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A website’s design can say a lot about a company as a whole—regarding their tone, values, and how much you can trust them. If a prospect is researching for the right solution to fit their needs, they may just end up finding their way to your marketing website. When they get there, it can be disappointing to see confusing navigation, inconsistent colors and fonts, and a lack of valuable offers. As a follow-up to a previous blog post we published last year, here’s how your marketing website acts as a reflection of your company’s branding.
Your website is often the first place people go to learn about your brand
As soon as a new visitor enters your website, there should be a strong brand message and consistent visual style for them to see right away. This means your website should maintain consistency in its color palette (including a gradient if applicable), fonts, and images. Many marketing websites these days feature a looping video on their home page. While these help add some visual flair to your website, they can also be distracting if made too flashy. Remember, the video should help enhance your company’s branding—not confuse or turn people away.
To make a great first impression, your website should place equal value on the visuals and copy used. It’s not enough to have a specific font that pops on your website; you need compelling copy to really stick the landing with your website’s branding. You should never feel afraid to change up your website’s style, including its color and typeface. A brand that never evolves will become static and uninteresting—especially if the website behind it doesn’t offer any standout visual flair. Websites that are more willing to update their look will have a more significant impact on their audience.
clunky design and poor navigation turns new leads away from your brand
Your website architecture should be as logical and easy to follow as possible, so new visitors are encouraged to keep browsing. For example, if a visitor comes to your website from a different page on your website then your home page, they need to be able to easily navigate back to your home page without any confusion. Avoid altering the navigation bar so—regardless of which page someone is on—it maintains global consistency. Your marketing company will also want to pay close attention to your session analytics, to see which pages are causing visitors to exit your website (in other words, what makes them bounce). If a session continues to end on the same webpage, there are a few factors to look into.
- You don’t have enough conversion points. When a user reaches a dead-end on your website, there isn’t exactly anywhere else to go but leave the site altogether.
- There’s too much copy and not enough whitespace. Cluttered copy is difficult to read, overwhelming even at a first glance, and actively discourages a user from taking the time to read it all. It's important to space out copy with paragraphs, section headers, imagery, and plenty of whitespace.
- The page doesn’t have enough breadcrumbs. Essentially, breadcrumbs act as a helpful method for your website’s secondary navigation; they ensure that users are always able to tell where they are on the website relative to how they got there.
- The page isn’t loading properly. This is usually due to rendering issues related to large file sizes, excessive HTTP requests, or lack of browser caching. Check out our recent post, Improving Your Marketing Company's Website Performance, for additional details about webpage speed.
A strong website helps showcase your brand’s value
In order for your marketing company’s brand to stand out among its competitors, it needs to be displayed in a compelling and unique way—and the first place people are likely to learn about your brand is through your website. This serves as a central hub for all your company’s digital content, case studies, testimonials, and more. Ultimately, you’ll want to provide value from your website, which can include helpful blog content to share with your target audience. You may even have some important industry research and case studies to provide further value.
By building up value on your website, you’re also encouraging more visitors to interact with your brand—growing your audience as a result. While we certainly can't stress the importance of quality content enough, here are some additional ways your marketing company can showcase value outside of content offers:
- Share client testimonials and snippets from reviews from past clients. This shows new visitors that your company is reputable, and others have had a positive experience with your brand.
- If your company has received awards or certifications—such as being featured in an article about the "top digital marketing agencies" for example—mention this on your website! Most companies that offer these types of recognition generally have unique emblems and badges you can include on your company's website.
- Not all marketing websites utilize them, but chatbots are a great sign of a valuable, trustful brand. They show that your company is actively trying to answer user questions and provide guidance in real time—especially if the conversation can smoothly transition into live chat. Offering assistance in a timely manner can be a positive reflection of your brand's ability to provide, helpful solutions to its audience.
Capitalizing on the design and layout of your marketing company’s website will ensure new leads and prospects will stick around to learn more about your brand—and move further through the buyer’s journey as a result. For additional strategies for your company’s website design and branding, check out thinkdm2’s blog. Thinkdm2 is a digital marketing and branding agency from New Jersey that specializes in b2b website development and brand development. Professional services, SaaS, and IoT are our main industries of focus.
