Top Tips for Brand Building with Web Design

Remember, Website design is a representation of your business in front of thousands of people over the Internet.

It is the one place you can get all the information about a brand that you need and the products / services they provide. If you want to ensure success in your business then you should effectively design your website to capture the attention of your target audience immediately and set the expectation of your brand.

Here are some top tips to help you to build your brand through web design.

Value proposition

When a visitor arrives on your site for the first time they ask themselves a few questions. Is this the right site? Does this look interesting? What is this all about? To answer these questions, you should provide a clear and concise value proposition for your visitor.

This should be a short statement located on the homepage. In a few words explain exactly what benefit your site provides to the visitor, to let them know what your site is about and why they should keep using it.

Tone of voice

The language you use on your website needs to be done in a way that supports your brand’s personality. If your brand is friendly and down to earth, and your audience are of a younger target market, then an informal and fun tone of voice would be relevant.

However, if you are an investment bank, then the tone of voice should be much more formal.

Remember, it’s not just about what you say — it’s about how you say it. You can say the same thing in different voices and get the same meaning across, but the personality that this voice stems will be different; so choose a tone of voice that suits your brand’s character and audience.

Colour

A strong colour palette is very important in branding. Colour isn’t just aesthetics — it inspires various emotions and carries various associations.

For example, red symbolises passion, energy, power and excitement. Because of this, it’s usually chosen for brands in the entertainment industry. Whereas, Green symbolises nature, environment, profit, money and health. It’s also a calming colour – hospitals often paint the walls pale green.

When picking a colour for your brand, research its associations to see if it is an appropriate fit for representing your brand. Also, note that different cultures may associate the same colours in a different way, so it’s a good idea to check that your colours mean what you think they do in the markets you operate in.

Character

Does your brand have character? Giving your brand a personality can help you define what it stands for. Many people use products and brands to define themselves, so shape your brand’s character towards something which your audience will like to associate themselves with.

As an example, Twitter’s little blue bird mascot has proven very effective; all the custom media and websites that Twitter fans create usually feature their own variation of it. They may all look a little different, but they are still instantly recognisable:

Emotion

What feelings and emotions do you want people to experience when they visit your site? What sort of things do you want them to associate with your brand?

Crafting the aesthetics of your site is all about deciding on the emotions and ideas that you want your brand to project, and then working on a design that will do that.

Consistency

To build a successful brand, being memorable is key. To make people remember things, you repeat them. Consistency throughout your web design will build on the choices you’ve made earlier: selecting the personality for the brand and evoking the appropriate emotions. Keep colours consistent, as well as visuals and typography throughout to ensure your website projects a consistent image and message.

Skype consistently integrates several branding elements throughout all their marketing media, which includes the colour blue, white 2D clouds with illustrations sitting on top of them and multi-coloured rainbows.

Reusing code and visuals

Consistency also allows you to reuse a lot of your content, be it stylesheets or images. This means that your site will load faster as the user’s browser doesn’t need to download as many things — old images and CSS are already stored in its cache.

Apple.com integrates their logo with the navigation bar, instilling their brand into the page design seamlessly.

Size and position of the logo

The norm is to position your site’s logo in the upper left area of the page as this is the area where most people look to check what site they’re on. Additionally, it’s best practice to link the logo image to the site’s home page so the user can easily navigate back. Ensure your logo is big enough to be the second, or third thing that people notice when they arrive on your site.

Uniqueness

Uniqueness is a big one. If your website looks just like the competition, then is it is not going to be very memorable. Potential customers may find it hard to differentiate between the two. By putting in that extra effort to create a unique image you’ll not only stand out from your competitors, but you’ll be more memorable. That means a better chance that your visitors will come back for more.

Conclusion

Building a strong brand is important for all size ranges of companies whether it be small or large. Branding helps people differentiate between competition and allows them to make a quick decision on your offering and value proposition.

The web is an excellent platform to build your brand, so it’s important not to ignore branding when working on your website. Be sure to utilise all the top tips to create a powerful and effective site to represent your brand.

If you need any help with creating your brand image online then Wish Digital would be happy to chat through your requirements with you, just head over to our contact page.