The main purpose of a small business website is to give your potential clients the information and products they are looking for. As a Web Designer I will tell you that the design plays an important role to establishing your brand online, but even with the best design is all about your offer.
There are many web design techniques that will help you enhance the experience of your visitors. In today’s environment there is a lot of clutter with advertising and potential clients can get distracted very easily, it is important to find your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and clearly present it to your clients in a way that is easy for them to understand. This is where basic design elements such as graphics, colors, and fonts and so on play an important role on any web design. The decision is yours to make, you can elect to have the cool flash site with a lot going on or a simple yet effective site that will help you increase your revenue.
How to Brand your website
Most marketing experts agree that branding plays a huge role in a company’s success. If you look at the big names such as McDonalds, Microsoft, Ford, Coca Cola and plenty of other big companies have achieve a brand recognition by the general public, that most of us will recognize their name even if we were shown just the first letter on their logo.
Branding is one of those simple concepts to understand yet very difficult to implement. Most large companies spend a ton of money creating their branding strategies. Luckily for small business if you are clear on the image that you want your customers to perceive, with a few well thought out strategies you can create that perfect branding for your business.
First take a minute to think about how you want your customers to perceive your company, is it high end or more value driven, do you want to be formal and very serious, or you prefer a more informal look and feel. These questions can help you decide how to build the perfect brand.
The Following elements will help you establish your brand online.
Taglines and Slogans
As you might already know taglines and slogans are short phrases that describe your business in just a few words. Here is a list of some of the most famous slogans; such as Burger King – Have it your way, DHL – We keep your promises, Microsoft – Where do you want to go today? among others.
When working in your branding think about a good catchy slogan before you work on your logo as you’d probably want to incorporate your slogan in your logo design.
The perfect logo for your brand
Many small businesses overlook the importance of a well-designed logo. Chances are that for most of your clients this will be the first thing they will see when they visit you. A logo can represent your entire branding image in just a small graphic; your logo can easily portray what your business is all about. You can choose to have a funny, energetic design or an elegant contemporary design that shows your clients that you offer quality services and products.
When customers see your logo they can evaluate in an instant how professional you are, your creativity, your attention to detail and more.
Take a quick moment and visit www.logopond.com/ and see how without even knowing the company for each logo, how you can picture an image of what they stand for. This website is a great galley for inspiration as well.
The importance of creating a consistent look
I can’t stress enough how important is to keep a consistent look on all of your marketing. When creating your website make sure that the design is coherent and flows right. Here are some important points to have in mind when creating your website
– Always try to have your text against a white background. Even if you have a color background website you can always boxed the text so it will be easier on your readers’ eyes.
– Never try to match more than 3 or 4 colors on your website, these colors should have been already selected when creating your logo.
+ Do not try to overdo your website with many images, videos and music, this makes website slow, hard to look at and most people will just click away.
+ Because of how many people search on mobile devices nowadays try to stay away from flash on your sites.