What do you and five billion people have in common? Notably, you’re all on the internet. 63% of the human population has the potential to see your business online, so how can your website design branding stand out?
Think like this: a website brand speaks volumes about your personality. What makes things stick out to you? How do you, personally, want to portray yourself?
We’ll revisit this topic later, but for now, learn how to shape up your website design branding strategy.
Check out Our Seven Tips to Put Your Brand Front and Center:
Define Clear Branding Guidelines
It’s one thing to understand what makes your brand stand out, but defining your guidelines is another vital part of the puzzle. Create a solid baseline to allow your company to understand exactly what to do to match your brand.
When you look at a new Apple phone on the shelves, you’re certain the product will look sleek and modern with a decent chance that you’ll keep the box after it’s opened.
Their website is no exception. Apple uses negative space to enhance the visual appeal of their newest products, further emphasizing the modern feel of Apple devices.
Above all, their style is consistent. If you put a colorful mascot on the Apple landing page, it would look severely out of place.
One other example you’re likely to recognize – Nike tacks their logo on just about every product they have. Even though the word “Nike” isn’t always visible, the trademark swoosh lets the world know exactly what brand they’re dealing with.
Create Strong Visuals
Looking to make your site content up to 180% more engaging? Just add visuals! Tailor your site to your branding image to leave a lasting impression.
Online marketing has the perk of being highly adaptable. Change it up however you see fit, but create an engaging webpage to keep your visitors interested.
Here’s our website redesign for PMPT, a business all about keeping you moving.
In this case, we streamlined their website design to allow for a more efficient user experience in setting up appointments and navigating the site. Your visuals should be appealing, but not obstructive to the user.
Website design branding is more than creating a good-looking website – it’s about making an informed decision to craft a product that works for you.
If you’re looking to buff out your designs, check out how we can enhance your brand.
Minimize Text
One of the many keys to effective website design branding is in your text. Keep your viewers reading by organizing your ideas and sorting those ideas into easy-to-digest snippets.
For reference, long and wordy paragraphs might work for a research paper, but if you’re aiming for a broader audience, then keep it short and to the point.
Remember: less is more. Nothing turns away online visitors like walls of text, so spread out your paragraphs to keep your visitor reading deeper into your site. Break up your text into easy-to-read paragraphs and allow yourself to use vocabulary that suits your audience.
Overall, the focus should be on creating a comfortable user experience.
Three Things to Consider for UX Friendliness:
- Content hierarchy
- Bulleted lists
- Punchy sentences
The purpose of a title is to get your visitor’s attention and read what comes after. Good content hierarchy allows for quick recognition of topics that your audience would like to read.
Once you have your content separated, split it up some more. Break up your text into readable snippets formatted as a bulleted list.
Then, structure your text around being as visibly appealing as possible. Short and to-the-point sentences keep your audience’s attention.
Develop Your Brand’s Voice
At this point, we’re mostly all familiar with Wendy’s Twitter marketing strategy and the many attempts to replicate it. The fast food chain created a definitive voice that puts them near the top in terms of creative online marketing. They remain memorable to customers by being consistently witty and snarky, but they never go overboard.
While Wendy’s developed their voice to reach a target audience that aligns with their identity, if you apply this persona to a high-end restaurant, it likely wouldn’t go so well.
Reason being, they broke a few rules to reach their brand’s voice. This is 100% okay since that’s the style nuance they chose. Your brand can also reach this by understanding what works for you.
For example, a hair dye company might use incorrect grammar to sound casual and laid back. On the other hand, a bank would use proper corporate language to look professional.
All words have a story to them, and it’s just a matter of you choosing the right ones for the job.
Be Mobile-Friendly
We would guess that there’s a smartphone nearby while you read this article. To be more accurate, there’s roughly an 84% chance that’s true.
Nothing says “professional” like having a responsive website – a design that seamlessly adapts to smaller screen sizes. Always remember that as your brand grows, more people will check out your website on the go.
And when we say “more people,” we mean that nearly 60% of all web searches come from a mobile device. Bumping up your mobile website design branding has the potential to skyrocket your influence.
Maximize your opportunities to spread your brand by ensuring the mobile version of your site is well-tested and optimized for smaller devices. Your visitors are ready to go, and you should be too.
Know Your Target Audience
As we said before, there are a lot of people on the internet. So understanding your target audience is valuable for moving your website in the right direction.
Keep an Eye on These Demographics:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Income
- Interests
Use analysis programs like Google Analytics or Hotjar to get your user’s information. For example, if you have a low engagement rate with organic users then you’re not hitting your target market.
This means that if your visitors see your site from a Google search and don’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll leave.
Take a look at your analytics to get a better understanding of who you’re dealing with. For example, if you’re aiming toward the older crowd but your average visitor is a 19-year-old male, you need to revamp your site’s design.
Once you get a good idea of who visits your site, you can get into the details of how to market directly to them.
Stay Consistent
If someone told you that you could make 33% more money by using the same words, would you take them up on that offer?
The reality is: viewers are more comfortable with a consistent brand. Even using your signature colors could even boost your brand’s recognition by 80%.
However, proper website design branding has a few extra steps when it comes to building that recognition.
Every site has consistent aspects to it. For example, the buttons on your website should do exactly what they imply. A “buy now” button should always lead to the purchase page.
Given the same context, this call to action (CTA) should be the same everywhere else on the site.
This doesn’t only apply to your CTAs. Throughout your brand identity, you’ll notice consistencies that your visitors recognize.
Now, apply this thought process to the rest of your website. You name it: banners, buttons, CTAs, structure, visual style, etc. Again, consistency is key when establishing a connection with your visitors.
Piece it Together
Take another look at your website design branding. How do you want to portray yourself? Bold, casual, professional, or laid-back? Each of these pieces come together in a way that paints your image in the public’s eye.
Every section of this blog post represents another piece of the problem when creating a unique and identifiable brand.
Each step to website design branding is like a Rubik’s Cube. It’s a relatively common comparison in digital marketing because each stage has a specific purpose. For example, suppose you attempt the standard 3x3x3 puzzle without a specific method. In that case, solving it could take you between 20 to 43 quintillion tries. Branding isn’t any different.
Naturally, successful branding can be done without research. It just takes time and a little bit of luck.
If you’re looking to make your own luck, CreateApe is here to solve your marketing puzzle. We’ll use our tried-and-true processes with a team of experts to investigate, ideate, and create your next big idea.
Get in touch to get your branding right the first time.
