Marketing your website includes many different factors ranging from good content, excellent SEO, easy navigation, and so forth.
One aspect that is often overlooked is the branding of your site. An effective bespoke design means that your brand is perfectly captures to get customers excited about purchasing from you.
By creating content & images that are tailored for your customer base, you can increase your leads, improve sales, and convert visitors into customers by addressing their needs. Effective branding does so much to bolster your website and a bespoke design lies at the heart of the effort.
Build a Narrative
A bespoke design is most effective when building up a narrative about your business and not just listing the content. If you remember the most effective television, newspaper, and radio advertisements were often built around telling a compelling story. By achieving an emotional connection by creating a familiar or relatable experience, you can maximise your chances of reaching potential customers.
The narrative technique is quite effective in creating an emotional connection which is the heart of your marketing efforts. By developing an effective story, you can incorporate the products and services while separating yourself from the competition. Here are a few tips that will help your site get more attention.
Tell a True Story: You can always make up a story, but it will not have the same impact as one that actually happened. While you can take liberties with a true story, the essence of it must be factual, so that it will help pull in potential customers and create leads for your business. Authenticity goes a long way towards establishing your brand. Telling a true story and using it as part of your marketing efforts will help boost your branding in the most effective way.
Start with Your Company: Sometimes, the most effective story is the one that caused the formation of your company. How a company got started is one of the most popular types of stories to build up a brand and for a good reason. The story itself reflects well on those who started up the business. The story of how your business was founded also promotes you and those who started up the company as celebrities.
Never underestimate the power of being a celebrity, especially if you are running a local business. By making yourself part of the story in how your company got its start, you are adding a marketing edge to your promotional efforts. Plus, it helps with building up your brand as someone who is recognised as part of an industry.
This is where the “About” section of your site comes into play. It is here that you tell the story of how your company was founded. You should emphasise how the idea of your company was created, the effort in putting the business together, and the joy of working in an industry that you love. An About Us page is where you improve your branding by reaching out to tell the story of your company.
Reach Out to the Community: Now that you have told your story, the next step is reaching out to your community and have them tell their stories. This is where testimonials are used to highlight the features of the products or services that you provide and how it impacts your customers. By letting those who enjoyed the product or service speak on their own terms, you get compelling stories that in turn pull in new customers.
For example, a customer that speaks well of a product will entice by their words others to try that product as well. The same goes for a service, such as Airbnb where a customer tells of the stay they had spending the night in a comfy home on their business trip. That story will in turn entice others to experience the same thing.
You don’t need a boatload of stories, just enough to pull in those who may be interested in trying your products or services. You will want to update the stories from time to time, so that they remain fresh and new.
Creating the Structure of a Compelling Story For Your Website
If it’s true that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression, then how you make that impression is just as powerful as the story itself. You need to have a clear, easy to follow structure, so that your story has greater meaning. This means that your entire website will serve as the basis for telling a good story.
Introduction: You have to get their attention quickly and hold it with a great introduction. Basically, you want to summarise the essence of the story in the first two to three sentences. The rest of the story will flesh out the details, but the introduction is what will compel them to read it. You want to be clear, concise, and commanding with the introduction. This can be accomplished using the right support from a catchy headline, supporting graphics, and even video.
Highlight the Essentials: This means that your homepage should contain the positives of your business presented in a tight, easy to read fashion. You’ll want it to stand out, so that people take notice of what you have to offer. Short, crisp sentences highlighted by superior graphics will draw the attention of the visitor and make a strong impression. Even if you do not generate an immediate sale, it can help in creating new leads that pay dividends later.
Stand Out: The key to taking on the competition is not just being better but being different. To gain customers, you will need to stand out. This is why highlighting what makes your company different is crucial to your success. In addition, what makes your site different and unique will be of great value in establishing your identity in the industry.
Be Direct: Keep in mind that brevity is the soul of wit. It is also the best way to deliver the information without taxing the viewer. Having a sitemap at the start will provide a great tool to let visitors find their way around your website while still getting the information that they need. Remember to place content on your sub pages and not just the home page for maximum effectiveness.
Provide Value: Look over your site and look over your competitors’ sites. Ask what can you offer that the competition does not do? Perhaps you can add a “News” section for the latest information about items of interest for your customers. Or, a “Resources” section where you can provide helpful hints. Keep in mind that such sections are perfect for keeping your SEO fresh and new which again draws in even more visitors.
Remember, your efforts in creating a site that tells the story of your brand is designed not just to sell, but to create leads. New leads are the essence of building a strong customer base. You’ll want to work on lead-building as much as possible to ensure success in the long run. Effective branding does not usually create overnight success, but it does set you up to be successful day in and day out.
In the end, a bespoke web design will help your website improve its brand which in turn creates new customers. From generating leads to selling products and services, this type of design which incorporates an effective narrative along with well-organised information can be the key to creating to your branding efforts that results in more sales.