Stylistic Web Design posted in Branding on 06 June 2011
With over 310 million websites currently on the Internet it is vital that you do everything to ensure your website stands out from the crowd.
Branding is as important for an online business as it is for an offline business. So we’ve compiled a list to show you how to brand your website effectively.
What is your website about?
You sell cakes, great! What type of cakes do you sell? How are you going to convey to your viewers that you sell cakes? What is going to make your website stand out from other cake sellers? Who is your target audience and what appeals to them? Why have a website if you have an offline business, what do you want your website to achieve?
If I said think of a whiskey, you would probably say Jack Daniel’s. It’s is the worlds most powerful liquor brand and started its humble journey from a little place in Tennessee where they can’t even drink! So how did this become one of the worlds most popular and bought brands? Distinctive packaging is clearly a strong point here with square bottle and black label it cannot help but stand out. Since launching the Jack Daniel’s website the personality of Jack has been shared with millions of people across the world; a huge amount who now celebrate Jack’s Birthday or visit the distillery. Their branding now spans across all sorts of clothing, food, furniture, and gifts, which means they’re now a walking advertisement and household brand in some cases.
Good branding requires you to show consistency and distinctiveness, if someone’s looking for cakes internationally or in Sidcup, you want them to come to you because you’re the cake person to go to.
Get a Professional Logo Produced
Sure you get a logo thrown together by one of these logo generators, which is great, if you’re ready to be one of the crowd and put no thought into your online or offline branding. It is really important to have a well thought out interlinked logo, which incorporates your whole business identity. Of course, choosing a logo that becomes so iconic that people want to illegally copy it (like Coco Chanel) may have its drawbacks but that is the level that most people strive for.
As with most things, the more you spend the better the quality and this goes for website logo’s too. It’s your hand stamp that each person gets when they visit your website, you want people to see your logo and instinctively know what it means and what it stands for. If someone blogs about you or your website they are more often than not going to use your logo with a link back to your website.
When you have got your professionally designed logo, it is worth using this as your favicon image. What is a favicon you may ask? A favicon is a small image, which shows up in browser as ‘favourites icon’, a shortcut icon or a bookmark icon. This carries through your logo and branding across more platforms helping people to recognise your website.
Colour is Important
The colours you choose for your website are as important for the branding as the name, concept and logo! Who is your target market male, female or both? What is your type of business? If you sell Goth clothing then you’re probably looking for dark colours but if you’re a cupcake website then light pastel colours are probably going to work well although you also want to make sure you stand out from the crowd and not just blend in. Your colour palate sets the mood and tone of your website, it’s your website personality.
Once again consistency is king when it comes to using colour and branding. Tiffany jewellery has gone so far with their colour branding that they even have it trademarked! They even carry their branding through to their favicon, which is a mini square block of solid Tiffany blue,; simple but genius! Jack Daniel’s website is black and white.
What colour is Coca Cola? You get the point.
Design, typography and content is everything
You wouldn’t use a harsh typeface and images of sculls in the background of a cake website would you? Well you might but it would be worth considering who your audience is and designing your entire website around their expectations really. This means every little detail needs to be thought out, from the typeface, the entire graphical design, to the content wording and tone.
Social Media is the Option that is no longer an Option
Of course traditional marketing is not totally obsolete but if you’re not on the social media stage then you’re missing your bite of this viral cherry! At the very least you will need a Twitter profile and Facebook page to help spread the word about your website. Ideally you want to use the same name as your business or website. You will want to use the same content tone, colour template and images as your website to show brand consistency. You will want to know your keywords and ensure these are threaded throughout your website, blogs and social media accounts. Ensure you link all your Internet accounts to each other creating an online branding map for the most exposure.
