Do you want to learn how design, branding, and marketing can make your new website or blog stand out? If you do, then read on.
So you have a brand new website “hot off the press” ready to be rolled out for all your new visitors to see. As of this moment in time, you’re staring at a blank canvas.
I mean, you have a website, but it looks quite bland. There’s nothing that really makes it unique, or stand out from all the other websites out there.
Now you’re thinking about branding and you really want to create something special that will stand out from the crowd.
Where do you even start?
Well, right here is where you start.
Because in this post I’m going to share with you 7 killer website branding, design and marketing tips and ideas for you to explore.
More over, these are simple things that you can do right now to brand your website?
OK, so what I want to do is break this post into two sections.
We’re first going to look at website branding in design, then we’re going to look at branding in marketing, so let’s get stuck in.
Website branding tips in design
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with design when it comes to creating web properties, so this part for me is the fun bit.
But hey, don’t panic yourself. If you’re completely new to all of this, you really don’t need to have a degree in website design or graphical design to make something truly magical happen for your online brand. Like I said these are simple things you can do yourself.
#1. Style or theme – OK so, first of all, ask yourself this:
What kind of style do you want your website to have?
This is not a technical or trick question, really, because having a unique style or theme is what will help you make your website and brand stand out and memorable.
For instance, if you take a look at ByRegina.com, her site has a very “unique”, clean, modern and fresh look and feel to it, which I absolutely love.
And if you take a look at TheBrandedSolopreneur.com (Dre Beltrami), you’ll see that her site also rocks a very “unique” semi-boutique style of design. See screen captures of both these websites below.
The other important factor to creating a memorable online brand for your business is not just creating something that looks great, but also something that is going to reflect your personality and individuality.
Your brand style needs to say a lot about who you are as a blogger, business person, or entrepreneur. And, it has to be something that you absolutely love as well.
When thinking about creating a unique style for your online brand, you have some options. You can either hire a graphic designer to help you bring your visual ideas to life, or, learn how to use some of the awesome creative tools available today. Click here to learn about some of those awesome creative tools.
#2. Colour – The next course of action is picking out some colors to complement your brand style, in this instance, your website.
Now I only speak from experience here, however, flooding your website with all the colors of the rainbow is OK if that’s your kind of thing. but more often than not this can create some unwanted design clutter.
But more often than not, utilizing multiple colors can create a sense of design clutter.
Two or three tones work very well in modern website design.
For instance, Magnet4Blogging’s design uses a palette consisting of two primary colors on a white background. Flat red and dark gray throughout.
The accent colors are light gray and flat dark slate gray.
Take the time to select colors that will stick with you and your brand style, and more importantly, pick tones that won’t put off your site visitors as well.What ever you do, don’t make your site look like this: (I
What ever you do, don’t make your site look like this one below: (I apologize if the image below hurts your eyes).
#3. Typography – Another critical element of your website branding is choosing the right typography (font type and color) to match your website design.
Now if you think about this very carefully, often regardless of the style or theme you might be using on your site, the moment you change the typography element it instantly affects the overall design, look and feel of your website.
When selecting typography it’s important to think not just from a design perspective (what you think looks great), but also from a user’s perspective as well.
Where ever possible try and use web safe fonts that your readers will find easy to read. You’ll find some inspiration here.
#4. Layout – Now just as style and color are important, so is the layout of your site.
You have some choices to make whether you want a compact looking site where all of the elements are packed tightly together.
Or, want to create lots of white space between your elements, content, images, graphics etc.
Once again, speaking from personal experience and working with many clients regarding this issue, the core message or value proposition of a website can sometimes become diluted when there is too much going on, or when a website looks too busy.
Creating a balanced layout is very important, once again not just from a branding or design perspective, but also from a user’s perspective as well.
Tips for website branding in marketing
OK so we’ve looked at some branding style tips, but visual design is just one area of creating a memorable online brand, right?
Let’s now look at some marketing objectives to help you increase brand awareness for your online brand.
#5. Clear marketing message and value proposition – Here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter how great or appealing your website looks. Or, how wonderful and eye-catching your logo is – If your UVP, and, or your marketing message isn’t compelling or clear enough to your visitors, folks will simply leave and probably not come back.
When someone new comes to your site, sure it might take them a few seconds to get their bearings, and that’s natural. But, you can assist them by ensuring that you have a clear message and a unique value proposition, something irresistible and compelling enough to entice their interest a little bit more.
The moment someone new lands on your website, let’s just say your homepage, for argument’s sake. The first things they’ll be asking themselves is this –
“What is this website about and is it for me, it is offering what I’m looking for?”
Most people come to a website or blog because they have a problem, small or large, they have a problem what ever that problem might be.
So I’ll keep this very simple:
The process of defining your message doesn’t happen instantly, it’s something website owners and marketers are always working on to improve.
And, it’s something that you can define better yourself, by being more connected with your audience.
Please visit my good friend for some truly sound advice on defining your marketing message.
#6. Content on a wide scope – So you have a great looking website that’s well designed and branded. Your marketing message is clear and you have a killer UVP. It’s time to back it all up with some truly amazing content.
Let’s face it, great content is the key ingredient to your brand’s recipe for success.
Content is the core of your marketing efforts. It is what will get your brand noticed online, period.
It’s also very important to ensure that your content always remains aligned with your marketing message, your UVP, etc.
And, when we talk about content, we don’t just mean writing a simple blog post every now and then. We mean, using every possible content marketing platform and format to convey our brand’s message to the masses.
That’s what we mean by content on a wide scope.
Here’s a link to a great guest post on Magnet4Blogging, where the author kindly shared 12 amazing tools for creating beautiful online content.
Canva is just one of those wonderful online tools you can use to help you create awesome content.
#7. Writing style and tone – Finally, folks, if you’re incorporating blogging into your marketing strategy (which, of course, you should be), then developing a unique persona, a writing style or tone of language, will help you create an online brand that your audience will truly feel connected with.
Wrapping it all up
So hopefully I’ve been able to share some valuable tips for you here when thinking about branding your website or blog, both in design and in marketing.
None of this is rocket science, folks. It’s so easy to think that it is when you read other articles on the web that makes all of this sound more complicated than it actually is. However, it does take some time and a bit of hard work to make it work.
That being said, it’s worth every bit of your precious time.
The best of luck.
Credits: The above article is the unedited version of the blog post published by Magnet4blogging