Web Design & Branding
Web design and branding may seem like separate entities, but when used together, they can greatly impact the success of your business. A staggering 75% of website credibility comes from design [Source: WebFX]. Meaning your web design has a powerful influence on how your potential customers view your brand.
What is Branding?
Branding is the process of creating and maintaining a unique identity for your business, and it's what sets you apart from your competitors.
When it comes to web design, it's important to always keep your branding in mind. The design of your website should reflect your brand's values and personality. This means that the colour scheme, typography, imagery, and overall aesthetic should all align with your brand identity.
For example, if your brand is known for being fun and playful, your website should reflect that with bright colours and a playful layout.
Incorporating your brand's values and personality into your web design not only helps to create a consistent message across all of your marketing channels, but it also helps to build trust and credibility with potential customers. When a customer visits your website and sees that it aligns with your brand's image and messaging, they are more likely to trust your business and see it as a credible source.
How Does Web Design Help Branding?
A well-designed website can also help to increase engagement and conversions.
Well considered user experience design makes browsing websites a seamless experience that leads users to complete the goals you want. Those goals could be a purchase, newsletter sign up or form submission. Experienced web designers know how to design user journeys that feel enjoyable to the visitor, meaning more chances of conversion.
A professional, easy to navigate website positions your brand as authoritative and trustworthy, putting you one step ahead of your competitors.
Additionally, a strong brand can also help to increase your website's visibility in search engine results. By incorporating your brand name and keywords into your website's content and meta tags, you can improve your chances of appearing at the top of search results, which can lead to more traffic and ultimately more business.
Creative Direction
Many business owners struggle with branding, so you're not alone if you are one of them. Creative direction is a complicated mix of creativity, design, strategising and more all under one practice.
This is where web design and branding truly mix to become one powerful entity that can sky rocket your business to success. Web design strategy has the ability to position your business as a leader in your industry if done well.
Professional creative agencies have the tools and expertise to help you achieve branding success through workshopping and competitor analysis.
Web Design and Branding: Things to Consider
It can be quiet overwhelming when you're trying to design a website that perfectly reflects your brand's values and philosophies while also wanting it to look good.
We've compiled a checklist for you to consider to make the process slightly easier:
Colours
First of all, what are your brand colours? These should be incorporated into your website to effectively communicate to your visitors.
Colour has a strong connection to memory making and association. By utilising a strong, recurring colour pallet you create a lasting memory of your brand to your customers. Being consistent is key here, so make sure that you follow a strict colour pallet to really capture your visitor's attention.
The colours you pick should also be accessible and user-friendly. For example, white text on a black background is easy to read and memorable, where as pink text on a yellow background may appear unreadable. Choose wisely to make sure your website is actually functional.
Fonts
Your font choice can also have a lasting impact on your customers and what they associate your brand with. Handwritten fonts often evoke a friendlier essence, where clear typography can come across and more professional.
Again, you want your font to reflect your brand personality but also be accessible. The fonts you choose need to be consistent throughout your website as well.
Logo Placement
Your logo is the centre of your brand. Most businesses spend a lot of time designing their logo to achieve something they feel reflects their business well.
Logo placement on a website is often dictated by user experience. This is because many visitors see a logo as a way to jump back to the home page. Because of this, most website designers will keep a logo in the top hero menu, ensuring it's always visible and accessible for the user.
User Experience
Your user experience design can also add another layer of your brand to your web design. User experience can be playful if your brand's personality calls for it, or more static. A great example of this is the website for The Commons.
The website is filled with small animations that align with the professional, modern aura of the brand. There is also an interactive map that showcases all of the co-working spaces across Australia, making it simple for users to find their nearest one. This clever use of user experience design build The Commons' brand as professional, modern and easy to use. All of which could also be used to design the co-working spaces that they offer.
Content & Messaging
A strong brand voice is of the utmost importance when it comes to branding in web design. To help keep your messaging consistent, many businesses will build brand guidelines that list out important factors to consider when writing. For example:
'Brand Guidelines:
- Write in the first-person at all times (We, I, Ours)
- Use a voice that is helpful and humorous
- Use Australian English spelling at all times'
These brand and editorial guidelines should be written with your target audience in mind so that you are always communicating in the correct way to lead to conversion.
Final Thoughts
Web design and branding are not separate entities. They work together to boost your business's success. A well-designed website that aligns with your brand's values and personality can help build trust and credibility with potential customers, increase engagement and conversions, and improve your website's visibility in search engine results. Partnering with a professional web design agency that understands the importance of both web design and branding can help to ensure that your website not only looks great, but also effectively represents and promotes your business.
