How To Create a Website To Match Your Brand Identity

Your business website is the key component of your online presence and for that reason, it has to be synchronized with your brand identity.

Brand identity is a set of ideas and values that you want people to associate with your business. Consistent brand identity will help a great deal in persuading website visitors that your company is reliable and trustworthy. If your website’s presentation is not consistent with your brand’s personality and approach, it can result in confusion among customers.

In other words, if you want your audience to like your brand, you need to enrich their lives in some way, share the same values, and be consistent.

Visual branding will help you to positively influence how your audience perceives you. For instance, if people visiting your site see photos of your smiling employees, they will probably perceive you as a brand that cares for employee happiness.

Visual clues are the quickest and most efficient way to paint a picture of who you are and what you stand for. When people visit your website, they should immediately figure out whether you’re playful, fancy, feminine authoritative, etc.

From your photos, color choices, font size, and the overall mood of your graphic design choices. This, on the other hand, will determine how they will feel about your brand.

Fortunately, creating a website or creating an ecommmerce website that matches your brand identity isn’t so difficult.

The following 7 tips will help you along the way.

Tip #1. Start With a Great Domain Name

To start off the right foot, take some time to choose the perfect domain name.

Your domain is much more than just a technical shortcut. It is the foundation of your online marketing efforts and plays a key role in building your brand identity.

In other words, your domain name is the best representation of your business in the digital world. And while you might not have the money to purchase the domain you want, you should definitely try to find one that reflects your identity.

However, you should have in mind that new domain names are being registered every second. This means that most of the domains you like are already taken. For this reason, finding the right domain name will require some serious creativity.

Doing this manually can take a long time, so you should consider using domain name providers like Namesilo that offer the cheapest domain names to cut the process short and find the best match.

Tip #2. Define Your Audience

In order to be able to build a website that reflects your brand identity, you have to know who you’re speaking to.

To find out, ask questions about your ideal customer’s gender, age, location, occupation, education, job title, etc. If this seems like a complicated task, check out your main competitor’s audience on social media. Find out who’s engaging with their posts, what they like and share, and what kind of questions they’re asking.

Defining your audience will help you decide what you want to say and help you plan your branding campaign.

Tip #3. Use the Right Fonts and Colors

The typefaces you choose can have a big impact on how your brand communicates. People can learn a lot about your brand based on fonts you use – not just your copy.

After all, it’s not just what you’re saying but the way you say it. Depending on the font you choose to reflect your brand’s values— quirky or traditional, formal or fun—you will attract the right type of customers.

As far as colors are concerned, when it comes to visual branding, they’re everything. In fact, studies have shown that it takes about 90 seconds for people to make a subconscious judgment about your brand, so it’s important to nail the right color scheme before you start branding.

Moreover, color can improve brand recognition by about 80%, which means that customers are 80% more likely to identify you if you consistently use the same colors in your branding materials.

As you might already know, there’s a psychological attachment to each color.

Here’s what each color says about your brand in a nutshell:

• Green – fresh and eco-friendly, works great for natural products.
• Blue says that your brand is trustworthy so you’ll see it as a color of choice of many banks like Citibank and Chase. Moreover, over 30% of the world’s top 100 brands have logos that include blue (think Facebook and Twitter for reference).
• Red is bold and passionate. It easily grabs attention along with sister colors yellow and orange.
• Black is sophisticated and works great with authoritative websites and established brands.
• Purple is associated with luxury and creativity. It works great with brands that are truly original or slightly edgy.

Experts recommend sticking to a color scheme that includes a maximum two colors for the visual branding of your website, logo, and stationery. Finding the perfect color combination will help you harmonize your brand.

Tip #4. Don’t Forget About Social Media

More than 85% of consumers say they prefer an honest and authentic brand personality on social media. In addition, more than 80% said they’re more likely to trust a company whose high-ranking executives are active users of social networks.

Your audience will go to social media to find out more about your brand, so be sure that your brand personality is just as prominent there.

Try to be as human as possible to your customers and followers. Be active and participate in conversations to show that you genuinely care about people’s opinions and not just about taking their money.

Create a group board on Pinterest Run or photo contests on Instagram to make it easier for people to engage with you.

When it comes to visual branding, it’s crucial to serve the content appropriate for your target audience on each social media platform.

For instance, Twitter is all about catchy imagery and shameless self-promotion, whereas Pinterest appeals to DIY, advice, as well as helpful tips and tricks.

Facebook is focused on community, so you should use it to start a conversation with your audience and spark interest to further develop your brand.

Tip #5. Keep Things Simple and Consistent

Your brand identity doesn’t have to be complicated. Having too many things going on can easily confuse or overwhelm your website visitors and make them leave.

To minimize this risk, make sure to get rid of everything that doesn’t contribute to your brand personality. A few illustrative elements and simple text can sometimes be enough to convey who you are and what you do.

Another thing you should pay attention to is consistency. Studies have shown that it takes between 5 and 7 impressions to even start creating brand awareness. When creating content for your social media accounts, be sure that it repeatedly emphasizes your brand’s message.

Studies have shown that consistently presenting your brand regardless of the platform can increase your revenue by more than 20%.

Applying the same font, size, and filter across all your visual platforms helps create cohesion, as well as an impactful and memorable look, so when customers follow you on Instagram instead of Facebook, they will get the same story.

Tip #6. What About Your Logo?

According to CrowdSpring, it takes about 10 seconds for people to form an opinion about your logo. That’s why it is important to create an effective logo design before you even start branding.

But even though it’s great to have a logo, it has no intrinsic meaning by itself. As your brand identity develops, people will start associating your brand with your logo.

This doesn’t mean that you should be completely careless about your logo. A logo is a crucial part of brand identity, so do give it some thought. Try to keep it simple and use colors that match your branding.

Tip #7. Use Video

Video is a great way to build your visual brand identity.

According to HubSpot, nearly 55% of consumers want to see more video content from brands they support. In addition, more than 60% of people tend to buy a product after watching a branded video on social platforms.

Obviously, people prefer watching videos to reading text. That’s because videos entertain but they also help people understand what a product or service is really about or how to use it.

Besides using videos on your website, you should also use them on your social media channels (consistency, remember?).

If you’re new to video content creation, begin by creating Instagram stories that include your logo in the video.

You should also leverage the power of YouTube, the world’s second-largest search engine. Start by creating short videos (max. 10 minutes) with HD quality. Don’t forget to add your logo (best on the bottom of each video screen).

Final Words

Having a strong brand identity is key to establishing yourself in the market. Regardless of the industry, great branding will help you stand apart from the competition, build a strong relationship with your target audience, and turn your audience into buying customers.

These 7 tips will help you create a website that matches your brand identity and take your brand identity to the next level.