Behind every little facet of your marketing efforts, there?s the underlying energy of your brand. Think of any big company, and you?ll immediately associate it with a distinct personality and set of values. As the owner of your business, you probably have a pretty good idea of its brand, but do your customers? Here are some of my best tips for building up a brand through web design.
Think About Character
Does your brand have character, or is it something of an empty husk? Injecting a little personality into your brand online can be a big help in defining what it stands for. In today?s increasingly consumerist society, more and more people are defining themselves by the products they own. You can leverage this by shaping your company?s unique character around something that your target market like to associate themselves with publicly. One method of injecting character into a brand that?s been proven to be highly effective time and time again is cutesy, cartoonish imagery. Twitter is a great example of this. Their little blue bird mascot has appeared in countless pieces of media and websites created by fans. There are a lot of variations of it, but it?s always instantly recognizable.
Keep it Consistent
If you want your brand to be successful, then you need to do everything you can to make it memorable. What?s the best way to make people remember something? Repeating it of course! After pinning down the right personality for your brand and taking steps to evoke all the right emotions, your next step should be ensuring that your brand stays consistent throughout your website. Keep your colors, typography, visuals, as well as the tone of voice used in all of your written content part of the same distinct thread. All the most attractive (and in turn successful) company websites have a distinct uniform, which is instantly recognizable to any repeat customer. Flick through the portfolio for any online branding company like Flagship Digital, and you?ll see exactly what I mean. Probably the most well-known example I can give is Skype. This company is great at integrating consistent branding elements in all of their public materials. A blue-dominant color palette, 2D cartoon clouds, and distinctive, minimalist artwork around it all are their trademarks.
Don?t Neglect your Value Proposition
Whenever a new customer lands on your site, it?s going to take them a little while to properly orientate themselves. They?ll need to make sure they?re on the right site, whether or not they?re really interested in it, and swiftly figure out what it?s all about. To speed up this process for them, they need to provide a concise and clear proposition to the site visitor. A good value proposition, if you weren?t already aware, is a short statement in a big, visible location somewhere on the landing page. Ideally, you should keep it right next to your company logo, which will make it the natural follow-up to your customers reading your company name. It may seem like a small detail, but your value proposition is extremely important.
