In the second installment of our four-part series, we’re discussing the Branding and Design elements of building a new website. If you missed our previous blog post, “Planning for a Successful Website,” check it out.
When it comes to branding and design, two key elements can make a big impact on your website: messaging and multimedia assets. First impressions are lasting impressions, as they say, so be sure to consider each of these details carefully.
Messaging
Messaging is the foundation for any website. It’s how you express your brand personality, hook your audience, and start generating leads. Whether it’s a list of services, client testimonials, or the story about your passion behind your work, the quality of this content has the power to influence your audience.
Our advice:
- Be Yourself —Your tone of voice can reveal whether or not you might be the right fit for someone.
- Keep It Consistent — Pay attention to things like slider headers, image captions, CTAs, etc.
- Quality Over Quantity — If you can’t write, hire someone that can! Words matter.
- Organization = Optimization — Guide your user through the whole site, so they don’t get confused and give up before they even know what you have to offer.
- Utilize SEO — Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can and will make your website stand out amongst the rest. Use keywords, avoid redundancy, and do your research. (Are there new trends? Who are your competitors? What’s the industry standard?)
Multimedia Assets
Other tools that can set the tone of your website are the multimedia assets you choose, like photos, videos, and more. These visual features can increase engagement, pique interest, and truly provide a return on your investment in your website. However, similar to messaging, quality and consistency are essential. Here’s a checklist we drafted to help you make sure you stay on the right track:
▢ Research trends relevant to your target audience to see what might resonate with them.
▢ Determine a style that works best with your brand personality (I.e., sizzle reel, illustrations, moody photography, minimalism, pops of color, etc.)
▢ Collect all the assets you’re planning to use, including:
- Logo files (vector, transparent, and/or high resolution)
- Typography
- Icons
- Audio Files
- Videos
- Animations
▢ To keep load times to a minimum by compressing and reducing the file sizes of your assets.
▢ When putting the pieces together, keep a uniform look and feel when it comes to subtle design elements (I.e., rounded corners, hard edges, drop shadows, visual filters, etc.)
▢ Make sure your content is formatted to be accessible in different settings:
- ADA Compliant
- Print View
- Text-Only Content Versions
Your audience will be able to discern if what you’re marketing is worth their attention, and they can do so very, very quickly. Take your time to polish all of your copy and visual assets so that you can quickly impress your target audience. In this day and age, it can make or break the effectiveness of your website!
Are you curious about the rest of the steps it takes to build a successful website? My next blog post will talk about Building a Design System that will help keep your website consistent and scalable over time. Stay tuned!
Pablo Ruiz de Chavez, Web Developer
