Last week in this series, we covered the basics of small business web design. This week, we’re going to cover the most important aspect of your new site’s design: capturing the essence of your brand. Your brand’s essence are the elements that define it… these are the colors, sounds, phrases and imagery that let your customers know that they’re dealing with you.
Consider that age-old staple of the corporate world: the business card. A good business card chooses fonts that match the company’s logotype, it sports the company’s logo and it selects colors that mirror the company’s interior design and external signage. When you glance at a good business card, you know where it came from before you even read it.
The same design principles hold true in small business web design.
A well-designed, custom website will act as an extension of your brand. It’s not looking to redefine who you are or employ all the latest and greatest web design fads, it’s simply transitioning your brand’s image online. One of the biggest traps that do-it-yourself designers fall into is designing a “cool” site that fails to represent their brand. With all of the Internet’s widgets, .gifs, plugins and animations to tempt them, it’s easy for anyone to create a site that has flash and pizazz.
The greatest attribute of a professional web design team is their ability to edit.
Professional web designers are, above all, adept at isolating the elements that define your brand. From there, they can carefully select imagery, software and fonts that exude your brand’s identity. Like a good business card, they produce a final product that immediately — even without words — informs viewers that they have arrived at your business’ official website.
To that end, the best web design is a design that is successful on two fronts. First, it comforts your existing customers by providing them with a familiar atmosphere. Second, it welcomes new customers by quickly introducing them to your brand’s identity. A design that captures your brand — that is, a design that is consistent with your brand’s presentation in other media — goes a long way towards satisfying both of these conditions.
Ensuring your brand is reflected in your website design
In summary, you’ve put a lot of work into establishing how your company looks, what it stands for and how it interacts with customers. A great website design is one of the best ways for you to both attract new customers and service old customers. Just like a good business card, an effective billboard or a magazine advertisement, an effective website has to exude your brand. It has to wordlessly communicate your identity. It has to shout your company’s name with every page, letter and shape.
By hiring a professional web designer, you ensure that your brand will be properly represented in the online arena. After all, you wouldn’t trust an amateur painter to create a billboard for your company, why trust a hobbyist to design your website?
