plus we offer another option just above, which allows our clients to call us for prompt and professional service.
Your social media icons should also be front and center so people can connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest … whatever is relevant to you.
The more followers you get, the more opportunities you have to engage your audience and generate leads and sales. Here are some tips on selling on social media.
The better you understand the importance of brand messaging, the more effective your website redesign will be. -And your business? -Will be. Ask yourself these important questions and seek the help of a professional website design company to launch the most attractive, attractive and successful website possible. You and your clients will be glad you did.