Many a time clients approach us to develop a website from scratch with the mandate of ultimately building a brand out of their business in the virtual world. A brand-building or website branding process is a meticulous process and requires an intelligent STP analysis of the market and communication of the same to the developer. This is done in an effort to enable customers to remember the brand and generate positive feelings about the client’s business.
Even simple things such as changes in styles, colors, and images can create negative disturbances. Therefore, it is crucial that hiring a dedicated WordPress developer will ensure that there is consistency between the website and the client’s brand.
What is a Branded Website?
Website branding includes both the visual and technical aspects of your website. Branding your website or your business involves creating a website that describes and promotes your products and services, creating advertisements to promote them, selecting corporate colors that will associate your company with them, creating logos, and featuring them on all your social media channels.
Many people think of a “branded” website as one with a logo, color, and typography. But if you want to make a true branded website then you should think beyond the limit of visual elements. There are so many different factors to consider such as the brand’s voice and purpose, unique benefits claims, and target audience and market.
Website Branding Examples:
If you are looking for some good examples of branded websites that can be your inspiration, then we are adding some great examples here. These examples of branded websites will help you to make a decision for creating a website for your business.
1. Reebok
(Deliver sleek & bold, elegant, and professional designs to their customers)
Reebok’s UX design is outstanding. It communicates two things with imagery and messaging
- They are a fresh, trendy company.
- They want to see you be trendy.
2. PayPal
(No fluff with simple, clean, and straightforward)
PayPal competes with many other apps including Venmo, Zelle, and the ability to use Apple Pay or Facebook to make payments. PayPal however is simple, easy to use, and efficient.
3. Baker
(Trust and authority are vital)
Baker is the most well-known CRM for the cannabis industry. It answers the question with strong statistics, social proof, and solid statistics.
4. Klientboost
(A story that uses imagery and messaging to engage the reader)
Klientboost improves PPC performance. They combine powerful copy and vibrant images to tell the brand’s story.
5. Qualio
(Focus on customer pain points)
Qualio is a quality management software that provides messaging that solves customers’ problems.
7 Key Steps to Website Branding Using WordPress
When it comes to branding in the online space, clients need to design their websites in a way that aligns with the business elsewhere. Any mismatch will lead to confusion among customers and push them towards rival brands. For instance, if Domino’s Pizza, a mass-market Pizza player, suddenly changes its communication targeted at high-income individuals, then they are bound to lose even the existing customers in the mass market who believe more in the value for money.
To fulfill the criteria and maintain the consistency of the website and the brand, they need to hire developers by considering the important factors for hiring WordPress developers. In this blog post, we will take a look at some of the website branding guidelines that clients can do to deploy their brands online with the help of WordPress plugins.
1. Set clear goals for your website
Websites can be created for many reasons. It is important to understand why you are creating a website in order to create a brand with maximum impact. Identifying your website’s goals will allow you to present yourself best to your audience.
Answer these questions to get started:
- Why build a website?
- What’s your goal?
- How do you value your proposition?
- How can you be different than your competitors?
Do not expect every attribute and feature from these questions, but they can help you define your values and set a framework to approach your branding.
2. Choosing a theme to design your brand’s website
One of the best ways to scale up the client’s brand presence is by putting the right WordPress themes in place. There are many theme plugins available for WordPress websites like Divi. Clients and developers should sit together and discuss the client’s business in order to clearly understand the brand.
This makes the developer accurately choose the right theme. The theme envisioned must also have extensive provisions for flexible customization. Some themes come with dedicated prebuilt pages and logos which the client can then customize further aligning with their vision.
A responsive website theme is essential. The theme must be able to adapt to different screen sizes.
- Lifestyle WordPress Theme
- WordPress Travel Blog Theme
3. Design a good logo for your brand
The logo is invariably linked strongly to the client’s brand, much more than anything else. Deliberation is needed before a further decision can be taken. The client can either choose to design a logo from scratch by herself or take cues from different tools like Inkscape, GIMP, and many more. These tools can provide inspiration as to how clients want their logo to be.
The process is simple – just enter the text, tweak it and deploy the same onto the site through the WordPress dashboard. Ensure that the logo is uncomplicated and distinct and memorable. Try to create a logo with a tagline that tells your visitors about your website and business.
4. Curating the pages of your website
Now we come to the contents of the website. What are the right pages and content to be placed? Again this question needs to be approached in a pragmatic manner. Perhaps a simple approach is to think about what the client’s story is or what the business aims to provide. Typically, they involve addressing a problem statement. This can be communicated in the About us and Products (or Services) offered section.
Surely customers coming to the website would want to contact the client in case of queries, thereby making the case for a dedicated contact us page. A unique way to establish and enhance relationships with customers is creating a blog – one that talks about the latest things in the client’s company or industry trends etc
5. Getting in touch with an engaged audience
On top of creating a dedicated contact us page, the client would need to provide ample provisions for the customer to get in touch with the business. Clients would need to think of ways to implement different means like call action buttons, contact forms at the right place. In this way, not only the business’ priorities are realized but also useful insights can be gauged with these metrics.
With the help of plugins like Contact form 7, clients can add these elements – live chat, email marketing, forms, buttons, social media shares, and more. These can be configured from the dashboard after installation with a simple drag, drop, and customize mechanism. Understanding where the “hot zones of vision and readability” are will help you to highlight certain aspects of your brand’s identity.
6. Search the right outlets for spreading your message
No matter what industry you are in, it is important to find ways to draw visitors to your site. There are many ways to promote your website. You should choose one that is consistent with your brand.
Find outlets (websites, social platforms, apps, etc.) that are in line with your brand’s values and style, and get involved. This will enable you to reach more people who are likely to interact on your site by building a better marketing funnel.
7. Content is king for website branding
We always iterate this to our clients because we recognize the power of meaningful and compelling content. The best way to bring traffic is through content. However, clients need to work on their content and not just as a means to spam customers’ feeds. That can prove to be disastrous. Compelling and relevant content is the order of the day.
The blog section of the website can serve as the mouthpiece of the client’s business. It builds and enhances and sustains the brand in the long term. Take the time to create a content strategy. Choose the topic that best fits your brand’s personality.
Brand your Website Now:
Branding your website is one of the best ways to attract leads and convert them. This applies to your website copy, blog posts, images, and videos. Ultimately a brand provides compelling reasons for customers to return for more products and services.
By following the above steps and going a step further, you will understand how to brand your website and the process of website branding and they can at least monitor the activities of dedicated developers whom they hired.