In an overarching sense, your brand is about so much more than just a name or a logo. It’s your chance to instantly communicate a story to a customer – the story of who you are, what you do and why they should bother paying attention.
In a lot of ways, the narrative behind that brand is so much more important than any of the products or services you offer. People aren’t loyal to products – they’re loyal to companies. If you’re able to forge that connection, you’ll be able to create a passionate army of brand advocates who will stick with you for years to come (for proof of this, look at companies like Apple or Nike).
The choices you’re making in terms of web design play a big role in all of this. Your company’s website needs to be so much more than just a virtual business card. It needs to be an extension of the brand experience that is playing out on so many other channels – from in-person encounters to social networking and beyond.
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The Power of Impressions
According to one recent study, it takes between five and seven brand impressions for a potential customer to even remember your business at all. If you needed a single statistic to underline the importance of this level of brand continuity, let it be that one.
What this means is that there is no one way to create a connection with a new customer – there are many, and you need to capitalize on all of them at the same time. It’s not just about online advertisements. It’s about online ads, your social media presence, your “real world” marketing and, yes, your website.
And they need to deliver a consistent experience – one that feels the same regardless of which channel someone happens to experience first.
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Build Brand Consistency, Build Trust
Another one of the major reasons why brand consistency is so important is because it helps you build something more valuable than any paid advertisement can ever bring with it: trust.
When all potential touch points for a customer are united – meaning when everything that you’re putting out into the world feels like it’s coming from the same place – people naturally begin to trust your brand. During an era when roughly 33% of people say that they’re struggling financially and simply cannot afford to waste money on a “bad purchase,” the importance of this cannot be overstated.
Not only are people more willing to make a purchase when they trust a brand, but on average they also tend to spend more money. They also become something far more important than a simple customer. They become a loyal brand advocate – ready to sing your praises far and wide. This alone should be a compelling enough argument as to why you need to put as much thought into brand consistency as possible.
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Bringing Your Visual Elements Together
Another one of the major reasons why brand consistency matters in terms of web design is, for most people, one of the most subtle. It isn’t just about using compelling visual elements – it’s making sure that they all come together to form something more effective than any single one of them could be on their own.
Take Apple, for example. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about an iPhone or an iPad or an iMac computer – absolutely every device the company releases feels like it’s coming from the exact same place. But the same is true of their website. Both their online and in-person stores feature that same sleek, sophisticated, “it just works” design.
Because of that, people are just as excited to shop for a new device online as they are to begin using it. Whenever a new iPhone is released, people literally get up in the middle of the night to get their pre-orders in to make sure that they don’t miss their opportunity to get the new model the moment it’s released.
This, in essence, is what brand consistency can do for you. When people know that your online presence is just as enjoyable as the products and services you offer, they show equal enthusiasm for both – which is something you just can’t get through other means.
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The Evolution of Your Brand
Another reason why brand consistency is so important in terms of web design has to do with the constant evolution of your business. The COVID-19 pandemic, if nothing else, showed us that all brands need to be willing to pivot.
It will be far, far easier to do that when necessary if all your web design elements are consistent. If your Facebook page looks like your website, which looks like your digital ads, which closely resemble your other marketing channels, it’ll be significantly more straightforward to pivot all of them at the same time. That level of brand consistency will help keep you focused, which will help make sure you and your internal teams are always moving in the right direction: forward.
- Bringing It All Together
Therefore, you need to keep your larger brand in mind when making decisions not only in terms of web design, but also for everything else that you’re doing in terms of outreach. Local advertisements. Pay-per-click ads. You name it, it all needs to feel like it’s coming from the same basic place.
So, when you’re making choices in terms of the visual aesthetic of your website, those decisions shouldn’t be made in a vacuum. Yes, you need to prioritize those visual elements that help people navigate your site and that create a compelling experience. But you also need to consider them within the context of every other outreach activity that you’re engaged in, too. If this all becomes a bit too overwhelming, don’t be reluctant to engage outside help. Creative brand consulting from experienced professionals can make all the difference between spinning your wheels and success.
In the end, everything that you’re doing to connect with potential customers needs to be connected in and of itself. It all needs to be designed in a way that forms a cohesive whole. These individual elements, on their own, are important to be sure. But together, they add up to something far more powerful than anyone could be on its own: a legitimate experience in every sense of the term, and one that people won’t be able to find anywhere else.
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